Vacation Home Rentals

posted by Vacation Home Rentals on May 9

The nation of Scotland is a outstanding destination in which to take a vacation. Scotland is suitable for an extensive selection of diverse vacations, featuring extensive regions of attractive countryside with excellent amounts of sites of outstanding natural beauty (perfect for hill-walkers, mountain climbers, ramblers, hikers and the likes). Scotland also features some of the smartest attractions, including, some of the most highly interesting museums and galleries in the British Isles, majestic beauty spots, fortified houses, historical buildings, stately homes and castles plus much more. Below I discuss the port of Stranraer.

The town of Stranraer is located in the district of Dumfries & Galloway in southerly Scotland, it is renowned for being the place where people can sail to Northern Ireland. Regrettably overwhelmingly tourists do not get to visit the local attractions in and around Stranraer. This fact is a bit of an enigma, if you get to the town, and reserve yourself a room in a bed & breakfast in Stranraer, a couple of days early you could see a selection of the local attractions prior to sailing to Belfast.

There are a selection of things to see and do in the port including the medieval town house known as the Castle of St John situated in the heart of Stranraer. The Castle of St John was constructed in the year fifteen ten as a residence for Ninian Adair of Kilhurst, the Laird of Wigtownshire. The castle was restored, in the years 1988/89, by the district council of Wigtown who opened it to the public in nineteen ninety.

Another place to visit close to the town of Stranraer is Castle Kennedy Gardens. The castle acts as the centrepiece of the garden which are situatedon a hill between 2 lochs (it is important to know that access to the ruined castle is no longer allowed. Castle Kennedy’s Gardens extend across 75 acres. If you want you can buy plants from a shop which has reared them from seeds gathered from the garden.

A further attractive tourist attraction to visit is Glenluce Abbey, about 7 miles from Stranraer. Even though it is in ruins (in truth the most ruined of three of Cistercian monasteries found in this region of Scotland) it has a superb 15th Chapter House. Other places worth visiting include, the Mull of Galloway, the Machars, Port Logan and Portpatrick.

If you are considering taking a Stranraer vacation you will be pleased to discover that there are a fair few Stranraer hotels. Please take a look at our comprehensive listings of hotels in Stranraer and guest house accommodation.

posted by Vacation Home Rentals on Apr 26

Birmingham is a diverse city in the county of the West Midlands, England and it is a really popular destination for short city breaks and  day trips. The city features a huge variety of first class tourist attractions including a great many churches which have Grade I status and other important structures as well as many museums and galleries, including Birmingham’s Ikon Gallery.

The Ikon Gallery is an art gallery which specialises in contemporary art which is located in the former Oozells Street Board School in Brindleyplace, however it was not always in such surroundings.

Founded in 1964 by four artists and Angus Skene.  The 4 artists were; David Prentice, Sylvani Merilion, Robert Groves and Jesse Bruton. Skene had acquired one of Prentice’s works of art and the two of them talked about the countless problems faced by local artists, which included the terrible lack of venues for local artists.  The discussion resulted in the basic concepts for Ikon which was to be a “gallery without walls”.

Angus initially funded the project, which consisted of mobile exhibitions in such varied locations as post offices and cinemas in a motorcycle sidecar. The idea was to allow the general public more access to art.  In order to to keep the expense minimal staffing was by the founding artists who did not charge. In 1965 the Gallery obtained a glass walled stall in the infamous Bull Ring shopping centre.

For almost 2 decades the Ikon Gallery moved from place to place until 1997 when it bought, with aid from the National Lottery, its present premises, the former Oozells Street Board School. In recent years the Ikon Gallery has held a number of exhibitions and its continual ability to produce the superb has caused it to become surprisingly popular, to such an extent that in 2006 it opened a second gallery, Ikon Eastside in  Digbeth.

If you are thinking about a short break in the city of Birmingham we hope that we have interested you enough to actually visit the Ikon Gallery. Also it is important to know that although there are many hotels in Birmingham finding bed and breakfast in Birmingham can every now and again be rather difficult. Because of this it is crucially important to book your accommodation at the earliest opportunity. You should know that Birmingham Airport is roughly 8 miles distance from the the city center just off the A45, near the M42. You will find there is a useful number of hotels and bed and breakfasts nearby the airport.

posted by Vacation Home Rentals on Apr 22

East Sussex, in the South East of England is an incredibly popular destination for vacations and extended breaks. Diverse vacations can be enjoyed ranging from rambling in the South Downs to vacations by the seaside. East Sussex really does offer a stunning range of vacation opportunities.

A great many visitors to the UK enjoy a trip to the seaside and the southern part of the county of East Sussex features a long stretch of coast, where there are towns such as Eastbourne, Hastings, Bexhill-on-Sea and Brighton & Hove.

The most popular seaside resort in East Sussex is Brighton & Hove, the largest seaside settlement in Britain. At one time Brighton was no more than a tiny fishing village however around 1750 a local doctor began to suggest that his patients should bathe in, and drink, seawater for their health, declaring that Brighton’s seawater was the finest. In only a few years, in seventeen eighty, Georgian terraces began to appear and the Brighton tourism industry was established.

Tourism received a boost by a visit by the Prince Regent (later King George IV of England) in 1783 and again with the arrival of the railway in 1841 (delivering swathes of day-trippers from as far away as London). Today the city gets about eight million visitors per annum and sometimes it seems as though you can hardly move for Brighton bed and breakfasts and tourists.

Another popular East Sussex seaside town is Eastbourne. Located at the east end of the South Downs, it is one of the United Kingdom’s sunniest towns. The town’s main industry is tourism and it has the typical pier as well as many other tourist attractions including a beach (shingle), numerous parks & gardens, museums and four theatres, as well as such things as a bandstand. Thankfully it is relatively easy to find cheap bed & breakfast, at least a little less expensive than many Brighton bed and breakfasts.

Besides the two seaside resorts introduced above, East Sussex also has the less well known, but very beautiful, seaside towns of Rye, Bexhill-on-Sea and Hastings, and numerous towns of interest inland such as the former market towns of Hailsham, Uckfield and Heathfield. A further fascinating East Sussex town well worth visiting is  Crowborough (situated in the middle of the Ashdown Forest), plus Battle and Lewes (the county town) as well as many others.