7 Festivals in March 2024 Around the World
Travel Begins at 40 rounds up the best festivals in March 2024 across the globe, from Wales to Colombia, with cherry trees, loads of Guinness and even some frozen dead…
Travel Topics
Travel Begins at 40 rounds up the best festivals in March 2024 across the globe, from Wales to Colombia, with cherry trees, loads of Guinness and even some frozen dead…
Rutland is a wonderful place to relax, or explore the countryside, as Mark Bibby Jackson discovers on his stay at The Barnsdale Hotel. Rutland is one of the UK’s best…
On a cultural trip to London, Mark Bibby Jackson stays at the nhow London while catching Othello at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and Entangled Pasts at the Royal Academy. Having…
What better city in the UK to hold a Wellbeing festival than Bath, the nation’s most famous spa town. Rebalance Bath – Festival of Wellbeing is from 25 January to…
Travel Begins at 40 rounds up the best festivals in February 2024 across the Globe, from Mongolia to Easter Island, so wherever you are you just can’t help celebrating the…
A modern five-story building will adjoin a beautiful Georgian former schoolhouse in Alnwick to create Northumberland’s newest luxury getaway in summer 2024…
On his first visit to Tynemouth and Newcastle upon Tyne, Mark Bibby Jackson receives a hospitable welcome at the Tynemouth Castle Inn. The recently refurbished, Tynemouth Castle Inn is a…
Bristol Light Festival, the award-winning winter festival will return in February 2024 with a stunning interactive and captivating light installation trail that will set the western British city alight. Bristol…
Neil Hennessy-Vass discovers the cultural attractions in Durham, a county that has a wonderful cultural past, present and future. The LNER train took me from Kings Cross in London to…
Mark Bibby Jackson checks into The Grand Brighton and really does have a grand time in the Palace by the Sea. The Grand Brighton hotel has always been a place…
Hull’s historic Spurn Lightship has returned to the city’s waterfront following a 14-month restoration in the latest stage of a multi-million-pound…
Mark Bibby Jackson does some guided walking in the Yorkshire Dales with HF Holidays to Gordale Scar and Bolton Abbey. I’ve never been a great fan of footwear. Barefooted is…
In the Offing, a new exhibition by Turner-prize winning artist Mark Leckey, will be on show at the Turner Contemporary, Margate Kent from 7 October to 14 January. The exhibition…
Roger Hermiston and Eileen Wise stay at the Rudding Park Hotel and Spa on their visit to Harrogate for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival. Charles Dickens thought it…
From two of the most important festivals in the Indian calendar, to sausage festivals in Lincoln and Weimar, October is a month full of fun. Here is our selection of…
So many of London’s hotels tend to be big, showy, and audacious, with an extra helping of elitism added on for good measure, but where do you rest your head…
To music on a Holy Island to Derby’s biggest street festival, read Travel Begins at 40’s round-up of the best UK festivals in September 2023. UK Music Festivals in September…
Mark Bibby Jackson tries out cocktails in London at the 40 Elephants, in the Great Scotland Yard Hotel Westminster, one of the best cocktail bars in London. In my early…
Travel Begins at 40 looks at Unique hideaways a company that provides eco glamping escapes in the UK, from staying in a treehouse to a converted wagon or yurt. The…
Marion Ainge steams across Ullswater and savours a sumptuous afternoon tea while staying in Askham in the Lake District. The sunlight sparkles on the water as the historic Western Belle…
Roger Hermiston takes a cookery course from Linda Duffin of Mrs Portly’s Kitchen in Brockford, Suffolk. It seems that there’s a word for it – but I’ll wager you’ve never…
From Peru to Ghana, intermingling the UK’s multicultural beat, this year’s world music festival certainly lived up to its billing. Read Robert Spellman’s WOMAD 2023 review. “What acts are you…
Skinny Lister, Track Dogs and Bonfire Radicals headline the Deepdale Festival in Norfolk this September. More than 40 acts will perform over the four days of the festival held at the…
The VW Festival returns to Harewood House in August. The festival involves live music, food and entertainment as well as the best in vintage – and modified – VW automobiles. It attracts in excess…
The UK has so much to offer with its rich history, galleries, theatres and concert halls, its commercial and scientific enterprise and its varied and undeniably scenic countryside.
UK National Parks
There are 15 National Parks in the UK, ranging from coastal areas to mountainous regions in England, Wales and Scotland. There are currently none in Northern Ireland. Unlike National Parks in other countries, in the UK parts of the designated, protected areas can be owned by private landlords. Such areas as the Lake District, Yorkshire Moors, Pembrokeshire Coastal Path, Snowdonia and the Cairngorms draw hikers and naturalists to them like a magnet.
UK Weather
The British never tire of the weather as a talking point. Broadly speaking it is a temperate climate, although winters are becoming wetter and summers warmer, probably from climate change. Warmer in the South, wetter in the West and colder in Scotland and Northern Ireland, the UK climate can be subject to diurnal change on a sudden basis, although, with the advent of satellites, the weather forecasts are more accurate. It is wise to take a waterproof with you on an extended trip.
Northern Ireland
Since the Good Friday Agreement brought greater stability to this previously troubled land, visitors are on an increase. The Titanic Museum displaying memorabilia regarding that renowned disaster and Ulster Museum looking at 3,000 years of Irish culture and history, are well worth a visit. Outside of Belfast, the Mountains of Mourne in County Down and the Giant Causeway, 60 miles outside Belfast, are not to be missed.