The spring breaks our travel editor is booking now
I’m often asked by friends and family what hotels or destinations I recommend for a quick getaway, and I always like to reply with something a little bit quirky or different. Of course, big hitters such as Florence, Paris and Amsterdam make great European city breaks, but everyone knows that, so they’re often painfully overcrowded and ridiculously overpriced. The last time I was in Barcelona, I had to battle through crowds of selfie-taking tourists to see Gaudí’s Sagrada Família and ended up booking a pricey (but ultimately worth it) evening tour to escape the throng.
So, if you’re looking for inspiration for the best spring weekend breaks, look no further. Here are four ideas from me – whether you want sunshine, food, culture or all three!
For guaranteed sun, fly to the Canary Islands
The sun doesn’t always have his hat on in spring, even in southern Europe, so if it’s a dose of vitamin D you’re after, then I recommend sub-tropical Tenerife, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, La Palma or La Gomera. This volcanic Spanish archipelago gets around 300 days of sunshine a year and is closer to Marrakech than Madrid yet flights to Tenerife, the largest island with many of the best beaches, take just over four hours.
For dramatic black shores, lay out your towel on Playa Jardín, or watch the surfers at El Bollullo. For golden sands and swaying palm trees, you can’t beat Costa Adeje in the south, a short drive from the airport and far enough away from the party-loving crowds of Playa de las Américas.
Iberostar has 11 resorts across the Canary Island, including six near Costa Adeje. I’ve stayed at the white, airy, five-star Iberostar Selection Sábila (rooms from £162 a night), a modern, adult-only resort opposite Fañabé beach, where you can go parasailing for around £50pp. If you want to feel like a VIP, upgrade to a Star Prestige room (from £334 a night) on the top floors for wonderful sea views, an exclusive-use infinity pool terrace with free drinks and snacks, reserved loungers by the main pool as well as separate seating in the all-inclusive restaurant (the breakfast buffet, where tortillas are made to the sound of a Spanish guitarist, is one of the best on the island). You’ll also get 50% off at the excellent food truck-style Gourmet Market.
Excursions are available to the lunar landscape of UNESCO-listed Teide National Park, where you can take a cable car to the top of Mount Teide, the world’s third-tallest volcano. Plus, Easyjet flights from London Gatwick are as low as £39.99 each way.
Have a respectfully rebellious break in Lewes, East Sussex
It’s hard to escape American politics right now, but did you know that one of the USA’s Founding Fathers lived and developed his revolutionary ideas in the pretty medieval town of Lewes?
Thomas Paine, who influenced both the American and French Revolutions, worked on Lewes’s cobbled high street 250 years ago and was a regular speaker at the debating society held at The White Hart. This 16th-century coaching inn is now a cosy boutique hotel with a Paine suite and snug rooms from £100 a night, as well as a brilliant restaurant and bar.
I stayed there recently and enjoyed a pint of Tom Paine ale, brewed locally by Harvey’s at the the Rights of Man pub across the road, which is (top marks if you know!) named after one of Paine’s seminal works. There’s a statue of Paine outside the town’s library and the spirit of debate lives on at the regular Lewes Speakers Festival.
History lovers will also love the town’s Norman Castle & Museum, built after the Battle of Hastings by supporters of William the Conqueror. It’s just along the high street from The White Hart and has stunning views of the South Downs from the top of The Keep.
The town is connected to the equally rebellious Bloomsbury Group, which included Virginia Woolf who, like Paine, rented rooms on Lewes High Street, and her sister, Vanessa Bell, lived with Duncan Grant at Charleston, a 15-minute drive away. As well as visiting the farmhouse, you can experience Charleston at its new cultural centre in Lewes, too.
Enjoy Michelin-starred food in West Lancashire
I love eating out and often pick destinations based on whether I like the food rather than the place – Mexico being my top choice! But even though I live in London, some of the best meals I’ve had have been in restaurants with rooms around the UK.
Call these overnight stays a glutton’s getaway if you must, but I say there’s nothing better than indulging in a wonderful dinner knowing your comfy hotel bed is just a few steps away.
Raymond Blanc’s two-Michelin-starred Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Oxfordshire was one of the first destination hotel restaurants and there are plenty more – from Michael Caines’ 21-room Lympstone Manor near Exmouth to Great British Menu’s Lisa Goodwin-Allen at Northcote Manor in the Ribble Valley.
So, I can’t wait for the next foodie break – which my partner is taking me on. He’s booked Moor Hall, Mark Birchall’s farm-to-fork restaurant with rooms (from £250 B&B for two) just outside Liverpool.
Birchall spent a decade working at Simon Rogan’s L’Enclume, and his 14-bedroom gourmet lovers’ property has not one but two Michelin-starred restaurants. The Moor Hill Restaurant (which has two Michelin stars) has a lunch menu for £125 and a whopping 18-course Provenance dinner menu for £235pp – although, at The Barn (which has one Michelin star), three courses cost just £45. I fully expect to have to be rolled home if I eat in both!
Catch LeShuttle and drive to Paris-by-the Sea
Known as Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, this chic coastal town midway between the English and French capitals is less than an hour’s drive from LeShuttle terminal in Calais. I went there last March and enjoyed every minute (despite the rain), so can’t recommend it enough!
While crowded in summer, in spring you’ll have seven miles of pink sands to yourself, which fashion photographer Peter Lindbergh said were better than beaches in the Bahamas!
Le Touquet has been attracting celebrities to this part of the so-called Opal Coast for a century – Noël Coward, Somerset Maugham and PG Wodehouse bought homes in Le Touquet’s broad, leafy boulevards in the 1920s, and it was later visited by Winston Churchill, HG Wells and Ian Fleming.
Fleming stayed at the most glamorous address in town (as did I as a birthday treat!), the five-star Hotel Barrière Le Westminster (rooms from around £206 a night). The Bond author wrote Casino Royale here, basing it on La Belle Époque Casino Barrière across the road. Sean Connery signed his first Bond contract in the hotel’s Bar du West and Roger Moore was also a frequent guest.
So, yes, you guessed it, there’s a 007 suite alongside 104 other Art Deco-style guestrooms, a buzzy bistro (which does a great Croque Monsieur) and Michelin-starred restaurant, Le Pavillon. If you're on a smaller budget than Bond, there are plenty of affordable self-catering villas and apartments in the town.
We loved shopping in the market, where locals greet you with a cheery 'bonjour' and stalls groan under the weight of delicious French cheese, honey, ham and jam (I bought 8 jars!). Walking down the main High Street there are quirky independent boutiques rather than expensive designer stores and you can easily tell where French president Emmanuel Macron’s holiday home is by the gendarmes on duty outside (he got married in the town). The seafood here is delicious, reasonably priced (fruit de mer platters start at around £34pp) and flamboyantly served at local institution Perard.
Ian Fleming had his Aston Martin flown to Le Touquet airport (renamed ‘Elizabeth II International’ in honour of her after she died), but we drove there on a whim after buying reasonably priced LeShuttle Short Stay Saver tickets (from £73 each way for trips up to five days in a vehicle carrying up to nine). If you do the same, I promise you won’t be disappointed – even if you just stock up on cheap wine on the way home!
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