A London Food and Travel blog full of unique experiences.
One of the best things about running my own business (as a freelance social media consultant) is being able to run away from my desk at short notice to places like Folkestone Beach.
The sun was shining and my diary was relatively quiet so I booked a train from London (there’s a direct 55-minute service to Folkestone beach from St Pancras), grabbed my book, fished out the sun screen and slipped a beach towel in my bag.
People often worry that to be a travel blogger they have to jet off to all corners of the world every weekend or they won’t have enough content. Well, to that I say phooey. There are so many amazing quirky day trips from London by train that you can take (and turn them into leisurely weekends away.) This isle has wizards, giants, knights, princes, castles, Raven warders and ancient stories that never cease to amaze. It also has a tourism economy that you can help to support where you can.
Partially, it’s a change of mindset. When you’ve lived in an area all of your life, or even years, it’s so easy to take your home for granted – and giggle at the tourists transfixed by an ancient doorway that you’ve walked past for ever.
We’ve been promised a week or two of unseasonably delicious weather so have been thinking back to a few of my favourite day trips from London worth pulling a sickie for. We’re talking lovely beaches, ancient history and lovely rambles in nature, soaking up all of that sunshine.
Sure, the classics are pretty amazing; Bath, Oxford, Cambridge, Stratford-Upon-Avon, The Cotswolds & Stonehenge/Salisbury, Brighton, York… I could blather on. The key to any good day trip is booking ahead (use my tips to escape London on a budget), using railcards and having snacks on hand. And taking a phone charger.
Boarding the train for Cowdrey Estate at Waterloo Station armed with morning cups of tea in hand, we chatted the whole way through our 50 minute journey to Haslemere, watching the skyline change from forests of steel to boughs of ancient leaves. We were bound for an afternoon at the Polo, to watch the pinpoint trained ponies and riders duke it out for the Jaeger-LeCoultre Gold Cup, a match played to honour one of the riders
Disclaimer: We were invited guests of Cowdray Estate, but my swooning prose is very much original and unaffected.
Our 72 hours in Chester was the first holiday I’ve ever booked through the power of Instagram alone. We had been looking for somewhere as a long weekend break (well, I say we, but I had actually been put on a travel ban which Mr Kiwi now mostly denies, his baby blues all innocent) when I spotted that a friend of mine had day tripped up to Chester. It was beautiful.
