10 Stately Days Out In The UK

The shackles of lockdown are slowly coming off and on April 12 domestic tourism resumed. Even international travel is beginning to stir from its Covid slumber. Where better to take a staycation than a lavish estate housing a drive-through safari, or the opulent birthplace of Winston Churchill?

House of Oak have reviewed the top stately homes in the UK and whittled them down to reveal a hotlist of the most grand and luxurious houses to visit, all steeped in an immersive history.

Had a birthday party last night and in a chat with a friend I mentioned that the previous weekend I had been in Bluff, the southernmost town in New Zealand.

“Why the hell would you go there?” they asked.

So I thought about it.  Three reasons.

Oysters, sharks and geographical extremities.

 So you are heading out on the great road south from Auckland towards Taupo and beyond. Why not take a road less travelled and enjoy drop-dead beautiful rural landscapes, an environmental success story, a bit of history and some great photo ops for Facebook or the ‘Gram?   Instead of the crowded, and dare I […] Read More

There are hundreds of great and grand houses in the UK but Haddon Hall, near Bakewell in Derby, is unique among them. It is 900 years old and has been in the same family all that time.  But that’s not what makes it all that special. For 200 years during the reign of Queen Anne […] Read More

Living in London or just visiting?  Here’s an easy two or three day road trip to Brighton via Royal Tunbridge Wells .

It can be done comfortably in two days with an overnight stop in Brighton but why not take the extra day and really get the most out of a region that has history, outstanding natural beauty, opulent architecture and some great shopping.

Much of the journey twixt London and Brighton is through the Kentish “Garden of England”, before crossing The Weald into East Sussex.

This is a fertile stretch of countryside with orchards, cornfields, market gardens and hops growing easily and plentifully. It’s also a well wooded region so that much of the time you will drive through leafy lanes and narrow tree-lined roads.

Just finished a road trip through the Catlins area in New Zealand’s, Southland.  Been a few years since  I rode that road . . . what an amazing place it is.

Wildlife – much of it threatened species – in luxuriant abundance, wild golden sanded beaches,  life-filled forests set to the music of waterfalls, historic lighthouses, and more walks than you could cover in a month.

You hang at an angle, feet still reassuringly touching the launch pad, suspended 130m above the floor of the canyon carved by the Nevis River in the mountains between Queenstown and Cromwell in New Zealand. The only thing stopping you plunging to a very messy end all those metres below is a harness connected to the release mechanism above you.

You are wired up to the Nevis Swing, one of Queenstown’s must-dos for adrenalin lovers.

At this moment you understand what they mean by “feel the fear and do it anyway”.

Given the impracticality of overseas travel right now, and therefore the enjoyment of some of the bucket-list road trips – Blue Ridge Parkway or Alaska Highway for instance – I decided to explore one of the backroads at my own backdoor. State Highway 22 in New Zealand runs from just south of Auckland through classic […] Read More

With international travel severely restricted it may seem the wrong time to launch a book on road trips in Britain.

That hasn’t stopped travel writer David Morris releasing his eBook, “Great British Road Trips”.

“I figure that the desire to travel is still strong,” he says, “and though they can’t set sail right now, people are planning their next adventure for when the world returns to normal, whenever and whatever that may be”.