Review: Spa Day at Ashford International Hotel, Kent

Back in November a friend and I spent the day at the spa at the Ashford International Hotel (it was a weekday, term-time visit). It wasn't somewhere either of us had been to before but with a 4-star rating, I was hopeful for a good experience. In truth, my expectations weren't too high as I know I'm pretty fussy and the day had only cost me  £87 for two of us to have the spa day with lunch and 50 minutes of treatments. So at, £43.50 each it was a real bargain, having bought it on Red Letter Days with one of their excellent discounts (definitely sign up for their mailing list, where you often get offered 10 - 25% off their deals).

Booking and Before the Day

The voucher was easy enough to buy from Red Letter Days and I had to call Q Hotels central reservations to make the booking, which was fine but I found it a bit odd that they didn't email or send a confirmation. They just gave me a booking number and apparently, this is all they do.

Once I'd booked I had a few questions to ask about the robes, lunch and treatments but the customer service was pretty awful. It took me around two weeks to actually get to speak to someone at the hotel spa. When I did, Liberty was very pleasant and helpful, but I didn't like having to chase for answers when my questions were so simple.

Arrival at the Hotel

The hotel was easy to find and there was plenty of parking available. There is a direct entrance by the spa and I'd arranged to meet my friend in the hotel lounge, so I just wandered through. The lounge and public areas are really nice, very well set-out to allow for private space and we had a very enjoyable coffee before going through to the spa. Although it was a pricey coffee at £3.85 for a regular cappuccino, so lucky it was good. 

National Trust Ightham Moat: A great place for a Walk, Kent

We've been to Ightham Moat a couple of times now and enjoyed it both times, although they have felt quite different visits, with the first being back in October 2017 with 10-year-old twins and then the next time was this summer, during the COVID pandemic, and we took our three teenagers.

If you're looking to visit in the near future the moated house is currently closed but you can enjoy the outdoor space, both the gardens and the wider estate. The gardens aren't too big and with a one way system currently, they will only take an hour or so to walk around. If I'm honest, they are not impressive like the gardens of many National Trust sites. I think the gem of this site is being able to go inside the house, so with that closed the site doesn't have quite so much wow factor as normal. However, if you are willing to head out and take a longer walk, then the wider estate is fabulous and well-worth exploring. There is a big hill though, so be warned!

I think pictures speak a thousand words, so have a look at these from our visit this summer. The first few photos are within the gardens.

We captured the same photo in 2017 and then again this year and you can see just how much my twins have changed and grown!

Visit to Sissinghurst Castle Garden, National Trust, Kent

I seriously can not wait for the lockdown to be over and we can all start to get out more and visit great National Trust places again. I know that things will be different, numbers will be limited, distancing will be enforced etc for quite some time but I'm happy to book and wait my turn to visit some amazing places once again. 

Literally just before lockdown started we had the pleasure of visiting Sissinghurst Castle Garden at Cranbrook in Kent, this is under an hour from where we live and we had an enjoyable few hours there with Miss E, one Sunday afternoon.

Sissinghurst has a very long history, and the Tudor buildings were used as a prison back in the 18th century as well as being a private family residence, then in the 19th century, it became a poor house with around 100 men living and working there before it went back to the Cornwallis family. In 1930 the house was sold to Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson who lived there until Vita's death in 1962 when Harold gave the property to the National Trust.

In the time they lived there, they cultivated the now world-famous gardens that you can stroll around and enjoy. 

It's fun to take a walk up the spiral staircase in the tower (78 steps) to see were Vita used to work, writing novels, poems and letters. There are great views from the top and I felt very safe up there, as the walls are high enough. 

Our Stay at Ro's Place, Near Whitstable through AirBnB

I love to get away with the family but with three adult sized kids, it is becoming harder and harder to find an affordable option that has enough flexibility to allow us all to be happy and relaxed. Air BnB seems to have become our accommodation of choice. I can opt for a whole house, with enough bedrooms and also choose the other factors that are important to our family like good WiFi, easy parking and a garden.

We first stayed in one back in 2017, when we stayed at the White House in Fakenham, then again earlier this year at Squirrel Court in Bradford and recently we spent a few very pleasant days at Ro’s Place close to Whitstable in Kent. This Air BnB only opened up in April this year, so it’s new to the market and as such I thought I’d share about our stay there.

Just a few minutes walk from the house is the seafront

Review - Our Day Out at Leeds Castle, Kent

If you live within, or about an hour from Leeds Castle, near Maidstone in Kent I’d say you’re worth a visit. It’s one of those attractions where your entry ticket will gain you admission for a whole year. So, on the basis that you can return again and again, it’s great value, but if you have further to travel and might only visit the once then it’s a costlier affair.

Entry Costs

The price of an adult ticket is £25 if you buy in advance online, or a pound more if you get it on the day. Children are free up to 4 years and a child ticket (4-15 years) is £16.50 in advance. I was pleased to see that customer feedback had been noted and acted on in the last year and there are now family tickets available for a cost of £70 (that’s either 2 adults and up to 4 children or 1 adult and up to 5 children). As mentioned, £70 is a great price if you return multiple times.

We visited Leeds Castle last Tuesday during the February school half-term and it was fairly busy with families with small children, but being a big site there was plenty of space for everyone. Inside the actual castle was quiet, as was the maze but the falconry display was fairly busy and the play park was heaving.

At 11am as we arrived there was plenty of parking, with friendly attendants directing us and we didn’t have far at all to walk to the entrance. I was super pleased to see massive (and clean) toilets by the entrance and it didn’t take us long to get in. You’re best to check opening hours on the website before you travel, as the times change from the low to high season. We could have arrived as early as 10am if had wished and last entry is at 3pm, with the park closing at 5pm in February.

Visiting Hever Castle With Kids - 10 Top Tips

Last Bank Holiday Monday we had a wonderful trip to Hever Castle in Kent. It really is the most beautiful place and so well maintained, so we would definitely recommend it as a wonderful place to visit with kids, whatever their age. We visited with our 10 year old twins and 14 year old and they all had a good time. Younger kids would enjoy it even more I imagine.

Let me share with your our ten top family things to do at Hever Castle and some tips for enjoying them!

1)  Enjoy the Water Maze
This was definitely my kids favourite part of the day and I was glad we had taken some spare clothes and a towel. You definitely need these for a warm day as your children will want to spend ages in the water maze. Everyone has to wear footwear in the maze so maybe pack some flip-flops or water shoes, something you don't mind them getting soaking wet. Don't be fooled into thinking this is just for a hot day though as it will be far quieter on a mild day and you can see where the water will squirt, so just avoid those bits if you don't want too get wet.

JJ, Age 14 Reviews the Young Driver Experience at Bluewater, Kent

Today we took the 90 minute drive from our home on the South-east coast up to Bluewater, the massive shopping centre in Kent. Shopping wasn't our main reason for the visit though, no today was about JJ enjoying one of his Christmas gifts. He had received a gift voucher for a 1 hour Young Driver experience and he was super keen to get behind the wheel of the car.

He's nearly 15 but hasn't tried out driving before so we had no idea how well he would take to it. On the one hand he is very intelligent and takes in information really easily but on the other this was the kid who had occupational therapy for a few years as he could hardly balance and had no spacial awareness. I need not have worried though as JJ took to it like a duck to water.

Off they go to start the lesson

What are Young Driver Lessons?
If your child is between 10 and 17 years of age they can sign up for a 30 or 60 minute lesson at one of over 60 venues across the UK. Young Driver have been giving lessons since 2009, delivering over 500,000 lessons with hand-picked, DBS checked instructors. The cost is £36.95 for a 30 minute lesson or £67.95 for a 60 minute lesson. I also see that they do birthday party packages and I think the price of £66 for a 15 minute lesson for four children is excellent. Do keep your eyes peeled on money saving sites too, as I've spotted a number of special offers around.

Visiting Ightham Mote, Kent in the Autumn - National trust

During October school half-term we headed off to Kent to visit a new National Trust site. I've heard of Ightham Mote before but in the NT handbook, it didn't look as if it would be very big so I had avoided it in favour or larger properties. It was only when I saw some pictures on a friends Instagram that my interest was peaked again and she confirmed that it is a joy to visit.

The Moated House
Ightham Mote is one of those properties that is great for families and also for just adults. It is a truly stunning 14th-century moated manor house and over the last 700 years, it has changed a lot and been lived in by Medieval knights, courtiers to Henry VIII and high society Victorians. The house has many rooms open for display and you can see lots of interesting sights, such as the Grade 1 listed dog kennel, the crypt, the Great Hall and private residences of Charles Henry Robinson, who gave the house to the National trust in 1985. My favourite area was definitely the private church inside and I enjoyed seeing how the delicate wood ceiling had been conserved and restored.

Review: Romantic Break for Two at Giraffe Lodge, Port Lympne Reserve, Kent

Recently it was my husbands 44th birthday and it happened to fall on his busiest work weekend of the year, so needless to say he slaved away and the day passed by pretty much unnoticed. I knew this would be the case so I was intent on finding a local night away for us that would be memorable. I needed it to be pretty close to where we live as we had limited time with a babysitter and at first I booked a night at the 5* Grand Hotel in Eastbourne for a spa stay over.

We then had our family day visiting Port Lympne Reserve in early August and as we travelled past Giraffe Lodge in the safari truck I knew this was where we were supposed to be staying. This really would be a special night away for the two of us, truly memorable and very different to anything we have ever done before. Thankfully when I spoke to Port Lympne they were very happy to host us and allow us to stay for the purpose of a full and honest review.

View from the Laapa restaurant, across the Romney Marshes and English Channel

Visiting Walmer & Deal Castles, Kent - English Heritage #CountryKids

Back in May 2016 we took a few days as a family to head over to the Kent coast to explore Thanet. In general we had a lovely time despite some horrendous weather and our drive shaft snapping too!

Whilst we were there we visited Dover Castle, which is a truly amazing place to visit and somewhere I'd highly recommend. I wrote about our visit at the time - click HERE to read the full review. It really is a full day out for all the family and there is something for everyone.

To make the most of our family annual English Heritage membership (which we paid £69.37 for - it's always good to search online for a discount) we decided to also visit some other castles in the local area.

Deal Castle
Deal is an a great example of a Tudor artillery castle, part of a chain of them along this coastline. The external walls are still in-tact and you can see the really unusual shape of the castle. Our visit here was probably only about an hour as it is a fairly small site but as you can visit all of it the kids enjoyed being transported back and learning a bit more about this caste that King Henry VIII commissioned.

National Trust - Knole, Kent - Conservation in Action

Enjoying the Deer
Last month we took a minibus full of friends over to Kent to visit Knole. We headed over there as it is only £4 to park in the grounds and this gives you access to the 1000 acre medieval deer park. We knew that our children and all the young international friends we had taken would love the deer, so we packed up a picnic and took a drive.

Of course, the deer didn't disappoint, there seem to be hundreds of them across the grounds and they are so friendly. There really isn't any struggle locating them because as soon as you park they are waiting right next door, probably hoping to snaffle a little of your picnic! But please remember not to feed them as the deer keepers ensure they have a good diet and also use your common sense when around them as they are wild animals, even though they appear tame. Autumn is the time to be really careful as it is rutting season and the males can be very hyped up.

Family Fun at Dover Castle, Kent

During the May half-term we headed over to Kent for a few days stay. Our intention was to enjoy the coast, visit a few castles and have a refreshing family week together. Sadly things didn't go quite to plan as the weather was terrible (just look at the mist in that photo above) and our car broke down too, meaning a big bill and us being stuck in our hotel room.

Never a family to let the weather get to us we headed over to Dover for a look around the castle. My husband had been here briefly back in 2015 but decided not to explore in depth that time as he knew the rest of us would love it, so this time we were all first timers and I can honestly say it won't be our last time of visiting. We took out English Heritage membership especially for this visit and with a bit of googling, we got a good deal of 20% of the membership price, so we now need to make good use of our years entry to all the English Heritage sites locally.

Arrival and Parking

Dover Castle is super easy to find, there was loads of signage and we used the maps function on my phone to guide us there. The attendants we met were very friendly and we quickly had a parking spot, very close to the welcome area. I suspect it wasn't the busiest of days though due to the high winds, drizzle and mist but it really didn't matter too much in the end as we had a great time.

We were given a map and offered a brochure to buy at the ticket office and then headed straight out to explore. There is no one route to follow, you can suit yourself.

Review: Lunch at Jamie's Italian Trattoria, Tunbridge Wells

Our family love to go out together and enjoy some good food and it is always nice to try somewhere new and explore a new town too. So last Thursday we headed into Kent to Tunbridge Wells to have a browse and also lunch at Jamie's Italian Trattoria. Now obviously we all know the Jamie Oliver name but none of us were familiar with this restaurant concept so we were excited to try it out, especially as my twin girls really love pasta.

We were pleased to see that Jamie's Italian Trattoria is an easy walk from the train station in Tunbridge Wells. It is situated on the High Street between the main shopping mall and the more up-market Pantiles area. The high street is a great one to browse along as there are loads of very nice shops to both look in and also just window shop.

Jamie's Italian Trattoria was easy to find with double shop frontage and it looked very authentic Italian from outside, when you go inside it is heavily themed and very pleasant but we couldn't really put our finger on what style we thought they had gone for. There are exposed ceilings, paintings on walls made to look old, exposed pipe work and lots of sanded wood - my husband commented it looked almost Cuban and I could see where he was coming from.

A Family visit to Chartwell - The Home of Winston Churchill #CountryKids

So much fun in the grounds, hill rolling, daisy chain making and just lying back and dreaming...

If I start by saying that I want to live the rest of my days in the grounds of Chartwell I think you might realise how much I loved it there.

We visited a couple of weeks ago on the Saturday of the May bank holiday weekend, so it was pretty busy and we were directed to the overflow parking. The sun was not shining too bright but it was a nice enough day that we braved a picnic before setting off to explore. I think the word a lady used when she saw us picnicking was 'hardy' but it was fun.

National Trust Scotney Castle, Lamberhurst Kent

A couple of weeks ago we had my parents and aunt to stay and very conveniently school had an inset day (don’t you just love it when things work out), so whilst all the other parents were musing the inconvenience of an inset day just a week after they returned to school I was thankful for the time off. It meant we could all visit a National Trust site together without the normal weekend or holiday crowds.

We choose Scotney Castle for our visit as it was fairly local but not somewhere we had been yet. Living in 1066 country has its benefits as it means we have an abundance of local castles that we can visit and enjoy.

All was going well on our journey to Scotney Castle and we followed the brown signs and turned off the A21 and then missed a turning to the right almost as soon as we had turned off. So be aware to have your eyes peeled the minute you leave the A21. Luckily we didn’t go too far and the lack of brown signs warned me I had made an error. Once on-site there was a pleasant drive down a single road with plenty of passing places and then a good amount of parking at the end.

Toilets were convenient right by the parking and they were clean and well-stocked. The café was also right by the entrance and the cream tea and chocolate cake that we had along with our drinks were good and fresh. We were not bowled over by the kid's packed lunch offer, to be honest, normally at NT sites we have found the kids can pick their own items to go in the pack but here it was set and not very imaginative. We didn’t have any of the hot meals or the fresh to order baguettes but lots came out and they all looked very good but as you expect with National Trust sites they were not cheap, probably about £7 or £8 apiece.

We moved through admission very quickly and were given a timed entry slot to the more modern house. Luckily our slot was straight away so we headed straight in there. The kids had a fun map of the home and there was something for them to spot in each room and a bit of history that was age-appropriate. There were also laminated plans for the adults and these gave more detail and history. The house is beautiful and really well kept and it provides for a good hour or so tour around it. I found each of the NT staff that we spoke to knowledgeable and helpful and many really tried to engage the children and help them out with their questions.

Once we finished our tour of the house we started walking with the aim of going to the old castle but the kids spotted a discovery centre and we had to do a stop off there. This is a self-led area with loads of great information for the kids. They enjoyed doing brass leaf rubbings, watching out the big windows for birds, checking out the animal parts and preserved butterflies in the draws and generally reading and exploring all the nooks and crannies that are stuffed with information.

Next, we headed off towards the old castle and took some detours through the grounds on the way, they really are very lovely and there is lots of great space for the kids to run and explore. Loads of levels to go up and down, so they won’t get bored.

I had not realised the old castle was a ruin but you can see how beautiful it would have been when fully intact. I was really interested to read that the family that first lived there were the Ashburnham's as I now live in the grounds of their ancestral home and it seemed such a coincidence to read of them here about 30 miles away.

In all we had a lovely time, this isn’t the best NT property I’ve been to but if you have a membership it is definitely worth a visit and next time we go we will take my husband and explore the grounds more as there are 770 acres of beautiful land. The only thing that let it down on the day we visited was that there was scaffolding on the new house, as the roof needed fixing after last year’s storms and then when we got to the old castle there was scaffolding on that too as they were doing their annual maintenance and to be honest if I had paid for entry I would have been complaining as you could not get an uninterrupted and pretty picture of either building (I see it is now notified on the website, it wasn’t the day we visited).

If you are not a member then the cost of visiting Scotney Castle is £13 per adult and £6.50 for a child or you can get a family ticket for £32.50.  if you like this sort of day out though I’d definitely recommend membership as we have used ours so much since I bought it in April and then I also bought membership as a gift for my parents too!

I’m not sure which NT site we will visit next, I know JJ has his eye on Chartwell as he loves learning about the second world war and as this was Churchill's home I imagine there is a good amount of information and artefact's there.

We also visited Scotney Castle in 2018 and I wrote about it.

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