A fresh bunch of daffodils, Sunday roast lamb in a country pub or an egg hunt with family through the grounds of a stately home — however you choose to celebrate it, spring has lots for us to look forward to. And we’ve found the perfect days out to help you make the most of spring and the four-day bank holiday weekend it brings, with lovely places to stay nearby for each.
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1. Bottle-feed lambs, Jedburgh, Scottish Borders
Go off-grid with a visit to the farmers Fenwick and Jasmine Jackson and their six children at Kersheugh Farm in Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders (adults £12, children £7; jacksonsatjedburgh.co.uk). Visitors can stop by in any season for a taste of their idyllic lives — there are the Highland cows to see and trails to follow — but the estate really comes into its own over lambing season, from March until May. Add the lambing experience to your day ticket (£4pp) and you can pet and bottle-feed the baby sheep. Stay nearby on Fairnington in Kelso, a working farm less than 20 minutes’ drive away, with a stylish self-catering apartment for four people; the agent Crabtree & Crabtree — a specialist with more than 120 cottages in the region — can organise a chef.
Details Three nights’ self-catering from £424 (crabtreeandcrabtree.com)
2. Flower-filled bus ride, Ledbury, Herefordshire
The Daffodil Line bus route, a circuit that connects the pretty market towns Ross-on-Wye, Newent and Ledbury, was set up by Herefordshire residents as a response to service cuts (from £1; daffodilline.co.uk). It’s been dubbed the Daffodil Line because Britain’s brightest daffs grow in Herefordshire — which you’ll see swathes of en route — and were so coveted that the 1880s rail route of the same name transported bunches of them between Birmingham and London to be sold at markets each spring. Alight at Ledbury for Eastnor Castle, which is celebrating its 200th birthday with a “M-egg-astars” Easter treasure hunt, with clues hidden around the grounds and chocolate prizes awarded on completion (adults £14, children £8; March 24-April 4; eastnorcastle.com). Stay at the Hop Store, a converted grain barn — among apple orchards, bluebells and daffodils — near Ledbury, just one of a collection of Herefordshire holiday homes available for rent.
Details Three nights’ self-catering for four from £1,350 (uniquehomestays.com)
3. Scavenge in Soho, London
You’ll need to wear your elasticated waistbands for this one. Start your high-calorie-content day at Golden Square in Soho for an Easter scavenger hunt; you’ll follow a Central London trail, winning clues only once you perform an Easter task (cluck like a chicken in Zone 1, for instance) before taking your completed quiz sheet back to the start for a chocolatey reward (£15; bucketrace.com). There are other egg hunts in the capital this Easter, such as London Zoo’s Zoonormous event (londonzoo.org), but we like the sound of a relaxing cuppa much more. Make for the Londoner hotel on Leicester Square for Easter afternoon tea served in its grand café, the Stage. Springtime twists on the classic tea include camomile and white chocolate, as well as the Londoner yuzu egg, a lemon and yuzu-oozing version of your breakfast staple (£55). Stay overnight and keep your fingers crossed that the hotel repeats last year’s guest-only egg hunt, in which the winner was upgraded to the top suite.
Details Room-only doubles from £467 (thelondoner.com)
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4. Easter craft workshops, near Kingham, Oxfordshire
For those who wish to elevate their Easter, a trip to Daylesford — surely the most fabulous farm on the planet, with restaurants, a spa and (eye-wateringly expensive) farm shop on site — is in order. Day classes include lessons in Easter table laying (£210), Sunday-roast cookery (£125) and spring flower-arranging (£160). For children there’s a celebration day in the Market Garden on March 30 (tickets £10) with an Easter egg hunt for under-12s (£5 extra) as well as other egg-centric events such as Meet Peter Rabbit, an egg-and-spoon race, and hot cross buns for sale. If you’re happy to get your wellies dirtier than that, on April 13 take the lambing tour (£10) given by resident shepherds, which includes a ride on the tractor trailer and an introduction to ewes and new offspring in the barns (daylesford.com). Continue the Daylesford theme with a stay at one of its three pubs with rooms: the Fox, the Bell or the Wild Rabbit. The Fox is closest to Daylesford farm, just a mile away.
Details B&B doubles from £252 (thefoxatoddington.com)
5. Food and crafts market, Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk
Some say spring is here as of the equinox on March 21; others believe spring arrives only once the magnolias bloom. At Holkham Hall in Wells-next-the-Sea, it’s when the annual spring market opens on April 6, selling local produce — jams, cheeses, ciders and spirits — as well as crafts and gifts such as handmade jewellery and watercolour paintings. So excited by this new season is the historic estate that it invites children to come wearing capes and masks and take the walled-garden Superheroes trail to learn all about nature’s heroes and villains that either boost or threaten spring’s arrival. Also during the long Easter weekend there will be a daily theatrical performance by Squirrel Walnutkins in the garden and the chance to play in a Junk Orchestra (adults £23, children £8.50; March 29 until April 3; holkham.co.uk). Stay at the Victoria, a historic inn on the estate, just a mile from Holkham Hall; dogs are welcome.
Details B&B doubles from £170 (holkham.co.uk)
6. Glorious gardens, Dyffryn, Vale of Glamorgan
Dyffryn Gardens doesn’t just do daffs, it has its own internationally recognised breed — Narcissus Dyffryn or the Dyffryn daffodil. And that’s just the start. You will find springtime sprouting everywhere within this 55-acre collection of Edwardian botanical gardens: crocuses; irises; tulips; wisteria; magnolia; and endless trees in blossom such as apple, cherry, pear and orange. Easter activities this year include an interactive egg trail (£3), feed the bunny and animal dress-up stations between March 23 and April 2 (adults £11, children £5.50; nationaltrust.org.uk). Stay five miles away at the Fox and Hounds, a country inn with a cracking Sunday roast.
Details B&B doubles from £85 (fandhllancarfan.co.uk)
7. Easter eggs and steam trains, Havenstreet, Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight Steam Railway won the Heritage Rail Association’s gong for Heritage Railway of the Year in 2023 and this year it’s showing off again with a flurry of Easter activities. Aboard the gleaming 1864 locomotive, visitors can travel a pretty five-mile stretch through bluebells and daffodil-decked woodland. Then there’s the big hunt — solve clues at Havenstreet station, where giant eggs are hidden in the gardens, before collecting a chocolate prize (adults £22, children £11, under-fives free; 29 March-12 April; iwsteamrailway.co.uk). If you’re there over Easter weekend itself, stay up to see Sandown Bay’s Saturday night firework display over the water and enjoy bonnet crafting and a parade on Easter Sunday (free; sandowncarnival.com). Stay at the Seaview Hotel on the waterfront, a 15-minute drive from the steam railway.
Details B&B doubles from £110 (seaviewhotel.co.uk)
How are you spending Easter weekend? Let us know in the comments below
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