Jimi Famurewa

Travelling with kids is, as you’d expect, nowhere near as simple as travelling without ‘em. Not only have you got other whole human beings to be responsible for, but you’ve got to keep them entertained. But ‘family-friendly’ doesn’t have to mean ‘soulless holiday park’ or ‘drab all-inclusive’.  The UK is very much the all-rounder when it comes to family-friendly breaks. It’s the kind of place that brings out the kid in anyone, from its nostalgic seaside towns and expansive national parks to its rich, complex history. And these are the pick of the bunch: the absolute best places for a family holiday in the UK right now. RECOMMENDED:🏊The best outdoor swimming pools in the UK🏔️The best road trips in the UK🌤️The most stunning hidden beaches in the UK🏰The best castles where you can actually stay in the UK🌲The best tree houses you can actually stay in For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines and check out our latest travel guides written by local experts. 

Let’s face it, fun and games are much better in cushioned surroundings – see bouncy castles, ballpits and inflatable slides. So if you’re looking for a superior way to treat your little ones, look no further than soft-play space.  And if you’re going to take your toddler to a foamy pleasure palace, you may as well go for the best version of the experience. Our list of London’s best soft-play centres includes one that used to be a nightclub and retains that vibe, and another, housed in a church, where you can grab coffee and cake while the kids run riot.  If you’re looking for some sun-safe, indoor entertainment, these are the places to experience a better class of padded pandemonium. RECOMMENDED: 101 fantastic things to do in London with kids.

Make your way along the narrow streets of downtown Athens and, soon, the multiple hazards – stray cats, street hawkers proffering watches and, as happened to me, a speeding moped laden with a whole lamb carcass swinging its limbs – become a fact of life. I learned that, as recently as six years ago, some of these spray-painted byways were even tougher to navigate. ‘When we first came here you couldn’t pass along the street because there was a pile of garbage blocking you,’ says Vassilis Haralambidis, director of creative hub, bar and events space Romantso. ‘There were no lights so it was dangerous at night. It was a ghetto, basically. So we had to tackle these sorts of things.’ Looking out at the bustling, sunlit road today, it’s hard to picture the trash-clogged nightmare he is describing. But this is Athens all over. Nearly a decade after the 2009 government-debt disaster that Athenians call ‘The Crisis’, the Greek capital is undergoing a creative rebirth. Low rents, unoccupied buildings and a pervading DIY ethos have led to new art galleries, courtyard restaurants, performance spaces and hip, hidden cocktail dens like The Clumsies and six d.o.g.s. After a few years of being contentiously hailed as ‘the new Berlin’ by travel tastemakers (‘BERLIN IS THE NEW ATHENS’ screams a cheeky, giant piece of street art in the Monastiraki neighbourhood), the city has carved out an identity, appeal and edge all of its own. So I’ve decided to join the growing hordes of visitors (against

Essential information Average property prices: Flats £340k, houses £650k Average rent: £640pcm per person Nearest transport: Ladywell rail Bus routes: Lots to Lewisham and other parts of south London. The P4 to Brixton is particularly handy. Local MP: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour)  Tell me about the local tribe A lively, multicultural brew of recently installed parents and community-minded Lewisham lifers. Plus a sprinkling of young professionals, ambling through the park with KeepCup flat whites. What’s new in the area? Long known as an attractive-but-relatively-unhip thoroughfare, Ladywell Village is on the brink of big things. Case in point: the crumbling Victorian Playtower bathhouse is being turned into a three-screen Curzon cinema (and restaurant) that’s due to open in 2020. The soon-to-be cinema Ladywell Playtower. Photograph: UrbanImages/Alamy Are there any community groups The Ladywell Fields User Group – which encourages residents to don waders for an annual mass cleanup of the river – is worth knowing about. And ladywell-live.org is an essential, passionately run oracle for all things SE13. Where can I grab a morning latte? The Good Hope Café (a parkside, dog walkers’ fave that even does pup-friendly ice cream) is great to spill out of on summer days. Ditto the recently revamped Oscar’s, with its dinky sun-trap garden. Is Ladywell family-friendly? From the plentiful toys in the authentically Gallic Le Délice café to a constellation of well-regarded nurseries, this is pa

A maior parte das pessoas tentaria não dar muito nas vistas se se visse no centro de um acalorado debate global sobre a sua elegibilidade para interpretar James Bond. Mas Idris Elba parece não querer saber. Numa tarde de sol, a estrela britânica de 45 anos sai do interior resguardado do pub de Dalston onde combinámos encontrar-nos e senta-se na esplanada, à plena vista dos fãs que vão gritando e acenando. Enquanto falamos, ele parece nem dar por eles. Talvez porque só consegue pensar no seu primeiro filme como realizador, prestes a estrear-se. Adaptado do livro de culto escrito por Victor Headley em 1992, Yardie conta a história de D (Aml Ameen), um melómano e traficante de droga jamaicano que encontra o assassino do seu irmão na zona oriental de Londres, nos anos 80. Por um lado, é uma grande mudança para o homem que se deu a conhecer à frente das câmaras depois de interpretar Stringer Bell na série The Wire, da HBO, e em anos recentes, entre outros papéis, encarnou o deus nórdico Heimdall nos filmes da Marvel. Por outro, esta exploração da cultura musical (e não só) de Hackey acaba por ser um tanto ou quanto familiar para o também ocasional DJ londrino. A poucos metros da casa onde cresceu, Elba fala sobre como foi filmar no meio dos gangues jamaicanos, sobre o salto para trás das câmaras e, claro, sobre um certo agente secreto que passa a vida a beber martinis.   Qual foi o maior desafio que encontraste durante a rodagem de Yardie? Filmámos em Kingston (Jamaica), num

Most of us, if we found ourselves the subject of a heated global debate over our eligibility to play James Bond, would keep a low profile. Not Idris Elba. On a sunny afternoon, the 45-year-old star passes up the secluded interior of a privately booked Dalston pub for a beer outside in full view of yelling, waving fans. As we talk, he barely seems to notice them. But that may be because his attention is fully focused on the imminent release of ‘Yardie’, a personal and pivotal film that marks his feature debut as a director. Adapted from Victor Headley’s cult 1992 novel, it tells the story of D (played by Aml Ameen), a Jamaican music obsessive-turned-drug dealer who encounters his brother’s killer in ’80s east London. In one sense, it’s a departure for the man who made his name in front of the camera, breaking through as Stringer Bell in ‘The Wire’. In another, ‘Yardie’ – with its exploration of Hackney’s soundsystem culture – puts the East End-born, occasional DJ in very familiar territory. A short walk from the site of his old council block near Queensbridge Road, Elba opens up about filming amid gangland violence in Jamaica, putting his memories of London on screen and, yes, the continued speculation about a certain martini-swigging MI6 operative. What were some of the challenges you faced when you were directing ‘Yardie’? ‘I remember shooting in Kingston in a place called Rose Town. I felt a sense of audacity. How dare I come here, take this culture, turn it into part of a