About the Editor

“The Travel Editor of The Telegraph has asked me to stay in a few hotels and write about them,” Paddy told me, “and take you!” I spent the next eighteen years as ‘my husband’, never named, driver, bag carrier and shower tester. When we had travelled enough motorway miles, slept in enough hotel beds and eaten in enough restaurants, Paddy and I decided that a website using journalists’ reviews to describe the hotels would be popular and useful. I am delighted you are a reader and hope that you might become a contributor by writing to us.

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Don't just stay there do something

18 July 2010

BE ACTIVE
Many of us love to be active on holiday whether it be one night or a fortnight away. The paddyburt.com website features a number of places to stay that provide lots of opportunity. Here are just a few.

Mushrooms, music, scrabble
Rothay Manor at Ambleside, Cumbria specialise in this sort of break. Here are a few to be going on with. Do you want to know more about mushrooms ? Learn what to pick and what to leave alone, with an expert. Immerse yourself in classical music or learn the techniques and strategies for success in Scrabble.
Forage
Tudor Farmhouse Hotel, in the Forest of Dean run foraging expeditions. Contact them for details.
Golf
Pen-y-Dyffryn, not in Wales but right on the borders, offer stacks of opportunities to play at a number of local courses. Castle Cottage, the award winning restaurant with rooms can also offer golfing breaks.
Nordic walking
Milebrook House Hotel, in the magnificent Welsh borderland have an unusual speciality; Nordic Walking. Suzanne Marsden is an enthusiast and a qualified instructor.
Country life
Stay at The Cloud Hotel at Brockenhurst in the New Forest from 27th to 29th July and you can learn a lot about how the countryside works.You can spend a day at The New Forest and Hampshire County Show.
Fishing
Learn to fish for special offers at Llansantffraed Court Hotel near Abergavenny. The Arundell Arms Hotel in Lifton, Devon has been teaching fly fishing continually for 75 years. They have taught tens of thousands of people to fish. They offer a whole range of special breaks .
Sabrage
At Hotel TerraVina, in the New Forest, you could learn Sabrage. That's the art of removing the cork from a champagne bottle with a sabre. Gerard Basset, world acknowledged wine expert is the tutor (first aid lessons also available).
Painting
Learn to paint at St Brides Hotel at Saundesfoot in West Wales.
Write
If you are a writer or would like to be one, have a look at the creative writing course at The Wheatley Arms, in Yorkshire.
Cook
The Swan Hotel in Lavenham, Suffolk, are running a series of cookery days.