Passionate Blog

Travel writing competition celebrates beautiful Britain

OUR Have a Lovely Time family travel and activities website is calling for submissions in a travel writing competition celebrating Beautiful Britain.

The family travel writing contest has a top prize of £200, a second prize of a weekend stay at the Park Inn in historic York and 10 English Heritage family passes for everyone finishing in the top ten, as well as a copy of Travelling with Children, by Catherine Cooper, one of the competition’s judges.

There’s also a mystery prize on offer for the entry voted readers’ favourite after the competition closes on October 1, 2011.

We want to celebrate all that’s great about family tourism in our stunning land. That might include breathtaking  adventures in the Lakes, laughing til your sides ache at a family-friendly Edinburgh festival, savouring the splendour of the West Wales coastline, a Devon cream tea or a knees up at a holiday park…or of course plenty more.

Secret Millionaire charity set to enjoy York day trip

SUPPORTERS of a Yorkshire charity, who were the lucky recipients of a six-figure sum on TV’s A Secret Millionaire, are set to be given the VIP treatment by a York hotel on a day trip to the city.

The Park Inn by Radisson York is providing free lunch and drinks for more than 50 volunteers and those helped by the Rainbow’s End project when they visit the city on Sunday May 15.

The charity, based in Burngreave in Sheffield, was handed a six-figure cheque by millionaire interior designer Simrin Choudhrie, who had been secretly working as a volunteer in the charity’s shop as part of the Channel 4 TV show. She also gave £3,000 so the charity’s workers could have a day out, with charity organiser Yvonne Hayes deciding on a trip to York.

Have a Lovely Time included as top ten stand out travel blog

By Carol Garrington 

THANK you very much to First Choice for including our family holidays and activities site us in a round up of top travel bloggers.

They're asking readers to vote for their favourites and they have a week to do so.

Thank you to anyone who can spare the time to vote. It's very straightforward and takes all of five seconds.

You can read the full post here:

Ten stand out travel bloggers.

 

Win a copy of Travelling with Children: A Parent's Guide

 
HAVE a lovely time contributor Catherine Cooper has a brilliant book out now, all about family holidays.

There are chapters on budget breaks, what to do when things go wrong, finding the right holiday for you, plus house swaps, essential information and plenty more. Contributions in this meticulously researched book come from all sorts of families about their experiences. 

To have a chance of winning a copy, head over to Have a Lovely Time and answer the question before February 28. 

Awards update: More blog nominations: Would love your support

 

AN awards scheme recognising the best of the UK parent blogosphere has been launched and our sites have been nominated.

Got Your Hands Full has been nominated for Blog of the Year, Funniest Blog and for Inspirational Blogger. I'd love any support you wanted to send my way. Have a Lovely Time has been nominated in the family fun blog category as well as Best New Blog.

Top Tips for a family cruise from MyChild.co.uk

LINDA recently joined a group of journalists aboard the Disney Wonder for a press trip to the Bahamas.

We've planned a series of reports for Have a Lovely Time, as well as video and a podcast.

She's also contributed a piece to the parenting and education website MyChild.

You can read the report here.

A Passionate contribution to new book out now: Tales of a Travelling Mum

A FANTASTIC new book shows that motherhood doesn't have to mean giving up on a sense of adventure.

Tales from a Travelling Mum: Navigating Europe with a Babe-in-Arms is Alice's story of venturing across Europe with her baby daughter.

Passionate Media director Linda Jones is one of writers who has contributed to travel writer Alice Griffin's new book.

Her contribution is about how much we love family holidays and breaks in the UK, what fun there is to be had and an explanation of why we wanted to set up our family travel site Have a Lovely Time.

Double the excitement as our twins blog is featured in The Times

By Linda Jones

I'VE been reading about how PRs are engaging with bloggers lately and some of the discussion has either been sparked by or led to mentions of a recent trip I shared with six other so-called UK 'mummybloggers' to Walt Disney World.

The trip was the subject of a feature in The Times by my fellow member of the so-called Disney Seven, Alice Castle.

You can also see this forward thinking post from travel journalist Jeremy Head and this interesting piece by Manchester's Sarah Hartley.

I'm included because of You've Got Your Hands Full, our blog for multiple birth parents, which has gained more than 11,000 returning readers since being launched in 2006.

Susanna, from A Modern Mother, recently shared guidance for PRs wanting to contact this group of bloggers and I have been meaning to add my thoughts on her excellent post for a while. The one point I disagreed on was that I write for other people, not for me.

British bloggers set for VIP Disney trip

A GROUP of British 'mummy bloggers' has been invited to sample the delights of Walt Disney World, Florida, and Passionate Media director Linda Jones is among them.

The trip, later this month, has been made possible by the Think Parents network, overseen by the award-winning Digital Outlook marketing agency.

Linda has been invited because of her work on the twins and multiple births blog, You've got your hands full. Most of Passionate Media's team have ventured to new (and sometimes faraway) places on press trips in days gone by, - with Helen already visiting Disney for a week with the Express & Star - so it'll be interesting to see how this one differs! Thank you to Kerry Power from Digital Outlook and Disney's PR team for making this opportunity possible.