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…
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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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Have you seen the wild flowers of Sicily in springtime? I’m writing this in January and we’re right in the middle of winter. But I can already see the shoots of flowers poking through the…
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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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Have you taken a boat trip on the River Thames? 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…
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We spent a fantastic week in the region of Le Marche, Italy with our children this summer, staying in a villa in the countryside not far from the beach resort of Grottammare. I love Le…
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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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Have you ever considered taking a guided tour of Mount Etna? 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…
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This summer, we enjoyed a villa holiday 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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