Holiday Reviews - City Breaks
Holiday reviews covering city breaks in Europe. Stockholm, SwedenIf the sun isn't your thing, or you have small children and are looking for lots to do - then you can't go far wrong with a trip to Stockholm in Sweden. I recently went with my wife and our two-year-old daughter and stayed in the fabulous Nordic Light Hotel (): an experience in itself with each room having its own light show! This kept my daughter entertained and it was not for nothing that Elle magazine named it the "The World's Sexiest Hotel" In the March 2004 edition. Stockholm has fantastic shopping centres and a plethora of boutiques. There's an open air flea market on Sunday which is good for browsing. Food wise - there's a wide variety of cafes, the usual suspects for fast food (McDonalds, Pizza Hut, etc) and a huge choice of restaurants to suit all tastes and pockets. I can highly recommend the Mongolian BBQ restaurant in Normmalm, which allows you to select the raw ingredients for your buffet and watch while the cook prepares for you -or choose from a fantastic and reasonably priced menu. Service everywhere was exceptional - everyone spoke fluent English and communication was not an issue - most shops and all attractions had English guides. Stockholm has a huge amount to do with some fantastic museums and parks. The Vasa Ship Museum is home to an impressive 17th-century warship, well preserved despite being 475 years old, while the museum of modern art has classics from Dali, Picasso and Matisse. Our favourite part of the trip though was Skansen - an open-air museum showing Sweden as it was 150 years ago, with houses and farmsteads from the period, and informative staff dressed in the costumes from the time performing trades such as glass blowing and shoe-making. There is also a zoo with impressive enclosures for brown bears and wolves. My daughter loved it there and after a full day we took a ferry ride around the islands walking back to the hotel past the impressive royal palace. Another must do activity is ride on the blue line underground - the entire subway line is like one giant art gallery; with the raw-blasted rock brightly decorated it is a beautiful experience. A lot of people are put off by the supposed cost of living in Sweden, but it's not much more than London prices - with the exception that kids get in almost everywhere and travel almost everywhere for free. We only had a weekend to sample the delights of Stockholm and it was sadly not enough. With all there is to do I think you'd be pushed to get the city fully experienced in a week. Highly recommended and although we've just come back - see if you can
guess where our next city break will be - this time for a little longer.
Mums go to Iceland'My son (5) and I won a holiday to Iceland which was fab! It was just before Christmas and the trees were all decorated with lights and a heavy snow had just thawed. We went and slept on the lip of a volcano, saw the sun come up (at 10am!) over the harbour of Reykjavik, and bathed in the natural hot tubs in the rain. We had an Olympic sized steamy outdoor swimming pool to ourselves and
on the last day we went to the blue lagoon and spent four hours swimming,
plastering ourselves in the white/blue healing mud. I'd love to go again!
3 nights in PragueWell what can I say about Prague other than Beautiful........well quite a lot really. We decided to visit Prague with Ben (9 months) this February after receiving an email from Easyjet with their latest offers. After a bit of research I found a deal through Easyjet Holidays for £183....... yes just £183 for all of us. This included return flights from Bristol and 3 nights at the 3 star Hotel Akcent in Prague on a B&B basis. We were pleasently suprised by the hotel. Although not in the centre and not in the most attractive area, it was a very comfortable hotel with friendly staff and was right outside the Metro which had us in the centre of the Old Town in 5 minutes. Prague itself is a stunning city and some of the most beautiful architecture I have ever seen. There were suprises around every corner and our camera was rarely in its case for long. Not to be missed are Prague Castle, the lesser quarter and the Jewish Quarter! There is one major downside to taking an infant though and thats the cobbled streets...... the buggy (and baby) take a battering. That said Ben never seemed too bothered and slept thoughout our visit to Prague Castle which in my opinion was one of the highlights of our trip. Eating out is a treat with many of the restaurants in vaulted cellars. Czech food is wonderful and the hospitality is great.....and having a cute baby got us the best tables and very quick service. However I have to say I was disappointed with the prices. I was led to believe that it was very cheap to eat out. We did not find this to be the case but that is because we stuck to the centre. I should think there are probably far cheaper places down little back streets. All in all, Prague is a beautiful city that we will definately be returning
to. However it is probably not the best place to take a baby due to the
streets and many steps. So my advice is to utilise the grandparents and
take a romantic trip for 2! Where to next?
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