Camping at Deer Shed Festival with Kids

*We were provided with press review tickets

FREE Woodland Adventure and Mud Kitchen at Beamish Hall

This Summer I am going to mix it up a little and I'll be sharing reader reviews alongside my own. First up is this review by Claire, featuring a new Alice in Wonderland Adventure experience at Beamish Hall. I love that it's free to visit (activity packs are an optional extra at £4 each). Over to Claire who attended the launch event......

Hidden Treasures - A FREE Arts Trail in Stamfordham Village , Northumberland

*This is a paid collaboration with Helix Arts 

Stepping foot inside of Stamfordham Village is like stepping back in time. With its Instagram-worthy rows of pretty cottages (which gave me serious property envy), a village green, a small pop-up shop inside of the village pub and a real community theme, living somewhere like this is a real dream. We spent the afternoon exploring the village last weekend and just spending a few hours here allowed our pace of life to slow down a little (helped by the lack of decent phone signal of course).

How to Visit the Northumberland Coast via Public Transport

This is an advertisement published in 2018, please check information and prices before setting off. 

Regular readers will know that we're a one-car household and as Steve uses our car for work, I often resort to using public transport during the school holidays. 

I am also finding that more often than not, even when Steve is with us we'll catch the bus into Newcastle as it often works out cheaper, we're not restricted by time, we don't have to stress about parking and now the kids are a little bit older we can often have one or two drinks in a bar/pub/restaurant during a family day out too. 

A lot of people are in the same boat as us and I am asked time and time again by readers to feature days out by public transport so today I am doing just that and sharing how you can explore the entire length of the beautiful Northumberland Coastline by bus. 

Visiting Jarrow Hall Museum & Farm with a Toddler

I normally take every Wednesday off work and go out with my brother and 2-year-old nephew for the day somewhere. Evan is starting nursery in January so we're keen to pack as much fun into our days as we can before days out like this are going to be restricted to school holidays. I posted in my North East Days Out Facebook group asking for recommendations and although WWT Washington came out top (we'll be visiting there soon), a couple of people recommended Jarrow Hall as being perfect for toddlers. Jarrow Hall is closer and cheaper than WWT Washington so we decided to give it a go.

Jarrow Hall is also featured in my post 'What to do when it rains in North East England.' 

20+ Places you can book Children's Afternoon Tea in North East England

I am regularly asked for recommendations for places to take children for afternoon tea around North East England and it's a question that pops up time and time again in various Facebook groups so I decided to do a little research and share a few  places in our region which serve this treat.

How to spend a weekend in Genoa with kids

*This is a paid collaboration with Visit Genoa

You'll find Genoa in Northern Itlay. This bustling port is the sixth largest city in Italy and known for its art, culture and historical landmarks. I didn't know much about the city before our trip but I am so pleased we had the opportunity to explore. We spent just 48 hours in the area which I'd say is enough time to get a feel for the place. You could easily spend longer here though. I made the trip by myself with Harry, Heidi and Jack as Steve had to work and couldn't take any holiday (booo). This was to be a weekend of firsts - my first trip to Italy, my first trip abroad just myself and the kids and my first time taking an interconnecting flight. I honestly found the whole trip to be absolutely stress-free though and I think Genoa's laid-back nature, safe streets and glorious sunshine really contributed towards this.