Travel Archives - Page 26 of 31

Katie Travel

Grassington 1940s Weekend

This coming weekend sees the annual Grassington 1940s Weekend held in Grassington, Yorkshire. The entire village gets in to the retro spirit and embraces the yesteryear festival.

We visited last year and are going back for the weekend this year.

The 1940s weekend features Spitfire flyovers, tea dances, Lookalikes, Military vehicle parades and musical entertainment all from the period.

The park and ride is operated on vintage buses and there is a great re-enactment camp where they fire up a stationery Spitfire engine. My gosh that sounds insane!

This year’s 1940’s weekend is to include:
A full size 18 ton tank in Grassington Square
West Yorkshire Austin / Classic Car Club parked around the village

Re-enactor camps and displays in YDNP Car Park to include:
A large selection of Vintage Military Vehicles
Fox Commando Royal Navy and Combined Operations Unit
American encampment
German 21st Panzer Div LHG
German 1st Kompanie GD
German Heer Signals Unit
Russian 13th Guards ‘Poltavaskaya’ Rifle Division
West Riding 28th Battalion Home Guard – ‘C’ Company

Some displays will include pyrotechnics. There is also a help for heroes stall where you can practice your shooting practice (I perfected my shot last year on a print out of the Go Compare man right between the brows!)

The best thing about the1940s is the atmosphere. Everyone is so friendly and the businesses have really embraced the weekend with everyone dressed up to get in to the swing of things.

You will find American airmen having a pint with a german soldier, with a land girl serving behind the bar. Costumes aren’t a requirement but they certainly add to the fun!

It is just brilliant and I wholeheartedly recommend making a trip over the weekend. You can find more information on the Grassington 1940s Weekend on Grassington website here.

Katie Travel

Suitcase Glory – A stylish way to travel

Hello Lovelies,

Picture the scene, you’re standing at the baggage claim carousel. Your 300 fellow travellers from the same plane are also with you and all waiting for their bag too. Out comes a sea of black cases. How do you know which is yours? There will be some with ribbon or stickers, or some bright jazzy cases which usually seem to be broken, dirty or a combination of the two.

Know what I’m talking about? Yep!

I fell in to the bright suitcase trap many years ago buying a bright pink one. On returning from its maiden voyage, that case was a murky grey colour with the odd flash of pink. Not cool.

After working in the travel industry Laura Daniel started Suitcase Glory when she too found that suitcases were either seemingly well made and plain or jazzy and flimsy.

The up and coming British brand are about to launch on September 20th with 3 super cute, practical and well made suit cases. Cherry Print, Seaside print and a foreign city print. All durable had shell cases with 4 spinning wheels means you’ll look super stylish while getting your clobber from A to B.

Made in Britain from a tough polycarbonate, the cases feature a TSA approved lock with memory foam handles, 4 free spinning 360 wheels and come with a 12 month guaranty.

Priced at £129, they fall in to the mid range of suitcases… and when you look at some of the big suitcase hitters like Rimowa, Biggs & Riley, Tumi and Antler, these 3 beauties are a dead cert winner.

As the company is still in its early days, I’d love to see a range of suitcase sizes with the matching print as I’d love for my cabin rollaboard to match my large suitcase for chic coordinated travel.

I am currently torn between Cherries and the City print. It’s a toughy!

Katie Travel

Kuoni comes to Intu Metrocentre, Gateshead

Hello Lovelies,

Saturday 6th September saw the grand opening of the brand new Kuoni concept store at the Metrocentre.

Growing up I will always remember seeing those oh-so-posh brochures of African safari’s and rooms on jettys in azure blue seas. Kuoni has always been synonymous with quality and luxury. Fast forward to now being 31, I know that Kuoni is competitively priced and offers fantastic quality for holiday makers.

Worldwide travel experts Kuoni open Travel Design Room at intu MetroCentre

New ‘Evolution’ store designed to put conversation and inspiration at the heart of holiday booking

A new style of travel store designed to inspire customers to create individual journeys around the world has opened its doors today in the new Platinum Mall at the intu MetroCentre in Gateshead.

The new store from award-winning travel experts Kuoni is the company’s 31^st in the UK and brings fresh thinking to the way people plan their holidays.

Created as a Travel Design Room, there are relaxed seating areas, a coffee bar, and a library with books, maps and magazines to inspire people to travel to all corners of the globe.

A high impact “World Window”, the first of its kind in the UK, recreates a map of the world across 15 TV screens. The screens offer destination insight, live weather feeds, social media highlights, and destination video.

A team of six friendly, well-travelled experts have been handpicked to work in the store. Between them they have first-hand knowledge of a huge range of destinations and holiday types including the Indian Ocean, Caribbean, the Far East, USA, Australasia, Africa, and cruise as well as weddings abroad and honeymoons.

The Travel Design Room will look very different from any other travel store. It won’t have traditional desks, instead the Travel Experts will have laptops and a second Samsung touch screen will be used to show customers videos, photos and additional information.

Designed to stimulate the senses, a new signature scent, created exclusively for Kuoni by luxury spa company ESPA, will fragrance the store.

Derek Jones, Kuoni managing director, said: “We live and love travel at Kuoni and we wanted to bring that passion to life in a store environment. Conversation and inspiration were the two things we had in mind when creating the new travel design room. Amazing holidays can only be created if you have the right conversation at the start of the journey. It takes time, so we wanted to create a relaxing space for people to talk to our team – in an environment that also triggers excitement about travel the moment anyone walks through the door.”

Susanna Duffy, manager of the new MetroCentre store, said: “This is unlike any other travel shop I’ve ever seen or worked in. It’s so exciting for all of us to be involved in something so dynamic. We want customers to feel like they are sitting in their own home, with a friendly travel expert creating their personalised holiday.”

Kuoni’s full range of holidays will be available to book in-store with 88 destinations to choose from along with a huge range of stay and cruise options, ski, villa and cultural short breaks.

Individual members of the team will be available for appointments, ideal for anyone planning a special occasion or a more complex tailor-made itinerary.

I have my eye on a week in St Vincent….. just need to tell Mr Tramp about this!

Katie Beauty

In flight beauty essentials

Hello Lovelies,

If you remember recently, I showed you my non beauty in flight essentials, well here are the beauty goodies! I don’t normally carry this for short flights but I mostly fly long haul, 5hrs+.

These are my tried and tested favourites. All within the TSA regulations and nothing high end in case of damage.

I always arrive to the airport with make up on and remove it on the plane. I use Yes to Cucumbers wipes or Ole Henriksen for this as they are gentle and have a refreshing scent. Mr T is happy to use them for his hands and to refresh his face. You can never go wrong with packs of tissues too. I constantly have about 3 packs on me at any one time so flying is no different!

Once the make up is off, I apply First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream and my holy grail Boots spot treatment, if needed. I top this up regularly on long haul flights. Travel always makes me break out, I think it’s the stress and dry air. I keep a tube of Weleda Skin Food with me too as you can use it all over the body as well as the face if you are feeling particularly parched.

The headrest always makes my hair so dry and tatty so I give it a good brush and put it in to a low ponytail or braid to keep it out of the way. I have a mini Denman brush with a mirror on it, to save me carrying one.

The airplane cabin is extremely drying on the skin so I always pack lip balm and lash it on constantly throughout the flight. Both of us do. Something in stick form is a must so you aren’t dipping your fingers in to a pot. I also carry eye drops with me for Mr T and I as there’s nothing worse than that scratchy feeling if you have napped.

The Body Shop Vitamin C facial spray is perfect for those pick me up moments where you feel a bit blah. Usually when you wake up from a nap or towards the end of the flight. I must be the only person who gets roasting hot on a plane and I like this to cool me down. I keep an Travelo atomiser of my favourite perfume to keep me fresh too as no one wants to sit next to a stinker!

Using the anti bacterial spray or liquid soap in the bathroom always leaves my hands feeling like sandpaper so I frequently reapply hand cream to keep my hands silky soft – The Gardners Hand Therapy from Crabtree & Evelyn is my absolute favourite. It is so fresh and spa-like. When preparing to land, I hit the bathroom and apply some deodorant and use my waterless toothbrush.

Back at my seat I use another wipe to refresh my skin and then apply a powder foundation, after a bit of concealing. I have tried plenty but the Collection Perfecting Mineral one comes with a built in brush so you don’t need to apply liquids or carry extra brushes. This powder foundation does give quite good buildable coverage. I prefer this to using a pressed powder foundation and a sponge. I always have my brows and lashes tinted before trips so I don’t need to worry about that. I carry a Tarte Blush in Tipsy and just lightly use the foundation brush to apply it. A bit of a bold gloss and I am done on the face front. My go to lip gloss is the L’oreal Glam Shine Stain in 200 Princess. A gorgeous reddy coral. Just bright enough to perk you up without being OTT.

I take my hair out and give it a brush and I am done.

If I am on a short flight, I will keep my make up on and just refresh myself with my Vitamin C spray and perfume. Keep my hands and lips well moisturised, apply some more lippy before landing and be on my way.

Katie Travel

The Coniston Hotel, Skipton

The Coniston Hotel is set on a country estate just outside the Yorkshire town of Skipton. Within the grounds you can arrange fishing, shooting, archery, golf, falconry, cycling and off-roading. It’s an outdoorsy hotel with an opulent luxury to it. It has it’s own 24 acre lake and it is a working estate.
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