A short break guide to Exmoor National Park

With curved architecture and a multicoloured mural encompassing the exterior, Towner Eastbourne is an eye-catching stalwart of the south coast’s art scene. This year it celebrates its centenary with Towner 100: The Living Collection, which has accompanying text panels helping youngsters to learn their way around the exhibits. A 20-minute stroll west leads you to Holywell Retreat, a shingle beach with rockpooling and a tea chalet offering breakfast or lunch with a view. Admission free, townereastbourne.org.uk; family room, B&B, from £146, lansdownehotel.co.uk (gallery visitors to the hotel can claim a £20 discount)

In our A Total Trip series, writers document what they spent on a recent getaway. In this edition, Lonely Planet guidebook writer, Kerry Walker, shows us how much a coastal family break costs in Pembrokeshire, Wales.

It has the country pubs, antique shops and honey-hued market towns of the Cotswolds, and the chilled, waterside vibe of the Lake District, and yet many haven’t heard of it. Rutland, England’s smallest county, takes its Latin motto to heart: multum in parvo, much in little. Midway between Cambridge and Nottingham in the East Midlands, with the 3,100-acre inland sea of Rutland Water at its heart, it’s a place that feels made for a restorative weekend break — and with countryside bolthole The Barnsdale getting a recent makeover, there’s never been a better time to go. 

We’re talking shorts.

International dialling code: +41 Currency: Swiss f

As I bowled along the roads linking Herefordshire’s ‘Black and White Villages’ (named in honour of their two-tone buildings), I believed, for a second, in time travel. Here, in one of England’s least populated counties, little appeared to have changed for decades, centuries even.

When the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) proposed drastic hikes to admission fees last fall, the reaction was swift and negative. It seems the NPS heard what people will saying.

Ah, college spring break. The noblest rite of passage for our nation’s future leaders. With March around the corner, college students across the country are preparing for a week of fun and relaxation (much of which their parents will hopefully never hear about). From traditional party destinations to destinations you may not think of as typical spring break locals, here are the best spring break destinations.

Glacier National Park is one of the most gorgeous parks in the national park system. The sprawling park is in northern Montana and is home to some of the oldest glaciers in the US — not to mention wildlife like grizzly and brown bears, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, pumas, wolves, elk, moose, and more. The park has gorgeous day hikes running between half a mile or 20 miles, and some of the best backcountry backpacking in the US. You can even hike from the US into Waterton Lakes National Park, the attached national park just on the other side of the US-Canada border.

Abutting the US border with Canada, North Cascades National Park is a land of contrasts. Cerulean blue lakes sit at the foot of mountains forested in deep green pines, with their peaks capped in snow and pointing to the heavens. The park mirrors the various landscapes of the Pacific Northwest, shifting from mountainous areas dominated by rain showers and heavy snowfall to arid plateaus cut by glaciers since melted into alpine rivers and lakes. The park is remote, accessible only by the beautiful North Cascades Highway or from hiking trails to the north.

Alfred the Great made Winchester England’s first capital in 871, and the Hampshire city long remained at the centre of the action. Narrow streets of medieval and Georgian buildings hint at its past. The nearby South Downs National Park can also be accessed via the South Downs Way. A 100-mile-long walking and cycling route, the trail starts in Winchester and stretches to Eastbourne. 

From cricket at Lords to darts in Lakeside and boxing in London, here's ten of our favourite British sporting breaks. Share your own below.