Hi5 Blog

Week 8Vale of Pickering & Thornton Le Dale#hi5adventurefamily Vale of Pickering and Thornton le Dale This bank holiday weekend has been a scorcher with temperatures well above average for this time of year. When the weathers great like this people just want to be outdoors and we love nothing more than getting out and going camping. This is why this week we are sharing with you one of our favourite places to spend a little time in the great outdoors camping. The Vale of Pickering is a touring caravan and camping site, the 15 acre site is located close to Dalby Forest, in North Yorkshire. It is ideal for day trips out to places like Dalby Forest, the North Yorkshire Moors and the east coast seaside towns of Scarborough, Whitby, Filey and Bridlington. The campsite itself is very spacious and attractive site with lots of trees, flowers and hanging baskets. It’s a great place to get away from daily stresses and spend a bit of time relaxing outdoors.…

Week 7 Lloret De Mar#hi5adventurefamily Blog week 7 Llorete De Mar Llorete De Mar is a Mediterranean costal town on the Costa Brava in Catalonia, Spain. It is known for its Mediterranean beaches and appealing climate. After spending some time exploring here we found that Llorete de mar had a lot more interesting and exciting things to see and do than just the beach. We liked to go out for walks in the morning and explore a new place each day, we found this was the best time to do so as it was cooler. We visited the beach, it was empty first thing in the morning, it was beautiful. At the end of the beach situated at the top of the hill was the medieval castle of Sant Joan, the castle separates the beach of Llorette de mar and Fennels beach.  Llorete de mar’s old town is very pretty with plenty of little narrow streets full of shops, restaurants and bars. You could easily get lost for…

Week 6 An Italian adventurePart 3 Venice #hi5adventurefamily Week 6 part 3 Venice Venice is a truly magical and spectacular place to visit, it is a city like no other offering a unique experience. Originally built as 100 small islands in a lagoon in the Adriatic Sea with no roads, only canals including the Grand Canal thoroughfare. Mesmerizing Renaissance and Gothic architecture can be found in the buildings including palaces, and cathedral. Once we got off the boat and onto dry land we took a short walk enjoying the many talented street artists creating wonderful oil paintings. We liked them that much we bought a couple as souvenirs. Our first stop was at the The Bridge of Sighs, an iconic bridge in Venice made from white limestone. The bridge connects the New Prison to the interrogation rooms in the Doge’s Palace. The stone bars, the view of Venice from behind these bars was the last convicts saw before their imprisonment. Knowing this gave me an eerie feeling whist…

Week 6 An Italian AdventurePart 2 "When in Rome"#hi5adventurefamily An Italian Adventure, when in Rome There is far too much to do in Rome to fit into one day but we tried anyway. We had a busy day planned, we started with a stop at the Vatican City. This unique place is a city-state surrounded by Rome, home to the Pope and headquarters to the Roman Catholic Church. Here you will find iconic art and architecture as well as the Vatican Museum, the museum has ancient Roman sculptures. Visit the Sistine Chapel and be amazed at Michelangelo’s famous ceiling. There are plenty of souvenir shops to look in, don’t forget to send your postcard from the Vatican City post office. The Vatican City has had its own post office and stamps since 1929. From there we explored Rome, Italy’s capital, bursting with fantastic art, architecture and culture everywhere. We enjoyed walking the streets soaking up the atmosphere whilst visiting a few shops. High on our itinerary was a…

Week 6 An Italian Adventure"Part 1 Florence & Pisa"#hi5adventurefamily The beautiful city of Florence is the 8th largest in Italy by population and also extremely popular with tourists. This lively yet charming city is the capital of Italy’s Tuscany region. With a visit to Florence you can expect to see numerous masterpieces of art and architecture. Also like most places in Italy fantastic food, wine, gelato and let’s not forget the Italian designer leather! Italy is one of my favourite countries in the world and I could not wait to see what Florence had to offer. We arrived as part of a group to join onto a guided tour, we were only here for the day and thought this would be the best way to see the best bits, otherwise it can be easy to lose track of time here just wondering around soaking up the city’s beauty. Our guide lead the way at the front talking as she walked at a relaxing pace, we could hear her…

Week 5 London & Legoland#hi5adventurefamily Week five: Legoland and London London Kew Bridge We arrived at London Friday evening, staying at the Travel Lodge Kew Bridge. We planned to spend Saturday site seeing in London and Sunday visiting Lego land. This place was well positioned for us to be able to do both those things and wasn’t too difficult to get to either. Kew Bridge is near some lovely places, Kew Gardens and Richmond Park are worth a visit. It’s also well connected to central London and only a short drive to Lego land. Saturday morning, we all enjoyed the unlimited breakfast that fueled us for a big day exploring one of the world’s most exciting cities. Despite living only a few hours away from London I’m slightly ashamed to say I’ve never really done a proper visit to this amazing city, so we were very excited to see some of the iconic, famous landmarks of London and show them to our kids. To get this long overdue…

Week 4 Matlock Bath#hi5adventurefamily We surprised the kids with a weekend away staying at Gulliver’s, Matlock Bath, in the Peak District. We had a fun filled action packed weekend planned for the kids and couldn’t wait to show them where they would be staying. We stayed in the Explorers retreat Pirate suite, a fantastic, unique experience for the kids, they were so excited when we arrived. The room had skull and cross bones and timber cladding everywhere with a double bed themed as a pirate ship. We were so impressed with all the little added details to make the pirate theme continue throughout the accommodation. When we arrived, there were little packs for the kids with pirate hats and a treasure map to follow to find the treasure.  Hidden away the kids triple bunk beds were old timber planks with little lookout windows giving the feel of a pirate ship and their own tv. The room is cleverly designed to be open plan yet giving the feel of…

Week 3 Barcelona#hi5adventurefamily Whilst visiting Spain we decided to catch a bus into Barcelona for a day trip. Seen as we were only staying an hour away, we couldn’t miss the opportunity to get a taste of this amazing city. This visit was a spontaneous one, we hadn’t really had much time to plan exactly what we wanted to do or where we were going once we arrived. We did however know that obviously with a city like Barcelona having so much to offer we had no chance of seeing it all in one day. What we were really excited about was seeing some of the cities world famous architecture and taking a stroll down the many vibrant and beautiful streets. Once we arrived at the bus station in Barcelona and got our bearings, we were pleased to find that we were only a short walk away from the heart of the city. It was exciting to get in and amongst the lively atmosphere of the city’s streets,…