We awoke on this day of our holiday to Switzerland to glorious sunshine and blue skies so decided to drive the few miles along the road to the village of Grindlewald - a place so insanely beautiful it just has to be seen to be believed. We seemed to be permanently in a state of amazement as we gazed around in…
Taking a family of six on holiday on a plane is always an expensive business. For us to fly to Switzerland, we were looking at the best part of £2,000. Hiring a car that fits all six of us ramps the cost up even further. We need a seven-seater and they are always a lot more expensive than hiring a…
We took a paddle steamer boat trip on Lake Thun from Interlaken. Here's what we got up to... The weather in and around the Lauterbrunnen valley on the first day of our trip here wasn't great. We woke up to heavy cloud shrouding the surrounding mountains and rain showers, making it less than ideal to head up in to the…
After our previous visit to Grindlewald earlier in the week we headed back here again and tried a different lift, heading up to 'Grindlewald First'. This was a longer lift and a higher altitude where it was noticeably colder at the top compared with the bottom. Here they have a range of activities for kids and adults including a brilliant…
This restaurant in Lauterbrunnen is in the Camping Jungfrau campsite, but is open to guests who aren't staying in the campsite... Most things in Lauterbrunnen are expensive by UK standards - restaurants included - and we were advised that this was the best value of the restaurants in Lauterbrunnen, which I would agree with. It's quite a small restaurant with…
'Francis Flat' is an apartment on the top floor of a large chalet in Lauterbrunnen. It's a private holiday rental operated by the owner Helena, sleeping up to 6 people, located in what has to be the best position in the whole of Lauterbrunnen. *** UPDATE: Unfortunately the owner sold the property a couple of years after this post, so…
We decided to drive our own car from home in Southampton through Switzerland and on to Italy for our summer holiday in order to save on the extremely high cost of flights for our family of six and the very expensive cost of hiring a seven-seater car. We spent the first week of our holiday in the Bernese Oberland mountain…
We spent a week at Moorhead Country Holidays - a holiday complex in North Devon near Bideford. It's a collection of 16 self-catered apartments set within farmland and with on-site facilities including a restaurant, a pitch-and-putt golf course and an indoor swimming pool. The location is beautiful - classic Devon countryside surrounded by fields and farms. Peaceful, tranquil and with…
During our stay in the small town of Marcellise, which is in the Veneto / Verona region of Northern Italy, we visited a few of the local restaurants for our evening meals. Two in particular stood out and really impressed us - here are our reviews of our favourite restaurants in Marcellise... Ristorante San Briccio Review Address: Via Casetta, 10,…
We booked our week-long stay in April at La Pergola through Travelzoo as a last-minute break and had no real idea what to expect. We'd got a cheap deal including flights with Ryanair, airport transfers and half-board (breakfast and dinner included) at La Pergola for a price that, even if the hotel turned out to be a bit of a…
We'd never heard of Port d'Andratx before we picked it for a last-minute Spring week away as a result of a special deal that came up on Travelzoo. It seemed like a good option to hopefully get away from what had seemed like an endless UK winter and get some much-needed sun - just a 2-hour flight away from Bournemouth…
During our April stay in Port d'Andratx, we frequently walked through the 'Club de Vela' marina and noticed numerous boats available for hire, ranging from fairly large motorboats down to small dinghies and ribs. The sight of the bright, golden sun sparkling on the clear blue Mediterranean waters of Port d'Andratx each day made this an extremely attractive idea - as…
Not all of our family are great lovers of camping. Some are, but those who aren't need to be promised of a particularly good campsite in order to tolerate it (and to remain in a mood throughout the trip that's tolerable to everyone else!) Much to our relief on arriving at East Fleet Farm for a weekend with the children,…
The Aiguille du Midi towers over the Chamonix Valley, dominating the skyline with its tall antenna tower, which sits on top of the viewing platform building, visible from pretty much everywhere in and around Chamonix. Aiguille du Midi is the highest point that it’s possible to reach in Chamonix by cable car, bringing you in to what feels almost like…
We'd travelled past the beautiful Lac de Gaillands lake several times on our travels around Chamonix, each time marvelling at the rock climbers scaling the high rock face that rises up out of the surrounding parkland, so we decided to stop off to check it out and see if there's an opportunity for total beginners like us to try out…
Having dragged the children up and down mountains for several days in a row, we thought best to find something a bit more relaxing to do - and discovered Lac de Passy (Lake Passy), a huge lake about 30-minutes' drive from Chamonix centre with a man-made sandy beach open in July and August. In Chamonix you're obviously pretty far removed…
