Recipefiesta

From group hikes around the towns of the north-west to a seaside stroll in Snowdonia, there’s an event for every taste in 2023

May is national walking month – a good excuse to do something you’ve been putting off, or to expand your repertoire of rambles. The weather is perfect for hiking, the days lengthening, and spring flowers greeting walkers in rural spots. Walking cleans and heals the brain and body as well as the environment, and many festivals are designed to welcome those taking to the outdoors for the first time. A 20-minute walk each day can reduce the risk of preventable conditions including certain cancers, depression, heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Britain is arguably the great walking nation. About two-thirds of us already head out to stretch our legs once a week. We’re lucky to have public footpaths and walking clubs in urban areas as well as wild and pretty places to explore.

Raise the woof: dog-friendly hotels worth barking about

Make the most of Cornwall’s spectacular coastal scenery with a stay at St Michael’s, set in leafy sub-tropical gardens with lovely views towards idyllic Gylly Beach. The location makes for easy early morning and sunset walks on the sand, and dogs are welcomed with pet beds, towels, treats and a doggie guide to local attractions. The Brasserie on the Bay serves up the best local fish and seafood with gorgeous sea views, while the Garden Kitchen offers more informal meals. Pets aren’t allowed in the dining areas or the spa and health club, although they are welcome in the arrival lounge – and until the end of May, pets stay free.
Doubles from £149 B&B, £20 per dog per night; stmichaelsresort.com

Experts say it is vital to check you meet EU requirements, or you could risk losing your holiday

Travellers who have not used their passport for a while were this week being urged to dig it out and check it conforms to the post-Brexit rules for entering the EU – because if it doesn’t, you will almost certainly be denied boarding this summer.

Despite previous warnings in Guardian Money and some other publicity, UK travellers trying to enter the Schengen zone are being turned away on a daily basis by airline staff at boarding gates – in most cases because their UK passport was issued more than 10 years ago.

The Gargano peninsula is a popular seaside haunt for Italians, but now a new breed of young operators are offering low-impact activities away from the crowds

The forest was deep, dark, almost mystical – ancient trees, mossy tussocks, rare glimpses of blue sky through the dense canopy. The afternoon air was cool and scented, and had we not been pedalling hard, I’d have needed the jacket from my pannier. Yet just that morning we’d been kayaking off a hot, sunny beach a few miles away.

That’s the beauty of the Gargano: the spur of Italy’s boot offers beach and mountains in one holiday – or even in one day. The peninsula is a limestone massif, rising to 1,056-metre Monte Calvo, ringed with 85 miles of beaches, white cliffs and secret coves. Inland, where we were cycling, is the Unesco-listed Foresta Umbra, home to giant oaks, pines and beeches plus 2,000 other species of plant. Horace mentioned the oaks in one of his Odes.

Fancy a Sicilian cottage, a seaside hostel in Sardinia or even a community-run castle? We pick the best offbeat boltholes

Terre di Bea is a traditional Sicilian cottage in a secluded forest reserve in the Madonie natural park. It has recently been restored with local stone, chestnut beams and ancient clay tiles, and decorated with pieces by Sicilian artists and craftspeople. The focus is on outdoor living: there is a pool and terrace with hammock and sun loungers, an outdoor lounge, a covered outdoor kitchen and a dining area (there is an indoor kitchen and living room, too). Inside, the cute, colourful cottage has two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Guests can go hiking in the park, drive 10 minutes to the beach or visit the nearby medieval town of Cefalù.
From €399 a night, sleeps five, coolstays.com

Our tipsters pick cute and quiet towns, captivating views and food to melt your heart
Scroll down to see the winner and enter our readers’ tips competition

Visiting Castelmezzano, a town perched against the backdrop of the Dolomiti Lucane, was an accident during my recent southern Italy road trip. This stunning place is worth the detour from the main road cutting through Basilicata, and it comes paired with another beauty on the opposite mountain, Pietrapertosa. Travelling between the two can be completed on the Flight of the Angel – a high-speed zipwire that connects them. While the town is mesmerising, especially when viewed from a distance to admire its unique location, the surrounding area is full of epic hikes, forests and national parks.
Nadia Parveen

With a big castle and even bigger beach, Bamburgh tops the annual Which? poll, followed by Dartmouth and Portstewart, while old favourites prop up the table

Northumberland’s historic and dramatic coastal village of Bamburgh, with its sandy beach backed by an imposing 900-year-old castle, has been voted Britain’s best seaside destination for the third year running.

Its golden sand, grassy dunes and commanding Anglo-Saxon castle secured the top spot for the north-east coastal town.

For campers and glampers with a taste for craft ales these are among the top places to sleep and sup after a day’s walking or cycling

The ready availability of good beer is, arguably, as crucial to camping as a sound tent or warm sleeping bag. So what better than camping at a brewery tap or at a campsite that has a fantastic brewery next door? We pick sites from wild and remote to luxurious, with great ale guaranteed at all.

Tell us about brilliant trips in Poland you’ve made – the best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays break

From the wilds of the Tatra Mountains in the south to the 500-mile sandy coastline in the north, Poland has an impressive natural landscape. Its cities have been rejuvenated by a buzzing cultural scene – cities as diverse as Kraków, with its fine medieval old town (pictured), and Łódź, home of the National Film School, whose graduates include Andrzej Wajda and Krzysztof Kieślowski, and which is sometimes referred to as HollyŁódź.

Its foodie scene extends from old-school communist-era milk bars to fancy Warsaw restaurants that offer modern twists on traditional dishes. And not forgetting the wódka! But it’s also a country with a proud history of resistance, extending from the second world war to the Gdańsk shipyards of the 1980s. And its people are warm and welcoming.

The stark, beautiful Rhins of Galloway is the setting for a cycle trip that celebrates the peninsula’s beacons, and their heritage

Who doesn’t love a lighthouse? These weathered, romantic-seeming sentries help to mark a frontier between worlds wet and dry. They are saviours, keeping sailors from rocks, and are symbols of hope amid the darkness.

That’s how I feel, anyway. So, when I came across Stranraer Development Trust’s new linear self-guided cycling tour between a trio of lighthouses around the Rhins of Galloway peninsula, in Dumfries and Galloway, plans were hatched for a trip to south-west Scotland.

PM may discuss idea with European Commission chief in June, reports say, after diplomats raised it informally

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Rishi Sunak is seeking to capitalise on his improved relations with the EU with hopes of an agreement to allow British passport holders to use e-gates when travelling in the bloc.

Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday that British diplomats had raised the issue informally. A potential discussion was foreseen on the sidelines of a meeting in Japan which the prime minister and the European Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, will attend in June.

The centenary of the trailblazing Towner gallery is a big lure, but the resort’s independent shops, restaurants and coastal walking will be an enjoyable bonus

Eastbourne, a Victorian seaside resort that is edging its way back into fashion, is in the spotlight this year thanks to its venerable art gallery. Towner Eastbourne is celebrating the centenary of its opening (a mile away from the current building, in the town’s Manor Gardens) with special exhibitions, installations, screenings and talks, culminating with the Turner prize, which it is hosting for the first time (28 September-14 January, winner announced on 5 December).

Share details of a great place to eat on mainland Europe or in Ireland – the best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays break

Have you enjoyed a standout meal on your travels – something to be remembered long after you’ve returned home?

Great food can be a highlight of a holiday, connecting us to the destination – and we’d love you to share your greatest restaurant discoveries in Europe.

Sunday’s event in Peak District will mark anniversary of Kinder Scout protest, seen as crucial in establishing right to roam in UK

Up to 1,000 swimmers are expected to head to Kinder reservoir in Derbyshire on Sunday in the biggest trespass of the water to date. The turnout will mark the anniversary of a mass trespass that helped establish the principle of the right to roam in the UK.

The swim trespass of Kinder reservoir, situated below Kinder Scout where the 1932 protest took place, has become an annual event and is growing rapidly with the boom in wild swimming.

A burgeoning farm holidays movement on the Peloponnese lets producers make extra income while offering visitors a glimpse of the country’s slower side

In a large sunlit kitchen on Eumelia farm, an idyllic agritourism and wellness retreat set amid the endless olive groves of Greece’s southern Peloponnese, my classmates and I take turns using a long dowel-like rolling pin to stretch and roll balls of dough that we hope will become filo pastry. It won’t be the flaky, paper-thin kind sold frozen in supermarkets though; the pastry we’re striving for is two to three millimetres thick, the kind you’re likely to catch a whiff of while walking past this area’s many outdoor wood-fired ovens.

When we’ve each created an approximation of our host and teacher Marilena Karadima’s perfect circle of pastry, we use them to make savoury spinach pies that we snack on while we learn to cook other traditional dishes, including a hummus-like dip called fava, made from yellow split peas, a roasted aubergine dish brought to Greece by refugees and moustalevria, a pudding made with Eumelia olive oil, local walnuts, flour, sesame seeds, and must (juice) from the farm’s grapes.

These peaceful retreats all come with a stunning horticultural twist

Set among the tranquil North Shropshire hills, Goldstone Hall boasts five acres of lovingly designed gardens, including a one-acre kitchen garden, one of the largest of its kind in the country. Rooms are comfortable rather than luxurious, but many have wonderful views across the gardens, and the restaurant serves up inventive, flavoursome dishes made with the best of garden produce, including some of the 100 different herb varieties planted along the herb walk. This is a classic English escape: play croquet on the pristine lawns and settle in for afternoon tea against a backdrop of glorious herbaceous borders.
Doubles from £170, B&B; goldstonehallhotel.co.uk

The Gold Coast has once again shed its skin in favour of a new look that is a bit sleeker, a little less colourful and a whole lot classier

I got a phone call from a mate this week.

He lives in Brisbane. Drops into the Gold Coast for the odd visit. A day trip here. A long weekend there. He tends to take notice whenever my beloved home town gets a mention in the news.

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On Gladstone’s former estate in Flintshire, this small-scale family event combines crafts, music, great food and a relaxed vibe

The sky is an infinite blue without a wisp of cloud as we make our way through a small woodland towards a lake covered with lily pads. Hayden, a musician-turned-lifeguard for the weekend, swats away rogue dragonflies with a Japanese fan as he delivers a very laid-back safety talk. Then we are all allowed to plunge into the lake’s depths where, according to the little people in our party, any number of “dragons may lie”.

“Can we stay here forever,” asks Jemima, my five-year-old, as she clambers out of the water, having avoided the “dragons” by sitting on one of our paddleboards, and stepping on to the wooden deck.

Consultants hired by – and staying at – Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa to suppress workers’ union organizing drive

In the heart of California’s wine country, the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa offers guests access to on-site geothermal mineral pools, an exclusive golf club and farm-to-table dining.

“Like the Native Americans who revered the site as a sacred healing ground, you’ll live in harmony with nature through vast open spaces, beautifully landscaped grounds, majestic redwood trees and inspiring sunsets,” boasts the resort’s website.

With summer pop-ups, nature, watersports and foodie options, these sites with a twist will appeal to even the most reluctant campers

Rock climbing, Shropshire
Wild Contentment is a small, off-grid campsite in a meadow at the far end of a dairy farm near Oswestry. There are a handful of pitches for tents, campervans or caravans, plus two bell tents and three “Beryls” – converted horse trailers with flushing toilets, showers and copper rolltop baths. The site, which is Greener Camping Club-certified, is a short walk from Llanymynech Rocks, and the owners have teamed up with a local climbing instructor to offer half-day climbing sessions (£50pp). New for 2023 are occasional activity weekends, with yoga, climbing and abseiling (the first is 13-14 May, from £105 a night). The whole site sleeps 46 and can be hired from £400 a night.
Pitches from £20, wildcontentment.com

From the wild Highlands to the sunny Scilly Isles, our campers enjoy the simple pleasures of life: beaches, walks and stargazing.
Scroll down for the winning tip and enter next week’s competition

Secluded, serene and unspoilt, Dark Skies Camping, near Llandovery, offers camping without the crowds. With just 10 pitches (from £40 a night for two) set within 12 hectares of meadows, which run alongside a mountain stream, this is the perfect spot to unwind and get back to nature as you sit and enjoy the incredible night’s sky beside a crackling fire. The Cambrian mountains and Brecon Beacons national park offers plenty of nearby hiking opportunities. Hosts Tanya and Duncan keep the campsite facilities immaculately clean and are always on hand to offer local walking and wild swimming recommendations. The Neuadd Arms is close by for a great pint.
Helen

Using paths surrounded by terraced chestnut groves, walkers can encounter a traditional corner of Europe untouched by mains electricity

When hydroelectric power first arrived in Switzerland’s Bavona valley in the 1950s, residents of its 12 hamlets gathered for a vote. Should they connect their valley – one of the steepest and wildest in the Alps – to the grid, or should they shun the trappings of the modern world?

Surprisingly, 11 of the 12 towns chose to reject electricity. That’s why on a sunny October day, as I walk the seven-mile path connecting Cavergno, in the south, with San Carlo, in the north, I see no wires, poles or antennas. It feels as if I’ve stepped back in time to a simpler era.

Buildings on this site at the foot of the North Downs were created from timber grown here, and visitors get to chop their own logs or learn a woodcraft

Don’t come to Wilderness Wood and expect to lounge around in your lovely cabin all weekend. Lounging was certainly at the top of this townie’s list, until I was informed that guests on the 62-acre site in East Sussex are asked to contribute towards the maintenance and understanding of the woodland by joining a woodworking, woodblock printing or carving session, a tree walk or an outdoor qigong lesson.

I had George, my slightly reluctant 14-year-old son, in tow, so the idea of six hours patiently carving a spoon was never going to, erm, cut it. How about chopping logs into firewood with a bloody great axe? That sounded more like it, so we signed up for a 30-minute taster session. Two hours and buckets of sweat later, we had run out of logs. It was brilliant fun – the silent fall of the axe before the satisfying thwack as it meets the wood is at once exhilarating and meditative. (George loved it so much he’d reduced the pile of firewood logs in our cabin to kindling by the end of the weekend.)

Billed as an ‘ultra fun run’, the Peak Divide from Manchester to Sheffield is part of a growing trend of trail runs where excellent food and camaraderie are part of the experience

Some trips lend themselves to the last minute and others do not. Peak Divide, a two-day, supported 75km “ultra fun run” from Manchester to Sheffield is one that is best planned ahead. When I tell a friend I’m taking a spare spot with two days’ notice and almost no training, she says her joints are seizing up just at the thought of it. Co-founder Tom Reynolds texts me the day before the run telling me to rest and stay off my feet.

Some people call this burgeoning trend of multi-day running adventures “run-packing”; others refer to it as “fastpacking”. I’m in the latter group as I scramble around Manchester trying to source items from a list that includes trail running shoes, emergency foil blanket and fully-charged head-torch. My longest distance prior to this is 21km along a canal towpath, but Tom reassures me that this isn’t a race, it is a journey. And it isn’t just for trail runners, but for everyone.

Share a tip on your favourite place for seaside fun – the best tip wins a Coolstays break

Oh, we still love to be beside the seaside … The UK has more traditional kiss-me-quick resorts than you can shake a rock at, and as holidaying at home becomes more popular, many towns are being rejuvenated in an attempt to bring back visitors. Folkestone’s seafront has been transformed by art in the past decade, while Margate was the seaside backdrop for Sam Mendes’ latest film, Empire of Light, and the Sky comedy-drama Dreamland.

So, where do you go to have fun at the fair? Tell us what you love about your favourite town, from the beaches and coastal walks to the fish and chip shops and seafood shacks.

National park also ditches fiery logo as it embarks on plan to tackle climate and biodiversity crisis

The name and logo is familiar to the hundreds of thousands of people who visit every year to climb the peaks, explore the fast-flowing streams and rivers and unwind in the towns and villages.

But from Monday the Brecon Beacons national park is dropping its English language name and scrapping its logo of a fiery greenhouse gas-emitting beacon as it launches a plan designed to tackle issues in the park created by the climate and biodiversity emergencies.

Paddling is the best way to enjoy the sawtooth peaks, white coral beaches, rosy red fishers’ cabins and extraordinary light in Norway’s Lofoten Islands

We arrive by night, the wind and rain battering Svolvaer harbour, the last stop on a 3½-hour ferry journey from mainland Bodø through the ink-black Arctic waters of northernmost Norway to the Lofoten Islands. My girlfriend and I have come here to kayak in some of the world’s most dramatic and remote scenery – an ancient land of sawtooth peaks, ghost-white coral beaches, and a remote beauty unlike anywhere else on the planet.

We awake to lashing rain the next morning: the elements, with a violence akin to Thor’s hammer, are continuing to stamp their authority on the islandIn misty daylight, Svolvaer, the main settlement and transport hub, reveals a jaw-dropping natural drama of vertiginous mountains towering over a blend of low red rorbuer (timber fishers’ huts) cheek by jowl with modernist Lego hotels. It should be architecturally discordant, but the little town, with its confection of galleries, gift shops and cafes has a lo-fi charm that quickly grows on us.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the artist’s death. Here are seven great spots to commemorate his work

Picasso would often tell his children, “I want Málaga to have a large museum with my works” and his wish came true, for balmy sea-facing Málaga now has a splendid museum, soon to stage an exhibition focusing on the body as an instrument of the artist. The sculptures displayed cover the many styles and materials Picasso adopted to express the human form. After exploring the artist’s three-dimensional oeuvre, uncover the places he frequented. Although he never returned after the Civil War, Málaga left a lasting impression on him. With an expert guide you can visit Casa Natal Picasso, Pablo’s birthplace home (now an educational foundation staging exhibitions), his nursery school, then his father’s workshop and his baptism church. Picasso Sculptor: Matter and Body runs from 8 May to 10 September 2023 (museopicassomalaga.org); Tours by Locals start at £42pp (toursbylocals.com/picasso-and-old-malaga); stay at Parador de Málaga Gibralfaro (parador.es), double rooms from £114.

Luxury train operator cuts service ahead of biometric passport checks so passengers will have to join train in Paris

When the Orient Express began operating in the 19th century, passports were optional – the only paperwork required by British travellers was a copy of the Thomas Cook Continental Timetable.

But Brexit and 21st-century biometric checks are killing off the romance of crossing borders for modern passengers looking for the nostalgia of the luxury train journey that inspired Agatha Christie and Hollywood.

The authors of a new guide to wild Greece know where to find rugged landscapes, pristine beaches and lush vistas away from the touristy hotspots

The Zagori region, in the remote north-west of mainland Greece, is dominated by the lush Pindus mountains, home to alpine lakes, the world’s deepest gorge and pristine river pools. The area is also famed for its mountain villages, or Zagorochoria, built around splendid plane-tree-lined squares and connected via cobbled trading tracks and Ottoman bridges.

Walks through gorges and lovely quiet towns plus secluded coves to swim in: our readers give the lowdown on the Greece you really want to visit

Trizonia, in the Gulf of Corinth is a small island visited mainly by Greek families and “yachties”. We spent time there while sailing round the Med, from our home on the Isle of Skye. Filled with olive groves and wildflowers, Trizonia is a 10-minute ferry ride from the mainland and makes for an ideal retreat, or a base for exploring the mainland. No cars, just donkeys. There are tavernas and bars in the pretty village, and various accommodation options. Porto Trizonia Taverna is our favourite. A mainland town nearby is historical Nafpaktos with its Venetian harbour.
Fiona Mandeville

A stroll from Diss to idyllic Pulham Market takes in quiet countryside and passes a clutch of ancient churches

Why are some towns so disconnected from their railway stations? That’s what I often ponder at Diss in south Norfolk: the most direct walking route into its historic centre is a fiddly manoeuvre through 1960s cul-de-sacs which would be so much more visitor-friendly if it were clearly signposted.

But upon arrival – especially if it’s your first time – it’s worth persisting with the 18-minute trek to the hilly old town, with its 157 listed Tudor, Georgian and Victorian buildings. The timbered Saracen’s Head pub and long-running restaurant Weaver’s both date from the 16th century, while the cobbled Diss Yards is a haven of indie shops and health-conscious cafes, and the cavernous Designer Makers 21 is a warren of artists’ studios and galleries.

Someone covering our stay as we chaotically packed our car reminds me to look for opportunities to help my fellow human beings

In a world often focused on the individual, I recently had a countercultural experience on a road trip with my family. We had embarked on our first ever road trip: my husband and I and the four kids, aged 12, 10, eight and five. Full of optimism and adventure, we were on our way to Carnarvon Gorge, a beautiful, unspoiled national park in the middle of Queensland. It being such an isolated destination, we allowed ourselves three days for the journey out there.

We had spent months preparing, booking accommodation and planning the route, and our first stop was a small country town called Chinchilla. Its claim to fame is the enormous watermelon that sits in the middle of town and a free children’s water park surrounded by native parklands.

The comedian’s collection of quirky vehicles to stay in has been relocated to the grounds of Melbourne Hall, Derbyshire

What started as a drunken 2am eBay bid for a dilapidated 1960s Maltese public bus has ended up with Johnny Vegas – and his longsuffering assistant Bev – filling a field in Derbyshire with an accidental army of once-forgotten, magnificently repurposed vehicles and creating what must be the UK’s quirkiest new glamping spot.

The ceramicist-turned-comedian’s rollercoaster journey to becoming an unlikely camping trailblazer was captured in Channel 4’s Carry on Glamping series in 2021. After one season at a temporary base on a farm near Harrogate, Field of Dreams has now found a grander, more spacious permanent home – in the grounds of 17th-century Georgian stately home Melbourne Hall, in south Derbyshire.

Pictish stones are the relics of a long-lost civilisation, and visiting them in Scotland makes for a fascinating trip starting in Edinburgh then heading north

Beatles on the radio, stones on their mind, the masons are on their way to work. Got to Get You Into My Life finds an answering fanfare from daffodils on the verges as the van growls past.

They park by Aberlemno village hall. There is a job to be done. The Pictish monoliths for which this nook in Angusis known spend winter in wooden shelters, protected against frost. Now, Historic Environment Scotland stonemasons are uncovering them for spring.

Nature and tales of the past are brought to life along the North Downs Way and around Canterbury by new projects engaging visitors with local knowledge and ages-old skills

Ear pressed to the pale bark, I listen. It’s March, the month when the sap of the silver birch rises. “You can hear it,” says Lucia as I close my eyes to concentrate. “It’s a gurgling, the tree’s lifeblood.”

Sadly, I hear nothing apart from a low traffic hum and Lucia rummaging in her basket. She produces a bottle of birch sap tonic that she’s made earlier. I take a sip. Refreshing. “Good with vodka,” Lucia notes.

Multigenerational travel has been rising as concerns over the pandemic fall. Here, families tell the stories of their first grown-up group travel experiences

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I never feel more like a child than when I am travelling with my parents. At 24 years old, I revert into the teenage version of myself, relying on my mum to keep my passport safe and my dad to put the itinerary together.

But for me, these holidays are more important than ever. As an adult, quality time with my parents has dwindled as we go about our own lives. I find myself wanting to spend more time with them and have new adventures. Now that I’m grown up, I’m no longer a mere spectator to the holiday planning; I actively allocate time, effort and annual leave to make our family trips happen – even if I leave it to my folks to figure out the details.

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