Tr y jungle booking
FOR an eco-friendly holiday, Turquoise Holidays have the perfect getaway to Datai Bay, on Malaysia’s west coast, to explore pristine beaches and wild jungle through a range of conservation programmes. Save £305pp on a seven-night stay costing £1,140 at the Andaman Langkawi resort if you book to travel before December 7. Ring 01494 678400 or see turquoiseholidays.co.uk. IT’S the season of mellow fruitfulness as forest and sea, orchard and vineyard yield their generous harvest – and food festivals galore reap the rewards. This “Glastonbury of food festivals” (it was founded by a couple of farmers as a response to the BSE crisis) has become one of the biggest events in Wales. It mixes big-name foodies (both chefs and critics) with specialist markets that spill into the streets and lanes, selling produce from pepper plants to Welsh pancakes. It hosts talks, has a nightlife scene and even a festival fringe. It’s a festival that’s serious about food, so a lot of the events such as chef demos, feasts, masterclasses and talks are ticketed separately. DETAILS: Wristbands, £14, give access to demos and markets. abergavennyfoodfestival.com. This is Europe’s biggest autumn festival in terms of sheer numbers, attracting six million visitors to Munich every year. It is an epic international knees-up in huge, highly-decorated marquees out on the Wies’n, a fairground space a short distance west of the city centre. It is hugely popular, hugely good humoured, and hugely inebriating, as the beer is brewed to extraspecial strength for the occasion. Lots of nonGermans dress up in traditional lederhosen (for the men), and low-cut dirndls (for women). Getting a place to stay can be very tough. DETAILS: Munich airport is served by British Airways, easyJet, Lufthansa, bmiregional and flybe. Although festival entry is free, to be sure of a seat you need a booking, which will include vouchers for food and drink. oktoberfest.de. Cornwall has a rich tradition in dairy produce, especially ice cream, and its pasties are a jealously-guarded speciality. Cornish crab is getting popular, local cheeses such as yarg are prospering and its breweries are really hitting their stride. This Truro-based festival showcases the best of all this on stalls along Truro’s Lemon Quay, which will also be lined with street-food pop-ups. The festival will host three days of demonstrations, tastings, masterclasses and tutorials featuring culinary maestros. If you want more, come back to Cornwall in mid October for the Falmouth Oyster Festival. DETAILS: Entry to the festival is free. greatcornishfood.co.uk. The Irish know how to party, and the opening of a few oysters is just a great big excuse. It’s the world’s oldest oyster festival, and Ireland’s most famous festival after St Patrick’s Day. It hosts the World Oyster Opening Championships along with top class entertainment, parades, seafood trails, celebrated hospitality and, of course, a certain creamy Irish stout beginning with ‘G’. There’s a big marquee and a highlight of the weekend is the Mardi Gras Masquerade. DETAILS: The nearest international airport is Shannon. Festival tickets are priced by event, starting from €40. galwayoysterfestival.com. JustJu an hour from Mont-Saint-Michel, Granville is France’s premier shellfish port and is known to the French as “the Monaco of the North”.
Its popular seafood festival, Toute la Mer sur un Plateau (The Whole Sea on a Plate), attracts ar around 55,000 visitors every year – and no fe fewer than 16 tonnes of seafood are brought fr fresh off the fishing boats to mark the opening of the scallop season.
The festival has markets, pop-up seafood re restaurants, cooking demos, free tastings, folk music and family entertainment. DETAILS:D Brittany Ferries (brittany-ferries.co. uk uk) have regular sailings to Cherbourg, which is 90 minutes from Granville. Festival entry is free b bit.ly/GranvilleTouteLaMerSurUnPlateau.