Tag: family holidays

All aboard the Barbie cruise

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Barbie cruise dominated May.

It was pink. It was all at sea. It was fun to research.

The family-travel story, my first cruise piece, was published at the weekend in the Daily Telegraph under the headline, Afloat on a sea of pink.

The trip generated a lot of material and I’m posting the links here by way of a final summary.

See a gallery of images from the trip on Flickr.

Watch a couple of video clips from the Barbie tea party [also pictured above] and Barbie fashion show [invitation below].

What did you think of this story? Would you take a Barbie cruise?

Post your comments below.

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Story of the day: Family holidays in the Lake District

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A heart-warming tale of father-daughter bonding to end the week.

I spent a lot of time around the Lakes a few years back while researching my Footprint guide and I took my little girl along on some of those research trips – well, it was a family travel guide.

I’m due back in the Lakes in a couple of weeks to research a long-form journalism piece on the theme of the Romantics, but more of that shortly.

Meanwhile, here’s an extract from this story in the Independent:

There’s another reason to love the Lakes – its capacity for reinvention.

On my return I found it both reassuringly familiar and exotically different to the place I knew as a seven-year-old schoolboy.

Maybe that’s the key to its enduring success. The Lake District moves with the times, winning over new generations each year, yet the natural beauty of the landscape remains drop-your-ice-cream spectacular.

Read the full story, A Trip Back in Time.

What’s your favourite memory of the Lake District?

Post your comments below.

Story of the day: Father’s Day in Burgundy

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A couple of personal journeys to round off the week.

First up is a piece about a Father’s Day trip to France, which was somewhat mangled by the subs at the Daily Mail.

This was the first in a series of stories I wrote about Dijon and Burgundy. There’s still even one yet to be published in the Sunday Telegraph on a contemporary art theme – details to come.

Here’s an extract:

“People are afraid of stuffy tastings at local wine cellars. It can be intimidating, so we try to demystify the process,” says Celine Dandelot on Sensation Vin (pictured above).

We take our seats at a lightbox-style tasting table and watch the introductory briefing on the wall-mounted TV as Celine uncorks the bottles.

Burgundy’s five wine-producing regions, we learn, produce 200 million bottles a year – one-third red, two-thirds white, split into four categories: grand cru, premier cru, village and region.

“We simply look at colour, smell and taste, repeating the same three tests for each of the six wines,” says Celine.

“You can tell the age of a wine from its colour and aroma. By tasting, we identify its characteristics.”

Read the full story, Happy Father’s Day.

Do you have a favourite place in Burgundy? Or a good angle on the region?

Post your comments below.