Dodge sky-high flight prices
free (heartlandscornwall.com). You can stay in The Cornwall, a four-star hotel with a spa and pool by St Austell. Woodland lodges sleep six and cost from £125 a night (thecornwall.com). Wildlife tends to hide away in winter – except in the skies and on the water, where birds are on the move and the lack of vegetation makes them much easier to see.
The RSPB’s Minsmere reserve in Suffolk has loads of ducks on the grazing marshes, particularly teals and wigeon. There is so much action, it’s hosted the BBC’s Springwatch before. Have a fun day out for £9 for adults, £5 for kids (rspb.org.uk).
South of Dumfries in Scotland, the Caerlaverock Wetland Centre, which has hosted Autumnwatch, becomes a wildfowl wonderland right now. The emphasis is on swans, with daily feeds where visitors are invited to join in. And Caerlaverock is SKYSCANNER has launched a new tool to find the best time to book flights – and reckons it can save you up to £21 £215 on flights to Orlando. This week is the best t time to grab a trip to LisbonL in Portugal tugal from L London for thee Easter also running a puddle-jumping championship over half-term for kids who want to copy the birds and make their own splash landing. A visit costs £7.68 for adults, £3.73 for children (wwt.org.uk). It’s lambing season. And the arrival of those bouncy balls of wool is the first sign of spring.
It’s feelgood enough for the BBC to run a series, Lambing Live, and most farm attractions do their own version, with ewes giving birth in the maternity wing and visitors getting the chance to bottlefeed and cuddle some cute newborns.
Places like Willows Farm Park in St Albans, Herts, £10.50 adults, £12.50 kids (willowsactivityfarm.com), and the Big Sheep in north break in ten weeks. But if you’re flying from Newcastle to Barcelona, you should book 23 weeks beforehand. The best Manchester to Barcelona prices are usually nine weeks ahead. Go to skyscanner.nety to test it out. Devon, £9 (thebigsheep.co.uk), have some exciting half-term lambing programmes. The World Heritage town of Ironbridge in Shropshire is stuffed with good things, particularly the spectacular bridge itself. Ironbridge calls itself the birthplace of industry, and ten of the early furnaces, factories and workshops in the Ironbridge gorge have been re reborn as individual museums, with h hands-on demonstrations. There’s always an imaginative holiday pr programme and this February it includes ev everything from kite and rocket-making to tile-decorating and falconry. The family passport ticket to all the museums costs £50 for the whole year, an and is good value, even for just one day (ir (ironbridge.org.uk). want to do some cycling on holiday, maybe tied into an event – nothing hard. Any ideas? HOW about heading to the South Downs in Sussex in spring? On Sunday, May 7, Hit the Downs MTB gives cyclists the chance to jump in the saddle and take on the South Downs Way with a 20 or 40-mile route. And you’ll be raising funds for Chestnut Tree House children’s hospice. It starts near Worthing, but the South Downs Way carries on for another 100miles, with a National Trust trail running the entire length of the national park. So you will have something to start or finish the trip with. Registration for the ride is £33 per person and closes on April 24. Visit chestnut-tree-house.org.uk.