Vacation Packages

Are you looking for a vacation offering something different? Have you thought about visiting the country of Scotland? Have you ever had a vacation on a remote island? In the following article I introduce the Isle of Skye situated off the west coast of Scotland.

The stunningly picturesque island of Skye is a very popular destination for vacations and short breaks. Usually associated with older folk Skye is world renowned for it’s most incredible landscape and the most hard to miss feature is the imposing sight of the Black Cuillins.

The Black Cuillins are a ridge of mountains which have rocks from all 3 geological periods; Cretaceous, Triassic and Jurassic, therefore the mountains are supremely popular geologists and folk looking for fossils as well as ramblers, hill-walkers, hikers, mountain climbers.

The mountain tops of Am Basteir and Sgurr nan Gillean supply the finest vistas. The Isle of Skye’s easiest munro summit to conquer (a munro is a mountain in Scotland which is higher than 3 thousand feet) is Bruach na Frithe. The most difficult is Basteir Tooth. Sgurr Beag is also an easy climb but you might find Sgurr Na h-Uarma a more moderate rockclimb.

The majority of mountain climbers and hill walkers set off from Sligachan because it is about 3km from there to the Cuillins.

Putting Safety First

Each year far too many people (including a small number of mountain climbers) find themselves in difficulty. The Isle of Skye weather can change swiftly, one moment the sun is shining strong and the next you are diving for cover from an oncoming storm.

The one thing which is extremely important to do, is to be aware of the local weather forecast. The information is displayed at Skye’s Tourist Information Centres. These are found in the following locations: Bayfield Road in Portree, 2 Lochside in Dunvegan and the car park in Broadford.

The TICs print a helpful pamphlet concerning safety in the Cuillins which is very worthwhile picking up and filling out. You can not fail to see it as it is very brightly coloured. When you have filled in all the boxes on the form leave it with a person who is responsible who will not going with you.

Accommodation On Skye

As mentioned earlier the island is intensely popular so finding a bed and breakfast with a vacant room is extremely difficult in the summer season. If you like the idea of a climbing vacation on Skye it is crucially important that you reserve your accommodation at the earliest opportunity. Sligachan is also a fantastic site for camping, which might~may be your only option if you leave booking too late.

Bed & breakfast on Skye is relatively easy to find but if you are planning a vacation to the island please take a look at our listings of Skye bed & breakfast

Scotland offers the best scenery in the U.K. making it a most exciting holiday destination. The majority of tourists opt for the City of Edinburgh as their primary destination, whereas others opt for something a bit different. The article below takes a look at vacations in Scotland and some of the things to do while in Scotland. The article also examines the Wickerman Festival.

With an immensely diverse countryside the choice of things to do is endless. Mountain climbing is tremendously popular, as are hill walking vacations. The most common holidays are golf or fishing. With Scotland being the place of origin of golfing it should not be surprising that you are never too far from a minimum of one superb golf course. With the Rivers Spey, Tweed and Tay you can almost be certain of an excellent day fishing. But what if you fancy a vacation with a difference?

Increasing numbers of families are choosing music festivals their annual vacation. Even though nearly all music festivals are incredibly large with the main aim of making cash, you can discover a small selection of family orientated music festival, such as the Wickerman Festival and Tartan Heart.

The Wickerman Festival is an annual music and arts festival takes place on farm land close to the village of Dundrennan in Dumfries & Galloway roughly 5 miles from Kirkcudbright, Scotland. The festival theme is the classic cult British movie, “The Wicker Man which features Sir Christopher Lee, Edward Woodward, Diane Cilento, Ingrid Pitt and Britt Ekland.

The first Wickerman Festival took place in 2002 and was put together by local guy, Sid Ambrose. With no experience of arranging a music festival it is amazing that it still exists today, especially when you take in the present economic climate. The Wickerman Festival has slightly changed each year and, like the movie, has a cult following.

Wickerman is hugely family friendly it features a great many child orientated activities for example, fairground rides, a mountain biking trek, face painting and various workshops. This can be easily verified by searching for Wickerman Festival photographs 2010 or alternatively visit the official Wickerman Festival Gallery.

Close to the site of the festival is the village of Kirkudbright which was where many of the films locations can be found including Harbour Cottage (the bakery) and High Street Gallery which was used for the post office and sweetshop of May Morrison. You will discover that there are a great many places worth visiting in Dumfries and Galloway and it is really worth taking a short break here so that you may visit all of the visitor attractions. Common places in which to stay include Castle Douglas and Dumfries. Bed and breakfast accommodation in Scotland is nearly always excellent and is also very affordable and much less costly than staying in a hotel.

If you are thinking about going to the next Wickerman Music Festival in Dumfries & Galloway you might want to take a look at some photos of the 2010 Wickerman Music Festival

Cambridgeshire is a county in the east midlands area of England landlocked by the counties of Northamptonshire, Rutland, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Lincolnshire. The county might not possess a coastline but there is a broad range of other local visitor attractions which make this an amazing vacation destination. Below I explain why folk should consider a trip to this most beautiful region of Britain.

The English county of Cambridgeshire has exciting waterways, breathtaking countryside, outstanding cathedrals, prestigious stately homes, busy picturesque market towns and the fascinating city of Cambridge. Cambridge is a very popular Cambridgeshire attraction which is highly suitable for all year around vacations.

Visitor attractions in the immensely photogenic university town include The Fitzwilliam Museum, The Backs, The Round Church, The Folk Museum, The Orchard Tea Garden and Denny Abbey, however many folk travel to the town to look at the sights belonging to some of the 31 colleges such as Cambridge University Botanic Garden and King’s College & King’s College Chapel. It can take a good few days to take in all of the colleges but the most important buildings to wander around are those belonging to Trinity College, Corpus Christi, Magdalene College and St John’s College.

The Cambridgeshire Fens

The Cambridgeshire Fenlands are a generally marshy region very close to sea-level. There have been many attempts at draining the land some dating back as far as the Romans. It wasn’t until the beginning of the 17th Century that concerted efforts were made. Unfortunately these attempts were a failure and it wasn’t until the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries that the land was drained successfully and the land was turned over to agriculture.

In modern times the fascinating landscape of salt and fresh water marshes provide a superb environment for wildlife and leisure. Cambridgeshire has some of the British Isles’ least congested waterways, perfect for trips on a narrow boat.

If you want to discover more about the interesting Fens then you will find that the towns of March, Chatteris, Whittlesey and Wisbech are home to a great museum.

The Historic Market Towns

Across the area are sited gorgeous little market towns, which, a long time ago were islands. March grew up as a port in Tudor Times and has a rich history. Other small island communities included Whittlesey, Chatteris, Littleport and Ramsey. These market towns feature quaint architecture a few centuries such as the Seventeenth Century Butter Cross at Whittlesey. Several pleasant hours can be passed searching the many shops, stalls and independent businesses.

Other Cambridgeshire Visitor Attractions

There is an enormous list of local tourist attractions. Railways include the Wisbech and March Bramley Line and the Nene Valley Railway and there a handful of fascinating buildings worth visiting including Down Field Windmill, Great Gransden Post Mill, Houghton Mill and Lode Watermill.

The county features a small collection of religious buildings of historical importance such as the abbeys of Anglesey, Ramsey, Denny and Spinney, Peterborough Cathedral and Ely Cathedral as well as Duxford Chapel and the Old Vicarage at Grantchester. The list of stately homes, castles and historic houses is simply so huge that there is insufficient space to include it here, it is the same with the listings for art galleries & museums.

If you are currently planning a vacation in Cambridgeshire and are booking hotels in Cambridge please take a look at our comprehensive listings of bed and breakfast accommodation in Cambridge

Glasgow has for a long time endeavored to compete with Scotland’s capital Edinburgh within the tourism industry however in the previous few decades the city has been rejuvenated by large inward funding much of it directed to the advance of tourism industry.

In 1988 the Glasgow Garden Festival attracted much attention furthermore the city was declared the European City Of Culture in 1990. Since then the economic revival has helped create one of the country’s most multi-ethnic cities with a huge number of top drawer tourist attractions. While these fantastic points of interest are definitely well worth visiting there are many different older points of interest which are sometimes ignored and certainly one of these is the atmospheric Glasgow Necropolis.

The Glasgow Necropolis

Like Pre Lachaise Cemetery, in Paris, Glasgow Necropolis is rather more than a simple graveyard. This out of the ordinary Victorian cemetery has a few of the finest sculptures within the city. Situated to the east of the city’s St. Mungo’s Cathedral the burial site is rather simple to locate particularly as it is located upon one of the few hills in the city.

During the 19th century Glasgow was one of the most successful ports on this planet and in a similar fashion to Liverpool in neighbouring England vast quantities of cash were pumped into into the construction of civic buildings by those who had built up enormous wealth. In Glasgow a number of businessmen, commonly called the “Tobacco Lords” held the vast majority of the city’s wealth.

In 1831 a contest was held to determine the finest design for the Necropolis which was to be like Pre Lachaise and sixteen designs were submitted. The Tobacco Lords, ever keen to display their huge wealth, seemed to compete with their memorials with more and more ornate sculptures and superb works of art. Most of the sculptures depict something regarding the lifetime of the particular person buried below. The most striking monument is on the peak of the mound, the large monument to John Knox. Meandering around Glasgow Necropolis you can see excellent artistic endeavors including a marble statue of a seated Charles Tennant and works of art in the Art-nouveau model together with a Celtic cross created by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Alternative Glasgow Visitor Attractions

Lots of the hidden attractions of Glasgow have associations with the renowned artist and architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Born in Glasgow Charles Rennie Mackintosh is most famed for his furnishings and distinctive buildings, many of them located in the city. Even though many of his designs were for personal houses there were just a few public buildings designed by him including his most masterpiece the Glasgow School of Art.

Though many tourists would be in agreement that the Willow Tea Rooms contain probably the most famous of his works visiting only the Tea Rooms and the Glasgow School of Art is totally inadequate to achieve an expansive comprehension of the immensity of his creative talents.

Alternative related visitor attractions worth a visit include the most important “House for an Art Lover” in Glasgow’s south side, The Lighthouse, the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Martyrs’ Public School, Scotland Street School Museum, The Mackintosh Church at Queens Cross and Hill House in Helensburgh.

If you are planning a Scottish vacation and you are searching for guest houses and Glasgow hotels then please consider taking a look at our listings of hotels in Glasgow