A weekend guide to Manchester

*Written in Collaboration with Hotel Indigo I love taking my boys on city breaks but there are certainly times when I know I would be able to enjoy other aspects of a city if I was there child-free and I also believe that taking some time out from parenting is really important and being able to fully immerse yourself in a place without restrictions and time limits. Last year I spent a weekend exploring Durham with Hotel Indigo and I really felt refreshed after what was my first proper child-free break. I truly believe these kind of mini breaks can be very positive for your own wellbeing so I was extremely excited to be collaborating with Hotel Indigo again and this time heading up to the cool and colourful northern city that is Manchester. Getting around the city Manchester is a very well connected city with excellent high speed train routes from across the UK, a bustling airport and of course, you can also drive into the city. I took the train from South Wales and was in th......

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Hotel Indigo Manchester - Best Location in Town

*This post is in collaboration with Hotel Indigo  If you follow me on Instagram you will know that I have recently collaborated with Hotel Indigo and headed up to Manchester, one of the most colourful and creative northern cities for a much needed child-free break. The last time I visited Manchester was over a decade ago and that was only for a couple of hours en route to Scotland so I was really looking forward to exploring everything this fashion forward city has to offer and I will be sharing my weekend guide with you very soon but for now I want to concentrate on Hotel Indigo Manchester and why it's the perfect spot for a vibrant weekend away. Now as you may already know I am very passionate about staycations as the UK has so much to offer and many people seem to overlook that. With such excellent public transport networks in the UK you don't even need a car to get to most places and the train from South Wales to Manchester was much quicker than anticipated being......

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A weekend guide to Historical Durham

Following on from my review of Hotel Indigo Durham I thought I would put together a little weekend guide to the beautiful and historical town of Durham as we had such a fantastic time and I was really surprised at how much there was to see and do and all very accessible by walking making it a great weekend destination. Firstly Durham is well connected by rail and road and we arrived into Durham by train from Cardiff and with it being a small station you don't have to pull luggage very far, in fact within about 2 minutes we were into a taxi and on our way. Yes you can walk down into the town but with the station on quite a steep hill we decided to take the easy route to the hotel via taxi (only cost £4). As Durham isn't the biggest city is the perfect place for a weekend break so here are a few ideas of what to do if your planning on visiting. What to See 1. Durham Cathedral The UNESCO world heritage sight that is Durham Cathedral simply cannot be left out, even if......

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Our Stylish stay at the Hotel Indigo Durham

If you follow me on Instagram or any of my other social media platforms you will know I recently headed up to Durham for a weekend adventure and some much-needed child-free time and to explore a city we hadn't been to before. I had been invited by Hotel Indigo Durham to spend two nights in this Northern gem of a city and to discover what makes Indigo's boutique hotels stand out from the pack. You may have seen a couple of weeks ago I tried out the Afternoon tea at the Marco Pierre Restaurant in Hotel Indigo Cardiff and have been suitably impressed with both the service and the setting so we were really looking forward to what the weekend had in store for us. I am going to be doing a separate post on our time in Durham and what we got up to but with this post I really want to focus on the actual hotel as honestly is deserves that and you will see why. Firstly the hotel is perfectly located and is a very quick taxi ride from the station in the friendly and chic Trinity ......

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