The Travelling Holts

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 longer periods of time, around two or three weeks which 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…

Our First Swedish Christmas

Well we didn’t plan to spend our first Christmas back in Europe, in Sweden but when you’re in the middle of a global pandemic what can you do? We were hoping to go back home to the UK for the first time in 5 years but in true 2020 style and the UK’s relentless fluctuating…

Covid- What was it like for me?

If you were to think of a word for 2020, Covid is probably the word that springs to mind. Since it’s discovery way back in January, it has rapidly and unapologetically turned the whole world upside down. Countries have locked down, families have been separated and now we are all adjusting to a new reality…

3 Nights in Shanghai

Shanghai has been a place that we have wanted to visit ever since we arrived on this side of the world. Taking less than 3 hours by plane from Tokyo to Shanghai, it seemed silly not to go but, honestly, we had not heard great things about visiting China and so we kept putting it…