There's nothing quite like a British adventure – sprawling landscapes, bracing weather and wonderful wildlife spotting can be found right here on our isles. Plus, of course, some smart places to stay and delicious places to eat. These are our favourite staycations right now.
On a curious early summer weekend, when Glasgow is somehow hotter than Madrid , I find myself waking in a bell tent on Jura’s wild northeast, going for a morning dip in mirror-like water among yawning grey seals – and wondering why I’ve spent all these years escaping my home country. I’m on a short version of the Hebridean Sea Safari run by Glenapp Castle, a place of turreted grandeur on a magical but oft-missed stretch of the Ayrshire coast, best known as the birthplace of Robert Burns. While the sea safari is bookended by nights in the grand but not impersonal old hotel – with its croquet lawn, Victorian glasshouse and resident bagpiper – the Jura setup is off-grid safari-style, in an idyllic spot not far from the Barnhill house where George Orwell wrote Nineteen Eight-Four.
Getting there on the hotel’s little 12-seater boat is an adventure, via Ailsa Craig, the volcanic plug island known for its 40,000 seabirds and the unique granite used curling stones. Knowledgeable local skipper Sandy Campbell navigates us to picnics on lonely islets, drams at Islay’s lovely whitewashed Ardbeg distillery, and a trip to a 6th-century chapel on the haunting island of Eilean Mor MacCormick. Pods of po.