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A weekend Oasis

Anna Selby and her eight-year-old son Christian head for Cumbria for a weekend away that keeps them both entertained

With fewer public holidays to enjoy than anywhere else in Europe, it's no wonder the Brits love to use half-terms and bank holidays to escape for a long weekend. But for a short break, no one wants to travel too far or look too hard for child-friendly hotels and appealing local activities to suit all ages. And with the unpredictable British weather to take into account, finding fun that won't get rained off is quite a conundrum.

Bearing all this in mind, eight-year-old Christian and I decided to try the Oasis holiday village in the beautiful countryside of Cumbria. There were a number of obvious attractions: a wide range of activities to suit us both, a choice of restaurants but also a fully equipped kitchen, lots of sparkling fresh air and wildlife for our jaded city souls and plenty to do inside even if it rained solidly for three days.

We took the train from London Euston to Penrith (cars are banned inside Oasis's 400 acres, except for unloading your belongings on arrival) and Oasis is just a short taxi ride away from the station.

You don't need to take too many belongings with you as the apartments and lodges come fully equipped and with lots of finishing touches - a cafetiere for proper coffee, an ironing board, satellite television, a dishwasher and a spa bath among them. You can choose from a one-bedroom apartment (de luxe apartments overlook the lake) to a lodge with up to four bedrooms in natural woodland.

Outdoor paradise
The natural setting is a delight for city kids - Christian was lost in wonder at the huge fungi growing all over the woods and was thrilled to spot a red squirrel. Because it is traffic-free, Oasis is a safe place for children to get around under their own steam. So Christian hired a mountain bike and was soon negotiating his own way from the lake - for a morning of Swallows and Amazons, learning windsurfing, sailing and kayaking - over to the Country Club sports centre to meet me after my fencing lesson. We then went together on the Mini-Beast Hunt with the ranger to discover the creepy-crawlies on the woodland floor.

Walking through the wood, while Christian and the other children were peering under sticks and stones, we came across a group of red-and-white spotted toadstools about which the ranger was a mine of information. Apparently, their hallucinogenic properties were prized by the Lapps, who preferred to take them after they had first been processed through their reindeers. By the time the hallucinogenic urine was ready, it was winter, the snow was banked up against the doors, and the only way for the distiller of this extraordinary concoction to deliver it to his customers was by going down the hole in the roof that passed for a chimney. And here, the ranger assured us, was the origin of the preferred means of entry for Father Christmas.

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