Holiday Courses - Homepage

Welcome to Holiday Courses

Bird carving courses in West Cornwall
Be warned: this could be life-changing. 18 years ago Roy Hewson went to the studio of a man who carved wooden birds, was converted on the spot, and this is how he has made his living every since.

Arts, crafts, music and literature in the Wiltshire countryside
This magnificent, 17th-century, red-brick building on the edge of Pewsey Vale offers a vast array of adult education courses. Owned by the county of Wiltshire since the mid-1940s, Urchfont Manor offers year-round courses in art, craft, music, literature and others.

Botanical illustration in The Lost Gardens of Heligan
For a course in Botanical illustration, a studio in the middle of the world-famous Lost Gardens of Heligan must be the perfect location.

Tours around Thomas Hardy country
Literature lovers will revel in the tours that Brian Davidson runs around the West Country. This is an area rich with literary associations and Brian will take participants to the haunts, and tell the stories, of Hardy, Christie, Galsworthy, Tennyson, Coleridge, du Maurier, Conan Doyle, RD Blackmore, Herrick and others.

Bridge, painting and physio in a beautiful Cornish hotel
One of Cornwall's most special hotels, Tresanton offers various courses as an extra enticement to bring guests down to this beautiful peninsula.

This website presents you with a gift-wrapped opportunity to make good the intentions that have long cluttered your internal 'to do' list. Be it learning the guitar, taking up embroidery, making jewellery, baking bread, writing a short story, painting watercolours, restoring furniture, flying falcons, starting yoga or a hundred others, we aim to provide you with the wherewithal to try something new, refresh a skill you once had, or take a current skill to a new level. Using this site you should be able to find an operation offering the course you want at a time, place and price that suits your needs.

Raku at West Dean College We have gathered together almost 500 different venues offering several thousand courses between them. All the venues were selected on merit by a team of independent researchers. Apart from yoga, there are not a whole lot of activities on these webpages which will make you sweat - unless you agree to read your own poetry on a creative writing course.

Instead, the courses we do have fall into the following categories:
Arts - essentially drawing, painting and sculpture;
Crafts - ceramics, woodwork, textiles, fabrics, furniture, jewellery and metal;
Food & Drink - cookery and wine-related courses;
Music & Performance - music, theatre and dance;
Writing, Film & Photography - creative writing, film & televisual arts, and photography;
Home & Garden - interior and garden design;
Body & Soul - yoga, t'ai chi, reiki, aromatherapy, healing, meditation;
Outdoor - environmental, birdwatching, wildlife, falconry and guided walks;
Other - bridge, swimming, history, archaeology...

Stone carving at West Dean College Some venues are small, family-run affairs offering a single area of excellence - photography weekends, for example; others are adult education centres with course smorgasbords serving up every workshop and retreat imaginable, plus a few more besides.

We do not intend to send you back to school. Our emphasis is as much on 'holiday' as it is on 'course'. The courses we feature are keen to retain an emphasis on fun - on the joy of working and learning alongside similarly minded people, often in beautiful environments, so that you return home feeling both refreshed and inspired.

Service

The book
The course information on this website was taken from our book, Holiday Courses for Long Weekends and Short Breaks.

Find much more information on all courses in this 270-page, full-colour guide, along with easy-to-use maps and an extensive index. Click here to buy the book at the special online price of £11.04 (RRP £12.99).

Regions
London - cutting-edge courses, urban focus.

South East - historic towns and sumptuous countryside.

South West - seaside and alternative living.

East Anglia - painting and naturalist paradise.

East Midlands - a strong traditional craft focus.

West Midlands - rural country pursuits.

Yorkshire - typical foods and splendid scenery.

The North - food, arts, crafts and literature.

Wales - rich in painting and spiritual potential.

Scotland - music, whisky, rugged scenery and Celtic culture.

Northern Ireland - beautiful coastlines and thriving Belfast.

Ireland - vibrant cities, literary tradition and stunning landscapes.