Como and grab it
If you are travelling from Beijing there is a free shuttle to get you to this country retreat. After an hour’s drive through stunning scenery, wooden gates open to this Tibetan-style ranch. You are welcomed with a pot of Chinese tea in the rustic lobby, while the resident cats make themselves at home on your lap. If you are keen to experience an authentic part of the Great Wall of China, this is for you. Minutes away are two hikes along unrestored parts of the wall. It is so peaceful here, especially in spring and autumn. An extensive lunch and dinner menu offering a fusion of Chinese, Tibetan and Manchurian dishes. The set menu is good value if you have built up a big appetite from all the walking. They can also pack you a picnic with a mini bottle of champagne for your hikes. You are away from a main city so there is not much English spoken here. But with a few words of Chinese from your phrasebook and hand gestures you can easily make yourself understood. Service is a bit slow but that is part of the charm. Once you have exhausted the hiking routes – remember to pack a decent pair of boots – organise a horse riding trip. Or curl up on a couch and read a book from the library. While the Tibetan cottages are cosy and authentic, the main draw is the scenery. Our visit in autumn was simply stunning, with the golden leaves reflecting on the stream as we ate breakfast outside. The temperature. The nights can get very cold out on the hills so make sure you bring lots of layers and a warm pair of PJs. A wonderful destination and the perfect base to explore a magical monument. Rooms from £84 per night including breakfast and free shuttle. booking.com. STROLL down the lakeside promenade and medieval cobbled streets of Tremezzo on Lake Como. Inghams is offering a week half-board at the three-and-a-half-star Hotel Bazzoni for £499 per person, a saving of £280. The deal includes flights from Manchester to Verona on July 19, and transfers. See inghams.co.uk or call 01483 791 116. THE combination of water and fells make the Lake District a favourite British summer destination. But how can you avoid the crowds while seeing the very best the Lakes has to offer? BUS PASS: It is very tempting to take your car to the Lakes but in high season it will soon cause frustration. You will be adding to the congestion on the narrow lanes and constantly struggling to find a parking space.
If you are walking point-to-point a car makes no sense anyway. Far better to take a bus to the start of your walk and then get on another when you get to the end.
With a bit of forward planning a bus is practical and stops you being stuck doing circular routes back to a car park.
Stagecoach runs services around every major lake and some of its double deckers even have onboard wi-fi. GO FOR IT: A seven-day Megarider pass costs £28. See stagecoachbus.com. STEAMER SERVICE: The other classic Lakeland way of getting around is on the water itself.
You can board a steamer – though they are all diesel powered apart from the National Trust’s gondola on Coniston Water.
Coniston, Ullswater, Derwentwater and Windermere all have traditional timetabled services which encourage you to take a boat out to a far point on the lake, do some lakeside hiking, and then pick up the boat again to get back to base. GO FOR IT: Take a beautifully varnished turn-ofthe-century Keswick Launch across to Hawes End and climb the ever popular Catbells Fell. Return crossing £8.50, keswick-launch.co.uk. LAKELAND INNS: The Lakes has its fair share of overpriced hotels and guest houses, but good traditional country pubs, some with accommodation, still exist if you know where to find them.
The Kirkstile Inn, in the western lakes between Crummock Water and Loweswater, is one. Here the proprietors make their own beer, and the food they serve is fabulous quality English cuisine, such as steak and ale pie and shoulder of lamb.
This low-ceilinged pub also has guest rooms upstairs, and given that most people have had a lot of fresh air, it doesn’t party on until late. GO FOR IT: A typical main dish – steak and ale pie – costs £12.75, and rooms are from £50 per person per night, B&B. See kirkstile.com. HOSTELS: Once upon a time the Youth Hostel WINDERMERE: Keswick may be the most Association ran spartan places where you C Cumbrian and Grasmere the smartest, but cooked your own food, made your own bed and so sooner or later everyone ends up on the shores pitched in with chores before you left. of Windermere, Britain’s biggest natural lake.
Now you can get private rooms, dinner and With a large number of yachts and even more even drinks from the bar, and the YHA’s choice ho hotels and smart private houses on the eastern of Lakes hostels is huge. There are 23 ranging ba bank, plus foreign visitors drawn by the World from the massive state-of-the-art 249-bed of Beatrix Potter in Bowness, this is more of an property at Ambleside on Lake Windermere, to in international tourism destination than a lake. the remotest hostel in the country, Ennerdale’s It is certainly a seductive place. The hills here Black Sail which has 16 beds and is a 90-minute ar are gentle fells rather than hardcore mountains. hike from the nearest road. Yo You can shop or sip cocktails.
And the best thing about the YHA these days A simple way of getting an impression of is you do not even have to sign up for Windermere is to cross on the car ferry from membership to stay with them. Bowness to the much less built up western GO FOR IT: A dorm bed in Ambleside costs from sh shore then walk to the Claife viewpoint. £10 a night, and a private room from £25. High The ferry runs roughly every 20 GGm minutesGO FOR IT: and foot passengers pay just 50p. For demand means that Black Sail is more expensive with beds from £35. See yha.org.uk.