The first snows have fallen on the sharp ridge below the 700-metre summit of Víkartindur. Walking the village path towards Saksun, we looked across to the ridge of peaks that run along the spine of the neighbouring island of Eysturoy. The jagged landscape was bathed in golden winter light and …
Read More »Rail route of the month: across eastern Germany to the Polish city of Szczecin
The elegant main railway station in the Hanseatic city of Lübeck is well suited to grand departures, but these are few and far between these days. The only international destination served from Lübeck is Szczecin, in Poland. Half a dozen daily trains ply a meandering route through sparsely populated terrain …
Read More »Car-free east of England: a Christmas castle, winter walks and fairytale villages
The eight milkmaids have had a knees-up in the Elizabeth Salon – at least it looks that way – leaving a pastel-coloured tower of pails, cows, and three-legged stools under the ornate painted ceiling. Next door, seven sculptural swans are swimming through an elaborate silver centrepiece above a grand banqueting …
Read More »Call of the cobbles: the joy of cycling in Flanders
The Belgians love their cycling, but the Flemish worship it. The Flanders half of Belgium is laced with dedicated cycle routes carefully delineated and signposted. Whole towns close for road races. Bike sculptures lurk in fields. Posters of famous riders pepper high streets. Cycling runs deep in the culture here: …
Read More »20 of the best UK pubs with bedrooms, for lunch and a winter walk
Fireside lunches in cheerful pubs are one of the great pleasures of the UK winter, and this score of snug venues all come with somewhere to stay as well as cobweb-clearing walks from the door. Crown & Punchbowl, Horningsea, Cambridgeshire Horningsea is a thatched village just up the towpath from …
Read More »A moorland walk to the UK’s best gastropub – the Parkers Arms, Lancashire
here are two ways for a walker to work up an appetite. Tramp over moorland and collapse into a pub to scarf a pile of carbs. Or do a gentle pastoral ramble, so you have enough energy to appreciate the awaiting food. As my Bowland outing was going to conclude …
Read More »‘An open fire, the dog snoozing at our feet’: readers’ favourite UK pubs for food
Pork belly at the Packhorse, Peak District Last November, a group of us took a trip to the Peak District for my dad’s 60th. We booked the Packhorse Inn in Little Longstone for the celebratory dinner, just off the famous Monsal Trail. The pub sources all its produce locally and …
Read More »Kendal Mountain Festival 2023 celebrates adventure for all
Frustration at the lack of plus-size outdoor clothing and a feeling that people her size are unwelcome in the outdoors led Steph Wetherell to launch Every Body Outdoors last year. The Instagram page she set up with four women whom she’d met online clocked up 1,000 followers in its first …
Read More »Share a tip on your travel discovery of the year – you could win a holiday voucher
One of the joys of travel is that moment when you come across something unexpected that lingers long in the memory. It could be a little-known church with stunning stained-glass windows, a backstreet cafe that offers toothsome pastries, a country walk that serves up cinematic views, an offgrid campsite that …
Read More »Where tourists seldom tread, part 6: ‘ugly, lovely towns’ with stories to tell
part one | part two | part three | part four | part five Type the names of many ordinary towns into Google followed by “is” and the search engine often autocompletes with “a dump”. The predictive text becomes self-perpetuating as people click on the link, through curiosity or accident. …
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