And just like that…2017 comes to an end almost as quickly as it arrived. I have to say I didn’t really know what I was doing when I started my little travel blog at the end of last year. I had talked about writing a blog for so long, and my little maternity leave ‘project’ has opened more doors than I could ever have hoped for. I started my blog as I wanted to record our family adventures and travel experiences in our campervan, Otis. I never thought I would keep at it, and still be typing away and sharing our adventures and travel experiences just over a year on. I guess I always thought that I would be talking to myself most of the time in this virtual world. I never expected that it would take us on the most wonderful adventures, and not only that, but that I would meet some absolutely lovely people along the way who would go on to help and support me on my blogging journey.
I look back on 2017 and our family adventures with a smile. We have spent the majority of my maternity leave, our weekends and school holidays exploring the UK together as a family of five. We have camped, glamped, and generally enjoyed life outside… collecting precious memories along the way…. whatever the weather.
So here is a collection of our adventures and travel – the best of 2017
Winter
January for us was all about taking lots of lazy family walks and slowing down after the busy festive period. We spent our weekends walking around the lake at Trentham Gardens, exploring Dovedale in the Peak District, and wandering through the Forest at Delamere.
February half term we stayed local and got up close to the Barbary Macaques at Trentham Monkey Forest, painted pottery at the World of Wedgwood in Stoke-on-Trent, danced with the Butterflies at the Butterfly farm in Stratford upon Avon and searched for the snowdrops at Rode Hall Gardens.
Spring
In March we headed to East Lothian in Scotland for our first trip of the season in the campervan. East Lothian has such a rugged beauty and charm, and we stumbled across Archerfield Walled garden; a place that we will remember forever…a beautiful place of imagination, wishing trees, and fairies and toadstools. During our break we were lucky enough to spend the day in Edinburgh, and we visited Edinburgh Castle and danced with the lights at Camera Obscura.
May saw our little lady’s 3rd birthday. To celebrate the occasion we headed to Green Valley Yurts in Dorset to try our hand at glamping. We had a special request to stop by at Peppa Land, and we couldn’t leave Dorset without also stopping by at Durdle Door. Heading home we made a detour to visit Stonehenge and those mysterious stones.
Summer
June saw a few more lovely camping weekends. We spent the week in Pembrokeshire with our good friends, exploring all of the beautiful beaches that Pembrokeshire has to offer.
We also spent the weekend in Ullswater in the Lake District with other good friends and their little kiddies. We managed to squeeze in a wonderful weekend camping in York, where we sampled an afternoon tea at Betty’s tea rooms (with kids!) and a visit to the lavender fields before heading home.
July and August saw our annual road trip in the campervan. We absolutely love a road trip and we always plan to move on every three days as we get to see so much in a short space of time. We started our road trip in Devon, where we stayed at Andrewshayes Holiday Park and then headed to visit our friends in Cornwall before leaving Otis behind and hopping on the Scillonian III to the beautiful Isles of Scilly.
As it was the school holidays we also travelled over to Anglesey for a few days with some of our friends to get sand in-between our toes, salt in our hair and make some happy and very special memories.
We had one more weekend to squeeze into the school holidays; we ended August with a visit to the Just So Festival for my birthday weekend…a weekend of smiles, imagination and pillow fights.
Autumn
As the seasons changed, September saw another weekend in York…and this time we stayed in the Travelodge (always nice to have a comfy bed after a Summer of campervan life). We explored the city walls, enjoyed a meander around The Shambles, and spent the day at Williams Den before taking the long drive home.
During September we stayed fairly local and we found a wonderful camping and glamping site in Shrewsbury. I tried my hand at yoga, the kids loved the outdoor jacuzzi and fresh water pool, and the boys battled the assault course to keep warm.
October was much quieter for us as I settled back in at work following my maternity leave, but we did manage an autumn glamping stay at Eco retreats in Wales and explored the picturesque Aberdovey, before stopping by at Bala on our way home.
Finally Winter arrived again, and in December we were lucky enough to visit the National Forest Adventure Farm for their magical North Pole adventure, and enjoyed a brief visit to Liverpool to watch the wonderful, classic Snowman with Carrot Productions. We ended the year with a weekend visit to see family in London.
Thank you for all you support over the last year, for every comment on my blog and for every share of each and every one of my posts. We are already starting to plan for next year, and I am hoping that 2018 will bring more exciting adventures along the way.
As we do every year, we hope for happiness, health, friendship, and love.
Thanks for joining us 🙂
Happy New Year.
x
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You have had a fantastic year. Love reading about your family adventures. I hope 2018 is a great year for you and your family
If you are ever in Scotland again, let me know! Xx
What a wonderful year of travel. It’s been lovely getting to know you and your family on and offline. I’m looking forward to seeing what you get up to in 2018! Happy New Year
So many amazing trips in just 12 months! Such a lovely collection of photos – so many memories for you to look back on.
Such an adventurous year! Lovely to meet you this year too 😊
Wow looks like you and your family have had a lovely year – so many nice family fun photos to look at. May 2018 be a great one for you all 🙂
What a fab year! I personally love York! #fearlessfamtrav
What a great year for you and your family. And my goodness, isn’t there just a lot of beautiful places in the UK? Here’s to an awesome 2018 for you!
I am loving all the roundup posts on 2017 and it seems you guys had such an adventurous year for sure. Here is to wishing you an incredible 2018
You guys certainly did a lot as a family last year. Loving all the photos of your adventures. Here’s to looking forward to more travels from you and your lovely family 🙂
Just hearing about all the places you traveled to-from the Peak District to Scotland shows that you have made 2017 a great year! Where are you planning to travel to next?
Some fab trips you have taken. I would love to go glamping and try out a yurt
Wow – what an amazing year you’ve had! I’d love to go glamping!
You guys were very busy last year. Hope to do some travel this year.
Looks like you have had a fab year exploring the country. Andrewshayes is round the corner from my dad and we had a fab time there. I am desperate to visit York and would love to see more of Pembrokeshire too
What a wonderful year of travel! I love how you started your blog around the same time as me and has been really lovely following your travels this year (you always somehow make me feel a little bit homesick with your gorgeous pics!) Looking forward to seeing what 2018 has in store for you. #fearlessfamtrav
Sounds like a brilliant year. You’ve visited some lovely places. I’d love to visit the Isles of Scilly. I’ve heard so many goods things about it. Hope you have just as an exciting 2018!
What a wonderful year of travel! I’ve loved following your travels. Looking forward to all that 2018 has in store for you #fearlessfamtrav
What a wonderful year you have had! I thoroughly enjoyed reading about all those lovely excursions in the UK. #GetGone
Me and my friends are planning to go to spain this January. We would love to see some nice beaches with clear water and some stunning scenery. We were thinking Majorca,Ibiza and Canary Island, we are up to some adventures and experience a great nightlife in our travel. I came across this great article too here in https://www.canaryislandsinfo.co.uk/gran-canaria/places/ but i wanted to hear your thoughts first. Can anyone suggest any ideas or tips? Any help is kindly appreciated 🙂
What an amazing year. I’m determined we’ll go away more this year. Love Anglesey and the lakes. Grantham gardens is not that far and I loved it so perhaps we’ll go again this year. I so want to go to just so this summer! #myfamilyadventures
What an incredible year you’ve had and it’s been a pleasure to get to know you.
What a year! I LOVE Betty’s Tearoom – I actually don’t think we visited in 2017 though! One for us this year I think x
You have been busy! You definitely don’t let having three kids stop you from getting out and exploring. If you haven’t already please do link up to the Trips #GetGone linky Katy;) Happy New Year to you all!
What an amazing year of travel. I love that you got outside so much! I am more than a little envious of your campervan as well!
I love seeing your travel photos on Instagram, it always feels like you’re showing your children the loveliest ways to spend their time x
Aw what brilliant adventures, and some close to home we need to do too!
What a lovely outdoorsy year you’ve had, full of fresh air and fun! I’m looking forward to seeing what next year will hold for you. x
It seems like you had an awesome year! I really hope you have an even better and more prosperous 2018! 😉
Wow a busy and amazing year of travels, I hope to write and do more of that this year too! Thanks for joining us #MyFamilyAdventures
You’ve had some amazing trips and gorgeous time together as a family. We LOVE Pembrokeshire. I love the idea of going off in the Campervan, do you hire yours? Thank you for joining in with #MyFamilyAdventures in 2017 and hope to see you from Sunday for the first one of 2018 x