Below is a guest post from Kett Country Cottages in Norfolk. Let us know what you think — it’s always interesting to get a different point of view, and we’re hoping to do more of these in future. Looking for more ideas? You can read our Norfolk holiday guide on the main Holiday Cottages site.

We all enjoy the traditional Christmas feast with our family, but what else is there to do if you decide to go on holiday in Norfolk this festive season? Going on holiday to this part of England can add some extra excitement to your family Christmas, so go out and have an adventure this year!

1. Going for a Christmas swim. In Norfolk, the glory of the North Sea is there for all to enjoy, with a number of hardy folk jumping into the sea over Christmas time. There are 3 on consecutive days, so you can go to one or all of them, depending on your tolerance for cold.
   • Hunstanton Round Table Christmas Day Swim (Hunstanton, 25^th December at 11am)
   • Cromer Boxing Day Swim (Cromer, 26^th December at 10am)
   • Overstrand Boxing Day Swim (Overstrand, 26^th December at 11am)
2. Enjoy a Christmas Spectacular. In Thursford, you have the opportunity to enjoy one of the most popular Christmas shows, which features carols, dancers, beautiful costumes and wonderful music. It’s an event the whole family can enjoy. (Shows every day at 2pm and 7pm until the 23^rd December)
3. Take a trip on a heritage railway. A number of different lines throughout Norfolk, including the Poppy Line, are running festive services where you can enjoy a train journey to see Santa, travelling through the countryside while munching on mince pies.
4. Visit a Norwich Christmas Market. There are a large number of special Christmas Markets happening throughout Norwich, which each offer a unique range of little gifts and treats for the whole family to enjoy when you return to your Christmas holiday cottage. In the Mall, you can find the Norwich Christmas Craft Fair (From 9am every day until 24^th December)
5. Attend the Pantomime. This year Sleeping Beauty is playing at the Norwich Theatre Royal until the 14^th of January, so you can take the whole family to enjoy the fun and laughter of a panto featuring well-known actors, and songs that everyone can sing along to.
6. Take a guided walk or tour. Some of the most interesting sights in Norfolk can only seen if you know where to look and a guide can help you find them. There are a number of different guided tours happening, including:
   • Victorian Ghosts, a walk hosted by the Man in Black, who will tell you the unusual stories that aren’t told on most ghost walks. You can also finish off in the festive spirit with some mulled wine (Adam & Eve Pub, Norwich, 22^nd December at 7pm)
   • The Boxing Day walk at Fairhaven Woodland and Water Garden, will allow you to get a guided tour around this beautiful garden from its head gardener, ending with mince pies and mulled wines (South Walsham, 26^th December at 11am)
7. Watch Morris Dancing. This traditional English dancing is being performed by the Kemps Men of Norwich, including their Mummers Dance. This is a fun event that the whole family can watch and enjoy. (Banningham Crown Pub, 26^th December at 12 noon)

Cedric Le Borgne 'Les Voyageurs'

Deadgood Studio 'Rainbow'

Jaques Rival 'I Love Durham'

This weekend I went to the Lumiere festival in Durham. It was a wonderful event which showed off this beautiful city to its best advantage. Light art illuminated prominent parts of this historic place, such as Kingsgate bridge transformed into a huge illuminated waterfall entitled ‘Splash’ by artist Peter Lewis and engineered by Water Sculptures. Martin Warren lit up three more of Durham’s bridges, Cedric Le Borgne suspended brightly illuminated sculptures of men above a particularly narrow cobbled street giving a magical essence to the walk. These, along with many more made for a really enjoyable experience and would also encourage me to visit again, even without the festival.

A small drive away in Northallerton are these 4 cottages which sleep 2-4. These former farm buildings have been imaginatively converted into 4 well equipped and attractive holiday cottages. Original beams have been retained and there is central heating for year round appeal. All the cottages have TV with Freeview, video and radio cassette/CD player, fully equipped kitchens with washer/dryer, fridge/freezer, dishwasher and microwave, cots and highchairs. The cottages are set in peaceful countryside and have magnificent views. They are perfect if you want to combine a visit to Durham, with great walks and even a drive over to the seaside with Whitby within easy reach.

The property is set at the top of a curving drive, the inner hall opens up to a heavily beamed living room with snuggly leather chairs, and an open fire with impressive mantelpiece. Off the living room is a bar to one side, bathroom and two more sitting rooms, one brilliant for children as it has TV/DVD, games and half-sized snooker table. The other is French windows to the terrace with beautiful views, perfect for evening drinks. There is a dining room and large kitchen with commercial gas cooker, domestic gas cooker, two dishwashers, microwave, washer-drier, freezer, commercial fridge, and access to large terrace. There is also access to professional catering if you didn’t want to assign the cooking to just one of you!

A lovely curving staircase leads up to the first floor and eight bedrooms – four double (two with 5’ beds, one with 6’ bed), four twin, all with either en suite shower-room (suite) or bathroom (suite). More stairs to the second floor and seven more bedrooms, all with either en suite bathroom (suite) or shower-room (suite), many with terrific views – five double (four with 5’ beds), a single, and a room with twin beds (zip-linkable) and a single.

All of this can be booked for a New Year special stay with a saving of £1000 off the usual price for a 6 night stay!

Londonderry picture by Flickr user ifyr

Londonderry is to become a City of Culture in 2013 and has announced plans to upgrade its rail services, improve cultural venues and build six new hotels in preparation.

It has unveiled a programme of events throughout the year, including a music and dance festival, contemporary visual art events, theatre productions, and a comedy festival. The famous Turner Prize and the Stirling Awards will be held in the city, and it is also set to hold WOMAD (World of Music and Dance) and FLEADH, Ireland’s biggest Irish and Celtic music festival.

Martin Bradley, chair for the City of Culture, said: “It will tell a new story and completely regenerate the city. We can celebrate the history and give young people a whole new outlook.”

Last month a bomb was left outside the City of Culture offices, however he reassured visitors about the safety level of the city: ”Unfortunately there was one small incident, but because events are so seldom here they make the headlines. It is an extremely safe city. We have a very low crime rate compared to other UK cities.”

With half term fast approaching you may still be scratching your head about what to do and where to go. Well, ponder no more with our list of things going on in the West Country!

24th – 28th October is spooky time at Pecorama in Beer. There are shows such as Ben the Juggler, A Wizard Called Ozz and Dan the Hat. Alongside these are face painting, special dishes in the Garden Room Restaurant and free spooky treats for children as part of the fancy dress party!

27th October sees a return to nature with the Mortonhampstead Family Bush Craft Day with Dan Thompson-Mills. Learn the skills of wild fire-making, making shelters in the woods, collecting and eating wild foods, and other outdoor skills. Also, learn how to read the language of the birds and develop a deeper connection to nature. The best thing is that children under 15yrs go free with a paying adult.

22nd – 30th October allows visitors of Lanhydrock in Bodmin to join a spooky garden trail for just £1.50 a ticket. Or you could learn how to make a lantern with local artist Liz Tyrell for £5 a ticket.

22nd – 30th October Celebrate Halloween at the Eden Project on their beautiful and unique wintry rink, which has a new design for 2011. Halloween activities and events include: ice skating, pumpkin carving demonstrations, wand making and potion mixing.

If any of these take your fancy, look at Helpful Holidays for accommodation down in the beautiful West Country.

This year’s festival has loads of arts, crafts and food stalls, as well as providing lots of entertainment for your little ones and a fair few ales for the adults to sample! Saturday will have local celeb Ann Widdecombe as acting sous chef to famous chef, Michael Caine in his live cookery demo. Check out the list of things to do and ticket prices and online offers at the website.

Want somewhere to stay? If there’s a large group of you then you could go to this Helpful Holidays art-deco style house (B23) that sleeps 10 (3 doubles, 2 twins) in nearby Teignmouth. With panoramic views over the estuary towards Shaldon and the pretty fishermen’s cottages and bathing huts along Teignmouth’s river beach, this property is set just back and above the road (very occasionally heard) which runs along the river Teign, this smartly restored home is comfortable and well-equipped with good-sized rooms and lots of space.

Anyone over the age of 55 can travel anywhere in Scotland by rail for just £18 return in a special Club 55 promotion – but you’ll have to hurry as the offer closes on 30 June (return leg by 31 July).

Carlisle and Berwick-upon-Tweed stations in England are also included, so train fans in this age group – who should all be old enough to remember steam trains – could put together some spectacular trips. Top of these has to be Glasgow to Mallaig on the West Highland line. Reckoned one of the great rail journeys of the world, this 5-hour trip would normally cost at least £52 return. Or you could walk to John o’Groats by getting the train from Berwick to Thurso (normally £102 return) and walking the last few miles along the spectacular Pentland Firth coast.

Tickets can be bought at any staffed station as long as you have proof of age. And if you have a Senior Railcard, you can even get a further £2 discount. Seems there are some advantages to getting old, after all…

The Perambulation of Exmoor Forest is organised annually by the Exmoor Tourist Association and the Exmoor National Park Authority. The walk is rather arduous and would require a bit of training for the inexperienced, but if 31 miles isn’t quite your bag then there is also a half distance option. It starts at the same time and place as the main event but terminates at Check Point 5 (Picked Stones Lane) where you can enjoy a BBQ while waiting for the free mini bus service to the finish at the Pinkery Centre.

After such a long walk it would be lovely to collapse down in one of these two beautiful adjacent cottages in Barbrook, Exmoor from Helpful Holidays.

January started with testing out my culinary skills at the Ashburton Cookery School in Devon.

A survey in February showed high speed rail was more important to people than airport expansions.

The Shambles in York was voted most picturesque street in March. There was also trouble on the railways with a Network Rail threatened strike.

Easter was a staycation preference in April.

There were many family fun festivals between May and August.

Even before the Royal wedding announcement we found out how the Royals are key to UK tourism.

27 West Country beaches were awarded blue flags in August, showing that the West Country is a great place to visit!

We were given tips on how to give tourists a better welcome during the Olympics.

Taxing times for holiday rental businesses.

The famous Exmoor Food Festival was in October, tickling visitor’s taste buds!

Bonfire Night had many events to travel to, including the flaming barrel run in Ottery St. Mary’s!

It got very cold in November and December as part of the big freeze.

The year ended with a little early Christmas cheer for the travel industry!

So there’s a pick of the Holiday Cottages blog coverage of events and news over the year. For travel news pertaining to outbound travel don’t forget to check out our sister site’s blog, Villaseek. There will be a run down of the year’s news on there very soon also!

The event is free and it’s not just an excuse to drink as there are also arts and craft stalls, face painting and a best of the fest photo competition!

Friday 10th

The Heddon Valley Stumblers

Simon Darling

Sam Chalkley & James Walden

The Garden Club

Saturday 11th

Green & Bushell

Truffetete,

‘Parracombe’s Got Talent’ (Childrens Show)

Chilly Breeze

Pluko

The Dastards

Severe Zero

Sunday 12th

Quebec Ensemble

3’s Company

Jenna Witts

Maple Canyon

Jim Jones

Lazy,

The Funkinsteins

Basils Blues Band

Entry is free and starts at 6pm on Friday then from noon on Saturday and Sunday.

For more information go to the main website.

If a large group of you are going, how about trying out this Helpful Holidays cottage in the area that sleeps 14. A luxurious farmhouse that has an indoor heated swimming pool! The property is surrounded by 10 acres of garden and has barbecue facilities if the weather is fine. There are plenty of walks in the area, you can also go to see the sea at Heddon’s Mouth at the end of the valley.