The Serial Adventurer

Castleton   As you may have noticed from my previous posts, Castleton is one of my favourite places. Castleton is the most beautiful village all year round.  Castleton is famous for its Christmas at Castleton celebrations, the closest you can get to a real life model Christmas village. The whole village gets involved, Christmas trees on every corner, lights on every building, it is the most magical  You can even go and watch the Carol singer show in a cave (Peak Cavern).  With the village being high up, it also benefits from having a white over back drop of Mam tor, Winnats Pass and other prominent structures.  Each year there is a light switch on ceremony in November, and the lights stay on until the new year. Visitors benefit from late night shopping during this period   There is also a Christmas tree festival at St Edmunds Church which runs from mid November to mid December. Usually around 50 trees decorated by local groups, businesses and charities. 

York, my favourite UK city I have ever visited. Very quirky, pretty and packed full of things to do. Here are 7 things to do when in York; 1. The Shambles and Market  One of my favourite parts of York! Visiting The Shambles is like taking a step back in time, such quirky buildings with even quirkier shops, even some with names i shall not mention. The Shambles need to be at the top of your list when visiting York.  Harry Potter Fans, I hope you got that One!  Nestled into the Shambles you will find the Market, there are some really interesting independent stall holders worth visiting, especially the Baklava one!  2. York Minster  A city with no cathedral? Who cares? York Minster is such a grand building with so much detail within its architecture. You can either take in the view from the outside or get tickets to explore inside.  3. Shopping  From the quirky retailers in the Shambles to high Street shops at Coppergate

Knaresborough is very much one of Yorkshires hidden gem towns!  Here are 5 things I did when visiting Knaresborough for the day and would highly reccomend you checking out.  1. Check out all of the quirky art On every street in the town there Is some quirky art to see. 2. Ice Cream By The River Take a seat by the river Nidd and enjoy the views of willow trees flowing over the river, and first time rowers getting to grips on how to row! People watching is very interesting at times. 3. Chapel of Our Lady of The Crag Built into the sandtone cliffs, this Chapel has been a place of worship since the 15th Century. The Chapel is now looked after by the Chapel of Our Lady of the Crag Trust and us free to enter. One of the volunteers of the trust even offered us a courgette, never been offered one before!  There are several caves you can visit in Knaresborough such as St Roberts and the House in the cave all for free. You can also vist Mother Shiptons

  My first ever visit to Loch Lomond, a fantastic weekend with great company. We packed a huge amount of activities in. You can read about them on my previous post Here. Here are 5 things I would have done differently at Loch Lomond. 1. Not picked a cheap festival tent to spend the weekend in Although at least our tent was coloured to match to countries national drink, Irn-Bru. A larger tent would have given us a little more room for storage! 2. Wear a wetsuit for SUP on Loch Lomond August in Scotland is still Baltic! 13 degrees and falling into the UK's deepest lake is not that great! Wear a wetsuit and keep warm, unlike me who thought shorts and a vest would be suitable.   3. Do an Island Explorer rather than circular cruise and explore Inchcailloch island For the same price you can jump off the cruiser and explore the island and grab a later cruise back to the shore at Luss.  Search for Loch Lomond cruises to book your place online.  4. Walk more of the w

Given the current restrictions on international travel, why not get to know our own country, after all we do have some beautiful places.  A July week spent in Dorset, we based in Weymouth, a great central location for exploring the many different attractions in the county.  During the week, we explored much of the landscape from cute villages to Jurassic coastlines a few activities and places I highly recommend getting involved in and visiting are; 1. Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove  Two of the most famous beaches / coves In Dorset are a must see. I advise visiting Durdle Door first, the earlier the better as it gets busy very quickly. Once parked up it is a 10- 15 minute walk to the beach, so make sure you use the toilets In the car park before you set off!  On the way down the footpath, you will have great views of the Man O'War beach (pictured below) before reaching the steps down to Durdle Door.   After taking in this Jurassic landscape, you can hike 30 minute

  Welcome to The Start of the Scottish Highlands My first ever visit to Loch Lomond, a fantastic weekend with great company. We packed a huge amount of activities into our short weekend at this magnificent place.  After planning the trip for weeks, the weather had not predicted very promising results, heavy rain and downpours given for the entire weekend, we were not sure whether to cancel and re-book for another weekend when dryer weather predicted. We decided to go with it, a bit of rain never hurt anyone, even in a non-waterproof child sized tent.  And so we set off, 0430hrs on a summer morning from Chesterfield. A great start until the moment we passed the England/Scotland boarder, immediately rain was smashing down onto the M74, spray from lorries, cars skidding even one crashed over 4 lanes, not a pretty sight. We couldn't act surprised as we knew the forecast.  After another couple of hours having to slow down on the motorway to avoid skidding we even