Chasing waterfalls in Oregon

Wahclella Falls Trail in the Columbia River Gorge, near Portland in the state of Oregon, USA — The gorge’s ‘towering’ waterfalls are a must-see

(Image credit: Wolfgang Kaehler / LightRocket / Getty Images)

Forming part of the border between Oregon and Washington State, the Columbia River Gorge is fabulously grand, said Chris Leadbeater in The Telegraph – and you need only drive for 20 miles from central Portland (an “unfailingly hip” city) to see it. Even the first view you get of it, from Crown Point, is worth the journey – and from there, the gorge stretches for 80 miles to the east, reaching depths of up to 1,220 metres. Interstate 84 runs its entire length – a “noisy man-made intrusion”, but dwarfed even so by the surroundings; and there’s a quieter option, the Historic Columbia River Highway, for those with time to spare. Stop to see the gorge’s towering waterfalls (the tallest is Multnomah Falls, at 189 metres); and head into the Hood River Valley for “dazzling” views of Mount Hood, a “vast” volcano rearing to 3,429 metres.

A long walk in 1066 country

The Bayeux Tapestry has arrived in the UK for the first time in a millennium, and can be seen at the British Museum from 10 September – making this a good year to do the 1066 Country Walk, said Pamela Petro in The Guardian. This 31-mile route across East Sussex begins at Pevensey, where William the Conqueror landed that September, and passes through Battle, the “probable” site of the Battle of Hastings, en route to Rye. We walked it in four days. The claim made for the walk is loose – it crosses “countryside that witnessed the Norman Conquest” – reflecting the limits of the historical record. Tent Hill is a place where one army or other – “no one knows which” – is said to have camped. But I loved it even so. This is a beautiful part of England (including the High Weald National Landscape), and the scenery often “calls the distant past to mind” – even sharing the tapestry’s “russet, sage and ochre hues”, when I walked it last September.

It was “aristocratic Britons” who first made Dinard fashionable as a sea-bathing place in the mid-19th century, but today it is more popular with Parisians “eager to escape the ever-increasing heat and glitz of the Côte d’Azur”. This resort town on Brittany’s north coast is a delight, said Kate Maxwell in the Financial Times, with its “elegant” Belle Époque architecture, quiet sandy beaches and “superlative” seafood. It’s easy to reach from the UK, too – a quick ferry ride across the Rance estuary from Saint-Malo – and sits near other charming coastal spots such as Saint-Briac-sur-Mer. You might stay at the “handsome” Grand Hôtel Dinard, built in the 1850s, try the excellent savoury galettes at the Breizh Café, and visit “the sweep of the Plage de l’Écluse”, which was the inspiration for several of Picasso’s “Bathers” paintings.