No barrier to value
IGNORE the hype about DonaldTrump’s wall because Mexico remains great value for a long-haul holiday. First Choice has 14 nights at the Sun Grand Bahia Principe Coba from £1,037 per person. The price is based on two adults sharing and includes flights leaving Gatwick airport on February 5, and transfers. To book visit firstchoice.co.uk or call 0871 200 7799. DON’T get caught out by February half- term. If you are short on plans to keep the kids amused, don’t fear. Here are some unforgettable trips that won’t break the bank. Go glamping. It may sound bonkers but a quirky overnighter in a frosty, remote, rural spot can be a proper adventure – and spark little imaginations.
A night or two in a treehouse, yurt, gypsy caravan or converted railway carriage is far more stimulating than cooping the family up in an over-heated hotel to plunder the wifi.
Canopy and Stars (canopyandstars.co.uk) has a ton of weird and wonderful places. Gwennol, a rustic wagon with a wood-burning stove, sits in a clearing in wild Powys in Wales. It sleeps four and costs from £75 per night. Britain’s 100-plus heritage railways are not just for summer. Loads will put on special services over half-term, leading their clanking, hissing beasts out of the sheds for the first outing of the season. Many will be running themed specials, with Thomas the Tank Engine making several guest appearances.
Hampshire’s Watercress Line, which regularly features in TV period dramas, is dusting off four of its locomotives plus a steam-powered crane for the February 17-19 weekend. A family ticket costs £50 for the day (watercressline.co.uk). Bright sparks are well catered for this half-term. The Brighton Science Festival has a huge roster of individually priced events from February 11-25, ranging from creative engineering workshops and whizz-popping chemistry experiments to science shows and cosmic comedy (brightonscience.com).
There’s more clever – free – stuff going on at the FUZE computer coding workshops in Thame, Oxfordshire, on February 13 and 14, and Nottingham on February 22 (fuze.co.uk).
There’s also Stampex, a big, free stamp show, in North London’s Islington from February 15-18 (thephilatelictraderssociety.co.uk). Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard, with Nelson’s HMS Victory, is a tried and tested all-weather family favourite. But there’s a lot more here than just one boat.
There’s also the Mary Rose, a Tudor warship raised from the depths and painstakingly restored. And HMS Warrior, the iron-hulled armoured warship that was the pride of Queen Victoria’s fleet.
An all-attraction family ticket, one adult and up to three children, costs £61.60 (historicdockyard.co.uk). You can also ride up the Spinnaker Tower at Portsmouth Harbour to look down on the modern ferries, destroyers and battleships. Family entry costs £33 and the Tower (spinnakertower.co.uk) is doing half-term deals where kids eat for £1. Is someone in the house going to be the next Wayne Rooney? Or Jessica Ennis-Hill? If so, don’t let them slob out at home.
If they are a footballer, then it is worth seeing if professional clubs in your area sponsor half-term soccer schools. Nottingham Forest charge just a tenner a day for theirs.
You can check clubs in your region at officialsoccerschools.co.uk.
Or sign them up for multi-activity team-based campsca such as those offered by Kings Camps (kingscamps.org),(k which run over three days at selectedse venues and cost from £51.
If they really don’t like sport, then there’s ev everything from drama classes to cheerleading ga gathered together on all4kidsuk.com. CornwallC has an early season, too, thanks to the warming effect of the Gulf Stream. Daffodils will be everywhere come half-term, with ca camellias and magnolias blooming.
It is a happy reminder spring is on its way, an and there are some terrific all-weather at attractions to explore.
Visit Falmouth’s National Maritime Museum of Cornwall (nmmc.co.uk), with a half-term p programme on space travel, and the newly re restored Heartlands tin mine near Redruth, with it its adventure park, exhibitions and studios, all