Tag Archive - London

Weekends Away with the Kids: Holidays near Heathrow

February 1, 2013 in Travel with 0 Comments

“This is a sponsored post from Travelodge. When I travel with my family I often mix up where we stay for better value, access to sights or just to keep us exploring.”

Is there anything worse than travelling for hours, into London, with youngsters in the car? No matter how much preparation you do, and no matter how many sticker books you pack into the back, it always seems to become a stressful experience.

After ten rounds of sensible, adult-led games such as eye spy and word connect, it is never long before the boys start giving each other a dead arm on the sight of any yellow vehicle and your youngest has some issue surrounding travel induced bodily fluid complications.

There has to be a better way to do it! And flying from Manchester, Edinburgh and other far-out UK destinations – in less than an hour – could be the answer to your prayers. Staying at Heathrow Terminal 5 hotels, outside of the city centre, will also ensure you pay a low price for your weekend away, especially if you choose a family room from a budget company.

Heathrow is well connected to central London, by underground (at Terminals 1, 2, 4, and 5), as well as the Heathrow Express from Terminals 4 and 5, which transports passengers into the city centre in less than 15 minutes.

The attractions and entertainment within the city are endless. Every type of trip is catered for in central London. Those looking to see the traditional sites of ‘Old Landan Town’ can add Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament to their itinerary.

Tower of London

Alternatively, a child friendly museum tour in the capital will leave you spoilt for choice. There’s also a huge number of contemporary attractions on offer including the London Eye, Madame Tussauds and the recently reinvented, London Dungeons.

One of the most convenient aspects of staying out of the city centre is that you are close to some of the out of town attractions, which can really make a family getaway.

Windsor and Eton railway is just six miles away, and a truly beautiful day out. As well as visiting Windsor Castle, why not catch the bus service from the centre up to the LEGOLAND theme park? The rides and LEGO mini land are bound to keep them thoroughly entertained. Whether you choose to call a taxi, or take the train from Heathrow (with just one or two changes), you can be at LEGOLAND in well under an hour.

LEGOLAND

Those with tweens and teens in the camp may prefer something a little more adrenaline packed than the wonder of LEGOLAND. If this is the case, Thorpe Park is a fabulous day out for your family. Extreme rides include THE SWARM, SAW, Stealth and Colossus. You can book 2013 tickets online now, for the price of 2012 passes.

The most important factors to a family break are keeping costs low and cutting the stress. Forget driving across the country, make the holiday magic happen and catch a flight. In less than an hour you’ll be checking into your budget Heathrow accommodation ready and set for a wonderful weekend with your nearest and dearest.

 

A day at the tennis – fun for Dad and the kids

January 20, 2013 in Inspiration, Sport with 0 Comments

Roger Federer returning against Evgeny Korolev...

I love the big Grand Slams, and have been lucky enough to have gone to each of the Big 4 at least once, and having lived in London 10 years and Melbourne a few years to Wimbledon and the Australian Open many times.

I want to expose my kids to the international atmosphere, the buzz of the crowd and the excitement of watching the worlds best play for the ultimate prize.

Thus this is the second year I’ve taken all 3 of my kids to the Australian Open.  We buy a family ground pass (about $90), take the day off work during the first week of the tournament and then spend the day from opening at 10am till dinner time at 6/7pm.. the kids can get tired by the end as its a full day.

And the Aussie Open makes a real effort to make the tournament kid friendly.  Case in point the excellent kids fun day on the Saturday before the start of the tournament – which my kids loved – is now firmly on our calendar.

Things my kids loved definetly included

Sponsors giveaways – from chocolate milk (off the train on the walk to the gates), Ski yogurt tubs to Cadbury chocolate getting little treats is a kid favourite

Giveaways

Sponsors games - RFID enabled smart cards are now mainstream  and we kept them around our necks to checkin to activities from Kia’s racecar simulator to Optus’s speed serve.  The kids also loved the studio in a box approach that seemed to be everywhere having their photos taken on court, at locations around Victoria..etc

Winners trophy?

Minicourts - for having a hit. Tennis Australia is making a big push to get more kids into the game and so had a few courts set up for quick 4 minute hits.  My mini Federer and Williams had a ball. And the sand court was  a bit of fun as well.

Beach tennis?

Player favourites - my seven year old son was keen on Andy Murray for the first half the day, had a photo in front of a poster of Andy to seal it until he found David Ferrer in a practice session and changed is number one status… Andy is now no 2.

Court time - I won’t lie and say sitting to watch matches is my kids favourite.  They’ll watch for bursts of 30 minutes at a time but then having an ipod/games and some snacks on hand is the only way to get through a whole set for us. While I love being on some of the main courts for first day singles we’ve found outside courts and doubles matches also allow the kids to make a bit more noise and feel like they have a bit more scope to move around (my kids have troubkle with the keep quiet during play and luckily tennis stands are now much louder than they use to be)

Sunny in the stands....

Food - while like any sporting event the food is likely to be twice as expensive and half as good as what ou can get outside, we pack a picnic lunch to be eaten in the stands while play is on (and a kids mouth chewing is pretty quiet) supplemented by sponsor snacks and buying an icecream on a hot day.

Have a great day at the tennis!

Explore on a train – the journey is part of the adventure

July 30, 2010 in Travel with 0 Comments

Like to explore and want to win a weekend away in Europe – it caught my eye and so I had a look at Eurostar’s Explorer Train promotion.  Besides liking the name, I appreciated the TS Eliot quote.

It also made me think of some of my adventures on trains. Growing up as a kid I never had an interest in trains, for me it was anything that would fly – aircraft, spacecraft were exciting.  But once I started to travel and explore the world I found that I really enjoyed train travel and many of my most treasured travel experiences have been on rail.

Part of that is the romance of train travel, being able to look out the window at changing urban and land scapes but most importantly its that on trains you still have the feeling of being up close with local life.  Trains carry a bit of local culture, emotion and feeling that is hard to replicate and to borrow from the Man in Seat 61, the journey is part of the adventure.

I took War and Peace on the Tran Siberian across Russia and didn’t turn a page being so busy meeting people on the train.  After hiking the Inca Trail and returning to Cusco, the Andean Explorer south to Lake Titicaca travelled through awe inspiring scenery. Picking up a bento box and then hopping on a bullet train in Japan or the TGV with a glass of red wine through France all hold a place in my memories. And my wife will never forget hopping on her first sleeper train at 2am from Spain to Portugal while on our honeymoon – the death train is her nickname for it. All explorer train stories I plan to share at a future time. And I hope to hear about some readers great train journeys.  

So if you live in the UK and want to win a weekend away on 24-26 August to Amsterdam, Cologne, Lyon, Avignon, Brussels or Bruges send in a photo with a short description of your greatest journey of  exploration within Europe (with or without travel by train) to Eurostar. I had a look at the gallery of entries to date, some nice photos so far but plenty of chances for travellers to enter some more off the beaten path adventures.

And when you look at your travel choices, always consider a train, as the journey is part of the adventure.

Disclaimer: I don’t have any relationship with Eurostar, besides travelling to Paris every year while I lived in London.  I like a quirky competition though so if you live in London or the UK and want a weekend away have a go.

5 Cycle Hire Cities to Try (as a local or tourist)

July 7, 2010 in Travel with 0 Comments

"Copenhagen style" bike lane in Melb...
Image via Wikipedia

Cycle hire schemes are launching all over the place these days.  If it’s not the desire to get people out of cars and appear to be greener, local and city governments want residents and tourist alike to feel good about a greater mix of transport options.  Over recent years I’ve lived in the majority of cities on this list who have now introduced cycle hire schemes and I also worked on a cycle hire evaluation project for London so I’ve got some perspective. Of course the success of a scheme is very subjective but schemes usually establish themselves pretty quickly into the transport mix for a city and find their niche (sometimes unexpected).  Often the hardest challenge for schemes is to get people to use the scheme the first time but once you’ve tried you’re often hooked. And for tourists, feeling the wind in your hair as you cycle around a city can offer a great change to the normal walking, public transport or bus/taxi view giving a fresh perspective.  Whoever you are local or tourist I suggest you give cycle hire a try.

Paris, France – a poster child for cycle hire schemes, its launch and prominent good-feel buzz has put the pressure on other cities around the world to implement a scheme themselves.  Keen pricing, and many access points make this scheme one of the best.  It also helps that Paris is fun to cycle with so much architectural beauty, gardens and laissez faire attitude.  For tourists it a great way to experience Paris and for locals it’s a quick and easy alternative to the metro for short trips.

Copenhagen, Denmark – the Grand daddy of cycle hire schemes having launched in 1995 the cycle service team also employees prison rehabilitees and gets them back into work so a nice social innovation angle as well. The original cycle hire model now adapted by many, Copenhagen is a very cycle friendly city for tourists and locals and is looking to refresh its system to continue leading the way.

Montreal, Canada – launched in 2009, the scheme has 3000 bikes in 300 stations offering good coverage but will only operate in the snow free months (snow can be a hazard on two thin wheels!).  Montreal is a beautiful city so perfect for a spring or summer cycle. Montreal’s Bixi system was designed so it could be used in numerous other cities, and has since been adopted elsewhere such as Boston, USA and Melbourne, Australia.

Melbourne, Australia – launched this year, Melbourne’s scheme is still in the process of being rolled out but the first bikes of the scheme are in place in inner Melbourne. Melbourne is a cycling crazy city with many locals already riding to work but for new adopters it might take a while to get the hang of it.  However for tourists it’s a bonanza as Melbourne is very cycle friendly with many marked cycle trails in all directions worth exploring especially the water side ride along the bay from Albert Park/St Kilda down the coast.

London, England – due to launch later this month (the 30th) so the jury is still out (and there is lots of expectation) but having lived there cycling has its pros and cons but when the public transport system is 100s years old and the streets are clogged cycling is a very good option if you need to get around.  The current Major Boris Johnson is also introducing 12 cycle superhighways to help the flow of cyclists into and around the city. Perhaps of more use for locals than tourists since walking, buses and the tube can get you most places pretty well in the city I’d like to hear from any tourist who tries it when it launches?

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Wimbledon: Great for the tennis but also worth a visit any time of the year

July 4, 2010 in Sport, Travel with 0 Comments

Roger Federer receives Rafael Nadal's serve du...
Image via Wikipedia

I lived for several years in SW19, the leafy and usually sleepy suburb of London known as Wimbledon.  But every year around this time the Championships of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club thrust Wimbledon onto the world stage and made Wimbledon a buzz of activity. Today is the culmination of the championships with the Gentleman’s Singles final between Rafael Nadal of Spain and Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic in what promises to be an interesting match.

While people usually come out to Wimbledon only for the tennis, if you’re ever in London, particularly with kids I suggest you come out for the day and see what else it has to offer from peaceful parks to quirky museums and on the right days a vibrant art scene to view.

Wimbledon Park – in the two weeks of the Championships the infamous queue for daily tickets snakes its way through part of the park.  The rest of the year it’s a weekend meeting place for many locals.  Kids enjoy the large playground and in summer there is a great paddling pool.  Public tennis courts, a mini golf course, boating lake (with pre-requisite ducks) and plenty of open spaces for football (of all codes), picnics or other outdoor amusement abound.

Windmill Museum – I never imagined there would be a museum of windmills in Wimbledon but there is and quite a good one.  Located on Wimbledon Common, another large urban park for exploring the Museum gives plenty of detail on the history and working of windmills and has hands-on milling for children making it worth a quick stop while you explore the Common. And not far from the Common you also have first Buddhist temple of its type built in the UK.

Deen City Farm – Free of charge, this educational farm and riding school is great for the family and a good diversion from the plethora of museums and art galleries you’ll encounter on the rest of a London visit.

Wimbledon Art Studios – a warehouse full of tiny art studios just behind Wimbledon’s dog racing track has several open Art Shows through the year where the artists put on some wine and nibbles while you peruse a wide variety of styles from aspiring and established artists (many who are regulars in central London galleries at much higher prices).  I always enjoyed the shows, even if you didn’t buy anything as you’ll always find something that caters to your tastes and I love a good maze of corridors to navigate.