Crete in springtime has warm days and cool evenings. Roads wend their way through tiny villages and cling to mountainsides through deep gorges. Beaches are peaceful, spring flowers are plentiful, cultural sites are devoid of visitors.…
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With each year that passes, I find there are certain events in the British calendar which are starting to grow a bit stale. The culmination of the Premier League Football season for example, the build…
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So, it’s January and we’re right in the middle of winter. But I can already see the shoots of flowers poking through the ground and buds on trees. There’s no denying that winter is dark…
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What does Christmas mean to me? Well, I quite like the traditional stuff: turkey, presents and family (not necessarily in that order). I’ve discovered that I also like this new phenomenon of Christmas light displays.…
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Easter is a great time of year to take a family holiday in southern Europe. It’s generally warm enough for playing at the beach (and even a quick dip in the sea) but cool enough…
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Ever since taking a tour of London’s Tower Bridge, my six year old son has been desperate to see the bridge lift, ideally from a boat-based vantage point. So a few weeks ago, thanks to…
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We spent a fantastic week in the Italian region of Le Marche this summer staying in a villa with friends in the countryside not far from the beach resort of Grottamare. I love Le Marche,…
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Being stuck in a confined space with your family, in a waterway named after the town of Basingstoke, with a mediocre weather forecast isn’t everyone’s idea of a good day out. Nevertheless, my extended family agreed to my…
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Volcanoes have all the elements you need to engage children’s imagination: smoke, fire and huge scale destruction. As geography lessons go, volcanoes take some beating. With this in mind, I knew we would have to explore Mt Etna when I was…
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This summer, we spent a week with friends in Le Marche, a region which stubbornly remains off the radar to most non-Italian holidaymakers in spite of it offering everything a family could wish for from a…
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