latedeals hothotels 7 DAYS TRAVEL
Transcription
latedeals hothotels 7 DAYS TRAVEL
late deals BENIDORM STAY for seven nights at the two-star, La Era Park Apartments in Benidorm, Costa Blanca on a self-catering basis. Departing from East Midlands on March 9, the £310 per person price is based on two adults sharing and includes a 22kg baggage allowance and transfers. Visit jet2holidays.com, call 0800 408 5594, or visit your travel agent. CYPRUS THOMSON offers seven-night holidays to Cyprus staying at the 4T+ Hotel Atlantica Bay Thomson Couples Resort on a half-board basis, from £495 per person (saving £145 per person). Price is based on two adults sharing, and includes flights from East Midlands on March 5 and transfers. Visit a Thomson travel shop, thomson.co.uk or call 0871 230 2555. COSTA DEL SOL A THREE-STAR stay at the Sol Timor on the Costa Del Sol, Torremolinos, for seven nights, room-only, costs £330 per person based on two adults sharing. Departing from Newcastle on March 6, the price includes a 22kg baggage allowance and transfers. Visit www.jet2holidays.com, freephone 0800 408 5594, or visit your travel agent. REYKJAVIK (above) BROADWAY TRAVEL (broadwaytravel.com, 0800 011 4621) offers three nights B&B at the Hotel Klettur in Reykjavik from £299 per person (two sharing) – saving more than 45%. Includes return flights from various UK airports on selected dates in October and November. LANZAROTE FLY to Puerto Del Carmen, Lanzarote, and stay at the two-star, Panorama Apartments for seven nights, self-catering. Departing from Newcastle on March 6, the price is £388 per person based on two adults sharing, including a 22kg baggage allowance and transfers. Visit jet2holidays.com, freephone 0800 408 5594, or visit your travel agent. TOP BREAK CHINA VIRGIN Holidays Worldwide Journeys (virginholidaysjourneys.co.uk; 0844 225 1235) offers the 15-day Splendours of China trip through Shanghai, Suzhou, Beijing, The Great Wall of China, Xi’an, Terracotta Warriors, Chengdu, Guilin and Hong Kong for £2,449pp (two sharing) saving up to £250pp. Includes accommodation on mixed board basis, sightseeing and flights from London. Departs May 9. 7 DAYS TRAVEL Break’s a real barnstormer CATHERINE VONLEDEBUR and family go country – in a rock ’n’ roll sort of way ■ Hall Barn Farm on the slopes of Sugar Loaf Mountain, below, and the well-provided country kitchen, right N ESTLED on the southern slopes of Sugar Loaf Mountain is Hall Barn Farm. It sounds like something out of a children’s storybook. But this secluded scenic spot is real. What’s more, it’s where my husband, three children and I spent five peaceful nights of the school summer holiday, surrounded only by fields and sheep. And did I mention a little rock ’n’ roll? Our stay coincided with Wales’ award-winning Green Man Festival just four miles away in Glanusk. Instead of a festival tent, we pitched up at Jane and Richard Powell’s five-star eco-friendly stone barn, located on their organic sheep and cattle farm in between Crickhowell and Abergavenny. Right on the doorstep of the wild and beautiful Brecon Beacons National Park, it offers glorious views. Jane welcomed us in person, bringing with her fresh local produce for a full Welsh breakfast, including fresh free-range eggs from her own farm. The award-winning barn sleeps five comfortably and has an annexe opposite with a games room and an extra double for additional guests. Our master bedroom, with its king-size bed, had lovely views over the farm’s lush fields, while the girls’ twin room looked through the woods to the valley below. A smaller single room with sloping ceiling and roof window was a perfect hideaway for our 12-year-old son. A nice touch was the hand-made Sugar Loaf soap for guests – made in a barn at the foot of the mountain! In the living room Jane provided us with wood in case we wanted to light a fire in the wood-burning stove. Although there’s a lovely enclosed garden, the children also had the freedom to run wild in the surrounding fields. We spent the first two days of our holiday at Green Man, exploring the fields and stages ranging from the main Mountain Stage – framed by the Black Mountains – to the intimate Walled Garden and Einstein’s ■ The Little Folk club at the Green Man Festival, right ■ Festival-goers marvel at the Green Man, left, and the effigy goes up in flames, above Garden, set among leafy arbours and fragrant rose gardens, where adults and children can join in scientific experiments. Green Man is one of the most family friendly festivals, with 14 stages, 1,500 performers and a 24-hour programme including comedy, poetry, literature, cinema tent, art installations, Little Folk for under-12s and a separate new area, Somewhere, just for 13 to 17-year-olds. There’s also the Nature Nurture field with its alternative therapies, yoga and all-night bonfires, including the annual burning of the Green Man effigy on the final night, accompanied by fireworks. Green Man Rising – a showcase stage for unknown talents – is sited by a pond in the Fortune Falls arts space, and looked lovely lit up in the dark. What started off in 2003 as a one-day event for 300 people is now one tof he biggest music festivals in Wales, showcasing diverse genres. A few of the acts we caught included Velvet Underground’s TRAVEL FILE ■ CATHERINE VONLEDEBUR visited Brecon Beacons as a guest of Rare Hideaways. ■ Hall Farm Barn is a member of Rare Hideaways – a collection of the best self-catering properties to be found in Wales. For a free copy of the 2014 brochure call 01570 470 785 or click www.rarehideaways.co.uk ■ Stays at Hall Farm Barn, which sleeps five people, cost from £750 per week, including local breakfast provisions for the first morning, bed linen, towels, soaps, tea and coffee. The courtyard bedroom sleeps a further two people for an additional £150 per week. ■ Short stays are also available from £400 for five people. Call 0800 103 2581 or visit hall-farm-barn.co.uk ■ Early Bird Tickets are now on sale for Green Man 2014, which runs from August 14 to 17, at www.greenman.net. For general tourist tips head to www.breconbeacons.org John Cale, The Horrors, British Sea Power and half of Ben Howard – until the youngest fell asleep on my shoulder. A magical weekend. As we’d splashed out on two days of festival food we decided to eat in for the rest of the week. Brecon Beacons has a reputation for gourmet produce and pubs, with the annual food festivals at Abergavenny and Brecon firmly on the foodies’ calendar. Close to the farm, John and Margaret Morris make organic apple juice in a shed next to their home outside Crickhowell, using fruit from orchards within a 20-mile radius. In Crickhowell itself, the owners of Black Mountain Gold artisan chocolate have opened a shop and run chocolate workshops. A 10-minute drive in the opposite direction gets you to Abergavenny, which has independent food shops as well as three supermarkets. Popular places to eat include The Bear at Crickhowell, where we sat in the flower-filled beer garden for a drink, Llanwenarth Hotel and Riverside Restaurant on the banks of the River Usk, and The Crown at Pantygelli. ‘Brecon Beacons has a reputation for gourmet produce and pubs’ – Catherine Vonledebur The latter is easy to cycle to from the barn – but a bit of a steep ride back. Following two days of festival fun we wanted a lazy day. After a long lie-in we stocked up on food, cooked a Sunday lunch as the kids entertained themselves in the courtyard, played board games, and watched telly. In the evening, as the sun set over the valley, all five of us raced around the house playing Block 1,2,3 – a crazy hide-andseek from our childhood. Not something you can normally play in a city suburb. There’s more than enough to keep a family entertained without even leaving the farm. One morning we switched on the slow cooker in the well-provided country kitchen, walked out of our front door and climbed Sugar Loaf Mountain. Halfway up we stopped for a picnic and to admire the views. Our four-year-old daughter did well but needed a piggy-back towards the top. But it was worth it – the views were breathtaking and gave us all a sense of achievement. Back down there was no stopping the kids; they ran most of the way. We were there and back in just under three hours, ready for tea. Not only is the Brecon Beacons famous for its mountains, it’s also known as Waterfall Country. In the Hall Barn Farm hallway is a photo of the stunning Sgwd yr Eira waterfall at Ystradfellte, which you can walk behind. I asked Jane how long it would take to get there. Straight away, she dug out some literature from the library of local tourist information in the lounge and said we should be there in less than an hour. We picked up a £1 heritage trail map showing a scenic circular walk taking in not just one but five waterfalls from CRic (the Crickhowell Resource and Information Centre). So off we went to explore Ystradfelltre’s waterfalls. It was a stunning drive and within minutes we were in wild, deserted moorland under a clear blue sky and sunshine. Absolutely idyllic. We stopped for a picnic near a mountain stream. The sun was so hot and the water so inviting that the kids couldn’t resist a quick dip – even if it did mean dodging sheep droppings barefoot back to the car in dripping wet clothes! By the time we reached the closest car park to the waterfalls it was already 3pm and a ranger directed us on a shorter, more child-friendly 90-minute round-trip rather than the full three hours. Sgwd yr Eira is one of the most incredible sites I’ve ever seen and walking behind it on such a lovely summer’s day was an experience not to be missed. hot hotels Visitors vote for Milestone IT HAS the ability to propel a hotel into the stratosphere or bring it crashing to its knees. And although the industry may not like the grip Trip Advisor has on determining holidaymakers’ accommodation choices, no one can deny the power of public opinion. Any establishment that rates well on the popular travel website wastes no time in proudly displaying a certificate behind their reception. So the recent announcement of the 12th Travellers’ Choice Award winners, based on the reviews and opinions of millions of TripAdvisor travellers around the globe, was hotly anticipated. And the UK had good cause for celebration, securing 28 awards in the world’s best lists, up from 14 in 2013. The Milestone Hotel, in London, was named winner of the UK award for top hotel, and also rated among the world’s 25 top hotels. The property, part of The ■ The dining room at the Milestone Hotel Red Carnation Hotel Collection, boasts views of Kensington Palace and Gardens, and currently has a resident milliner, Louis Mariette. While London won the most awards of any UK city, smaller seaside towns such as Torquay, St Ives and Blackpool all did extremely well. But the big winner was Switzerland’s Grand Hotel Kronenhof, named as the world’s top hotel. ■ For a full list of this year’s winners, visit tripadvisor.co.uk/ TravellersChoice