I know Valentines Day is a while away, but I thought I’d recommend Paris as a destination. I went on for Valentines weekend earlier this year and had a great time. I booked online and travelled down to Paris on the Eurostar from Kings Cross St Pancras Station. In the same time as it takes to get from Manchester to London which is roughly 2 hours you can get from London to Paris. The train is smooth, fast and far more spacious than an aeroplane. You have more room to move and more leg room which is brilliant.

Once you arrive there are loads of hotels nearby the main station Gare du Nord so we just walked from the station to our hotel and then got on with the romantic weekend, taking in all the famous sites.

One word of advice – it’s usually still very cold in February. We had a really nice sunny weekend but you need to wrap up warm in order to enjoy it to the full.

A couple of friends sharing a little cabin on a weeks holiday, and only a 15 minute boat-ride from Venice, the holiday park being right on a sandy beach, a little town full of yummy restaurants… Bliss!!

And Venice itself – wow! An eclectic ramble of curio shops and tacky souvenirs and stunningly painted historical buildings and smartly dressed men pushing a gondolier around the canals… it doesn’t fail to delight and amaze.

But when you look a little closer, you find the 20% charges whacked on top of a food bill, the exact same snow globes, glass figures and masks in every shop and stall, the excessive amount of other tourists… it wears a bit thin.

Maybe it’s just me, but I’m now at “that age” (only 25!!!) that I want a holiday to be relaxing – not a hodge-podge of dodging persistent traders and fighting my way through crowds on narrow streets, and worrying my purse won’t be with me once I get through.

I never had this feeling on my weeks camping in Scotland….