Buzzing around Yorkshire, our columnist’s days are never the same….
It’s always good to go travelling, but so much nicer to come home, so the song goes, but what if there is also somewhere in bet ween; a chance to go away on a break but to a place so familiar it almost feels like home any way?
I’m lucky, during my life, to have travelled a fair bit, both for work and play. I’ve been to remote islands on the other side of the world, experienced different cultures and met interesting people far outside my normal circle.
My husband has worked across the world, and we also have family scattered about the USA as well as friends in Australia and New Zealand. I still have a bucket list of exotic places I want to visit, but I must admit that the older I get, and especially when we just need a little easy few days R&R, it’s often the same familiar places that we tend to return to.
My friend calls them ‘drop and flops’. You arrive, drop your bags, and you already know where everything is – from the best sun lounger spot by the pool to your nearby favourite restaurants. No thinking, planning or Tripadvisor researching required. Fancy a walk? Ah let’s do the clifftop one (bit of a climb so we’d best get sturdy shoes on remember?). Then we can pop into that cute lunch place on the seafront, the best salads and sea views but we must be there by 1pm as you can’t book if you recall and it’s so busy! We only know that because we’ve been there for the past five years, so satisfaction is guaranteed.
I call these places our boltholes. If we have only a few days to spare (and the cash) it’s just much easier to hop on a short flight to our favourite Spanish seaside hotel outside Marbella where the staff know us. We always try to book the same room (well we already know we’ ll love it). No need to check the online reviews, work out the walking distance to the beach and no hoping for the best when we get there.
In the UK one of our favourite boltholes is the historic market town of Richmond in North Yorkshire. We started going there when I booked a family holiday for Mum’s 80th a few years ago. We had two waterside lodges on beautiful Brompton Lakes. We’ve been back many times since and also had several great weekends with big groups of friends in large, converted farmhouses on its outskirts. If it’s just the two of us we’ve also discovered a stunning apartment with views across the River Swal
