V-E Day celebration

VISITORS to the Royal Gunpowder Mills in Waltham Abbey, Essex, will be taken back to the 1940s to join the Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day) celebrations in a May Bank holiday weekend event (May 2-4). 

The weekend of re-enactments, remembrance and celebration will include military vehicles and air displays, including – weather permitting – Spitfire and Mustang flights.

www.royalgunpowdermills.com

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Island delights at Easter

ON the Isle of Wight Steam Railway, parents can enjoy the island’s countryside coming into spring-time blossom while youngsters are kept busy with colouring, crafts, and an Easter treasure hunt. Open April 3-6.

THE former country home of Queen Victoria and her family, Osborne House will be providing an abundance of family activities this Easter. As well as exploring the stately home and beautiful outdoor gardens, visitors can take part in mini-dramas and children can follow in the footsteps of royal children playing traditional Victorian games.

AT Blackgang Chine, youngsters can play in a life-size game of snakes and ladders, take on the cliff-hanger roller coaster, or sail a pirate ship. It’s open throughout the Easter period from 10am-5pm.

ON Dinosaur Isle, visitors can see skeletal remains found by fossil hunters and watch palaeontologists work on their latest finds.

*Getting there: Wightlink Ferries depart from Portsmouth and Lymington. Offering day return travel and unlimited access to island buses from £21 per person, Wightlink’s Wight River Rover ticket is tailor-made for foot passengers looking to hop over to the island for the day.


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Picture Credit: "Return from Smallbrook Junction - geograph.org.uk - 1422405" by John Webber via Wikimedia Commons; "Blackgang Chine" by Editor5807 (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons.

Easter in Kent

FROM feeding newborn lambs to cracking clues in Easter egg hunts, Kent has much to entertain young and not-s0-young at Easter.

Visitors to Howletts Wild Animal Park (near Canterbury) and Port Lympne Reserve (near Hythe) are guaranteed a cracking time. 

Activities will be held every day from April 2 to April 19. On Easter Monday, visitors at Port Lympne can watch the gorilla family taking part in their own Easter egg hunt. www.aspinallfoundation.org.uk

There will be new lambs at the Rare Breeds Centre, Woodchurch, Ashford this spring, Easter chicks and piglets are expected too. www.rarebreeds.org.uk

Spring will be in bloom at Leeds Castle, with an Easter egg hunt through the Woodland Walk, circus-themed characters to find and jesters' japes at the castle during the Easter weekend. Children can learn circus skills in the grounds, where jesters will demonstrate stilt walking and perform juggling shows. You can also have your face painted and have a go at archery. www.leeds-castle.com

Activities are on offer at Penshurst Place, Tonbridge, as the venue celebrates the 800th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta. 

Follow a family Magna Carta trail to discover just how wicked King John was, and learn why the barons revolted. www.penshurstplace.com

Experience the fun of the fair at the Festival of Steam at the Historic Dockyard, Chatham. The two- day festival on Easter Sunday and Monday features a steam funfair, street entertainment, live music, and walkabout acts. Steam trains will be in motion and hundreds of classic cars will line the streets. www.thedockyard.co.uk/steamandtransport 

Explore the World Garden at Lullingstone Castle, Eynsford. Set within 120 acres of Kent countryside, the castle is one of England's oldest family estates. 

It opens its doors for the 2015 season on April 4 with a grand Easter egg hunt. www.lullingstonecastle.co.uk




Tractor rides through Kent orchards, Easter egg hunts, and a chance to pet baby animals will all be available at Brogdale this Easter. Home of the National Fruit Collection, Brogdale will hold its annual Easter celebration on Good Friday, Easter Saturday, and Easter Sunday. The Brogdale Barn will be full of calves, lambs, goats, and chickens, and families can meet the animals and the farmers who care for them. www.brogdalecollections.co.uk

Chartwell will take visitors on a journey around the grounds and woodland of Winston Churchill's family home. Follow wartime bunny rabbits along the route and find items the bunnies have lost on their way. www.nationaltrust.org.uk

ww.visitkent.co.uk


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Picture Credit:"Flickr - law keven - Feeling Ruff...HBWE Everybody..-O))" by Keven Law from Los Angeles, USA via Wikimedia Commons; "Magnat Carta fragment" GoHoliday via Wikimedia Commons; "World Garden of Plants, Lullingstone Castle - geograph.org.uk - 214919" by Danny Robinson via Wikimedia Commons

Where to have an eggsplosive Easter

EXPECT explosive Easter fun at The Royal Gunpowder Mills in Waltham Abbey, Essex, which is open daily during the school holidays from March 28 to April 12.

Over the Easter Bank holiday weekend, there will be children's activities and explosive arena events: 

Good Friday and Saturday will provide special Easter activities designed for younger children, with an egg hunt, crafts, and face-painting.

On Easter Sunday and Monday, watch out for an arena event featuring live gunpowder and other pyrotechnic explosives in twice-daily shows.

Set in 170 acres of parkland, the Royal Gunpowder Mills - www.royalgunpowdermills.com -mixes secret history, science and scenic surroundings to produce a different day out for all the family. 

Visitors can trace the history of explosives in an audio-visual show, uncover the truth behind the infamous Gunpowder Plot, come face-to-face with real space rockets and get to grips with more than 200 firearms ranging from muskets to machine guns. 

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Picture Credit: "Napoleonic battle reenactment at Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills" by Lisle45 at en.wikipedia [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons

I’m a holidaymaker … get me out of here!

AN attraction based on the hideous telly show I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here is to open at Thorpe Park, Surrey, later this month (March).

The attraction will have the jungle theme, with a maze with chambers, caves, and tunnels. Ant and Dec, who compère the telly (un)reality show will support the marketing campaign.

‘I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! is the perfect fit for the Thorpe Park Resort and its family and young adult visitors. It is challenging, edgy, and above all fun,’ says a resort spokesman.

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Fact or fiction, the challenge for Nature Watch

A SURVEY by UK holiday property rental company holidaycottages.co.uk suggests that one in seven children believe that they might come across fictional creatures from the Harry Potter series in the British countryside. 

Fourteen percent of the 7-12-year-olds questioned said they believed in dragons and werewolves, creatures commonly spotted at Hogwarts, while 11 percent thought Gilly Weed and Whomping Willow were real plants and trees.

In response, holidaycottages.co.uk is urging families to remedy this and encourage children to explore the country’s wildlife as part of its Nature Watch campaign.

When asked to state whether certain species were real or fictional, almost half of the children surveyed either didn’t know or thought that common native trees and plants, such as Silver Birch, Holly, Bluebell and Honeysuckle, were imaginary species.

The agency’s Nature Watch campaign is designed to encourage families to spend more time in the countryside this spring and summer. In an effort to raise children’s awareness and understanding of wildlife, nature and the importance of protecting their natural habitat, it has developed a free wildlife activity pack that can be download from its website.

It’s also running a competition. Young explorers who share their wildlife picture, photograph or short story have the chance to win a £500 voucher towards their next family holiday. Full details at www.holidaycottages.co.uk/blog/nature-watch.

‘We take great pride in offering holidays to some of the UK’s most beautiful locations and want to encourage the nation’s children to enjoy the great outdoors with Nature Watch,’ said James Morris, director at holidaycottages.co.uk. ‘I come from a generation that spent a great amount of its childhood playing outside, not cooped up in front of a television or computer screen. The fact that a third of today’s 7-12 year-olds don’t know or think that dragonflies, honeybees, and daddy long legs are not real just shows us that we need to get back to that and celebrate our native wildlife more.’

Go Holiday editor David Kernek comments: The company was either extraordinarily unlucky in surveying what turned out to be an exceptionally dim sample of children, or education standards in our schools are far worse than even the pessimists fear. Either way, these findings are terrifying!

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Where to dive for those Easter eggs!

DIVERS and snorkellers visiting the Florida Keys who want to become deep-sea egg-splorers and support a Keys charity can join the annual Underwater Easter Egg Hunt on April 5 in clear waters off Islamorada.

The Easter Sunday event is hosted by Captain Slate's Scuba Adventures at mile marker 90.7 Oceanside in Tavernier at the Casa Mar Village shopping enclave.

Captain "Cottontail" Spencer Slate has offered dive, snorkel, underwater wedding, and glass-bottom boat packages in Florida Keys waters since 1978. He also promotes ocean conservation to divers, encouraging them to be active stewards of the undersea environment.

Slate is renowned for staging offbeat events such as the Easter egg-stravaganza, an underwater game of hide-and-seek that awards prizes to participants, including a valuable goodie basket for the fortunate finder of a "golden” egg.

Captain Slate - www.captainslate.com - puts on a giant bunny suit and dive gear and hides brightly coloured Easter eggs for bounty hunters. Real eggs and non-toxic dyes are used to avoid negative environmental impacts.

Boats full of egg seekers head out to a secret location adjacent to shallow reefs in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, where the philanthropic revellers take the plunge to find the hard-boiled hoard.

A morning two-tank trip, the dive excursion is priced at $65 for certified divers. Snorkellers pay $30 per adult and $25 per child.

Money raised from the egg hunt benefits Kids In Special Situations, providing gifts for the area's needy children and holiday cheer throughout the year.

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Easter treasures

THE Treasure Houses of England have packed Easter and spring diaries …

Castle Howard's (pictured above) Easter Fair & Farm will feature a traditional fairground, farm and children's activities. April 4-6.

At Beaulieu this Easter, test your driving skills on Beaulieu's giant Scalextric track, create your own F1 balloon car, follow the Easter trail and explore Palace House. Visit over Easter weekend to meet the Easter bunny and collect a chocolate treat. April 3-19. 

Blenheim Palace's Pleasure Gardens will feature a Victorian fairground with a Lighthouse Helter Skelter, carousel, and swing boats … plus circus skills workshops. April 3-6. 

Burghley's Easter egg hunt will be April 5 from 11am to 5pm in the Gardens of Surprise (pictured left). 

Enjoy the great outdoors at Chatsworth. In the farmyard, families can watch cow milking, see chicks hatching, see litters of piglets, and find Easter eggs in the farmyard. March 28-April 12.

Families can watch "lambing live" with bottle fed lambs throughout April at Hatfield Park Farm. 

There are ducks, geese, turkeys, Hungarian woolly pigs, and cattle. 

Celebrate Easter with family fun at the 900-year-old Leeds Castle. Take part in the Easter trail looking for clues along the way to earn a chocolate prize. Activities include circus skills, juggling, jester and archery shows. April 3-6.

• For details and timings, go to www.treasurehouses.co.uk

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Picture Credit: "Castle Howard - England1 144" by Pwojdacz via Wikimedia Commons; "Gardens of Surprise, Burghley House"  by dennis smith  via Wikimedia Commons; "Lambing, Hatfield Park Farm" courtesy hatfieldparkfarm.co.uk

Make time for Wiltshire this Easter

THERE will be Easter Trails at Old Sarum and Lydiard Park, and the annual Easter egg hunt at Stourhead Gardens. 

Salisbury Cathedral will be running an Easter trail, plus craft events for children.

Imber Church, now under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust, will be open on April 3, 4, 5, and 6, with an egg hunt on Easter Sunday. This will be a rare opportunity to visit the ‘lost’ village of Imber in the heart of MOD-controlled land on Salisbury Plain.

And to spot the first signs of spring, there will be garden walks at Bowood, the Peto Garden at Iford Manor, and Larmer Tree Gardens.

www.visitwiltshire.co.uk

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Picture Credit: "Easter bunny" by Lesekreis (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

Up in the air …

Southampton best for service – SOUTHAMPTON AIRPORT has topped the list of UK airports in an Airport Service Quality survey, a global benchmarking programme measuring passengers’ satisfaction while they are at an airport.

The south coast airport scored highly in a range of categories, including overall satisfaction with the airport, waiting time at security and the courtesy and helpfulness of airport staff – in particular, check-in and security staff. Passengers also scored Southampton Airport favourably for the walking distance inside the terminal, Wi-Fi services, business lounges and the comfort of waiting areas.

London City set for £200 million expansion – LONDON CITY AIRPORT has been given the go-ahead for a £200 million expansion to generate more short-haul capacity in the UK.

The East London airport would be able to handle 111,000 flights a year compared with the current 70,000. This would be facilitated through an increase in runway capacity so more take-off and landings can take place during peak times, while also allowing larger aircraft to use the airport.

Work is expected to be finished by 2023, doubling its economic impact to £1.5 billion a year and creating 2,000 jobs.

Norwegian plans Med charter flights from Gatwick – BUDGET CARRIER Norwegian will fly charter passengers from Gatwick to destinations in Spain, Greece, Italy, Cyprus, and Portugal following deals with major operators. Agreements have been struck with Tui, Thomas Cook, and Swedish operator Nazar for flights to Mediterranean destinations.

New flight to the Aegean – EASYJET has added Liverpool-Zante (Zakynthos) flights to its summer schedule.

Happy birthday, kids! – CHILDREN aged 0-12 flying on Pegasus Airlines will get a personal inflight announcement and a birthday cake.

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Make a splash in Orlando

LEGOLAND WATER PARK [www.LEGOLAND.com] in Orlando, Florida, re-opens for holidaymakers on March 21.

In addition to the water park, the resort has more than 50 rides, shows and attractions … all for children aged two to 12. 

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Seaside towns given £36m investment; projects in 36 towns to get funding

BRITISH seaside towns are to benefit from a £36 million investment by the government’s Coastal Communities Fund.

The money will be used to fund projects in 36 towns with £2 million to go towards Blackpool’s Illuminations, £2.7 million to refurbish Scarborough’s market, and £3.8 million to extend the Tate St Ives gallery.

A new cycle and walking path will also be built in Dawlish linking the town to the Exe Estuary Trail route.

Coastal Communities minister, Penny Mordaunt said: ‘Backing our coastal towns so they can rise up and drive forward their local economies is a key part of our long-term economic plan to secure a brighter future for Britain.’

VisitEngland’s James Berresford added: ‘The seaside towns, local communities, attractions, and landscapes that form part of this are a huge draw for domestic and international visitors. Investment is key and there is a need for coastal towns to continuously re-invent themselves and to strive toward attracting visitors all-year round.’

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Picture Credit: "Lusty Glaze Beach, Newquay - geograph.org.uk - 215949" by Gary Rogers via Wikimedia Commons.

Spring at the gunpowder mills

THE Royal Gunpowder Mills in Waltham Abbey, Essex, re-opens for February half-term (February 14-22).

Highlights of its spring programme include:

VE Celebration, May 2-4: A weekend of WWII re-enactments, remembrance, and celebration. Visitors can expect WWII military vehicles and air displays, including –weather permitting – a Mustang and a Spitfire.

Heritage Steam Day, May 17: Explore the technology of steam power with more than 50 scale steam traction engines representing the best of Victorian and Edwardian engineering.

Laredo, May 23-25: The Wild West living history troupe will re-create a frontier gold mining town, with plenty of shooting and dynamite explosions!

royalgunpowdermills.co.uk

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Airlines confirm refunds on children's APD

THE UK government has confirmed that it expects to see the benefit of abolishing Air Passenger Duty (APD) on children under-12 next year passed on to passengers who have already booked.

Carriers were quick to confirm they would do so. 

easyJet and Thomson Airways said they would refund the APD for customers who have already booked tickets for children over two and under-12 on or after May 1.

Thomas Cook chief air travel officer Christoph Debus described the announcement as ‘great news for families’.

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Genoa’s medieval Xmas market

GENOA’S Christmas market is completely themed on the medieval era. 

It’s held on Piazza Caricamento, which is transformed into a medieval village in which all of the stallholders wear medieval clothes.

Held throughout December this annual 'Medieval Christmas' has stalls everywhere and even has a real farm with cows and donkeys that children are taught to milk. 

Visitors can buy local produce including wine, cheese, meats and handmade crafts.

There are shows to watch on the central stage, which include dancing, choirs, medieval storytelling and musical performances.

As well as the Christmas market, visitors can explore the city’s historic centre, a UNESCO World Heritage site. 

The regenerated port district has Europe's largest aquarium.

www.turismoinliguria.it

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Picture Credit: 'Genova-IMG 2204' by Twice25/Rinina25 (Self-photographed) via Wikimedia Commons; 'Genoa - panorama' by zena011 - Flickr via Wikimedia Commons

Xmas fun in Yorkshire

YORKSHIRE’S Magical Winterland is a 14-day indoor Christmas event (December 10-23) at the Yorkshire Event Centre in Harrogate. 

For full details, go to www.yorkshiresmagicalwinterland.co.uk.

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Padstow at Xmas

THE annual Padstow Christmas Festival runs from December 4 to December 7.

Free to attend, the festival is where world-class chefs and local artisan producers come together around the town's harbour to enjoy four days of demonstrations, entertainment, and festive food and drink.

The event will feature 64 cookery demonstrations and workshops, which start from midday on Thursday 4 December across the Sharp's Brewery Demonstration Theatre and separate Festival Kitchen. A star line-up of chefs including Rick Stein, Paul Ainsworth, Nathan Outlaw, Angela Hartnett, Mitch Tonks and Mark Hix will be preparing a range of signature dishes in front of live audiences.

Event organiser, Tina Evans, said: ‘This is our biggest event to date with more than 40,000 visitors expected to join us for the festival. Alongside a packed schedule of demos, we'll have a spectacular fireworks display, lantern parade, Narnia-inspired grotto, activities for children, pop-up food stalls and live music.’

This year also sees the return of Padstow's traditional Christmas market with more than 100 stalls from South West crafts folk and food producers. Local boutique shops in the town will remain open for extended hours offering special discounts throughout the event.

www.padstowchristmasfestival.co.uk


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Picture Credit: "Padstow resident - geograph.org.uk - 1240406" by Jonathan Billinger - via Wikimedia Commons

Xmas in Chester

CHESTER has its own elf – ChELFie – to guide festive shoppers around the city’s historic streets and give prizes to people who spot him in shop windows.

The Chester Christmas market in the town hall and library squares will have a family-friendly activity area to entertain children while parents go shopping at the stalls. 

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Bristol on ice

AT-BRISTOL, the harbourside science centre, is again hosting an ice rink on Millennium Square this autumn and winter. 

The rink - which opened earlier this month stays open until January 6 – has sessions for the general public, school groups, evening discos, and the under-eights.

Tickets are priced at £8.50 for adults, £7.50 for concessions and £6.50 for children, with reduced entry rates for group bookings and a discount for booking online. 

Opening times vary, so please visit www.at-bristol.org.uk/icerink

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Picture Credit: From Top: 'Millenium Square at night' - Bristol city centre by Joe D via Wikimedia Commons; "January-scene-skating-early-1820s" - Licensed via Wikimedia Commons

Xmas at Eden

FATHER CHRISTMAS and his elves will be returning to the Eden Project in Cornwall this winter. The Christmas at Eden season starts on November 29.

There will be choirs, ice-skating, reindeer, festive food, and seasonal craft workshops.

Emma Hogg, Eden Live Programme producer, said: ‘This year is something very special. 

 We're creating a unique festive experience – Christmas as you've never seen it before – in the humid tropics of our Rainforest Biome. 

While the weather will be wintry outside, visitors can discover twilight magic as our rainforest comes alive.’

www.edenproject.com

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Picture Credit - From Top: 'The Biomes (or eco domes) at The Eden Project, Cornwall' by JuliesNotebook (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons; 'Ice-rink, Eden project' by Roger Cornfoot via Wikimedia Commons