The Travelling Holts

Norwegian Spa Hotel Getaway

This summer we were supposed to return to Japan but unfortunately the Covid curse prevented us from going. Even though we were gutted, we decided to make the best of it. We took our time moving house with the help of some amazing people and then took a few days away of Gävle to unwind…

Yasuragi, Stockholm

Since leaving nearly two years ago now, I know I have left a little bit of my heart in Japan and with the COVID restrictions, we still haven’t been able to return. So what to do whilst we are waiting for Japan to open its borders to tourists? We decided to go to the next…

The Glass Resort: Finland

One thing has been on my bucket list for a long time; I have dreamed of seeing the Northern Lights for many years and when we moved to Sweden, we knew we were a little bit closer to achieving that dream. There are so many amazing places to see them in Scandinavia and just weeks…

Höstlov in Stockholm

It finally happened! Sweden opened its borders with the UK and our parents were allowed to visit. My parents came for the first four nights of our Höstlov break followed by Rob’s parents for the last four nights. Due to limited time we decided that meeting in Stockholm would be easier when we would be…

2 Days in Stockholm

When we first moved to Sweden, we thought our first stop would be Stockholm but due to the Corona curse, that was postponed twice. The first time we thought we had Covid, the second time we did! Now nearly 12 months into our Swedish adventure, we finally made it. A mere 90min direct train from…

8 Amazing Side Trips from Tokyo

When we lived in Japan, we used to get a lot of visitors. Some used to visit for long periods of time, around two or three weeks. This would give us time to see the more popular sites further a field like Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Himeji, etc… which are highly recommended if you have the…

Torekov, Sweden

After the marinas and rocky coastlines of the northern west coast, we packed up and headed south to another part of the Swedish west coast. This time we wanted a bit more luxury and beaches which we certainly got two hours south in a small town called Torekov. The Torekov Hotel belongs to The Gram…

Tjörn, Sweden

This summer we finally got out of Gävle to explore some of Sweden and we decided to explore two different areas of the west coast. The West of Sweden is famous for its rugged coastline and its picturesque marinas so it is no shock that we were drawn there for our first road trip. Our…

10 Best Things about Living in Japan

You know the age old saying, “You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone?” Well now that we have been in Sweden nearly a year living the Covid high life, I do find myself thinking about Japan a lot and the things we miss. Of course what we miss is what made living in…

2020: A Year in Review

So where to start….? We had only two certainties about 2020 when we started the year. We were going to be leaving Japan this year and we were going to leave in the July. Apart from that, we had no plans, no idea where we were going next. It was going to be an exciting…