Weekending: Old and new in Oxford

City of dreaming spires, punts on the river and gowned academics on bikes, Oxford was also my home for two years. It’s a great city for a weekend break, small enough that you can walk across it in half an hour but with enough to do to keep you busy.

Weekending: Honfleur in Normandy

Walking into the harbour of Honfleur is a bit like walking into one of the Impressionist paintings it inspired. This pretty Normandy port town avoided the bombing during World War II that hit a lot of its neighbours, so still looks a lot like it did in the seventeenth century.

Weekending: St Ives in Cornwall

With colourful fishing boats tucked in the harbour, surrounded by a crescent-shaped bay of golden sand, seagulls swooping overhead and the smell of freshly cooked fish and chips, St Ives is your classic Cornish seaside town.

Weekending: Sorrento in Italy

At the top of steep cliffs which drop down into a bright blue sea on the Italian coast south of Naples is the town of Sorrento. In Greek mythology Sorrento was home to the sirens, who lured passing sailors onto the rocks with their songs.

(Wine) Weekending: Reims in Champagne

Surrounded by vineyards and wineries, Reims is the unofficial ‘capital’ city of France’s Champagne region. Champagne is all around you in this city – from the grand buildings of the famous Champagne houses to the drinkers packing the pavement bars and cafés along the main pedestrian street, Place Drouet d’Erlon.

Weekending: In Bruges

Bruges has long been pulling in visitors with its cobbled streets, crooked bridges, meandering canals and World Heritage site medieval buildings – it’s so pretty that it’s almost too good to be true.

Weekending: Spa-ing in Bath

Famous for Georgian terraces, thermal spa waters, cream teas and Jane Austen, you can’t say Bath isn’t on the UK tourist trail. Its quintessentially English charms pull in visitors from around the world and it’s got so many historic buildings that the entire city has been made a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

(Wine) Weekending: Beaune in Burgundy

I’m a bit of a wine fan (red, white, rosé, sparkling, you name it) and have combined my love of wine and travel with trips to a fair few wine regions around the world. So as a subset of my Weekending series, this is the first of my guides to great wine weekend destinations.

Weekending: Historic York

My last trip to York was over 20 years ago on a primary school trip, so I thought I’d pay it another visit on my way back from Scotland to see what had changed. And appropriately enough for a city famed for it’s history, not too much.

Weekending: The Goodwood Revival

With classic sports cars screeching around the race circuit, land girls in a 1950s jeep, Dad’s Army marching past, and women in Betty Draper-style circle dresses… Goodwood Revival is more than just a weekend away to a different place, its a trip to a whole different time period.

Weekending: The Côte D’Argent

“The Côte de where?” I hear you ask. Yep, I thought I’d start my Weekending series with a bit of a hidden gem (…or should that be precious metal, being as this is the silver coast?). The Côte D’Argent stretches over 200km of French coastline, from the mouth of the Gironde river above Bordeaux all the way down to Biarritz.