Travelling times: our "bests" of 2013

Welcome to
 THE FAMILY TRAVEL TIMES TRAVEL AWARDS!

We have been really lucky to visit some incredible places this year, but which ones have been particularly brilliant? Here are our top ten!

 

Best Beach

 

Jessica says: The best beach of the year, and probably the nicest one I've ever been to, was the famous seven mile beach at our holiday in Beaches Negril (post coming soon). The beautiful blue sea seemed to stretch out forever and the white sand was soft and lovely to walk on. This was combined with the wonderful weather - always hot and barely ever a cloud in the sky.

 

Best View

Robert says: My best view was in Austria (read our post here).When I looked out of my hotel room window I could see enormous grey mountains. When I looked higher I could see no grey just a big blob of bright white snow. I could also see beautiful dark green hills. I thought it was a great view because there weren't any buildings in the way.

Jessica says: My favourite view ever was looking out of the window on our flight to Jamaica. The Caribbean looked incredible from above. The sea was clear blue and there was such a variety of colours. My favourite part was looking at the change of blue in the sea and an island that looked like a giraffe with a massive foot!

 

Best Day Out

Robert says: My best day out was by far the London Bridge Experience and The London Tombs. It is fun, scary, interesting and funny. I liked both parts, the educational and the scary, but some people do find the London Tombs terrifying. Click here to see my post.
Best Day Out For The Whole Family

Jessica: My best day out for the whole family was at Universal Islands Of Adventure, Florida (read our blog post here). The rides were awesome and it was fantastic weather. Rob and I both loved everything, but the best had to be the Wizarding World of Harry Potter as it looked so real.
The atmosphere was amazing, but it was slightly cagey at the start of the day as everyone was rivals in a race to get to the Harry Potter ride first! Disney World felt kinder and more relaxed, but the rides at Universal were better suited to us.

Sarah says: I think the best day out has to be the Harry Potter studio experience in Leavesden. There is so much to see, and it's not all about the rides! It's brilliantly done and works for every age (though there is a lot of walking). Read more of what I thought in my post here.

Best Hotel

The gorgeous Hilton Grand Vacation Suites at Seaworld

Jess says: We have stayed at loads of places during 2013, but a few have really stood out. Firstly, as part of our visit to Orlando in February, we stayed at the Hilton Grand Vacation Suites. This hotel had gigantic and luxurious rooms, as well as massive pools. We were there for a week and thought that it was so convenient as it was near to just about everything and we could walk to Seaworld easily.
Mum and I also adored Beaches Negril in Jamaica, as there was so much to do, everyone was charming and friendly and the food was delicious. It was, really, a holiday in itself.
A more unique and engaging hotel was St Ermins, which is situated right in the middle of London and near all the best sightseeing spots. I have written a review of it here and we got to try out the "Budding Bonds" package, letting us become secret agents. We cracked codes and searched local landmarks for clues, eventually being rewarded for our hard work with mocktails!

Best Ride

Robert says: Jess and I have three best rides. I will tell you about two of them and Jess will do one. The Simpsons ride is at Universal Studios. Our family was laughing before the ride had begun because when you were waiting Krusty would tell you funny jokes. In the ride, you are on a rollercoaster that has been sabotaged by Sideshow Bob. Bob seeks revenge so there are a lot of surprises throughout the ride. The ride is a simulator. The Spiderman ride was also at Universal, but in the Islands of Adventure section. It was an action simulator and a lot of fun. This ride was in 3D.You could feel the car bump when Spiderman landed on your car. You get to see all the baddies use their powers on you. There was real fire.

Jessica says: Harry Potter: A Forbidden Journey, also at Universal Islands Of Adventure is a mixture of a ride and motion simulator. It uses state-of-the-art graphics and motion technology to make you feel like you are actually flying through a quidditch match with Harry, Ron and Hermione!

Most Educational Day Out

Jess says: We had a really brilliant time in Bristol, where I learnt loads without ever getting bored. We went on a City Sightseeing Bus Tour which was fascinating, but the best part was At-Bristol, a fabulous interactive science museum that I enjoyed more than the one in London! As well as this, we visited Bristol Zoo, which I also enjoyed more than the ones at London. The best bit was feeding the Lorikeets - tiny, colourful birds.

Sarah says: We also had a lovely day out in Bath, which was full of things to see and do. The Roman Baths are a must, but we also did a bus top tour, which gave us some historical background, ate at Sally Lunn's (you can read about that here) and simply walked around taking in the sights.

Most Comfortable Bed

Sarah says: We stayed in a lot of lovely places this year and slept in a lot of beds, from the Premier Inn in Bristol, to the gorgeous Meridien Etoile in Paris. But we had our best night's sleep in Thornbury in Bristol. The fabulous double bed at the magnificent Thornbury Castle (Read here for more on our stay at Thornbury) was just so comfortable, I would have liked to have taken it home with me. I even found out what the mattresses were, and they are Vi-Spring mattresses. Fab.

Best Way To Travel

Sarah says: I'm not a huge fan of flying, although I know that it's the only way to get to far off places. That's why my favourite way of travelling this year was via the Eurostar to Paris. I couldn't believe how convenient it was. The security procedures didn't take hours and hours (unlike airports) and there was space to get up and move around. I had been told that it was an extremely boring journey, mostly through a tunnel, so was pleasantly surprised by how much of it was outside, where you could watch the countryside whizz by. Even better, we were in the centre of Paris in just a few hours without being exhausted from an early start or much hanging around. Brilliant.

Coolest Room

Jessica says: I loved our very atmospheric room at Thornbury Castle, which made me feel like I was in medieval or Tudor times! There was a stone staircase leading up to the room and a massive tapestry, and very posh toilet roll. There was loads of space, and it was like no hotel room I had - or imagine ever will again - experience in my life...

Travelling times: our "bests" of 2013

Welcome to
 THE FAMILY TRAVEL TIMES TRAVEL AWARDS!

We have been really lucky to visit some incredible places this year, but which ones have been particularly brilliant? Here are our top ten!

Best Beach

Jessica says: The best beach of the year, and probably the nicest one I've ever been to, was the famous seven mile beach at our holiday in Beaches Negril (post coming soon). The beautiful blue sea seemed to stretch out forever and the white sand was soft and lovely to walk on. This was combined with the wonderful weather - always hot and barely ever a cloud in the sky.

Best View

Robert says: My best view was in Austria (read our post here).When I looked out of my hotel room window I could see enormous grey mountains. When I looked higher I could see no grey just a big blob of bright white snow. I could also see beautiful dark green hills. I thought it was a great view because there weren't any buildings in the way.

Jessica says: My favourite view ever was looking out of the window on our flight to Jamaica. The Caribbean looked incredible from above. The sea was clear blue and there was such a variety of colours. My favourite part was looking at the change of blue in the sea and an island that looked like a giraffe with a massive foot!

Best Day Out

Robert says: My best day out was by far the London Bridge Experience and The London Tombs. It is fun, scary, interesting and funny. I liked both parts, the educational and the scary, but some people do find the London Tombs terrifying. Click here to see my post.

Read more »

The Chocolate Festival - My Heaven! By Jessica

Yesterday, my mum and I visited "The Chocolate Festival", a wonderful festival based entirely around chocolate, and situated on the South Bank in London. One of the first things anyone learns about me is that I ADORE chocolate, so a whole festival about it had to be one of the best things ever!

The festival ranged from more well known brands such as Hotel Chocolat

To ones which I'd never heard of, such as The Village Workshop

First of all, we went into the main tent to see David from Outsider Tart demonstrate some methods and techniques to make "Christmas candy". He was funny, skilled and engaging, passing around loads of food for us to taste. My favourite was a sweet potato pie, including a chocolate layer and a crunchy, christmassy ginger crust. There were also incredible spiced holiday pralines, Martha Washington candy (a coconut and nut centre coated with dark chocolate) and something called divinity (halfway between a meringue and nougat). 

 

They were all delicious but very sugary, so we wished we'd taken a bottle of water and a bag, so we could take some home!

 

The festival consisted of loads of stalls, but two really stuck out for me...

 

1. The first was Choco Rico, a shop that creates "artisan chocolate gifts" a.k.a the coolest chocolate shoes, handbags and birds ever! They are handmade, hollow Belgian chocolates that look mouth-watering and really lifelike - the perfect present for all of my friends! The company also creates mini hearts, Christmas figures, champagne bottles, nameplates, Easter eggs, hats and cupcake and chocolate kits.


2. The second was  The Village Workshop; everything you need to make a gingerbread house. These treats looked amazing, brilliant as a Christmas present or just to have some family fun. The kits looked very thorough and the finished products were fantastic. It is such a cool idea that lets you produce really different creations.

Overall, the chocolate festival was great - walking around it was like a dream! It was a really useful place to find presents, or just try loads of tasters, as there were also cakes/brownies, fudge and churros on sale, not to mention hot chocolate. 

Lots of the chocolates were very rich and not great for children (although my mum seemed happy enough). Apart from this, there was an extraordinary variety of chocolates and I recommend everyone to go sometime in 2014...

The Chocolate Festival is not only in London, so check their website to see where else they are travelling to next year.

 

Happy eating!

Also by me (and also about food)

3 great restaurants for kids in Bristol

A Sally Lunn bun 

The Chocolate Festival - My Heaven! By Jessica

Yesterday, my mum and I visited "The Chocolate Festival", a wonderful festival based entirely around chocolate, and situated on the South Bank in London. One of the first things anyone learns about me is that I ADORE chocolate, so a whole festival about it had to be one of the best things ever!

The festival ranged from more well known brands such as Hotel Chocolat

To ones which I'd never heard of, such as The Village Workshop

Read more »

The London Bridge Experience and The London Tombs by Robert

The London Bridge Experience

Robert, aged 8, loves anything scary, so what would he think of the London Bridge Experience and Tombs? Find out by reading on...

Go on an adventure through the history of  London Bridge. Travel through fires, shops, workshops and more, all on  the same amazing day out. At one point you are in a room full of severed heads!

You will also learn what happens after the executions (all done by a particularly nice guy named George.), become a roman soldier, and find out about wintertime on the bridge. My favourite bit of the Experience was when the owner of a pub gave me a gun, said "you're the guard now, look at the crime scene", and told me to check in the next room. I also liked going in a passageway which moved up, down and diagonally. It was fun, interesting and had a lot of loud sounds and vibrating chairs.

The London Tombs

This was much scarier than the London Bridge Experience part...

Something odd is happening in London and seaweed and cobwebs hang on the walls as you go through the city.

Squeezing through tight spaces was my favourite bit. You go through a circus and a boneyard and even a butcher's house, which is full of meat hanging from the ceiling. The butcher had a chain saw. Monsters' arms and legs crash through cages, so be careful you don't get caught. The scariest bit was when monsters crept in from secret doors and touched you.

The only bit I thought was weird was when I saw one of the helpers holding a McDonalds cup. I didn't think McDonalds was around in the 16th, 17th and 18th Century.

This was an awesome day out. I would recommend it to ages 7 plus because everyone, my dad and all the other people were enjoying it. I would give it 5 stars.The London Bridge Experience costs £19 for adults and £13 for children aged between 5 and 14.

More by me Parks in Paris and  Dr Johnson's House.

 

The London Bridge Experience and The London Tombs by Robert

The London Bridge Experience

Robert, aged 8, loves anything scary, so what would he think of the London Bridge Experience and Tombs? Find out by reading on...

Go on an adventure through the history of  London Bridge. Travel through fires, shops, workshops and more, all on  the same amazing day out. At one point you are in a room full of severed heads!

You will also learn what happens after the executions (all done by a particularly nice guy named George.), become a roman soldier, and find out about wintertime on the bridge. My favourite bit of the Experience was when the owner of a pub gave me a gun, said "you're the guard now, look at the crime scene", and told me to check in the next room. I also liked going in a passageway which moved up, down and diagonally. It was fun, interesting and had a lot of loud sounds and vibrating chairs.

The London Tombs

Read more »