Travelling Times: Our Top Places to visit in 2014

 

[caption id="attachment_904" align="aligncenter" width="940"] On holiday in Tenerife[/caption]

Welcome to the second annual Family Travel Times Travel Awards! Once again, we have been lucky enough to visit some brilliant places, but which ones were our favourites? Welcome to the 2014 award ceremony and our top places to visit...

Best Day Out

Jess says: I definitely think that the "Art of the Brick" LEGO exhibition was our best day out this year. The exhibition, which is travelling worldwide, is composed of over 85 LEGO sculptures and all of them are fantastic. These sculptures ranged from 3D paintings such as The Kiss and The Scream to a giant dinosaur, and from the solar system to the Venus de Milo! We had a brilliant time looking at the sculptures, watching videos and even had a chance to create our own sculptures at the end!

Alternatively, Burghley house in Lincolnshire is a brilliant place to visit - we visited it over the summer and had a wonderful time. The house, which was built by William Cecil (Lord Burghley) is extremely impressive both inside and outside, as we found out when following the Beastly Boring Burghley tour. This tour was probably the best tour aimed at kids I've been to, and it was full of interesting facts. Afterwards, we loads of fun exploring the gardens, which consisted of a maze, Poseidon’s Grotto, sculptures and lots of fountains to run into.

Robert says:  The alligator tours in Florida was my favourite day out in 2014. It's not every day you get to see real life alligators and hold one too! It was a brilliant experience and I learnt many things like how to tell a crocodile from an alligator or how to spot if it is a male or female. I absolutely loved it and could do it again and again.

Brian (dad) says: I loved my visit to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. I particularly enjoyed the Rocket Garden, seeing the Space Shuttle Atlantis up close, hearing a veteran astronaut giving a talk, and walking underneath the enormous Saturn V rocket.

Best Overall Holiday

Robert says: My favourite holiday of the year was when dad and I went to Florida as I won a competition to go to Space Camp. Everything was great, from the inventive and exciting activities of space camp to the wonderful warm weather - not mentioning the cups and cups of free drinks. I loved learning all about space at Kennedy Space Center and the rides at Universal Studios were brilliant too.

Sarah says: For me, Austria was a perfect holiday. We all tried something different - cycling - and enjoyed the food, the scenery and the many things to do. I was genuinely overwhelmed by how beautiful it was and don't think it gets better than riding alongside Lake Wolfgang with the wind in my hair. It was magnificent.

Best in London

Robert says: We have been to some truly amazing things in London this year and my favourite has got to be ClueQuest. We had one hour to find a way to get out of a locked room. Everything was a clue from books to bottles, playing cards to tables. It was so fun and exciting but a bit stressful when we only had a few minutes left. It was an amazing day out that really pushed our minds to the limit.

Best View 

Jess says: The views at the top of the Schafbergbahn in Saint Wolfgang, Austria have to be the best I've ever seen. The summit of the mountain was 1,783m high and there were 360º beautiful views over the lakes Wolfgangsee, Irrsee, Mondsee and Fuschlsee. It truly was phenomenal.

[caption id="attachment_903" align="aligncenter" width="940"] The waves in Tenerife were captivating[/caption]

Sarah says: Obviously I loved the views in Austria, but I could also have watched the waves crashing onto the shore near our apartment in San Miguel, Tenerife, for hours. There were hardly any people around and we just sat and enjoyed the spectacle. They were just so dramatic, such an illustration of nature, that they were incredibly special. We have just come back from Tenerife - posts to come...

Best Place to Stay

[caption id="attachment_513" align="aligncenter" width="940"] Outside the House of Correction[/caption]

Jess says: The House of Correction in Folkingham, Lincolnshire was probably my favourite place to have ever stayed, and I would love to go back. The house belongs to the Landmark Trust and is built on the site of a big medieval castle. The house was a small prison for minor offenders and was initially built in 1611, but replaced in 1808 and enlarged in 1825. It was then closed in 1878. It is absolutely magnificent and only one family can stay at a time, making the experience even more special.

Best Ride

Robert says: I have been to two amazing parks this year which have both been full to the top with amazing attractions, so it was very hard to pick the winner for best ride. Instead I decided to pick three! The first is from Universal Studios in Florida and is the fast paced, scary indoor roller coaster Return of the Mummy. Most of the ride is in pitch black so it added extra suspense as you didn't know when there was going to be a drop. The first time I went on it I was scared out of my skin when we plummeted down into the red steaming smoke.



The next two winners of this category are from Siam Park, the Water Kingdom in Tenerife (post coming soon). Everything there was wonderful but I decided my first pick would be the Mekong Rapids that dad and I went on four times throughout the day. After a long tiring walk up hundreds of stairs we got to a small pool of water where inside we climbed into a yellow dinghy and then zoomed off down the tunnel. It was so fast and very wet. Dad was screaming like a baby the first time as there were so many drops. I loved the next ride, the Kinnaree the scariest ride we went on, but dad definitely didn't. However, it was still loads of fun. Of all the rides we went on this had the biggest drops and at some points we felt like we were going to go upside down. The ride was so cleverly made and I loved it but I don't think the guy next to me who was swearing the whole time did though.

Best Beach

Jess says: We travelled to Tenerife over Christmas, and the weather was lovely and the beaches superb. Although we had a lovely time at Los Cristianos, my favourite was the Playa del Bobo in Adeje. Not only was the sand lovely and soft, but the waves were brilliant and it was perfect for swimming and paddling. It wasn't too busy and was the perfect spot for a walk. There was also a delicious ice cream store nearby!

Best Educational Day Out

[caption id="attachment_171" align="aligncenter" width="504"] The actors at the Drake Fun Day[/caption]

Robert says: As we have been learning about World War II at school as a class we went to the Churchill War Cabinets and Churchill Museum. The audio tours were very detailed and informative. I learnt a lot about where the prime Minister of England stayed during WWII. I preferred the Churchill museum to the war cabinets as it was much more interactive. There was a table that told you what event happened on your birthday during the war, I got to hold Winston Churchill's teddy bears from when he was younger (they were so cute) and I even got to use a typewriter. It was a very interesting and fun day out.

Jess says: We also thought that the Drake Fun Day atop the Golden Hinde II (a replica of the ship which Sir Francis Drake used to sail all round the world) was fantastic. We played games and learned facts from the Captain and his strange assistant, Fart - this was lots of fun and very interesting! The event was two hours long and consisted of firing guns, learning a code and exploring the ship. I would recommend it to children aged 6+.

Best Hidden Gem

[caption id="attachment_151" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Robert at Groombridge Place's Mystic Pool[/caption]

Sarah says: Groombridge was gorgeous - and a surprise! We had gone to Kent for the weekend to visit Hever Castle where Anne Bolyen had lived, and as a Tudor aficionado, that was intended to be the main event. However, we decided we should visit another "attraction" too and that turned out to be Groombridge. We were so pleased we went as it was perfect for families, with gorgeous grounds and in particular many hidden treasures inside the woods. We'd highly recommend it.

Best Food

Robert says: For me the best food in 2014 came from VegFest, the big market where all the food was vegan. I had so many tasters of all the sweets, crackers, dips and drinks and I even had a go at using an electrical massage machine. I ate stuff that I had never seen before like bread crisps and I had salt and vinegar flavoured bread. Everyone was so nice and insisted that I should have more - how could I resist? It was a delicious day and I'll be coming back for more next year.

Thanks for reading Family Travel Times this year and enjoy 2015!

Read our Travelling Times awards for 2013 and let us know your favourites too!

 

Recommended lightweight technology for making fun videos!

[caption id="attachment_868" align="aligncenter" width="960"] The "Mikey" microphone[/caption]

Writing about travel is great fun, but as we are always keen to make our posts look and sound good too, it can get a bit complicated! We don't have a great deal of tech equipment, relying on our usual camera (a Panisonic Lumix) and iPhone to take pictures and make our videos. We sometimes use an iPad too, and we crave a GoPro to make it all look that bit more exciting!

As it's Christmas we decided to look at some technological extras which might help us improve what we offer - and have fun. It's crucial that any kit is lightweight and easy to transport so we limited ourselves to items we thought might help us and not cause travel headaches! Here are some items we'd either highly recommend or would love to have! Jess has tested most of them out and if you click on the links you can find out more about them. We think they'd probably help anyone who likes to blog or just take pictures and make videos (and we're still hoping for that GoPro!)...

Mikey is a "Premium Studio Microphone" that connects right to your iPhone or iPad, and delivers fantastic sound quality. This microphone allows us to change the sound quality from "quiet" to "auto" to "loud" and swivels easily, letting us to record sound coming from any direction. The microphone works with most audio and video recording apps, and I think it's really cool to hear the difference with the mic. The first few times I used the Mikey I could not hear a difference, however when it finally worked I was amazed - everything sounded brilliant! This microphone is small and excellent for travelling, and even comes with a bag to carry it in.

[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/181961307" params="color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]

Nova Flash is an off-camera flash that wirelessly connects to your iPhone, and is controllable from an app. When taking normal pictures, our phone's flash makes the photos look unrealistic and our skin ridiculously white, but this all changes with the Nova. It was easy to charge and connect it to my device, and the free app is simple to use and even lets us edit your photos! The difference that the Nova makes to our photos is incredible and you are even able to choose the type of flash you want - options range from "cool" to "warm", and "gentle" to "bright". There is even a custom option, which enables you to personalise the flash. Furthermore, the Nova is small and thin enough to fit pretty much anywhere, such as a wallet or even your pocket.

We have been using Joby's GripTight Gorilla Pod Stand for a year, and I love it! Its extendable grip holds our phone perfectly, and its flexible legs can attach to almost any surface. In the past year, this tripod has been wrapped around benches in Austria, the wall of a school in Jamaica and the top of a bridge in the House of Correction in Folkingham! You can see the difference this tripod has made in videos by watching our Paris video, which is unbelievably shaky... Next came our incredible trip to Beaches Negril in Jamaica, where our video is a lot stiller and therefore much more aesthetically pleasing! Sadly, parts of the legs can come off and although they can be put back on, it makes it much harder to wrap them around objects. This has happened to two of the three legs so far, however the product is still great and easy to use. As an added bonus, the tripod is tiny enough to carry around in a bag.

Although we do not (yet!) own an iPhone 5/5S, The Naztech Power Case looks brilliant - it has a built-in battery that nearly doubles the usage time of your phone. The case looks slim and easy to hold, and comes with three coloured frames to change the colour. There is a built in kickstand and LEDs on the back to tell you how much battery life you have left, which is something that sounds amazing to me. If I ever get an iPhone (hint, hint mum) this looks like the case I would choose; it is both useful and stylish!

What items of kit would you recommend? We'd love to know. We're hoping that our pics and videos improve with some of the new technology we're trying out...

Disclosure: We were sent the Mikey microphone and Nova flash to try out for this blog. As usual, however, all the opinions contained here are our own.

Treasure Island 3 stars - never in a million years!

[caption id="attachment_851" align="aligncenter" width="710"] This is the poster from the show, copyright The National Theatre[/caption]

Robert, who is 9, says:

Treasure Island is the best show I have ever seen, and I've seen a lot of shows. It is a hilarious, but very scary adaptation from the book and has lots of changes. It is currently on at the National Theatre in London and you should definitely try to get a ticket.

In the traditional tale the story has barely any girls included but in this production, the main character is a girl and there are lots of other parts for girls too. I could have watched the show again and again because the actors, the set, the story and the lighting were all so brilliant. So I was surprised and quite annoyed when I heard that our newspaper had given Treasure Island 3 stars, I would have given it 5 out of 5.

Treasure Island is about a boy called Jim (a girl called Jemima in the play) and his/her grandma who runs an inn. One day a bald pirate comes to the inn with a big chest and says "Guard this at all times. If you see a man with one leg call me straight away."

The man is killed by a pirate, and a gang come to the inn and look through the chest but they can't find what they are looking for. That is because the grandma had taken some paper from the chest and was ready to put it on the fire. However, this is the very thing the gang was looking for and it is actually a treasure map.

With the map Jim (the boy/girl), the mayor of the town and the local doctor go to Bristol and hire a boat and crew. One of the people they hire is a man called Long John Silver and what they don't notice is that he has one leg. What happens next is a secret; you'll have to see for yourselves.

One of the things that brought the story to life, and one of the reasons I liked it so much was the fantastic set. In the first act, half of the set came up out of the ground and it looked exactly like a small inn. On both sides it was very detailed and the other side of it came up too, in the form of a ship. It had about 12 rooms and was at least 8 metres high. Other parts of the set had holes and raised platforms and it looked amazing.

In the second half of the show the set really looked like a forgotten island with mud and rocks. It had cool caves rising up from it and lots of passageways and trapdoors. The stage spun round which meant people in different places in the story could be on at the same time. The ceiling also played a part in the story in the part where Long John Silver was teaching Jim about stars.

All of the actors were amazing especially Long John Silver (Arthur Darvill who played Rory from Doctor Who.) The show was very scary and the gun shots sounded real - you should definitely cover your ears for those bits and the part with gunpowder. Just a simple storm scared me quite a bit. If you are around the middle of the audience, look out for Long John Silver's parrot popping up in front of you.

The only thing I found wrong with it was that changing the set took too much time thus making the interval rather long. But it was still fantastic – and I would recommend it to anyone who can cope with loud noises!

I went to see Treasure Island with my Grandma, Grandpa and cousin. Tickets cost £15, £28, £39 and £50 and if you book for the more expensive seats, under 18s get half-price tickets.

The show is on until April 8. It is also being shown in cinemas around the country on January 22nd.

More by me:

The Art of the Brick Lego Exhibition

A present for Christmas babies!

[caption id="attachment_847" align="aligncenter" width="256"] This gorgeous Christmas decoration comes courtesy of Penny Alexander at A Residence[/caption]

Celebrating your birthday on Christmas day can be a trial (although you do share it with Humphrey Bogart and Annie Lennox), but help is at hand! I was amused to see that Hotels4U has a gift for all Christmas babies, a free hotel stay. I wonder, do they know how expensive this may get? Around 2,000 babies are born in the UK each day...

The idea is that the gift will make up for having your birthday overshadowed year after year. So, if you were born on 25^th December, call 0844 875 3455 before 31^st January 2015 and quote the promotional code "H4uXmas14".

“Christmas should be all about sharing – unless that's sharing your birthday!" said Tim Bekir Commercial Manager at Hotels4u.com. "That’s why this year we wanted to give Christmas babies a special treat so they can celebrate their birthday in style.”

There are 8,000 hotel rooms to choose from and you can find out more via their website.

Happy birthday (oh, and merry Christmas!)

Kenwood House In Hampstead (by Jess)

London is full of history, and Kenwood House on the edge of Hampstead Heath is no exception. The house was once owned by William Murray, the first Earl of Mansfield in 1754, and was recently closed for 10 months for English Heritage to complete its "Caring for Kenwood" restoration.  We love Kenwood, and often visit for the food, views and large open spaces. Once the restoration was complete, however, we decided that we needed to go inside the house again.

You may recognise Kenwood from the film Belle, which was released in June. It tells the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle who was raised by her great-uncle Lord Mansfield and his wife in Kenwood. After they met an idealistic young vicar's son bent on changing society, he and Belle helped shape Lord Mansfield's role as Lord Chief Justice to end slavery in England. This film was absolutely brilliant, and I definitely recommend it, but what made it even more special was seeing the actual house on a big cinema screen, and the actors walking where I have stood.

[caption id="attachment_837" align="aligncenter" width="940"] A portrait of Belle (Dido Elizabeth Belle) and Lady Elizabeth Murray[/caption]

Kenwood House is full of unbelievably famous artworks, such as Rembrandt's self-portrait and The Guitar Player by Vermeer. Every room is full of beautiful sculptures, paintings, jewellery and more, and we enjoyed marvelling at them all. The rooms had booklets in so that we could learn more about these fascinating pieces of art, and there were lots of really kind staff who gave us extra information.

A particular highlight of our visit was the Library or Great Room; an absolutely beautiful room, built to display the Earl of Mansfield’s books. The room's elaborately decorated walls and ceilings are covered by 19 paintings on paper by Antonio Zucchi, and I loved looking at all the different books owned by the Earl of Mansfield.

[caption id="attachment_838" align="aligncenter" width="940"] In the library[/caption]

I am fascinated by the history of Kenwood House, and learnt a lot from our visit. I found out that Lord Iveagh bought the house from the Mansfield family in 1925,​ but never got to live in it as he died just two years later (although his large collection of paintings is on display today.) He insisted that Kenwood should be donated to the nation and said that it should be opened to the public free of charge, with the mansion being "preserved as a fine example of the artistic home of a gentleman of the 18th century".

However, there is so much more to Kenwood than just the house - the views are exquisite, there is loads of space to play outside and it's a beautiful setting for a walk. There is a lovely cafe and ice cream shop, as well as a games room for younger kids.

Overall, Kenwood is a brilliant place to visit. It is packed full of history and there is loads to do. And even better, it's free!

More by me:

A visit to Hever Castle, where Anne Boleyn grew up

The Sherlock Holmes exhibition at the Museum of London