8 Mother’s Day travel ideas

Photo credit: Nick Meers

Mid-March is the UK’s peak snowdrop season, and few displays better than those of Stowe. Come Mother’s Day itself, this vast Buckinghamshire landscape garden - playing on that eternal nurturing instinct - is uniquely allowing Mums to plant bulbs in its snowdrop-rich Sleeping Wood. They can then return each year to admire their own snowdrop’s progress. nationaltrust.org.uk/stowe

Firmly ensconced in the doghouse? Some finery and fizz ought to help make amends: namely, a Mother’s Day Champagne Afternoon Tea (available 14 & 15 March) in the Victorian Orangery of Kilworth House, a Grade II-listed beauty in the Leicestershire countryside. Every matriarch receives a free box of choccies. If still more grovelling is required, book an overnight stay. 

Britain’s gin scene received a recent tonic with the handsome Lakes Distillery’s arrival.  Revealing how the water from adjacent Bassenthwaite Lake enhances its tipples. There are ample sampling opportunities, including tours of this stone-built Victorian farm culminate in the gift shop. They also fit in very well with Lakes-based walking weekends. lakesdistillery.com

Puzzlewood’s wispy, misty trees are said to have inspired the forests of JRR Tolkien’s fabled Middle Earth. But forget ancient tree shepherds: modern-day mothers attending this Gloucestershire woodland site on weekends until 22 March are entitled to a free, professionally-taken family photograph (at least one child aged under 18 must be present). puzzlewood.net

In good news for gourmand progenitors, the Mother’s Day weekend coincides with bucolic Devonshire town Budleigh Salterton’s annual Food & Drink Festival. A real ale beer festival, local ciders, cookery demos, live music, bake-offs, walking trails and no end of spring produce are all on the menu. budleighfoodanddrink.org.uk

Admittedly, most mums make unlikely green-hatted hell-raisers. But since this year’s Mother’s Day falls slap bang within New York’s three-day St Patrick’s Day party (14-17 March), it would be remiss not to at least suggest a Big Apple trip. The famous Fifth Avenue parade, featuring 250,000 colourful marchers, takes place on 17 March itself. nycstpatricksparade.org

Forego the flowers and perfume in favour of souks and sunshine on a four-night escape to Marrakech, where temperatures are already in the low-mid 20s. On a small-group trip (departing 15 March) with Voyages Jules Verne, you can haggle for pretty slippers in the medina, stroll the tropical Majorelle Gardens or relax in the Hivernage hotel’s fine spa. 

If short-break experts Kirker Holidays know anything, they know how to do Mother’s Day in Paris. Their best suggestion is a stay at the Hotel Castille, where stylish afternoon teas, yummy macarons, sumptuous soft furnishings and Coco Chanel-inspired interiors all vie for attention with Rue St. Honoré’s upscale fashion boutiques.