Western Europe’s most populous country doesn’t always spring to mind as a low-cost destination. However, in a place this big and diverse, there will always be a smarter way to spend your euros.
21.07.2023 - 08:42 / roughguides.com
The Ridgeway really is as old as the hills — well, almost. For over 5000 years, travellers, farmers, soldiers and, more recently, cyclists have followed this 87-mile-long trackway (pictured above) between Avebury in Wiltshire and Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire — part of an ancient trading route that once stretched from the Dorset coast all the way to Norfolk. The chalky downland ridge that comprises the Ridgeway's western half is open to cyclists all year round, and provides a moderately challenging 42-mile ride.
There's no shortage of visual reminders to tell you just how old this trail is either: Barbury Castle, Liddington Castle and Uffington Castle all display the classic, hilltop-fort attributes that make 10-year-olds (and grown-ups alike) run around with improvised swords, defending the honour of any fair maiden that might be in need of a passing white knight. Uffington also has a uniquely stylized white horse dug out of the chalk hillside, best viewed from the flat-topped Dragon Hill, itself steeped in the legend of St George.
A final word of warning though — be prepared for punctures. The flint stone found in most chalk hillsides can cut rubber tyres in to ribbons.
See www.nationaltrail.co.uk/ridgeway for more details.
Following eighteen miles of blissfully level, mostly traffic-free disused railway track from pretty-as-a-picture Padstow to the foot of Bodmin Moor, Cornwall's Camel Trail is about as perfect a cycle route for families as it's possible to imagine. Families flock here because it's easy-going for little legs, and for even littler passengers in bike seats, trailers or on tag-alongs, all of which are available from cycle hire outlets.
It's not just the accessibility that's inviting; this is a stunning trail along which the landscape changes character continuously as you roll from the sandbanks and rocky shores (Betjeman called the route along the spectacular Camel Estuary «the most beautiful train journey I know»), through wooded valley thickets to granite-studded moorland. Peer out to creeks and sandbanks to see egrets, herons and oystercatchers; wow at water skiers on the Camel Estuary; stop for a Cornish ice cream; and take a detour to Camel Valley Vineyard for an award-winning tipple (a perk for parents).
A map and leaflet of the route can be downloaded from www.visitcornwall.com.
The gorgeous pocket of green between Southampton in Hampshire and Christchurch in Dorset is much more than just a forest. Protected as the New Forest National Park since 2005, it also encompasses open, grassy heathlands with waist-high patches of bracken and gorse. Here and there are boggy wetlands, their ponds crammed with frogspawn in spring; to the south, the coastline is visited by rare black-headed
Western Europe’s most populous country doesn’t always spring to mind as a low-cost destination. However, in a place this big and diverse, there will always be a smarter way to spend your euros.
A recent report released from travel marketing engine Sojern, analyzed travel trends from January 2015 to April 2016 and found the top international destinations for U.S. travelers as well as the top emerging and declining international spots.
Jacob Keanik scanned his binoculars over the field of ice surrounding our sailboat. He was looking for the polar bear that had been stalking us for the past 24 hours, but all he could see was an undulating carpet of blue-green pack ice that stretched to the horizon. “Winter is coming,” he murmured. Jacob had never seen Game of Thrones and was unaware of the phrase’s reference to the show’s menacing hordes of ice zombies, but to us, the threat posed by this frozen horde was equally dire. Here in remote Pasley Bay, deep in the Canadian Arctic, winter would bring a relentless tide of boat-crushing ice. If we didn’t find a way out soon, it could trap us and destroy our vessel—and perhaps us too.
Every journey starts with one small step, to paraphrase Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu. But some journeys contain more steps than others.
For five days of the year each summer, the somewhat soulless exhibition centre in Earls Court is transformed into a giant pub (pictured above). Or at least that’s what it feels like. Gone are the trade stalls and suited delegates, replaced by an army of (mostly bearded) volunteers manning hundreds of kegs, dispensing beers few people have ever heard of to thousands of squiffy punters – a lot of whom are wearing traffic-cone hats or sombreros for no apparent reason.
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From Marc Bolan and free milk to stadium rave and boutique festivals, this damp isle has long been a fine place for a party. It may have nothing quite as hot as Valencia's Benicassim or as far-out as Nevada's Burning Man, but this wild bunch — from Butlins-brewed indie to Wiltshire-based world music, with stopoffs for classic metal and avant-garde electronica on the way — should satisfy anyone's hunger for music and thrills.