Tag: family holidays

Sunparks: a family escape on the Flanders coast

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In the Day-Glo Kid’s World soft play area, there’s a Flemish version of Black Lace’s Superman bouncing off the speakers on a Sunday morning.

The parents watching their somersaulting offspring are, I can’t help but notice, failing to keep up with the actions.

The previous evening I’d watched a man, the wrong side of 50 and dressed as a pirate, leading the kids through a rousing repertoire of Europop nursery rhymes. He topped the bravura performance with a balloon-modelling masterclass.

I never imagined myself here when – before fatherhood – I was trekking to Machu Picchu at dawn, or diving in the Red Sea. But, right now, a summer escape to family holiday resort Sunparks, located just outside De Haan on the Flanders coast, made perfect sense.

Why? My two daughters, Maya (eight) and Olivia (four) [pictured above] had smiles smeared across the faces for the whole weekend.

Sunparks is Flanders’ take on Center Parcs and, for Brits within easy access of Channel ports, offers a good-value alternative to the former’s newly opened Woburn Forest site.

The self-contained village, based around a central plaza, is geared towards primary-school-age children with a slew of playgrounds and activities, such as mini golf and bowling.

Our accommodation, a comfy if simple four-bed chalet with its own kitchen and private patio, looked a little tired but smarter lakeside chalets are also available at a premium.

Some families hire bikes on site and head off to explore the sandy beaches around the nearby resort town of Belle Époque De Han, others drive out to attractions along the 42-mile shoreline, such as the Explorado family science museum in Ostend, or Blankenberge’s Sea Life aquarium.

If you’re feeling really adventurous, you could be shopping in Bruges in under an hour.

But my girls were happy to stay on site, running the gauntlet of the wave machine and the waterslides in the Aquafun swimming centre each afternoon.

Each evening, rather than self catering, we bought tickets for the buffet and refueled on salads, steaks and apple pie, plus a selection of kids’ meals. A selection of local wheat beers kept dad in holiday mode.

Back at Kid’s World, Olivia had mobilised the toddlers to topple a Berlin Wall of play blocks, my tearaway toddler leading the French, Flemish and Dutch under-fives to forge a playgroup United Nations around soft-play furnishings.

While Euroscepticism rages in Brussels, the Superman-jiving toddlers of seaside Sunparks were finding a new family Entente Cordiale.

What did you think of this story? Post your comments below.

Gazetteer 

Sunparks

Eurostar

Visit Flanders

Lunch with an astronaut on Florida’s Space Coast

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The week before Christmas has been dominated by an out-the-blue trip: Florida’s Space Coast.

Maya and I spent a long weekend in Cocoa Beach, researching a family-travel piece around the theme of introducing children to the space race.

This ties into the 25th anniversary of the moon landings in 2014.

Our trip was anchored around the Kennedy Space Centre, where the highlight of our visit was meeting the astronaut DonThomas [pictured above] for a private interview.

We also spent time getting to know the space story and trying our hand at being astronauts [pictured below].

Look out for the story in the Sunday Times Travel Magazine in February as part of a Florida Total Guide.

What’s your favourite space story for kids? Share your thoughts below. 

Gazetteer

Florida Space Coast 

Kennedy Space Centre

Sunday Times Travel Magazine

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Barbie takes the prize

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I always had high hopes for Barbie.

My story about the Barbie cruise, a trip around the Mediterranean in May this year with Royal Caribbean International [cabin pictured above], won one of the travel-writing awards at the British Guild of Travel Writers (BGTW) awards on Sunday night at London’s Savoy Hotel.

The Telegraph, where the story was published, covered the news with the story Two awards for Telegraph writers.

The BGTW subsequently put out a press release with news of all the winners on the night – Travmedia have it here as Travel Awards To BGTW Journalists Highlight Their Variety Of Topics.

Thanks for the messages of congratulations.

I was, of course, pleased but, more importantly, the Barbie girls were delighted.

We’re already planning our next trip – any suggestions?

Post below.

Following the Pied Piper trail in Hamelin, Germany

 

 

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Eminem rapped about him. Abba made him the subject of a b-side. And even Megadeath referenced him in one of their songs.

We’re talking about the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

I spent much of the last week in Germany with my seven year old, Maya, on his trail. And on assignment for National Geographic Traveller Family magazine (issue out Jan 2014).

The journey took us by train from Chester to Hamelin via London, Brussels and Cologne – thanks to Rail Europe and Virgin Trains.

Hamelin was our base, and the Piper story our focus, but the legend also forms part of a wider tourism project, the German Fairytale Route.

This runs some 600km from Hanau to Bremen and takes in sites associated with the Germany’s favourite purveyors of dark-comic fairytales, the Brothers Grimm.

We uncovered a mix of historical fact, fairytale fiction and moral message-making during our trip.

We also found a connection to the English poet Robert Browning (of My Last Duchess fame), whose 1842 poem The Pied Pier of Hamelin [see image below] popularised the story in Britain:

All the little boys and girls / With rosy cheeks and flaxen curls / And sparkling eyes and teeth like pearls / Tripping and skipping, ran merrily after / The wonderful music with shouting and laughter.

Best of all for Maya, we had our own private guide to the legend behind the fairytale from the modern-day Pied Pier [pictured above].

The idea of following a man in a dayglo suit around the historic old town while he played the soprano saxophone took some getting used to. Especially as he was besieged with picture requests from adoring fans as we trampled the cobblestone sidestreets behind him.

But eventually we got into our stride, mixing up tales of Middle-Ages Hamelin with life as one of two of the town’s full-time, latter-day pipers.

Maya, demonstrating a fledgling propensity for investigative journalism, quizzed him on how it felt to play the role of a Horrible Histories-style figure from the past.

It is, we discovered, a bit like being like the actor Robert de Niro.

“It’s method, not acting,” the Piper told us. “You have to live it.”

The illusion was only slightly shattered when we saw him later that same day in dress-down civvies.

His real name, it transpires, is Brian.

Gazetteer

Hamelin Pied Piper tours

German Fairytale Route

Rail Europe

Virgin Trains