On Mayday weekend we decided to borrow a Bongo from the fiance’s Dad and have a long weekend camping in Mull. Having never been there before I was quite excited to be going but slightly concerned about the long drive.

We set off early morning and headed up to the Corran Ferry (£6.70 per car) which takes you into Argour. This ferry is a good bit of a drive further on than Oban but the ferry from Oban was a lot more money and pretty busy for a holiday weekend. The drive round is actually really pretty though and the drive from Argour to Lochaline is particularly stunning and well worth the extra effort if you can spare the time. From Lochalie you take another ferry to Fishnish on Mull (£4.45 each) and you’re only on it for 1/2 an hour if that so it;s worth sitting up top if you can stand the wind!

On arriving in Mull we headed South while the majority of the traffic headed up to Tobermory (there was a festival on) and after a 40 minute drive or so we found a camping spot that had the most amazing views and barely any neighbours!

The Bongo was a brilliant campign experience having only stayed in a tent or caravan before. It was refreshing not to stop then have to start setting up camp and I really enjoyed the feeling of freedom it gave us.

As a short bre, Mull was fantastic for chilling and relaxing. One night we sat and watched an otter for 1/2 hour or so which was brilliant, on another day we wathched loads of jellyfish in the sea and at one point we nearly even made it up a Munro until I remembered that hill climbing just isn’t my cup of tea!

All too soon it was time to go home so we set off back for the ferry. I really enjoyed Mull and loved being in the Bongo so I reckon we’ll be back very soon!

Read on if you fancy winning a copy of the Rough Guide’s Make The Most Of Your Time On Earth (Compact edition): A Rough Guide to the World

I’m always on the look out for holiday ideas and inspiration and whether it’s hunting out wild camping spots in Scotland or discovering new beer in Australia (Little Creatures anyone?) I always like to take a wee note for that time in the future when work is a distant memory and I’m away round the World with only a backpack and a pair of straighteners (and possibly the Fiance).

If you fancy getting your mitts on your own source of travel inspiration and have a dream to share then get commenting below. I want to see passion and imagination (but I draw the line at polar bears on a tropical island) and the answer I find most amusing or idyllic will find a copy winging their way to them

I want to know:

• Where your dream holiday location is.
• What you would see.
• Who you would be travelling with.
• Why? Maybe you’ve been recommended it or been before?

Closing date for your ideas and comments is Monday the 6th September.

Thank you everyone for your entries. The competition is now closed and I shall be pulling a winning name out of a hat this evening. Please continue to leave your dream holiday comments though as I would love to hear them.

If you like this then why not join me on Facebook too.

When we discovered Iron Maiden were doing a tour for their new album we were very very keen to get tickets. We considered the New York options (because Dream Theatre were supporting) but decided this was perhaps taking our love of them slightly too far. Just a little too far at any rate. So when we saw they were plying in Dublin a few weeks later we really had no option but to grab ourselves a few tickets and book our Ryanscare flights and start checking out the Dublin hotels.

We chose to stay for 3 nights and having been before we were looking for something different to do that didn’t involve Guinness (well, not too much), shopping or bus tours.

The first day we were in Dublin we took a wander into Temple Bar stopping in the Porterhouse Bar. Now, I love my beer so the Porterhouse bar was like like my own personal Santa’s Grotto. Beer floor to ceiling, homebrews on tap and a fantastic descriptive beer menu. We’d intended to nip in for a coke and ended up staying for hours (and eating one of the biggest burgers I have ever tackled in my life).

When we dragged ourselves away from there we spent the rest of the day wandering round, looking at the sights and generally relaxing which was fantastic after a hectic few weeks at work.

After we’d had our wander it was time to meet up with a friend and get ourselves all set with the help for a wee touch more beer for (as the Fiance calls them…) the Mighty Maiden.

On the Sat when we tore ourselves out of the hotel we headed up to Phoenix Park. Being the cycling fans that we are we chose to hire a tandem because it “would be fun”. Little did we know how much you had to work as a team to get the darn thing moving let alone to go in any definite, intentional direction. Still, we didn’t do too badly and managed (with a lot of laughing) to get round the entire perimeter of Phoenix Park.

I hadn’t realised prior to going that Phoenix Park was home to 450 deer and I certainly didn’t realise how close you could get to them. It was brilliant and I sat for ages watching them and their babies!

We handed the Tandem back a little sadly and moped off (because of the rain you understand) to a nearby bar (Ryan’s Bar) for some of their finest homebrew. Everywhere in Dublin seemed to be making their own…. and yeah, we pretty much spent the rest of the day in there – we had a slight break for a shower and food at the hotel but we were back in there again that evening.

Our final day saw us with just a few hours to spare before our flight home so we headed off to the Natural History Museum. The museum was great and free to go in which is always a bonus. Some of the critters are very impressive (giant deer!) and I have a weird fascination with looking at things in formaldehyde so there was plenty to keep me happy. I don’t know why (and I seem to be the only one) but I found some of the taxidermy jobs amusing. Take the seal below for example, check out the eyes and mouth….it must make you laugh surely? It looks ridiculous!

No? Oh well, it did me.

Anyway, that was the end of our Dublin short break and we really enjoyed it for letting us relax and let our hair down and of course, seeing Maiden once again!

Every year I like to head back over to Edinburgh for a night at the Edinburgh Festival. I love to visit at this time of year because it was during the festival, 13 years ago, that I moved out of home and down to Edinburgh for my first taste of student life.

I always like to go over in the first weekend because (as I’ve mentioned before) I like a bargain and the first weekend the festival tickets are 2 for 1 :-)

This year it was more of a flying visit as usually we like to treat ourselves a little (but not too much) and book ourselves one of the cheap hotels in Edinburgh city centre. It has to be the centre and prefereably close to the Rutland Hotel as I like to pretend I’m a student again and well, that’s pretty much where I used to live (behind it at least).

Drink

Anyway, this year we only had a few hours so we met up with a few friends and headed to the Holyrood Tavern near the Plesance. It’s a fantastic wee pub with brilliant beer on tap and fantastic surroundings and generally a good, relaxing place to start a night and have a post-work drink. Though I must say, I did quite like the Holyrood Tavern years ago before it had it’s fancy make over and it was more a ’sawdust on the floor’ pub!

9a Holyrood Rd,OLD TOWN, Edinburgh EH8

Show

After we’d supped our beer we headed up to the Plesance Courtyard to see the show I wait all year for…Newsrevue. I love it. It’s the most offensive, un-PC and cringe-worthy show but it also has the ability to make you laugh from the second it starts until well after it’s over. My favourite part by far was the David Cameron rap. If you only go to see one show in the Festival then you should really make it Newsrevue so long as you’re not easily offended!

Food

After a drink and the show we needed to refuel with a well deserved tasty dinner. We wandered up to then down Cockburn Street (pronounced co-burn for all your dirty minds out there) and found a tiny little Thai restaurant tucked away down Craig’s Close called the Ruan Thai. The food was excellent and it was a lovely cosy little restuarant (though were were next to a rather loud ‘luvvy’ but his conversation provided amusement more then anything!). It’s well worth checking out the Ruan Thai if you’re in Edinburgh.

1 Craig’s Close, 29 Cockburn Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1BN

I was on Twitter the other day when I saw a few Tweets advertising a free hotel night in Glasgow. I looked at it and thought..hmmmm…can this be right? My curiosity took over and I clicked on the link. It turns out CitizenM were opening up their first hotel outside of Holland and were looking for testers to stay one night (over a period of 4 nights) and give their feedback once it was over.

Being the bargain hunter that I am I quickly signed up to a night. I chose the Wed and the first night it was open. It occurred to me that this was the first night and therefore likely to have a few teething issues but on the other hand I couldn’t resist being the first visitor to a hotel I mean, how good is it that we were most likely the first people to sleep in the bed, use the pillows, go barefoot in the shower!

I arrived at the hotel for check-in around 3pm. It’s quite strange that you enter into a foyer that has nothing but a flight of steps and a lift when you’re used to seeing a receptionist straight away. It’s not a traditional set up for a hotel but then CitizenM don’t aim to be traditional either.

Check-in was easy as there were loads of staff on hand to take you through the process. It was unclear whether there would always be staff on hand like this but it’s a pretty straightforward process to follow if they aren’t.

The first floor is dedicated to a small check-in area, a well stocked bar/food area (the ‘canteen’) and what can only be described as a ‘play area’. About 50% of the first floor is massive comfy couches, bookshelves, big TV’s and some fun furniture that you can climb on, you can’t ask for more than that can you! Usually I never sit in hotel bars as I find them a bit clinical but we sat in this lounge area with a drink and chilled which made for a nice wee change.

Small but perfectly formed

The room itself is about 2m x 7m and is really compact but is not lacking in any way. The bed take up the entire width of the room so it’s massive and hugely comfy. The shower/toilet area takes up just under 1/4 of the room. It sounds from my description as if there’s not much room but trust me, there is it’s just that space isn’t wasted. Anyway, once you’ve sat on the bed you don’t want to get off it anyway, not with the big TV above it!

The other thing that has to be mentioned is that CitizenM is a technology savvy hotel so if you’re a technophobe you’ll have to just learn to love it!

Just about everything in the room is controlled by a remote control. The blinds, the TV, the mood lighting and the radio you can literally sit on your bed and control everything – it’s fantastic!

Love me...I'll be your new best friend

Oh, and the mood lighting is something else. You can set it to a static colour (to match your mood) or leave it to rotate through all the colours of the rainbow. The Fiance was mucking around with it when I was in the shower so I ended up having a ‘disco shower’ which was…interesting.

As I was at the hotel so early I had time to watch a movie (all free and a decent selection but if you’re there with kids set your parental controls!) and finish my working day (sitting at the provided work station) thanks to their free WiFi.

After my movie I reluctantly popped out for dinner and was able to lock my laptop securely away in the provided safe which was a bonus as I’d been stressing about leaving it on show.

Free movies for all tastes!

As it was the first night there were a few teething issues but it was to be expected in a hotel that makes use of so much technology. Our air conditioning wasn’t working which is worth mentioning if only to tell you how amazing the staff were. They checked it out while we sat in the bar then came up later and moved us into another room (when it wasn’t cooling). They had smiles on their faces the whole time and were chatty and friendly – they must have had so much on their plates that day but you’d never have known it from their attitude. Hopefully their loveliness wont change once they’ve had a few months of arsey customers! The staff are what make this hotel such a pleasure to stay at…well…the staff and the mood lighting.

There are one or two things I think the CitizenM could improve on for example, there are no tea and coffee making facilities which, if you’re spending a few hours working it would be nice to be able to grab a coffee. I don’t even think it would be necessary to have these facilities in each room but an area on each floor would be helpful. Also, a guide in the room would be good saying check-in/out times, how to use the safe/remote control etc. for those who were not too tech-savvy.

All in all, I loved my stay and would heartily recommend it to friends and family (in fact, I already am) and I am incredibly jealous of all my friends who also booked the tester night and are in the hotel with a glass of wine as I type.

To try it for yourself go to www.citizenm.com

The welcoming committee

A few months ago we took a wee trip to London. We like our long weekends in London because it reminds the Fiance of when he lived down there with work and it reminds me of the visits I used to make to him and the museums I went to, shops I shopped in and cafes I ate in while he was doing said work! Them were the days….

This time when we were planning it we had a right pain trying to find a decent hotel that wasn’t a fortune but was in a decent location (we were also visiting friends all over London so it had to be accessible). It shouldn’t have been a difficult task but it was. I must have Googled and researched most of the hotels in London city centre before I hit on an absolute gem of a hotel right in South Kensington – you can’t get a much better location than that in my opinion.

The hotel we found was one of the Grange hotels called the Strathmore.

I’d checked a few reviews before we went and most said that the reooms were tiny and yes, they were wee but they were perfectly clean and very comfortable and lets face it, unless it’s a celebration weekend long weekend who wants to stay in their hotel room anyway ;-)

The staff were really lovely at the Strathmore too and it had a cute homely atmosphere. We had a ncie welcome when we arrived and were checked in and in our room quickly which is just what you need after a long journey.

The hotel was 2 minutes walk from Gloucester Road tube and literally round the corner from the Natural History Museum. A few more minutes would get you to the V&A, Science Museum or Hyde Park.

I’d recommend the Strathmore and will be staying in it for the next few London long weeknds at least. If you fancy giving it a shot then the details are below.

41 Queen’s Gate Gardens
London SW7 5NB
020 7584 0512

I’d been promising to visit London for a good year so when 2010 rolled in and I still hadn’t book I figured it was time to get my act together. So this weekend myself and the Fiance packed our bags and headed down for a long weekend.

Friday

We got down mid-afternoon and by the time we had got to our hotel and changed there was nothing for it but to hit a bar or two while we waited for our friends to finish work. We started off in the ‘Bunch of Grapes’ a few minutes from the Victoria and Albert museum before heading over to Tower Hill.

We met up with everyone and decided to head over to Brick Lane for a curry. I love Brick Lane, it’s so bustling and the smells as you walk up the street are amazing! We chose a restaurant called Sheraz on the corner of Hopetown st and Brick Lane. We chose it because it was the only place without touts outside hassling you to go in! The food was excellent and we spent a fair few hours drinking Kingfisher and eating our little socks off!

Since we had spent so long chatting an eating we only had time for a quick beer before it was home time. We went along to the Ten Bells in Spitalfields which is where the victims of Jack the Ripper went (a fact I didn’t know until I just Googled it!) It’s an incredibly ‘wrecked looking’ place but very, very relaxed and supposedly frequented by the odd pop star – don’t think any were there when we were in…not that I’d know anyway!

Saturday

We woke up to blazing sunshine and about 20 degree heat. I’m a big fan of Covent Garden and wanted to head over there for breakfast. We took the tube over and I found a fantastic tea shop that I mooched around for a while before going to the World Food Cafe overlooking Neals Yard.

After a massive meal of falafel, salad, pitta and houmous we took a wander down to the Thames via Embankment then along the river to Big Ben and up along Birdcage Walk to Hyde Park Corner – It was a good four miles that walk but an ice-cream made it worthwhile.

When we got over to Hyde Park Corner we took the tube over to Wimbledon to meet some friends. Wimbledon was gorgeous and we stopped for a beer or two and walked up Wimbledon Hill. After nipping for food it was time to get back into London and meet up with a friend of mine at Gloucester Road tube station.

Sunday

I always hate the last day of a holiday or break but we were lucky that we had a late flight and could spend pretty much the whole day in London.

We started off walking up to South Kensington where we stopped for breakfast in Muffin Man. We seemed to eat in many of our favourite places and this was no exception. The Muffin Man was a find from one of our previous trips to London and I’m guessing it won’t be the last visit either.

Being an avid cook I wanted to take the ’short walk’ up to the Hummingbird Bakery to buy a few cupcakes and see what the fuss was about so we set off on the ’short walk’….two and a half miles later we got there. It was incredibly busy and there wasn’t a hope of getting a coffee there so we just bought a few for munching at home.

We carried on walking then took the tube to Paddington with the intention of grabbing a coffee and getting another tube down to the Natural History Museum. Instead we ended up walking from Paddington down and headed straight to the museum wher ewe spent an wnjoyable hour learnign about volcanoes (ironic after  last week’s Icelandic Ash Cloud problems!) and experiencing an Earthquake.

View our London Walk – Approx. 5.5 miles.

View London Walk in a larger map

Every year when it gets to January I start to get a bit grumpy with the weather and start to look to booking our first weekend away to try and get the first whiff of Spring. This year I decided I would fulfill a promise I have made to myself every year for the last 5 years and finally make it over to the Isle of Arran.

Being only a few hours away from Glasgow it’s a pretty poor show that I have not made it there in 12 years of living in Glasgow. Getting there was easy; a 40 minute train ride from Glasgow Central takes you right outside the ferry terminal and an hour on the ferry sees you on the island. As excited as I was I made sure we had a picnic to eat on the ferry (with the view below) so bread, cheese, olives and wine were consumed on deck in chilly but amazingly sunny weather.

We stayed at the Glencloy Guesthouse just a 5 minute drive or 20 minute walk from Brodick. The owner, Neil, will happily pick you up from the ferry terminal which helps when you have a heavy bag!

The guesthouse was exactly what we were looking for, in the middle of nowhere but an easy walk to places to eat, comfy and very cosy rooms and really just a place to completely relax for a weekend. If you look at the top right on the image below you’ll see the guesthouse tucked away behind the trees – bliss!

Once we had got ourselves up and eaten our way through a fantastic breakfast we decided to take a walk to the Arran Brewery via the Arran Cheese shop and Arran Aromatics!

The walk to the brewery takes about 30 minutes from Brodick at a slow amble. You wander through the golf course and are off the road about 50% of the time which is far preferable to walking on the road.

The brewery costs £2.00 each (I think) to walk around with a wee taster at the end. Of course, if you are a fan of their beer then it’s impossible to resist buying the odd bottle so we were laden with beer for the walk home.

As we had arrived too early for the cheese shop and Arran Aromatics we stopped by there on the way home and filled our boots with cheese and nice smellies! Oh, and not forgetting a warming hot chocolate in the cafe beside the cheese shop.

// May I take this opportunity to suggest you try Arran Cheese with Claret – OMG, IT’S SOOOOO TASTY!

Unfortunately The Fiance is studying for an MBA and I had a touch of work to do so after our morning out it was back to the guesthouse for the afternoon but we did get to see the views below so it wasn’t all bad!

As we had no car we stayed in Brodick but there were loads of bars and places to eat well within walking distance. We were told the Ormidale was good so off we went for our first Arran Blonde of the weekend. When you walk up to the Ormidale it feels like you’re walking into someones house, the signage isn’t great and there isn’t much lighting to be seen however, once you’re in it’s fantastic…a real local bar with friendly staff, good beer and the best venison casserole ever!

Once we were ready for bed we wandered off up the lane to the guesthouse. Living in Glasgow but being from well outside Aberdeen I don’t often see the stars but really, really miss them. On Arran the display was something else. Clear, crisp skies meant we could see nothing but an uninterrupted view of the stars and I even taught The Fiance a thing or two about constellations :-)

The next morning it was time to leave our short stay. We took a wander up past the guesthouse in the snow vowing to be back as soon as possible. Oh, and as you can tell from the photo below, we never got to see Spring!

After yet another lazy morning in our lovely wee cottage we finally decided to take a drive through to Ludlow (the prettiest town in England or so it says on all the tourist info!)

We’re only about 20 miles from Ludlow so it took about 40 minutes to drive there. Once there we wandered into the centre. It’s a beautiful town (the tourist info just might be right) and is full to the brim with gorgeous Tudor buildings jutting out into the road and over the pavements. It has a sleepy feel to it and isn’t heaving with people or cars which is always nice if you like walking.

After a brief walk we headed to De Greys, a Victorian tea room dating back 450 years where all the staff are in old fashioned black & white attire. Being an avid cook I wanted to try Michelin Star restaurant and as I also love anything Tudor this seemed the perfect place to try (Note: I have been rightfully informed this isn’t Michelin starred after all…ah well, it’s still worth a visit!). As the title of this post might suggest I opted for a cream tea (thinking it was the right thing to do) and Stuart opted for a chicken roast. Turns out I effectively had a sandwich and two cakes for my lunch (scone and millionnaires shortbread) washed down by four cups of loose leaf tea. Very tasty it all was too I might add although I did feel a little ill at so many cakes in one day. I’m not sure what I was expecting from a Michelin Star place, probably poncy wee portions and fancy presentation but this was just good old fashioned food that tasted good and did a good job of filling us up for our blustery walk over to Ludlow Castle.

Our walk over to Ludlow Castle was interrupted by little book stores and a food market but I’m not complaining. The Castle itself is well signposted and right in the centre of the town so very easy to find. You pay to get into the castle (£4.50 for adults, £4.00 for concessions and £2.50 for children) and the ticket is valid all day so you can nip in and out as you please. They also have some self-catering apartments on offer which would be pretty cool to stay in.

The Castle has an impressive history:

• It began to be constructed in the 11^th Century and was extended into a Palace in the 14^th Century.
• It was owned at one point by Richard, Duke of York and was involved in the War of the Roses.
• It was the seat of Government for Wales and the Border Counties.
• Prince Arthur Honeymooned there with Cathering of Aragon.
• Mary Tudor lived there for a time.
• It was abandoned shortly after 1689 once the Royal Welsh Fusiliers were founded there.

There is quite an area to look around. It took us about an hour but it was a cold and snowy day, had it been sunny we’d have taken more time. I liked that you can get up into the turrets and along the castle wall – I can’t think of many other castles that allow this (and I grew up in castle country!) Once at the top you get fantastic views across Ludlow and can see for miles. Seeing the castle in the snow like that I can’t begin to imagine how cold it would have been in a big castle with no double glazing! Despite the obvious remains of fireplaces up and down the walls I imagine it would be quite a grim place to wake up in in -10 degrees.

We woke up to a miserable rainy day. Not ones to be put off by this we got in our car and took a drive over to Aberystwyth.

Aberystwyth is a traditional Victorian seaside town with lovely big flats overlooking the sea, a promenade and the longest electric cliff lift in Britain. It has museums, a Camera Obscura and lots of light railways around….however, nothing that was open at the end of March (not that we could make out anyway) seems we are a week early for everything opening in Easter. Oh well…

We made do with a wander round some of the tiny little streets and looked at the unusual, independent shops. I think in summer Aberystwyth would be a brilliant place to visit just not on a blustery (and snowy) March morning!

Leaving Aberystwyth we decided to take a short detour home and stop in at Devil’s Bridge. Coming from Aberystwyth you need to go the whole way through Devil’s Bridge and out the other side, you will pass a Hotel right on the road then the free parking is on the right.

Once you are at Devil’s Bridge you have two options. Firstly you can do a 10 minute walk (£1.00 each) and see the bridges and Devil’s Punchbowl or a longer 45 minute route (£3.50 each) and see the Bridges, Punchbowl, Robbers cave and a fantastic 300ft waterfall.

We opted for the 45 minute walk but be warned, you need good shoes and a good set of lungs on you for this route!

Starting the route you get a close up of the three bridges and it’s amazing to think that at one point the lowest bridge served the community – I can’t begin to imagine how it all might have worked as the current town seems to be flush with the ‘top’ bridge.

You start to descend into the valley and can stop at a gazebo for a view up to the full falls. Walking round you descend a little more until there is a warning for ’steep steps’ called ‘Jacob’s Ladder’. To give it a slightly more descriptive name it’s probably better calling it ‘100 extremely steep steps’ easy to do so long as you don’t look down – or more to the point, only look at the next step down!

Once down Jacob’s Ladder you being the rise back up to the Exit. It’s quite tough going but there are loads of places to stop on the way up to view the power of the falls – a few nice picnic spots are dotted along the way too which would be good in summer.

My favourite part of today was Devil’s Bridge and I’d love to see it in all seasons – next time I’d take good shoes though!