Trends

Holiday Ideas That Will Appeal to Kids

Planning a family holiday can be challenging when you’re trying to find activities that will keep the little ones entertained. However, the UK offers a wealth of fantastic options that are sure to delight kids of all ages. From thrilling theme parks and adventurous outdoor activities to educational museum trips and engaging summer camps, there is something for every interest and budget. Here’s a guide to some of the best holiday ideas that will create lasting memories for your family.

Active Holidays

One idea that kids love is active adventures that allow them to burn off energy. The UK is home to fantastic theme parks like Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, and Legoland, which promise exhilarating rides, shows, and attractions based on kids’ favourite characters and movies. These make for a fun-filled family day out. 

You could also try adventure parks like Go Ape for tree-top adventures, or one of the many outdoor activity centres around the UK where kids can try rock climbing, ziplining, obstacle courses and more. 

Cycling holidays along traffic-free paths allow kids to safely cycle whilst taking in beautiful scenery. The UK has many long-distance trails suitable for family cycling. 

Heading to the coast and trying activities like surfing, kayaking, and stand-up paddleboarding is another way to delight active kids. The UK’s beaches provide the perfect place for them to learn new skills and water sports.

Educational Holidays for Young Minds

Making learning fun is easy with educational trip ideas. Visiting one of the many fascinating child-friendly museums around the country, like the Natural History Museum in London or the Thinktank Science Museum in Birmingham, allows interactive exhibits to bring topics like space, technology and natural science to life. 

Taking a family safari at a nature reserve gives kids a chance to see wildlife up close, spotting rare birds, deer, seals and more while exploring the great outdoors together. 

Exploring famous historic castles and sites immerses kids in history. Places like Warwick Castle, Edinburgh Castle and the Tower of London host exhibits and events tailored for junior visitors.

Camping Adventures

Camping is a fantastic way to enjoy a family holiday, providing a chance to bond in the great outdoors. Investing in a lightweight family tent can make the experience even better, ensuring you have the right gear for comfort and convenience. Campsites around the UK offer various amenities and natural settings where kids can explore, play games, and enjoy campfire stories. Camping teaches valuable life skills and offers endless opportunities for adventure.

Explore National Parks

You don’t have to spend a lot for kids to have a great time on holiday. The UK’s 15 national parks offer stunning natural scenery perfect for hiking, cycling, geocaching, or having a picnic. These parks provide an affordable way to enjoy quality family time together while exploring the great outdoors. Whether you’re trekking through the Lake District or cycling in the Peak District, national parks offer endless opportunities for adventure and bonding.

Geo-Caching

Geocaching is an exciting and inexpensive activity that involves following clues around different towns and cities to uncover hidden treasures. These treasure trails provide entertainment that keeps kids engaged and curious. Families can enjoy a day out exploring new places, solving puzzles, and finding geocaches without spending much money. It’s a great way to combine exercise, exploration, and fun.

Book a Summer Camp

Summer camps offer kids the chance to make new friends and discover new passions. Whether it’s an overnight camp or a day camp, there are themes to suit every interest, from drama and sports to technology.

  • Activity Camps: These camps provide adventures like kayaking, abseiling, and archery, as well as traditional activities like football, dance, and gymnastics. Professional coaches help develop skills through fun games and instruction.
  • Specialist Camps: For kids who have specific interests, specialist camps focus on areas such as magic tricks, computer coding, circus skills, and more. These camps allow children to delve deeply into a new hobby or passion.
  • Traditional Camps: Offering a taste of classic camp life, these camps focus on outdoor living with activities like campfires, hiking, orienteering, and team-building challenges.
  • Surf Camps: Taking advantage of the UK’s great beaches, surf camps feature expert instructors who teach surfing skills through lessons and practice in the waves, ensuring kids can “hang ten” by the end of their stay.

The UK provides endless options for a fun-filled family holiday. By focusing on interactive activities, learning opportunities, and budget-friendly destinations, you can keep kids happily entertained from start to finish.

Travel

How To Ensure There Are No Dramas On Your Ideal Vacation

Going on vacation is meant to be a relaxing and enjoyable experience. Often, this is the case. However, there are a couple of dangers that you need to account for in order to ensure there are no dramas on your ideal vacation. Whether it is drama with your friends or drama with your plans, you just want to be able to sit back and relax. Here is how you can do it. 

Know your limits

This can apply to pretty much any occasion but it is important especially on holiday. One of the biggest pitfalls to look out for when on vacation is falling out with your friends. This can usually come about from your group or fellow tourists having too much to drink. When on holiday, you do deserve to sit down and relax, and celebratory drinks are a fixture of many trips away. However, you need to avoid that you don’t consume too much alcohol. Nothing can ruin a trip abroad quite like an argument as the result of too many drinks. 

Avoid these easy-to-make blunders

There are some factors which are just out of your control when going on vacation. However, there are some mistakes that people make when going away which are easy to avoid. The issue is, they are also easy to make. 

It’s the little things you need to think through. Double check your flight times and which airport you are flying from. That is a surprisingly common mistake. Another one is having too much baggage and packing too many things. This not only can hit you in the pocket, but it can also halt your holiday. You’ll have to say goodbye to many of your favourite clothes.  

Research local culture

Perhaps a common misconception of holiday goers wherever you are is that they don’t adapt to the culture. Even if you are just travelling for a week, you should make the effort to learn the local culture and try to embrace it. It’s not just the culture though which you need to look into. The local laws could actually land you in trouble, especially if you are not covered. 

There are some obvious rules which you may consider socially acceptable in the UK that are not appropriate in a different country. There are the obvious ones like drinking alcohol in the street (is this ever acceptable?), but also having your feet on show in some countries is definitely frowned upon. Make sure you read up on the culture and wear the appropriate fashion as well, it will make your trip go so much more smoothly. 

Prepare for worst case scenario

This may seem a bit morbid, but it is important to note that you need to be prepared for everything. Worst case scenario can be different for so many people, depending on the purpose of your trip. For example, if you have gone abroad for a fashion show and you lose all your luggage, then this can be a nightmare. Whilst your trip may be ruined in terms of your baggage being lost, you should be able to claim back the money if you have prepared properly and got yourself covered. 

Another major pitfall could be travel disruption. For obvious reasons, going on vacation at the moment can be quite risky. If you have booked time off work then you need to look into travel insurance to cover travel disruption, as delays and disruptions could result in you not being back in time. 

Be sensible

Ultimately, most of these tips to follow just mean that you need to be sensible. Make sure you plan ahead and consider all possible solutions. Learning about the local culture could help you to avoid a few issues which may crop up and being able to speak to locals might keep you out of danger. Additionally, if you do get into any issues, you can interact to get you out of trouble. 

Being able to speak to the locals should help to ensure there are no dramas on your relaxing holiday. 

Animation, Change, Culture, Design, Nature, News

Four Day Holiday in the Arctic on a Virtual Holiday

Virtual travel experts have created and new four-day virtual holiday, for anyone to experience two of the Arctic’s most anticipated experiences from the comfort of your own home

The new virtual holiday travels to the region of Northern Sweden around Lulea where guests will join a tour of the Arctic Bath, the new floating hotel and spa; experience the remote wilderness of the Aurora Safari Camp; and go for a spectacular hot air balloon ride over the Arctic tundra.

Designed by Virtually Visiting, the experience will be released over four days from Thursday 30th April through to Sunday Tuesday May 5. It can be experienced on Virtual Reality goggles or via computer, tablet or phone – and is all completely free for people to experience.

New experiences will be released each morning lasting from 5 to 20 minutes each. Each experience has been filmed to allow guests to get a true feeling of the adventures with expert guides throughout. 

“This is the second full virtual holiday we have released with the aim of putting you, as the guest, right in the action. You’ll experience the tours as if you were actually there,” says Jonny Cooper, founder of Virtually Visiting. “This new tour is a really exciting opportunity to visit the Arctic Bath, one of the most anticipated and distinctive spa and wellness experiences, launched this winter, and soar above the Arctic wilderness on a hot air balloon ride. Both are new experiences this year, with two very different views of the Arctic.”

This tour will begin today (Thursday 30th April) with guests virtually arriving into the coastal city of Luleå and the capital of Norrbotten County. Just 70km north of Luleå is the Aurora Safari Camp, the first stop for the tour. Here guests will join Fredrik Broman on a tour of the camp including a traditional Sami Lavu (teepee) where they will learn about the camp and the nature that surrounds it.

On day two, Friday 1st May, a triple treat awaits. Guests first join guide Fredrik Broman on a nature walk to the Arctic Circle learning about the complex balance of animals and plants as they thrive in the varied Arctic conditions. The afternoon offers a different perspective of the Arctic, soaring above on an Arctic Hot Air Balloon flight, newly introduced this year. Get ready to sit back and relax as you take off from a frozen lake and rise above Europe’s last true wilderness.

To end the day, guests arrive at Arctic Retreat, a traditional Arctic luxury log cabin deep in the Lapland wilderness, where your host will take you on a tour before leaving you to enjoy the countryside from an outdoor Jacuzzi. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjJ7Jlt8-Bs

The highlight of the four-day holiday happens on Saturday 2nd May when you’ll join local guide Peter Engström on a tour of the long-anticipated Arctic Bath. Opened to guests in December, this floating hotel and spa is the world’s first Arctic floating spa, delivering wellness, mindfulness and cleansing treatments through spa partners Kerstin Florian.

HOT AIR & ARCTIC, virtual holiday

The Arctic Bath Hotel and Spa, designed by architects Bertil Harström and Johan Kauppi, freezes into the ice of the Lule River in the winter and floats on top of the water in the summer. The tour will cover the accommodations and main spa building while informing about the local connection to history, culture and nature.

As the trip nears its conclusion, there is time for one last experience for guests on Sunday 3rd May. As you head back towards Lulea the trip will stop off for a nature encounter like no other, meeting the moose. Guests join local guide and founder of Cape Wild, Thomas Dahlquist, to meet “Zigge” and “Zebbe,” learning about and feeding them. As heavy as 1400 pounds each, the moose at Cape Wild are gentle giants and love to be petted and fed snacks.

HOT AIR & ARCTIC, virtual holiday

The trip concludes after a short trip back to Lulea. Virtually Visiting founder, Jonny Cooper, adds, “We really want to give people a true-to-life experience of these amazing activities and experiences led by some of the best and most knowledgeable guides in the region. We hope this will transport visitors to the region – so set the mood, turn off your heat, grab a wool hat and join us for our next virtual adventure.”

To join the free four-day Virtual adventure from 30th April to the 3rd May, visit https://virtuallyvisiting.com/360-journeys/.

Phone: +44 7900 086919

Email:editor@demagazine.co.uk