Getting the flavour of…
Art therapy in Greece
You don’t need to be “traumatised” – or a skilled painter – to enjoy an art therapy holiday, says Caroline Sylger Jones in The Daily Telegraph. Just “living in the 21st century” is reason enough. Bleverde, a soothing estate on Crete filled with flowers and fruit trees, is the beautiful backdrop for breaks led by Penelope Orfanoudaki, who launched her venture “after a stressful 18-year corporate career”. Inductees often start her courses “buttoned-up and unsure”, but as the days pass, yoga sessions, good food and twice-daily art sessions in a little stone studio work their magic, and they begin to “let go”. It turns out to be a liberating way to learn, and a “form of mindfulness far easier to engage with than sitting cross-legged being quiet”. The next Artful Retreats breaks are 15-20 May and 22-25 May, from £845-£1,320pp. For more information, go to www.artfulretreats.com.
Exploring the Alps on Le Snooc There’s a new way to explore the mountains in winter that’s catching on in France, says Sean Newsom in The Sunday Times. The Snooc is a pair of short touring skis that you use to hike uphill, before turning them into a sledge on which to “blast back down”. The skis have fabric “skins” on the underside to stop them slipping when you’re using them to walk on; when you’re ready to go down, you clip one ski on top of the other, remove the skins and attach a plastic seat. It takes about an hour to master how to swing your shoulders to steer, and with a bit of practice it becomes “pure, effortless fun”. Almost 100 French resorts allow Snoocs on their pistes and several offer lessons. Ski Experience (www.ski-experience.org) has lessons at Serre Chevalier from £41pp.
Cycling Japan’s Noto Peninsula Jutting 100km into the Sea of Japan, the Noto Peninsula, an hour’s flight from Tokyo, is a peaceful, largely rural place that makes a fascinating base for a cycling holiday, says Stephanie Drax in the Financial Times. On a specialist tour, you’ll take in the region’s “vibrant” landscape and witness local customs that have endured down the ages. Routes weave through forests of cedar and pine, past Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples, “glistening” rice paddies, “charming” villages and craggy shorelines. Luggage is sent ahead to carefully chosen ryokan (inns), where rooms have delicate sliding paper screens and tatami mats, and where you can feast on “exquisite kaiseki – multiple dishes presented with breathtaking artistry”. Mineral-rich onsen complete the picture: after a day in the saddle, the hot-spring water feels “like silk on the skin”. Butterfield & Robinson (www.butterfield.com) has one week from £7,225pp, excluding flights.