See castles, forts and prisons at the Landmark Trust Open Weekend

[caption id="attachment_992" align="aligncenter" width="940"] The Martello Tower[/caption]

Last year we stayed in a prison and Jess thought it was possibly the best place we had ever visited! The trip to the House of Correction in Lincolnshire was courtesy of the Landmark Trust which “rescues” historical buildings and opens them up to the public. Now they have announced 50 free open days at Landmark properties across England, Scotland and Wales, in order to celebrate their 50th birthday. And the House of Correction is one of them!

This “Golden Weekend” is to take place from 10am to 4pm over 16-17 May and you are all invited to come along to some remarkable properties. Antony Gormley has designed some special sculptures for the occasion and they will be at five of the open landmarks, the Martello Tower in Aldeburgh, Suffolk (which you can see above); Saddell Bay in Mull of Kintyre, Scotland; Lengthsman’s Cottage at Lowsonford, Warwickshire; Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel and Clavell Tower at Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset. The life-sized cast iron sculptures, together entitled LAND, will be Gormley's only solo outdoor installation in the UK in 2015. They will have full public access and be free for everyone to enjoy until May 2016, not just on the Golden Weekend.

[caption id="attachment_993" align="aligncenter" width="960"] The gorgeous House of Correction, where we stayed[/caption]

The Landmark Trust have rescued nearly 200 significant buildings since 1965, and this is a great way to see see some of its forts, castles, prisons, even an old railway station. Those open on the day include Morpeth Castle in Northumberland, Auchinleck House in Ayrshire, an 18th-century country villa and former home of James Boswell, Clytha Castle near Abergavenny, which dates back to 1790 and overlooks the Usk Valley, The Grange, designed and lived in by Augustus Pugin in Ramsgate, Kent and Alton Station in Staffordshire, where the former ticket office is now a bedroom!

There will even be a “Golden Moment” at 3pm on Saturday 16 May, when local musicians will perform a piece of music at all of the 25 open Landmarks.

Full details of all Landmark’s 194 buildings are available on their website

Read about our trip to the House of Correction.

The trip of a lifetime - South Africa by Lila D

Family Travel Times is usually written by us (Sarah, Jess and Robert), although my lovely niece Ella has made a couple of great contributions too (including this one on Whitstable). Now I'm really delighted to welcome you to another member of the family, my gorgeous young cousin Lila D, who is 8. She went on a magnificent extended holiday a while back and the memories have never faded! Here she tells us about the Start of a Trip of a Lifetime!

"Super South Africa!

Hi! I’m Lila D & I’m going to tell you about the time when I was six and my sister was four
& we went on a trip around the world…..

Imagine my surprise when I found out that we were going on a four month trip to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji & America!!!

It was all fantastic, but I’m going to tell you about our first stop, Karoo in South Africa. It turned out to be sooo much more than I expected.

We started off watching The Lion King on our flight to South Africa, and ended up nearly driving over a real male lion’s tail in the actual country.

Going on safari for the first time in our lives was like having tea with the Queen a million times!

[caption id="attachment_984" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] An orange Throated Long-claw[/caption]

I’ve made a list of only ten of the many animals we saw:

Fork Tailed Drongo
Eland
Acacia Pied Barbet
Orange Throated Long-claw
Bat-Eared Fox
Vervet monkey
Blesbuck
Red Hartebeest
Impala
Wildebeest

We followed a daily routine and most of the time, we stuck to it. We were woken up early every morning by the sound of vicious howling, as a troop of baboons went by. Then our jeep driver would take us on a breath-taking adventure where we might meet up with a herd of elephants (did you know that they are great climbers?) or spot three white rhino hidden in the mist.

After lunch we would go back to the lodge and do some arts and crafts, where, for example, we would paint a leopard lying in the grass ready to pounce, while my Mum and Dad went on yet another game drive.

[caption id="attachment_979" align="aligncenter" width="427"] Vervet monkeys tried to take Lila's food![/caption]

At dinner we chose our meal and while eating we watched the baby warthogs tugging eagerly at  blades of grass, trying to get a taste of their sweetness. If we weren’t careful some of the Vervet monkeys would come and steal our food! Then, when dinner was finished, we would return to our cosy little hut where we would often find little treats lying on our pillow, and then have a satisfying, deep sleep. Well, normally…Once we woke up with a bat in our room, but that's another story... "

Read about our home safari - a visit to Woburn Safari Park!

We've teamed up with the fab #SundayTraveler this week, so please take a look at some of the other great posts on travels from around the world!

Madame Tussauds in London (by Robert)

[caption id="attachment_973" align="aligncenter" width="940"] Doing the "mobot"[/caption]

I went to Madame Tussauds for the third time a few weeks ago and as usual it was brilliant, (not mentioning the massive queues).

Madame Tussauds is a big building full to the brim with wax models. There are athletes, politicians, historical names and many, many more.

I haven't been there for a few years, so there was lots of new sections compared to the last time I went. There was a set of Olympic athletes, including Usain Bolt, Mo Farah, Jessica Ennis-Hill, Tom Daley and loads more. There were also lots of other sporting superstars, such as Tony Hawk, Muhammad Ali and Bobby Moore, and I even got up close to David Beckham.

Katniss from the Hunger Games and Benedict Cumberbatch were in the film section with all of their pals. The variety of models was so huge, that if you thought of a Hollywood star they would be there in the room with you. I really liked sitting back on a sofa with George Clooney.

[caption id="attachment_975" align="aligncenter" width="940"] Meeting Prince Harry![/caption]

Famous historical people like Henry VIII and Sir Lancelot were mixed in a room with the royal family and Nobel Peace Prize winners - what a weird mixture! I thought, "uh oh" when I saw Guy Fawkes standing with a grin on his face next to 10 Downing Street and David Cameron.

One of my favourite attractions was a new section called The Scream. All it was, was walking through a dark passageway, but that dark passageway held some horrible things in store. So if you brave the scream always look behind you. You never know what is coming.

Even though I don't like One Direction I did like their models so if you walk through the special exhibition without wanting to queue for a photo, take a look at the wax sculptures as they are very good.

[caption id="attachment_974" align="aligncenter" width="768"] Robert with Wolverine[/caption]

There is a set of wax superheroes in front of the 4DMarvel superhero film. My favourites were  the Wolverine figure and the one which I have liked since my first trip to Madame Tussauds, the giant Incredible Hulk. The film is great, but don't forget to pick up your 3D glasses. I only remembered at the last minute. It has all of the Marvel superheroes coming together to fight against Doctor Doom and his robot army.  Will it end in glory or will it end in a disaster?

I also liked a particular room where it told you, step by step, how the artists made a wax model. It was really interesting and fun to look at as well.

At the end of the brilliant set of rooms was a little machine that asked you questions about the figures like which was our favourite and worst model. One of the questions was who should they make next, which I thought was great. I would like them to make models of Ant and Dec as they are my favourite celebrities.

All in all I had a really good time, but it was very busy, so beware of that, and the queues!

We won tickets to go to Madame Tussauds, so we were lucky enough not to have to pay to get in! It is not cheap, costing £30 for adults and £25.80 for children, but it's much cheaper if you book online, where you can get tickets for half price.

Read about my visit to two other scary attractions in London:

A trip to the London Dungeons

A trip to the London Bridge Experience and Tombs

When Things go Wrong on Holiday: a supposed trip to Mount Teide, Tenerife...

[caption id="attachment_959" align="aligncenter" width="753"] This was where we were supposed to be going...(pic courtesy of the Tenerife Tourist Board)[/caption]

Jess writes:

Our family visited Tenerife over Christmas, and had a wonderful time. We had been looking forward to the trip for four reasons - the sunny beaches, the opportunity to relax, Siam Park (which has to be one of the best waterparks anywhere) and Mount Teide, which is supposed to have phenomenal views and is a world-famous national park.

We worked out that we should be able to fit all of these in, but sometimes things don't go to plan....

[caption id="attachment_960" align="aligncenter" width="940"] The coach journey didn't start well and it got worse![/caption]

Our trip to Mount Teide was to be a guided tour, which seemed sensible as we had never been to Tenerife before and had heard that the drive itself to the summit was special. If someone else was driving, then we could all enjoy it and mum and dad wouldn't have to worry about navigating!

We found out a little bit about the mountain beforehand and packed all our winter clothes as it sometimes snows at the top. What happened next was unexpected.

We drove to our meeting point where we spent over twenty minutes waiting for our very late coach to show up (no apology was given) before spending over an hour driving in circles to collect the rest of the group.  We later discovered that others had been waiting outside for well over an hour and when the coach finally arrived, they couldn't believe that everyone got off for a toilet break!

Being as British as we are, we were not too impressed when the lady running the trip did not apologise for being late, and instead shouted at us for talking while she was explaining what was happening in French. Everyone was talking quietly, and we all found this very rude and off- putting. Mum said she had never been told off on a coach trip before.

But that was only the start. Our guide then told us the trip, billed as a half-day outing of between three to five hours, was actually far longer than that. She casually dropped into the conversation that we would be unlikely to return for around six hours, and we could see that some of our fellow travellers were concerned. Many had already booked activities for the afternoon.

Our trip certainly wasn't going brilliantly, but we were pleased with our guide's local knowledge and the information she gave us (did you know Winston Churchill used to holiday in Tenerife?). We were also excited when she told us that we were going to stop at Vilaflor, the highest village in Tenerife, so that we could adjust to the higher altitude and changed air pressure. It sounded gorgeous and also necessary, as she said if we didn't stop, we would get terrible headaches when we reached our final destination. Mount Teide is over 3,700 metres high.

[caption id="attachment_961" align="aligncenter" width="940"] Unfortunately, the coach broke down just before a roundabout![/caption]

Things were looking up, but not for much longer. Just as we reached a busy junction, the coach broke down. We weren't given much information, but eventually we worked out that it would be better if we all got off. A replacement coach was called and we were told that it would arrive in half an hour, but this wasn't the case. We kept waiting. Eventually, our tour guide told us that when the coach arrived, we would skip Vilaflor and just take the coach to the top of Teide without stopping.

"Won't we get headaches then?" we asked.

"Yes, but only small ones; it doesn't matter." she responded.

By this point, most of other fellow travellers had already departed, and were waiting for a bus back to their hotels. After some more waiting, we decided that we didn't want to visit the top if we were to get headaches and have a bad-mannered tour guide accompanying us the whole time, so we decided to leave.

"What's the point of doing the trip now?" she exclaimed, when we told her we were leaving. I think she might need to work on her manners....

We had pretty much no idea where we were, but luckily, the bus that we got on went directly to the area where we had left our car and met the coach originally. We felt a bit overdressed as we walked back to the car (I probably didn't need to be wearing thermal socks, but I had been expecting snow!) put our warm clothes away and went to the beach. It was a strange day all round.

[caption id="attachment_962" align="aligncenter" width="940"] Fortunately we ended up at the lovely Playa del Bobo and had a great time[/caption]

Mind you, the beach we visited, (the Playa del Bobo) was the best one we visited in the whole holiday, and we really loved running into the waves and eating delicious ice cream. It was definitely a warmer, and perhaps better, day than it would have been if we continued up Teide! But unfortunately we didn't have time to find out.....

Read about our visit to Siam Park in Tenerife

Do you like winter sun? Read about our trip to Negril in Jamaica

Five fantastic free things to do in London with kids

It's January and some of us are a bit short of cash (all those presents take it out of you, don't they?). So, I thought I would try to be useful. Here are 5 great free things to do in London. Save on entrance fees - and treat yourself to a coffee and cake instead....

Please note that, once I started on this post I realised that there are so many brilliant free things to do in London, we are all spoilt for choice. And I haven't even mentioned the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery which have some wonderful children's trails and often have workshops for kids too, nor the many city farms including Spitalfields and Kentish Town!

1) The Diana Memorial playground in Hyde Park

London has some absolutely gorgeous parks - perfect for the kids to let off steam. You can enjoy magnificent views from Primrose Hill in North London, or go boating in Regent's Park (one of my favourites). But if I only had to pick one for families, it would be the Diana playground.

Set up in memory of the former Princess, mother of Princes William and Harry, and located near her home at Kensington Palace, this play area is wonderful, imaginative, clean and fun. Aimed at children under 12, adults are only allowed in if they have a child with them and the masterpiece is the huge wooden pirate ship. Most children love this, enjoying the pulleys and ropes, walkways and more. It's all lovely and safe, surrounded by sand and has a lovely Peter Pan connection through various scenes from the famous story.

But there is more to it than the ship. There is a giant swing, tunnels, sensory trail and lots of sculptures to discover too. There are also enough toilet facilities, plus nappy-changing and a café. My only warning is that it can get extremely busy.

[caption id="attachment_947" align="aligncenter" width="940"] There is so much to see at the British Museum[/caption]

2) Enjoy the museums

This is the most obvious of my suggestions, but it's still worth emphasising. London has the most fantastic variety of museums and some of the best will cost you absolutely nothing to explore! Most of them also offer children's trails, activities and even backpacks which contain anything from puzzles to quiz questions and which you can borrow while you find out what's on offer.

Try the Natural History Museum if you crave some dinosaur action (but note that it is always busy), the Science Museum for hours of experimental fun (you can return to this one over and over again) and the British Museum for ancient Egypt, the Rosetta Stone and more. The Museum of London is a wonderful place to visit, with or without kids, and tends to be a little less busy than the others. There you can find out about anything from the capital in Roman times to the Great Fire. Its partner museum, the Museum of London in Docklands, is another gem, telling you about how important the Thames has been. It also has a lovely "mudlands" kids' play area.

 

[caption id="attachment_949" align="aligncenter" width="940"] Big Ben is just one of the landmarks you can see while walking around London[/caption]

3) Take a walk along the South Bank

This is my favourite part of London as it seems to sum up the history, beauty and bustle. I'd recommend that you take the tube or a bus to Westminster, where you can marvel at the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, as well as explore Parliament Square and its multitude of statues (including one of Winston Churchill). Then cross the bridge (enjoying the views) and walk down towards the National Theatre (you're now on the South Bank!). You will pass the London Eye and Aquarium among other attractions, and also come upon various stalls as you make your way towards the Royal Festival Hall. If you want to keep walking, you can continue on past my favourite bridge (Tower Bridge) the Globe Theatre and Tate Modern, all the way to London Bridge and treat yourself at Borough Market. However, if you have young kids, they may not want to go this far! Wherever you end up, you'll love the views and get a real sense of what this fantastic city has to offer.

4) Somerset House

This beautiful Georgian building - once home to Anne of Denmark, Henrietta Maria and Catherine of Braganza - has a magnificent courtyard and offers some great views of the Thames from its balcony. But it's particularly worth a visit because of its summer fountains - which your kids will love jumping in and out of, and you might enjoy too - and its winter ice rink.

If you have older kids, you might enjoy one of the free guided tours (check for details, but these are usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays and some Saturdays). For children aged 6-12, there are regular family themed workshops (usually on the first Saturday of the month), with the next one, on Saturday February 7th, all about 3D mapping!

[caption id="attachment_951" align="aligncenter" width="940"] Visit the Tower of London late in the day and watch history come alive in front of you![/caption]

5) The Ceremony of the Keys

If you book this online, it will cost you £1, so it's not entirely free, but it's definitely worth it - even if you have to plan your visit in advance. When else do you get to go to a ceremony which has been performed regularly for 700 years?
The ceremony is at 9.30pm each evening, so may not be suitable for very young children, but it will excite most ages. It lasts about 40 minutes and is essentially the formal locking of the gates at the Tower by the Chief Yeoman Warder and his accompanying guards. The same wording is used each night, starting with "Halt, who comes there?" Not to be missed!

We'd also recommend The Changing of the Guard, Kenwood House, some of the London markets (although beware of pester power here) and many more!

Super Siam Park in Tenerife

We recently returned from Tenerife where we visited a fantastic water park. Robert, who's 9, absolutely loved it - here he explains why...

Siam Park, also known as the Water Kingdom, is said to be the best tourist attraction in the whole of Tenerife and it is also the best park I've ever been to. We went there on Christmas day so I thought it would be quite calm with not a lot of people there, but it was swarming with adults and children. While Jess and Mum relaxed on the beach or on the lazy river, dad and I decided to get some action and go on some proper rides.

Mekong Rapids

The Mekong rapids were one of my favourite rides. Throughout the course of the day we went on it four times and each time it became better and better. We climbed onto a yellow dinghy very high up from the ground and entered a pool of water, then off we went! We were zooming through the tunnels and bumping down the drops - it was brilliant. My favourite bit was at the end when there was a big drop, resulting in a very big splash. The first time we went on it dad was screaming like a little baby as he was going backwards, so if you go on the Mekong Rapids ask your child to go backwards instead of you!

The Giant



For me the Giant was the best looking water slide as it was in the shape of a giant face. Two tunnels came out around where the mouth was and the fun began as soon as you got in. One of the things I liked about The Water Kingdom was that for most rides you could pick if you wanted to go on a one or two person dinghy, and we usually decided to go on a two seater. You could go on the right or the left tunnel, we went on both and personally I preferred the right. The ride started by plummeting us down, then it was like we were being sucked into a plug hole, spinning and spinning then finally being gobbled up by the darkness. After that it was another drop then a soft, wet landing in the pool.

The Volcano and Naga Racer

The volcano was basically the Giant just with a few more drops and turns and a bigger plughole. The only unique thing about it was that it was mainly in the dark and I was a bit disappointed with it. However, the Naga Racer was great.

When you got to the front of the queue the staff member gave you a lane. We lay down on our mats at the lane then when the instructor said "go" we pushed off. It was very fast and very cool as some of the time you were lying on the mat in mid air. The person who got to the bottom of their slide first won the race. It wasn't me or dad any of the times we went on.

Jungle Snakes

[caption id="attachment_935" align="aligncenter" width="940"] All of the Jungle Snake slides[/caption]

The jungle snake slides were all different rides but along the same lines. There were four of them, Boa, Viper, Python and Cobra. For me these were the calmest rides of the park (not including the Mai Thai River) as they were not as quick as the other attractions and had fewer drops. My favourite was the viper as it was the most thrilling of the four. So if you don't think you want to do all of them do that one and if you want a long ride don't go on the Boa it is very short.

At Siam Park all of the staff were really very good at keeping us safe - for every ride there were new rules like if I should be at the front or if dad should. It was forever changing so it was good to know they were looking out for our safety.

Mai Thai River

The Mai Thai River was very relaxing as all you do is sit back and let the water carry you through; well that's what I did. I couldn't really steer so I let the water control me, maybe that's why I was going the wrong way half the time. At one point in the lazy river there was a set of mini rapids, it wasn't so lazy then. I liked going through the aquarium as you were underneath sharks and exotic fish. I enjoyed it but kept feeling like I was going to fall through the hole in the dinghy as I was so small.

Siam Beach

Siam Beach was great. It had real sand and it didn't stick to your feet, just that was amazing. It also had a giant pool of water which wasn't salty, so it felt much nicer than the sea.

[caption id="attachment_928" align="aligncenter" width="940"] Siam Beach, before and after it becomes a wave machine...[/caption]

Siam Park has the record for the highest man-made wave ever and it is four metres high and the pool turned into a wave pool every hour at 40 minutes past. Mum and dad loved the waves, but personally I hated the big waves as I felt like I was going to drown or die. Even standing right at the edge of the pool 30 metres away from the wave it still managed to push me over into the water. The impact was so big after the wave crashed down and after it went past me that instead of standing up, my head was touching the bottom of the pool. Everyone else seemed to love it so I would say if you are under 10 only go on it a few times.

Kinnaree

The Kinnaree was the scariest ride we went on by far. It went so fast and had the biggest drops. We went up a massive wall and then plummeted back down - it felt like we were going to go upside down. It was the the most cleverly made ride of all.

[caption id="attachment_925" align="aligncenter" width="760"] In front of the Tower of Power[/caption]

There were two rides that we didn't go on - the Tower Of Power the one with the 28 metre drop and the Dragon in which the whole ride is spinning and falling.

I thought Siam Park was amazing and the rides were great. The only bad thing was the tiring trek up hundreds of stairs to get to the attractions. I really hurt my feet climbing up all the rough rocks but it was worth it when we shot off down the tunnels for the slide.

There are also mini versions of rides for little kids like the Lost City and The Sinnaree.

It was a brilliant but very wet day out. We all loved it and mum wants to point out that it was also extremely clean which matters to her!

Here is a video of the park.

[kad_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gae1cngJTA" width=500 height=650]

Disclosure: We were offered free tickets to Siam Park in order to write about it for the blog. However, all our opinions are, of course are own. Tickets cost:  €34 (around £26.60) for adults (which includes 12+) and  €23 (around £18) for 3-11s.


There is an awful lot to do in Tenerife (we have more posts coming!) and for more information on this gorgeous island and things to do with the family visit the tourist board website.

We've teamed up with the lovely Fiona at Coombe Mill this week in her Country Kids link-up. There you can read lots of wonderful posts about the outdoors!