Kos you’re worth it
JET2HOLIDAYS is expanding its Indulgent Escapes programme of 5H hotels.
Its larger luxury portfolio will feature 110 hotels across 30 destinations including Zadar in Croatia, Tivat in Montenegro and Corfu and Kos in Greece. Customers also get an increased baggage allowance of 25kg, two free drinks on the flight and private transfers.
FORGET the lunches and spas, show your mum some love on Mother’s Day, and make March 22 one to remember, with steam train trips, fudge making, axe throwing and G&TS.
Mother’s ruin Gin workshops
Who doesn’t love a G&T, especially if you made the G yourself?
The Salcombe Gin School in south Devon has everything from tasters, at £30, to tailor-made experience days with picnics and boat trips. See salcombegin.com.
Along the south coast, Brighton Gin does a distillery tour with a tasting and the chance to wax your own bottletop, from £30. See brightongin.com. Or try Manchester Gin, from £20, manchestergin.co.uk, and Cambridge Gin, from £30, cambridgedistillery.co.uk.
Or let Mum make a night of it with the Eden Hotel Collection, which has three properties around Stratford-upon-avon. It has teamed up with the Shakespeare Distillery for gin packages with tastings of all sorts of flavours, from mulberry to rhubarb. Plus you get accommodation, from £165, with breakfast and afternoon tea. See edenhotelcollection.com.
Action heroes
For mums who need to let off steam, axe throwing cuts the mustard. Family-run Edge Outdoor Activities has axe-and knife-throwing sessions in Hertfordshire, using double-headed Swedish axes and smaller tomahawks.
They cost from £18 for 30 minutes, see edgeoutdooractivities.co.uk.
Or rent her a canoe or paddleboard on the Thames at Marlow – stand-up paddleboarding is the new in thing for the cool crowd. It costs from £35 for full-day paddleboard hire and £58 for a three-person canoe. See odyboathire.com.
Just fur laughs Walking with llamas and alpacas
There is nothing quite so soothing as walking with animals, especially those that love their environment and whoever is walking with them. The Merry Harriers in Surrey offers a package that includes taking one of their llamas for a gentle stroll in the Surrey Hills. It is followed by a cracking two-course lunch in the Merry Harriers historic pub in the village of Hambledon. It costs £84 at merryharriers.com.
For mums who live further north, the Lake District Wildlife Park offers its four alpaca brothers, Buzz, Hugo, Hector and Herbie, for mutual exercising. It usually takes an hour within the grounds of the Armathwaite Hall Estate, against the stunning backdrop of the fells. Your £50 also gets you entry to the park. See lakedistrictwildlifepark.co.uk.
Sweet hearts Chocolate and fudge making
Many a mother has a sweet tooth, so fudge and chocolate-making workshops will go down a treat.
Fudge Kitchen, which has outlets in Bath, York, Cambridge, Canterbury, Windsor, Edinburgh and Oxford, runs hour-long sessions on fudge making, led by artisan fudgeteers. Yes, that is what they’re called.
Learn to slab and loaf, create a fudge baguette, and sample a menu of flavours, for £95 for two. See fudgekitchen.co.uk.
For choc fans, Rumseys the chocolatier, in Thame and Wendover, offers £35 demos on making goodies by their chocolate chef, followed by an opportunity to make your own treats and decorations. Then you get a hot drink and cake in the tearoom while waiting for your creations to harden. See rumseys.co.uk.
Free flow Waterway cruises
Jump on board with Mother’s Day boat specials. London’s City Cruises has a £45 lunch cruise along the Thames with some jazz.
Starting from Tower Pier you head upstream to the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, then turn to go downstream to Canary Wharf. It returns to the start point after nearly two hours. See citycruises.com.
Up in Cheshire on the Weaver Navigation near Northwich, the Canal River Trust is running £25.99 boat trips with afternoon tea to the magnificent Anderton Boat Lift. This feat of