It doesn’t have to be about eating chocolate, you know, Easter. This year it
could be about an organic-food-and-spa break, or a trip to a Balearic
mountain retreat, or even a quick safari in Namibia.
To prove it, here are 10 grown-up, exhilarating but indulgent treats for
Easter, in the UK and farther afield. And, you never know, you may even get
some chocolate thrown in.
Prices, unless stated otherwise, are per person, for four-day breaks on a B&B
basis, including flights from London and transfers
LA DOLCE VITA, Positano
Regardless of what anybody tells you, the high-season charms of Italy’s Amalfi
coast are overexaggerated, overpriced and overcrowded.
Low season, though, is a different story, as comatose dogs snooze on the scalanitelle,
soaking up the spring sunshine, and church squares are so quiet you can hear
the devotions of the faithful within. Arguably, the best of the dozen or so
towns that cling precariously to this steep coast is Positano, a huddle of
houses and a magnificent majolica-tiled church built in a deep gorge around
a shingle beach – the perfect spot for a romantic escape.
And the friendly hotel Buca di Bacco (00 39 089 875699, www.bucadibacco.it),
right on the beach, is the place to escape to. There’s no pool, no spa and
no parking (access is via hundreds of steps), but then, a hotel as charming
as this has no need for such diversions. Citalia (0871 664 0253, www.citalia.com)
has three nights for £666, including flights but no transfers. Taxi
transfers from Naples airport cost about £60 each way.
THE PUDDING CLUB, Mickleton
The idea of a walking holiday combined with a celebration of the justest
desserts of English cuisine is the kind of genius that made Britain great.
The concept is simple: you check into the reassuringly eccentric Three Ways
House hotel (01386 438429, www.puddingclub.com) in the Cotswold village of
Mickleton, which Archers fans will know is just down the lane from Ambridge.
Dinner starts at 7.30pm sharp and ends with the parade of the puddings,
starring such stalwarts as syrup sponge, jam roly-poly, sticky toffee
pudding and perhaps the lesser-known delights of Lord Randall’s or Sussex
Pond. When you stop eating them is up to you, but the next day, under the
gentle leadership of a Cotswold warden, you walk them off over a moderate
11-mile route. And repeat. The price is £285pp, including breakfasts, packed
lunches and one dinner.
TIPTOE THROUGH THE TULIPS, Lisse
With more than 7m spring bulbs bursting into bloom, Keukenhof (00 31-25 246
5555, www. keukenhof.nl) is the
world’s largest flowerbed and, say the Dutch, the most beautiful. Opening on
March 20 for three months only, this swirling kaleidoscope of formal
displays, woodland glades and startling experimental hybrids is a
little-known wonder of the natural world. Your best bet is to stay in
Amsterdam – the innovative Lloyd Hotel (20 561 3636, www.lloydhotel.com),
which offers rooms graded from one to five stars, has doubles from £80 per
night. For a more traditional experience, try the charming Canal House (20
622 5182, www.canalhouse.nl), which
has doubles from £105 per night.
The park is in Lisse, in the heart of the Dutch bulb fields. To get there from
Amsterdam, take the fast train to Haarlem and then the slow train to
Hillegom. The journey takes under an hour and costs £7.20 return. The
three-mile taxi ride to the park costs £4, but you really shouldn’t forgo
the sensual delight of cycling through the vast swathes of primary colours,
thick with the perfume of hyacinths. Bike hire is £5, park entry is £10.
Airlines flying to Amsterdam include British Airways (0870 850 9850, www.ba.com),
KLM (0870 507 4074, www.klm.com) and BMI
Baby (0871 224 0224, www.bmibaby.com).
THE MARINE SPA, St Brides
Despite its outstanding natural beauty and potential to rival the beaches of
any coastline in Europe, Pembrokeshire has adopted a relaxed attitude
towards tourist facilities. In an area where some of the restaurants still
think canned fruit juice is a viable starter and the spa a corner shop, St
Brides (01834 812304, www.stbridesspahotel.com)
stands alone – a sleek, grown-up hotel, full of contemporary art, on the
headland above Saundersfoot. It boasts one of the finest sea views in
Britain, with a slate-grey infinity pool merging into the similarly shaded
waters of Carmarthen Bay, and there’s a spa that’s always up for one award
or another. Is the food organic? Yes. Locally sourced? Yes. And are those
goats on the roof? Probably. The cheapest sea-view rooms start at £190 per
night, based on two sharing, including breakfast.
EASTER PARADE, Portugal
Easter is the perfect time to visit Obidos, 60 miles northwest of Lisbon, one
of those gorgeous little walled towns unchanged since the days when it was
thought civilisation ended on the Portuguese border. The Procession of the
Branches, a torchlight parade through streets strewn with bunches of
lavender and rosemary, is the culmination of an eight-day celebration.
To be at the heart of it all, check into the tiny 11-room Casa das Senhoras
Rainhas (00 351 262 955360, www.senhorasrainhas.com),
where doubles start at £108. The alternative is to stay in Lisbon, where the
exceedingly grown-up Lapa Palace hotel (020 7960 0500, www.lapapalace.com)
is offering a three-night Easter package for £884 per room, including
breakfast, transfers, one dinner, a bottle of port, an Easter egg and a
bunch of flowers. Return flights with TAP Portugal (0845 601 0932, www.flytap.
com) cost £260, and four days’ fully inclusive car rental with Economy
Car Hire (0845 450 0877, www.economycarhire.com)
starts at £41.
THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS, Syria
“She measures time not by days and months and years, but by the empires she
has seen rise and crumble to ruin. She is a type of immortality . . .
Damascus has seen all that ever occurred on earth and still she lives.” So
wrote Mark Twain of a city that St Paul would still recognise as the most
laid-back in the Middle East. The local motto is “ As-sabr miftah
al-faraj” – meaning “patience is the key to happiness” – and an amble
through the precincts of the Old City provides lessons in both. Step into
the Great Umayyad mosque and strangers will ask to show you around, and a
stroll through the splendour of the Al-Hamadiye souk will leave you stunned.
A four-day visit with The Traveller (020 7436 9343, www.the-traveller.co.uk)
costs from £795, including accommodation at the four-star Omayad hotel,
excursions to Krak des Chevaliers – the most impressive castle in the world
– and to the ruins of the ancient city of Palmyra.
MOUNTAIN RETREAT, Mallorca
Hidden on the pine-forested slopes of Mallorca’s rugged Sierra de Tramuntana,
with uninterrupted sea views, is the appropriately named Villa Miramar
Petita, a secluded little two-bedroom place with its own pool. The
picturesque village of Deia, with its restaurants, bars, literary
associations and tiny shingle beach, is a five-minute drive away and, if you
bring a pile of books, there’s nowhere better to avoid the cocoa-based
overkill of Easter. But you can have your simnel cake and eat it: catch either
the 7am or the 9.10am train to Palma on Good Friday morning from Soller
railway station (00 34 902 364711, www.trendesoller.com;
£10 return) for a 50-minute trip, riding in tiny wooden carriages through 13
tunnels, alongside rushing rivers and through Mallorcan orange groves, that
is one of the great rail journeys. And it gets better: Palma’s recreation of
the descent of Christ from the cross is a solemn, sensual spectacle that
will leave you awestruck. Book the Miramar Petita for four nights through
Mallorca Farmhouses (0845 800 8080, www.mfh.co.uk)
for £820. Flights with EasyJet (0905 821 0905, www.easyjet.com)
cost £308.
PALACE IN PAPHOS, Cyprus
If you’re happy to fly as far south as Paphos for Easter, then you can expect
temperatures of about 20C and virtually no chance of rain. And while it’s
probably just warm enough to lounge by the pool, you’d be missing the point
if you didn’t pack a picnic and take a gentle hike along the Akamas
peninsula, the wild and rugged spur north of Paphos where Aphrodite and
Adonis conducted their doomed affair. In the summer, Akamas is a scorched
wilderness, but in springtime, the footpaths snake through a pointillist
wonderland of flowers and blossom. The walk will build your appetite for a
fine meze supper at the 7 St George’s Tavern (00 35 7 2696 3176, www.7stgeorgestavern.com)
in Yeroskepos, Paphos, and you can sleep it off at the five-star Elysium
hotel, built to resemble an ancient palace, but with plasma screens and spa.
Thomson A la Carte (0870 550 2550, www.thomson.co.uk)
offers four nights for £445 per person.
CAVE HOTEL, Cappadocia
If the modernist architect Antoni Gaudi and Nick Park, the Oscar-winning
creator of Wallace and Gromit, were commissioned by God to collaborate on
the construction of an entire national park out of Plasticine, the result
might be the Cappadocia, in Turkey. Imagine a troglodyte world of fairy
chimneys, rock churches and entire villages carved into the warped crags of
Anatolia – a hallucinogenic landscape that some insist has a strange calming
effect on the soul as you fall asleep in the womb of mother earth. You can
find out for yourself, with an Exclusive Escapes (020 8605 3500, www.exclusiveescapes.co.uk)
three-night break at Les Maisons de Cappadoche, a series of traditional cave
dwellings restored by the renowned French architect Jacques Avizou. Guides
lead exploratory expeditions, or gaze down from an early-morning balloon
flight. The cost is £875, with balloon trips from £100.
EXTREME EASTER, Namibia
According to the Namibian Geographical Survey, the population of the Kunene
region of northwest Namibia is 0.01 persons per square kilometre – a density
equal to 15 men and a dog in an area the size of Greater London. So if it’s
solitude you crave, here’s where to find it, in the mesmerisingly beautiful
wastes of the oldest desert on earth. Locals call this “the land God made in
anger”, but we find it to be some of his best work. The Skeleton Coast Camp
comprises a dozen luxury tents set in a dry river bed and a sophisticated
lodge serving wonderfully atmospheric dinners alfresco. Explore the stark
hinterland, home to kudu, giraffe and desert elephant, before crossing a
turbulent ocean of dunes to the windswept shoreline of the Skeleton Coast.
Then spend a night in the romantic Kunene River Camp and meet the local
Himba people. The price is £4,999 for four nights, full board, including
private flights and ground transfers in Namibia, with Black Tomato (020 7610
9008, www.blacktomato.co.uk).
