anorak

Say roughly where you want to go, and Anorak will tell you where's good around there. Ideally, anyway!

Um. So I'm about to get a gig in Cambridge and wondering about basing a little family break round there. I've never been to Cambridge before or anywhere nearby really - does anyone know if there's a nice area for a little family break round there, please?

What sort of area are you looking for? Centre Parks is pretty near, if you're into that kind of thing.

Oooh gosh no. Somewhere with some pretty scenery and maybe a short walk or two. A decent pub with food where you can take kids in. And steam trains please!

Depending on how far you want to travel...

There's the North Norfolk coast, paces like Sheringham, Wells and Blakeney. There's usually seals at Blakeney point, which is pretty cool. Further still is Southwold and Walberswick, on the Suffolk coast. In between the two, almost all of the Broads is lovely. More like 45 mins from Cambridge you've got the little Suffolk wool towns/villages like Lavenham, Clare and Long Melford which have lots of interesting ca. C15 houses, etc. Dead touristy at times, though.

As for trains there's the East Anglian Railway Museum near Wakes Colne on the Essex/Suffolk border and a steam railway somewhere near Castle Hedingham, which is about 30-40 min from Cambridge.

I wouldn't bother with any of the Fens as it's pretty dull, even by EA standards.

Nice one - I'll check these out. Thanks so much!

Don't forget Ely! Just a short way north of Cambridge - amazing Cathedral, lots of pubs, big canal basin so boats and more pubs there, too!

Cheers Phil. I've never been to this part of the country but I've always been sort of intrigued by Ely - dunno why, maybe the cathedral, maybe just the name!

Can second the Norfolk broads type stuff - places like Sheringham, Cromer etc all beautiful. Char's folks have a holiday Caraven out that way and it's all dead nice. Helps if you have a car to get around all the little villages though. Wroxham Barns (I think) have organic food market and other crafty type shops and (i think) a little farm with animals for nippers.

St Ives is a nice little town, and it has a very good off licence...

Don't forget the Nene Valley Railway, at Peterborough. If you were to go up to that area, you could also go for a walk/cycle at Rutland Water, and sample some Oakham Ales brews at one of the local pubs.

I'd also recommend popping over the border into Suffolk, to see some of the very quaint vilages with their pink, blue, and yellow cottages.

Ely's lovely, Pete. As is the train station. Well, I learned to love it after being stuck there for three hours on Sunday, anyway...

i'm too late, but Ely. that octagonal church tower is quite cool.

it's the fens around there, so any walks are guaranteed to be flat, which could be a good thing.

Scottish Anoraks!

On Monday myself and the missus are driving from Glenrothes over to Oban, along the A85 passing through towns like Crieff, Clifton and Crianlarich. We've 2 or 3 hours to kill in the daytime so if anyone has any good suggestions for things to do or nice walks around there they'd be appreciated. If not, we'll find somewhere nice I'm sure.

Cheers!

We mostly stop at Tyndrum on that road, but that's only because we're hitting it around lunch time and there's a few decent places to eat. I don't think there's a great deal to see other than the excitement of The Green Welly Shop though!
Crieff is a nice little town I think, but it's an awfully long time since I've been there. Probably a few more things to do there than any of the others though. And the birthplace of Ewan Macgregor!

i don't know about places on that route, but the oban distillery tour in the town itself is alright, and you get to sample some of the whisky as well of course. seil island isn't too far from oban either. you get to go over a (pretty) bridge that (technically) goes over the atlantic ocean! incidentally, the tourist shop in seil is the only place i've ever seen golliwogs for sale. i don't think the nice old lady behind the counter understood why we were a bit shocked.

stephen pastel recommended this place for food, but it was booked full when we tried to go. (we got talking in mono and when i mentioned we were going to oban he said there was an amazing seafood restaurant there.)

i only got to spend a day around there (we were staying with friends in lochgilphead) and it was pissing it down the whole time, but it was still gorgeous.