Six of the boys took their bikes to France for a long weekend riding through the glorious French countryside, eating and drinking good food and wine and staying at interesting hotels!!

As usual we ended up at Hotel de France, south of Le Mans for our last night and St Ceneri Le Gerai for our last lunch!

Our 20th Wedding Anniversary was spent in the stunning city of Dubrovnik. We stayed at the stylishly wonderful Villa Dubrovnik, where they take you to the old city by boat. A lovely, peaceful few days.

The Boys annual ski trip was in Italy for its third year. Great fun.

I was lucky enough to be invited along to sail in the 2017 Around the Island race in the Isle of Wight in June. What a fabulous experience that will stay with me for a long time.

A long awaited trip to South Africa with my bike to get some training in. Not so much training as eating and drinking but great fun. Family joined for Half Term holidays and we saw all the sights and sounds.

A pre-Christmas treat, we decided to take a chance on the weather and booked a week in a catered chalet with Ski Cuisine right on the piste. What had been planned as a family week turned into a fabulous week of fun when our friends, the Gowers, joined us in the chalet and the snow arrived with plenty to spare. It was, without doubt, one of the best ski holidays we have ever had.

The end of Summer saw us invited to the beautiful Domaine Des Andiols in Provence for a fiftieth birthday party weekend. Stunning hotel, lovely company and too much food and drink made for a wonderful trip.

In October ‘17 I joined some pals for a long weekend of golf in the Dordogne. Crisp, cold but bright weather and some interesting golf has put this trip as an annual event!

Back home and a family trip to London to watch England v Samoa was a real treat. Samoa made a good game of it and we had some great meals and fun time with the boys and a few extras.

We revisited the Grecian mainland for another group holiday with our great friends. Staying at the Ikos Olivia hotel, it was a holiday to remember with everyone having the best of times. 

The boys went for a week's skiing in the Dolomites, staying in the village of Le Villa. Great skiing, great wine and good prices on the mountain! We'll be back!

Feb half term and we decided to do something different. Instead of skiing or laying on a beach, an adventure beckoned. 

Pen decided that a trip to see the Northern Lights would be exciting and truly memorable and that was to prove correct!

It took us nearly three days to get there with fog cancelling our flights and forcing us to take a last minute ferry to the UK to race to London to catch re-arranged flights to Oslo, then Tromso. Stressful and tiring, but then the lights came out to play and all the hassle was forgotten!

We spent October half term at The Spice Island Beach Resort. A fabulous all inclusive resort with a small number of bungalows in the grounds and on the beach.

It’s very chilled and the rooms are very comfortable and well appointed.

This is somewhere we would definitely come back to!

A very special trip for a Big Birthday!

Mr & Mrs B spent four days at La Residencia in Diea, Mallorca, a fabulous hotel in a stunning part of the island. Highly recommended!

We flew to Halkidiki to stay at the Eagle's Palace Hotel & Spa. We took a bunch of pals with us!

We were eight adults and ten big kids and it was fabulous. Great fun, very relaxing and not a cross word from anyone. A true success!

We did eat and drink like it was an Olympic sport, but we were on holiday after all!  

The French were revolting and trying to keep all their fuel to themselves, but we carried on like troopers and biked down to the Auvergne region and across the Massif Central before heading north again. 

The weather was changeable, the number of riders (at 10) was challenging, but some great roads, great food and great wine made sure we had a great time!

Two weeks in the snow in Meribel with the fabulous Ski Cuisine staying at two different catered chalets.

The first week was with the Quadra team who were skiing for the first time and then the family came down for the Christmas week in Quatre Meules.

It was a lovey time, with great company and fabulous hosted accommodation from Ski Cuisine.

Half term holidays and a special trip to St Lucia for the family (except Hugo who is busy at Imperial engineering chemicals). Courtesy of BA and their Avios, we travelled in style for the first time as a family and the boys just loved it (funnily enough).

We arrived in St Lucia at 3pm and then we had the second treat of a helicopter ride to our hotel, The East Winds Inn on Gros Islet. 

The temperature was 30 degrees, the hotel small and friendly and we just knew it was going to be fabulous. 

We flew into Italy and picked up our bikes from the Milan branch of HP Motorrad, a BMW backed hire shop run by lackadaisical Italian staff. After no run through of the bikes at all, and with light fading in the drizzle, we set off into the Milanese rush-hour with some trepidation. It wasn't much fun!

An hour or so later we arrived in Lecco for the start of four days of lakes and mountains and too much Italian traffic. A trip to the Ducati factory was a treat and we had some great food, especially in Il Re della Bussa in Riva del Garda.  

Good trip with good pals!

Summer started with a week with our great pals Ed and Anne in the Doordogne, then we left the Dordogne and drove North, away from the sun, to Il de Re where we rented a lovely cottage with a pool we didn't use!

Got our bikes (a nice electric model for Pen!) and off we went. 

Beautiful place, lovely restaurants, picturesque towns and harbours.

Dom, Kirsty and Fin joined us for a few days at the end of the week which was lovely.

We left a crate of about 30 beers in the fridge, forgetting to bring them home!

Anthill mob, Jonno, Mark and I wooshing through the Massif Central!

Great fun, great food, great wine.

Boys' Trip to Northern France to visit the grave of Private David Hamilton, who died in October 1916 in the Battle of the Somme.

Mixture of cars and bikes which was interesting!

Trip to Silverstone with Jonno and Mark to learn how to ride was great fun!

Family Baz travelled far for a week of guaranteed sun at the Lux Grande Gaube, Mauritius.

Lovely location, decent hotel and relaxing time had by all.

October Half Term and we had been told about this great little island called Palm Island in the Grenadines.

It was right up our street. Only 40 rooms, very relaxed and fabulously friendly staff. 

If only all holidays could be like this!

Loads of planning went into this trip.

We caught a ferry to St Malo, rode to St Nazaire and caught another ferry, overnight, to Gijon. The ferry was later to be destroyed by fire off the coast of Italy! Great!

So then we rode off the ferry and into the mountains.

Northern Spain has some of the most fantastic roads in Europe. Great condition, great twisties, good straights, no traffic and no police.

Hotels were great too, and exceptional value. Will have to do it again (except the ferry route has stopped, damn!)

Direct flights from Jersey to Palma? Yes please! 

Our great friends the McBissons joined us for a week of sunshine on the north coast of Mallorca near Alcudia. 

As there were 11 of use we needed lots of taxis and big tables for dinner! Plus lots of sun loungers around the pool!

Hotel was average and we probably didnt see enough of the island but for a week of sun it was good fun!

At the start of May, we went to Cornwall for Stu's 50th at this fabulous self catering location with beautiful countryside and a fabulous pool complex. We had a day at the Eden project then Black Tie for the big event. Great time with great friends.

A few days later it was Bikes to France, checking out Rai's old crash site and finding a new one for Harj! Lucky boy!

In June it was the cars' turn and a trip to the Loire in the usual selection of exotica.