When I first came across James Asquith on social media, he was necking a champagne slammer and sticking it to the man. Well, as the years have passed, his disruptive spirit has shifted into the business side of travel, and now he is the owner of both Holiday Swap and new British airline, Global Airlines. Their first commercial flight took off from Glasgow on 15th May 2025, and we were lucky enough to join this inaugural flight to JFK. Read on for our full review of Global Airlines A380 economy service.
This post may contain sponsored content or affiliate links that help support the blog. All opinions are our own.
A Little Bit About Global Airlines
If you haven’t heard of Global Airlines, you are not alone. Global is an airline, founded in 2021, which has currently run just two return flights to JFK, one from Glasgow and one from Manchester. The plan of CEO James Asquith is to purchase a whole load of Airbus A380 aircraft and use them to recreate the golden age of air travel, I’m not entirely convinced a high capacity plane is capable of feeling swish (in economy at least) but they are going to give it a darn good go!
Currently, in May 2025, Global owns two planes and is still in process of attaining (we think) an Air Operator’s Certificate and UK Foreign Carrier Permit. To run these tester flights(?), they have enlisted the Maltese arm of Hi Fly, a Portuguese charter airline. The livery and crew uniforms are Global but the staff are all Hi Fly. I believe they called this “a damp lease”.
We were greeted with a lovely bit of hype upon arrival at Glasgow International Airport. A balloon arch, signs for Global Airlines and a photo wall adorned the check-in area. There were cupcakes on offer and friendly staff from Glasgow Airport tagging hand luggage with lots of excited chit chat.
Check-in seemed to go quite slowly, and we queued for about thirty minutes, but when we reached the desk we saw that the staff were dealing with an admin nightmare. They had a printed spreadsheet that they had to cross-reference with every check in. Half of the economy passengers were being upgraded, whilst all of the others had new seats. The couple next to us were popped into business class. Sadly, we were not. However, it turned out that we had all been moved to the upper deck, presumably for either weight and balance or ease of service.
Airside
Glasgow Airport is a little on the wee side. It reminds me strongly of London Stansted, but they have lovely modern security systems, making getting screened a breeze. Once through the main duty-free shop, there is a surprisingly large selection of eateries, but we stuck with old faithful and grabbed something from Pret. Filling our water bottles, we head down in the direction of the Emirates lounge, gambling on the premise that this was where they park their A380, so it may well be the location of ours. Well, there it was, waiting for us.
Glasgow Airport is pretty ill-equipped for such large planes, and the corridor by the boarding doors got pretty busy, even with just the hundred or so passengers waiting to board. I have no idea how they cope with a full A380. A domestic flight had also arrived, and the incoming passengers all squeezed past us, so for about five minutes, it was carnage.
Boarding went reasonably smoothly. Interestingly, business was boarded first, followed by First Class and then Economy. Again, I don’t know how they would cope with just one jetty if the flight was full. I suppose other arrangements would be made.
We’ve flown on the giant Airbus A380 twice before this; once on Singapore Airlines, and we wrote a full reivew of when we flew with Emirates from London to Dubai.
Onboard Global Airlines A380
The Seats
The seats, upholstered in a light biscuit colour and highlighted in red, reminded me a little of Emirates’ uniform colours. They look great, but I do wonder how the lighter fabric will fare over time. The economy seats have a decent pitch at 32 inches and a width of 17.2 inches which is plenty. You will also get a recline which works to both tip the chair back a little (not enough to enrage the person behind you) and to slide the seat forward a little. At least, most do. My particular seat wouldn’t stay reclined. Luckily, the seat next to me was free, so I could move over.
The seat in front has a wide but thin tray table which extends towards you for meal times. Each has a handy little drinks holder too.
The Headrests
The headrests are a menace! They have nice adjustable flaps on either side, and in theory, can be slid up and down for height. However, there are no catches on the attaching bracket, so anyone trying to push them up pops them clean off! I did it, along with five or six other people in the cabin. I was mortified. They might need to look at this for the future.
Our Seats
We had seats upstairs in the small section of economy at the back of the plane. Originally on 37 H and K (a window and aisle with a seat between us), we ended up in 79 F and G (an aisle and middle seat on the back row). This was a real shame as I was excited for the view and there was no tail cam to watch. Not good for boredom alleviation or for content creation. I asked the cabin crew if I could go downstairs to take a few photos out of the window and of the seats, but it was off limits.
Honestly, our seats were rather unfortunate. Not only were we in the middle, but the bathroom right behind us was broken somehow. There was a rushing air sound, as if it was flushing permanently. It was so loud! I would have killed someone if I were trying to sleep.
Storage
The Airbus A380 has tons of room for bags in its delightfully sizable lockers. Upstairs, the window seats also have a handy locker to your side, between the seat and the window. This is absolutely perfect for shorties like me. It also gives you a handy shelf to sleep on.
The seatback pockets were the width of the seat, so you could stash loads in there if required. Do remember that they can end up quite dirty, as it is nearly impossible to clean them properly and don’t stick anything in there that is going in your mouth.
Entertainment
This is where things went a bit wonky for me. I had seen a cabin walkthrough before we departed and noticed that the in-flight entertainment systems hadn’t been changed from the old China Southern units. Obviously, screen technology has come on somewhat in the last twelve years, but as long as the offering of entertainment options is decent, I can handle a clunky system. However, the night before we departed, we received an email to let us know that:
A – The original entertainment system was not going to be operational.
B – There would be no in-seat power in economy, so we should make sure we have a full charge and power banks.
C – The WiFi wouldn’t be up and running.
D – They have installed an entertainment offering that can be streamed to our own devices.
Now, in normal circumstances, I wouldn’t be mad at it. However, lots of people (including us) were already in Glasgow or en route, so it was a bit late to prepare. I only had my small phone to watch the films or TV shows on, and being visually impaired, this is less than ideal. I also happened to have a power bank with me as I am paranoid, but I bet there were plenty of people who didn’t. An earlier heads-up would have been good. As you might expect, there were lots of people with laptops in tow, hoping to get their reviews done on board, and this clearly had them concerned.
The actual selection of films, TV shows, music and games was pretty good, with films from a few months ago like Conclave and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. I decided not to watch anything to ensure I didn’t give myself eye strain. Mr Fluskey was happy to see that there was a Skymap but it was very, very basic.
Amenities
In the Seat
When we boarded, we found some bits and bobs waiting for us. First was a nice, soft fleece blanket and a small pillow. These were both good quality for an economy offering. We also had a nice commemorative note or certificate to celebrate the flight. Finally, there was a rather fancy amenity kit.
The Global Airlines Amenity Kit
In a world where it is rare to get any kind of amenity kit in economy, Global Airlines has gone all out!
Eye mask
Ear plugs
Socks
Shoe horn
Mirror
Comb
Refreshing wipe
Body lotion
Pulse point oil
Eau de toilette
Lip balm
Dental kit
Pen
I’m 80% sure this wasn’t meant to be for economy passengers as it was giving major business class vibes but I forgot to ask Mr Asquith.
The Bathrooms
The bathrooms by us were small, but I think this is due to them being the upstairs ones and not the main ones in economy. Interestingly, only one of the two had the nice Margaret Dabb hand cream. Mr Fluskey made the right choice when it was time to pop to the loo, while I picked the more basic of the two and left without moisturised hands.
One of the big promises made about Global Airlines is that every passenger, regardless of cabin, would get a glass of champagne. No doubt, those in Business and First class would have more than one, but it was still a very welcome treat for us plebs. We were served Laurent Perrier champagne. There was no champagne, prosecco or cava on the official wine list, but I asked and they poured me another glass of champagne to enjoy with lunch too. There is a pretty full bar offering, so I would imagine that too many people would miss it.
Speaking of drinks, somewhere is the world’s first Skypub, but as it resides between Business and First class, it was not for the likes of us.
We got two full meal services, which was unexpected. The drinks were served at the same time. As mentioned, we had a second round of champagne with lunch. Mr Fluskey also asked for a rum and Coke. They poured the Coke but said that to add the rum would make it “a cocktail” and they would have to ask at the front to get it. This seemed a little odd to me, considering it was all listed in the menu. What will they do if the whole cabin asks for different drinks? I think they either need to reduce what is offered in the menu or do a full bar cart service before the food is brought out.
The Food
Meal One
Everyone in economy had a three course meal tray provided, with the choice of three different main courses. Wine was offered at the same time.
The starter was a neat little caprese salad with fresh tomato, mini mozzarella balls and a fresh basil leaf. It was really good but could have done with a little touch of salt. I don’t know if you can pre-salt a salad but I feel like probably not…?
I opted for the chicken with spring vegetables and potatoes. The chicken was lukewarm and hugely dry so I didn’t have much of it at all. A chicken ballotine has zero fat so keeping it moist is tricky even when it’s freshly cooked in small quantities. Cooked en masse, they didn’t stand a chance. The potatoes were fab and the veggies cooked well so overall, not a bad dish.
Mr Fluskey chose the sea bass. We were both very impressed with the cooking of the fish, which was excellent. The additions of dill-scented potatoes, fennel, along with charred onion were definitely a cut above your standard plane food. This all felt much more like premium economy than economy. There wasn’t as much veloute as he would have liked but I think any more might have made the whole thing feel sloppy. I think the general consensus was that his dish was best.
For dessert, there was a mini lemon tart with lavender meringue and lemon curd. This was by far the most delicate and delightful dessert I’ve ever had in economy.
Snacks
A tray of full size snacks was offered and Mr Fluskey availed himself of a bag of popcorn and a big packet of pretzels. Obviously he couldn’t actually eat then and there so we had the, on the road to Maryland a couple of days later.
Meal Two
I was still too full to indulge in the second meal service, let alone the snacks. Mr Fluskey, however, bravely stepped up to ensure we had a full and comprehensive review.
This time, the starter salad was a superfood salad which had all kinds of fun vegetables in including edamame beans which he adores. it was all crisp and very interesting to eat.
He originally requested the butternut squash pasta as his main dish that was accidentally given beef. The crew said they could swap it but unfortunately they had actually run out of the past so he ended up with beef after all. He isn’t much of a fan of beef usually but said that it was actually very tender and well seasoned which, from him, is high praise for red meat.
The dessert was once again, far and away the most deluxe economy dessert we have had. It consisted of delicate chocolate shards, surrounding a chocolate cremeux and it was all jazzed up by a little pot of honeycomb pieces. I wonder if they’ll have the choice just to eat dessert in the future because they were both absolutely brilliant. 
Info
If you are planning on flying economy on Global Airlines, here are some things you might like to know.
Buying Tickets – At the moment, you can’t! After the return from Glasgow to New York and the return from Manchester to New York, Global Airlines have no more flights scheduled. Presumably this will change, but the best thing to do is to keep an eye on their social media for more info in the future.
Luggage Allowance – Economy passengers are entitled to one case at 23kg. You can also bring on international size carry on and a personal item with you.
Check In – There is no facility to check in online at present, so passengers must check in at a desk. This is fine if you have luggage, but always a touch frustrating for the hand luggage only crowd.
Final Thoughts on Our Review of Global Airlines A380 Economy Inaugural to JFK
This is a tricky one. I left the flight feeling a little hard done by. I hated losing our window seats to be relegated to a middle row at the back, especially knowing that there was an entire floor of economy window seats that we weren’t allowed to use during the flight. It left me in a mood for the rest of the flight. The crew were lovely and I thought the service was fantastic.
I see the potential in what Global Airlines has to offer. Any competition is good for consumers, and the busy transatlantic market always has space for another player.
They say, “Third time lucky”, “Third time’s the charm”, “Comedy comes in threes”. It seems like if you want something to work, you need to do it three times. Well, I think Camp Wildfire is the exception because every single time we have been, and that’s three years running, it has been the MOST fun! Was our third year even more superb than the others? Read on for our full Camp Wildfire review 2024.
This post may contain sponsored content or affiliate links that help support the blog. All opinions are our own.
What is Camp Wildfire?
Camp Wildfire could be described as a festival, a summer camp for adults, and the most wholesome place to be on a late summer weekend. During the day, campers choose from over 100 activities. To book these, they use credits, different number of which come with different tickets. Some things cost as little as 5 credits, and some go up to 40. In the downtime, you can try some other fun things like the climbing wall and air drop which are both included in the ticket.
Then, every evening kicks off with the Patrol Games, a fun battle of party games fought between the four different teams at camp (more on this later). Finally, there are hours of bands, DJS, comedians. and talks to entertain until bedtime (again, these are all included).
This year, was a little different from our previous years in three ways.
We brought a campervan instead of using the pre-pitched tent service from years one and two.
Another friend of ours came along too. She shall henceforth be known as Naomi.
During activity enrolment, we didn’t get everything we hoped for, with many activities being filled from the priority enrolment release. This led us to try a few more random things.
Camp Wildfire Review 2024
DAY ONE
Getting to Camp Wildfire
Three years and three different experiences. Our first year, we took the train and shuttle. The second year, we wanted a little more autonomy (and a little more bedding) so we drove. This year, we were lucky enough to have a campervan to use.
We picked up our van at 11:30 and then picked up Naomi from a nearby petrol station. The drive was only an hour and a half, around the M25 and then into the Kent countryside near Sevenoaks. Making a pitstop, we grabbed a few foody bits, including some fridge things (a new novelty). In hindsight, I should have ordered ahead and not dragged our 24 (8×3) cocktail cans all the way to Feltham on the bus tube and bus.
As we got closer to the site, we started winding down some narrow roads. Slight panic settled in when we saw a sign that the road would narrow to a width that we wouldn’t scrape through! Luckily, a turning allowed us to go a longer way but not end up wedged just 3 miles away.
The Campervan
We arrived were directed into the Live-In Vehicles field. Hopping out, we took stock of what we were doing and figured our way through hooking up the electricity and setting up our beds for the weekend. The campervan was huge, able to sleep five, and so we had plenty of room to flap about and get changed. Yellow clothing acquired and Csnp Wildfire shirt on, it was time to dash.
The only thing that we didn’t like about being in the Live-In pitch was the alcohol policy. We diligently made sure we only had our eight cans of cocktail each. As the field is outside of security, we were not allowed to bring any booze in with us on re-entry. I understand why, we could have had a vehicle absolutely stuffed with vodka…but we are are goody two shoes and brought nothing extra so it was annoying not to have our customary Patrol Game cocktail cans with us.
The Patrol Initiations
Much like Hogwarts houses, there are four groups you can join at Camp Wildfire. Before you attend, you choose whether you are a Squirrel, Hawk, Badger or Fox. We are Squirrels, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed!
Around Base Camp, the leaders of the four Patrols stood atop picnic benches and whipped their followers into a frenzy. Through the loud hailers, they taught everyone how Patrol points work, how to chant like a squirrel and why we are undoubtedly, the best Patrol. Knowing the basics, I dashed off to a nearby stand giving out free samples of zero-waste cocktails. This was both a nice addition to the festivities and gives a little glimpse into the sustainability Camp Wildfire strives for. Dashing back to share my spoils, I caught all the new squirrels being anointed including our very own Naomi.
All too quickly it was time to get together with everyone else and begin the parade through the forest. Each Patrol was led by a brilliant live band (samba, funky big band…you know). Everyone was directed into the Games Arena in Centre Camp ready for an introduction to the weekend and the first round of Patrol Games.
Patrol Games 1
I remain far too scared to participate in the Patrol Games, clutching a drink and screaming encouragement from the sidelines. I once heard something that said, “There are Hip Hip people, and Hooray people” I am a diehard Hoorayer, cheering for the more courageous folks with utter gusto. Luckily, plenty of Hip-Hip-pers got straight into the swing of it and we had some brilliant new games along with old favourites.
Game one! Two players stand apart from each other, each holding a rope. There is a pile of hula hoops over player one. A runner has to grab a hoop and run it along the rope and over player two.
The next game was nice and simple, in theory only. Two people throw a water balloon backwards and forwards. Each time, they must take a step apart until the throw becomes pretty precarious We won this game which was an excellent start to proceedings.
The one that always stops my heart came next. Four players lie in a cross with their feet up in the air, supporting a tub of water. That is hard enough right!? Well, now they have to take their socks whilst not dropping the water..! I can barely watch but we won so I shouldn’t have been so worried.
The final game was the classic pegs-on-the-face-race. One person runs back and forth to a bag of pegs. At the other end of the arena, someone waits while their face is pegged. On our previous visits to Camp Wildfire the Patrol Leaders played this one and the Squirrels smashed it, but sadly, we came last on this attempt. If you are a Squirrel and thinking of coming in 2025, its time to get your pegging practice in. (Oh Matron).
Dinner
Halloumi Round One
One chalkboard seemed to catch everyone’s attention. The Soul Project proclaimed to have the best halloumi fries in the country. Having eaten an artery panicking amount in my time, I thought I’d be the judge of that. They were topped with a collection of Lebanese tasty things; zaatar yogurt, sumac, pomegranate molasses, fresh mint and pomegranate seeds. I thought to myself, “They have just ripped off that place in Camden!” and yeah, they were pretty similar…in that they were super delicious.
Moroccan Chicken
To go with our halloumi, we got a chicken wrap from Harissa and Lemon. It was another taste bomb with delicious preserved lemon and turmeric chicken, lettuce, tomato, harissa and mint yogurt. It was a single person portion and I was sad to give Mr Fluskey the other half, but as we was clutching the halloumi fries, it had to be done.
Evening Activities
Full of yummy fare and excitement, we went in search of entertainment.
We popped into the main tent, the Discotheque, where the big music acts perform. There was a brilliant guy called Simon Panrucker in the last five minutes of his set. He was asking the crowd to help contribute to his music and then improvising really funny lyrics. I wish we had been there earlier to see more!
Cockney Bingo
Naomi found “Cockney Bingo” on the schedule and we knew it was going to be right up our street. We dashed through the forest and arrived about half way through. A kind camper donated their bingo card to us as they left and we caught up quickly with the rules. The delightful host chatted away, dropping in Cockney rhyming slang which we had to join in with and would fill up the card. We got a couple of lines, “Oi Oi Saveloy” but never got a full gaff “Knees Up Mother Brown”. I need to find this next year, or at a fringe festival in the meantime!
We did a little dancing and chatting but soon the busy week running up the festival caught up with us all and we decided to retire to bed.
DAY TWO
Wakey Wakey
We decided to take things a teeny bit easier and have our first activities at 10:00 this year, instead of 09:00. I was still awake in plenty of time to have done the earlier slot but Mr Fluskey needed to catch up on some sleep. Having our own bathroom for brushing teeth and showering meant we didn’t have to stand in queues so we wouldn’t have had to get up so early anyway but either way, Mr Fluskey got to sleep right up until 09:15.
I got a bit lost on my way to archaeology and panicked that I was going to be extremely late. Happily, I wasn’t the last person to arrive so my shame could be set aside for the session.
Archaeology
It isn’t often that as a grown up, you get to dig around in a sandpit on the hunt for goodies. I suppose if I was into gardening, I would get a little more soil time but the house plants don’t give much of that. We had a short talk from our activity leader, Amelio who explained how to discover something, dig with the trowel and brush the objects until we could remove them. I knew it involved a bit of brushing but then nothing here was ancient so we were probably far too rough. People ended up digging through sand with their hands. It is probably because he had mentioned a deer skull which was very well hidden and up to then, undiscovered in the dig site. We also had four red rib bones with a little V on to find. I found one but didn’t see the V…maybe archeology isn’t for the visually impaired ones amongst us. After the 80 minutes had elapsed, nobody had uncovered the deer skull.
Flying Trapeze – Mr Fluskey
“I’ve done flying trapeze before and I enjoyed it so much that I couldn’t convince myself to change this for trying a new activity, despite it being more costly in credits. I mixed it in with new experiences through the weekend anyway.
When we arrived we were all full of nervous energy. We had some quick instructions on the ground, then observed the instructors swinging effortlessly and with style. After a warm up, I had my harness strapped tightly around my waist. Our group was a mix of people of different ages and certainly we weren’t all svelte athletic types. Some had done trapeze or other gymnastic activities before, but plenty hadn’t. As we watched each person we were all supporting them with whoops, cheers and applause at any sign of nerves or celebrating the successes.
As I climbed the ladder, I tried to go up as quickly as possible as it was a little wobbly and probably the scariest bit. On the platform at the top, I made small talk about the weather whilst chalking my hands and being clipped onto the ropes trying to distract from the nerves. I followed their instructions and before I knew it, I was hanging from the bar, soaring through the air. I was throwing my legs over it and hanging upside down like a natural. At least that’s how I felt. The video footage shows I’m a little less poised than I thought, but it was great fun. The dismount I didn’t do very well, but the harness and the net meant it didn’t matter. It’s such a great feeling and everyone seemed to be buzzing coming down eagerly awaiting another go.”
Sign Language
This was one of only two repeat activities this year. The session began with learning some Camp Wildfire appropriate vocab (tent, campfire, cow(?) and stargazing. They explained theconcept of placement in British Sign Language. It allow the speaker to refer to a previously placed person or thing rather than having to re-spell or describe it.
Then it was time to learn the weekend’s choir performance song. It was Taylor swift “Shake it Off”. My glorious friends did an immense surprise dance for us at our reception to this track so it has become an anthem for the wedding ever since. With BSL choir, you don’t sign the exact words in the lyrics but more the ideas behind the lines. This has left us with some awesome new dance moves to the familiar song. Mind you, with the amount I forgot by the time the performance rolled around on Sunday, I won’t have a single move left by next week.
Skateboarding
I switched onto skateboarding three days before we went to Camp Wildfire using the handy-dandy enrolment system. It was a sour of the moment idea and so I didn’t have time to get properly nervous about it. However, as we picked up pads and helmets the butterflies started.
The class started out with some kick flips and other stationary tricks on the grass. All was going to plan, I was a little rubbish but enthusiastic none the less. Then I faceplanted. It wasn’t too bad, I laughed it off and then got back to attemptingthe trick of the moment, I’m not sure I mastered any of these but it was definitely ten for effort.
Everyone took to the platform and began to skate for real. It was a very smooth surface which meant gliding was easy but it felt like the board could escape at any moment.
And it ran away from me several times (I fell off quite a bit).
Most of my accidents were only minor with a surprising attempt at doing the splits when me foot rolled away with the board. However, I did have one pretty thumpy fall where I was very glad to be wearing a helmet. This one shook me a little and I sat in the corner for a bit to regain my composure. Of course confidence was beyond me at this stage but the incredibly kind Gus guided me off the beginners ramp several times, even saving me when I once again plummeted to the floor. They couldn’t have been nicer or more encouraging and I really put the safety equipment through its paces. I would give this another go for sure in a private lesson but I’m not sure my ego would take another public face plant.
Pioneering – Mr Fluskey
“For pioneering we got stuck in straight away learning knots (or remembering them from Scouts) starting simple with the reef knot, moving onto the clove hitch. Finally we tackled the complicated sounding, but surprisingly easy, “Round turn and two half hitches”. The session was punctuated by interesting facts and humour, always linking back to the most essential point about ropes, wood and knots; that Tom Hanks survived in Cast Away with these basic materials. We split the group in half and built 2 adjustable pyramid catapults, ready for the battle to begin. The teams shot tennis balls into a bucket, and then at each other’s catapults! We built an even bigger catapult with stronger rope, more tripod lashing and then fired more balls at each other in an energetic finale.”
Nerf Battles – Mr Fluskey
“Nerf is a high energy and low pain shooting activity. Little foam bullets are flying everywhere whilst you pretend you’re Bruce Willis, what could be more fun? We had a quick safety brief then I grabbed my gun of choice from the pile, collecting up as many bullets as I could load and stuff into my pockets. There was a selection of small pocket guns, handguns, old style western guns, one that looked like a machine gun and even a semi automatic rifle with a magazine. I went for the big gun, but it wasn’t loading so I switched to two hand guns, preparing myself to look like I was in an action film.
We had a couple of minutes to familiarise ourselves with the guns, so I went around the field shooting everyone once. I wanted to be fair and to build a healthy rivalry! Then we split into teams and played last man standing. I was out pretty quickly, taking a bullet to the back. The second round was capture the flag where you are out when shot. Finally we played capture the flag with a re-spawn back at the base so you could come back in when shot. Running around a field shouting tactics and switching between attack and defence was a physical challenge so we all took turns defending the flag. I left a sweaty, but exhilarated mess.”
Laser Clay – Mr Fluskey
“At laser clay pigeon shooting, we were given a serious introduction to the guns. The instructor explained that although they were laser shotguns, they look, feel and weigh the same as a real gun. They asked that we treat them like real guns, and follow correct habits in case we were to take up the sport in the future.
Laser clays are a lot better for the environment, easier to set up, run and score than clay shooting. With a quick intro to how to hold the gun, where to look and how to “reload” them, 10 of us were standing by markers aiming into the sky. For each clay you get 2 shots to hit it. In the first round anyone could shoot and score. For the second round the first to hit it gets the highest score and then 2nd and 3rd get a lower score. I preferred the first round where I could take longer to catch it in my sight and follow it to shoot.”
Bread Baking
I have wanted to try bushcraft bread baking every year but a very dry year, followed by very poor credit management meant this is the first time I actually managed it.
We all began at a table covered in flour. A small plastic bowl with some white flour was given to each of us and then we could add in dry flavourings and mix it all up with some water. I went for Madras Curry Powder, giving the mixture a distinctly 1970s aroma. The instructors Med and Laura told us to be extra cautious and not add in too much water as people had repeatedly ended up with gluey bowls of slop. Being the good girls and boys we are, it took us an awfully long time to get the mixture wet enough to come together in a ball. From here, we rolled the dough into sausages and wrapped them, snakelike around some sticks, sanitised in the flames of the fire. Then we cooked our snakes over the glowing embers. As they rose, they slowly separated from the stick and eventually, could be pulled away leaving the perfect hot dog receptacle.
Well, I didn’t have a hot dog but thoroughly enjoyed sharing my efforts with Nay and Mr Fluskey, dunking it into a big pot of hummus.
This was a lovely activity with that nice edge of survival skills in the forest but with something tasty to take away. I’m not sure Madras Curry Powder is the way to go in the future, apparently someone bought cheese with them and made a tasty cheese twist, but it’s really cool to know just how easily I can produce something edible.
Patrol Games 2
This series of events had me screaming. These games were hilarious,
The first game was enough leave me needing smelling salts. Just the tip involves player one popping a long stick between their legs, with a toilet roll on the end. They had to walk down to the other end of the arena without touching the stick with their hands. There, their patrol buddy waited with another stick and then they had to pass the loo roll between sticks. It was so, so funny.
Another new and divine addition to the games was the bad breakdancing competition. I wonder if it was inspired by the 2024 Olympics? Four amazing performers took to the arena floor and danced their socks off, trying to be as weird and wonky as possible. Bellylaughs and suit! True, the squirrels won this game which indicates my dancing style truly belongs in the squirrel camp.
There was a brilliant Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament where the players had to hop between carpet squares. When they met an opponent they had to do a quick round and whoever won could advance, hopping for the gods! It was fast, furious and something I fully intend to play next time we have a picnic in the park.
Finally, the great limbo. Anyone and everyone could take part until only the very bendiest remained. Honestly, I was so invested in the individuals taking part that i have no idea which patrol took the title!?
Dinner
Mac n Cheese?
Round one of dinner was a little pot of Mac and cheese from the appropriately named “Mac and Cheese”. After some debate, we decided to go for the special, the brie and cranberry. It came with two deepfriend pieces of brie on top…or it was meant to. Our breaded cubes seemed to be empty. Maybe they melted and drained out into the pot…? Who knows! Either way, the macaroni cheese below was yummy. The portion would have been perfect for one but an hour after sharing, we were still hungry.
(I was too hungry to remember pictures. Sorry!)
Chicken n Chips
The big “FRIED CHICKEN” sign was calling to me so we wandered over to take a peek. The stall had fried chicken or gyoza. I love dumplings but knew I was hungrier than that. Instead we opted for the mixed box which had chicken, halloumi (round 2) and Japanese curry flavour fries. We topped the lot with hot honey and it was all delicious.
Evening Activities
Ben Aitken
When I saw Ben Aitken’s name on the schedule I couldn’t quite place it but I knew it was someone familiar. I did a quick phone search and realised that I own several of his books on Audible. Dear Bill Bryson was a fantastic homage, The Gran Tour filled me with delight and the Marmalade Diaries was a treat!
Ben talked about his newest book, Here Comes the Fun, in which Camp Wildfire itself is discussed. He read an excerpt which of course everyone thoroughly enjoyed and I vowed to buy the book when I found phone signal. Turns out, I already have it and so I started listening to it the day I got home from camp. It was so lovely to see him in person and see my audible come life!
Michaela Strachan
They say that Millennials are obsessed with nostalgia, and honestly, they are totally right. I defy anyone who watched The Really Wild Show in the 1990s to be ambivalent about seeing Michaela Strachan talk about adorable creatures live. Naomi very kindly saved my front row seat as I ran around getting some extra dinner which meant an excellent view for the talk.
Michaela talked through her entire career which includes decades on the TV and lots of conservation work. She was beautiful and charming, everything we all hope she would be. There were funny stories of animal encounters, some great clips of shows we never got to see and even some poetry from her very own book.
Timmy Mallett last year, Michaela is tracking this year, if we don’t get Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow (tent) or Ant and Dec next year, I think there will be a riot.
Rhythm of the 90s
More nostalgia? Yes, please! of the 90s was a live band that used 90s dance tracks samples to create their covers of the songs. They played some absolute bangers and although Naomi and I only caught the last five songs or so, we still got a very respectable amount of dancing in. More dancing at The Clubhouse ended the night, and we made our way back to the van at 01:30 or so.
DAY THREE
Bollywood Dance
Getting up in the morning to do something fun and energetic is a great way to start your Sunday at Camp Wildfire. Challenging your body and brain to learn and perform a dance routine really gets everything firing! In 2023, I did 09:00 burlesque(!) but this year, Naomi and I got our Bollywood on.
Our instructor Aanchal Gupta looked a lot more fresh faced than we did and quickly got everyone learning some Indian dance basics before starting the choreography.
The dance had three sections, some classic Bollywood, a section based on classical dance and a bit of Bhangra to end with. It was reasonably challenging with a couple of moves that flummoxed me entirely. Swapping my hands between the pretty bird-shaped and the pretty flower shape (alternating the hands each time) left me bemused and in hysterics every time. I’d say, we got a good 75% of the routine but never the same 75% each time we performed it. It was a fantastic class and I am going to see if BollyRed is anywhere near us in London!
Snack Time
The plan was to eat healthy things we brought with us but the call of the naughty treats was too strong so we had these instead…
Slackline – Mr Fluskey
“I didn’t have high hopes of achieving much by doing slackline. Sure, I have average balance, but put me up on a 2” wide strap strung between 2 trees, with a bit of wobble and suddenly that’s a whole new level. It doesn’t matter that it’s only 2 feet off the ground, it may as well have been over the Grand Canyon, it’s surprisingly scary.
I arrived a minute or so after the group had started and people were already up on the different length lines being supported on one side by their partners. There were an odd number of people so the instructor helped me up and I leaned quite heavily on his shoulder as I delicately walked across the line. It wobbled quite a lot at times, but 30 seconds later I’d just crossed a slackline with no real lesson or intro. He kept giving real simple but effective advice, which I tried hard to follow.
“You can’t really teach it” – Fair play.
“When you feel like you’re coming off, don’t fall, just step off” – I did “step off”, and didn’t fall over once.
“When you’re up on the line, don’t forget to breathe” – I had and it was affecting my balance.
“Don’t overthink it, just stand up onto the line” – Following this I just kept getting up.
Over the session, I tried 3 different lines and I was able to get up and walk 2 or 3 steps before losing my balance which I was incredibly impressed at. I also got up and stood on one foot for a few seconds. Finally, I walked across the longer line forwards and backwards! With this and trapeze under my belt I can clearly run away to join the circus!”
Kickboxing
Mr Fluskey, Naomi and I all took kickboxing together. We did a very quick warm up and then everyone partnered up and grabbed some pads or gloves. I chose to work with Mr Fluskey as I think it is a healthy way to get out some married frustration. Ok, I am kidding but we were standing next to each other, so it was an easy choice.
The class was taught the basics of punching and how to administer a good kickboxing kick. I was feeling slightly nervous that we might have to spa against one another but luckily, we just ran practice drills. Mr Fluskey is left handed and my brain took a little while to reconfigure when we took turns holding the pads and boxing. We both nearly punched each other face a little but managed not to create any black eyes.
Space Science
This was my second repeat activity as I loved it so much in 2024. Originally I hadn’t signed up for it, trying to resist the urge to do something familiar, but I had a change of heart of the Sunday and chucked my hat in at the last minute. I am so glad I did.
Here are some more bonkers things I learnt thanks to the engaging expert Paul:
The light from the sun takes an average of eight minutes to reach us, but from when it is formed in the sun’s core, that could be up to 130,000 years.
Most shooting stars are space rubbish only about the size of a grain of sun.
Asteroids fly around the universe packed with the ingredients for life and that may have been what started us all off here on earth.
To end the session we got to hold some tiny bits of Mars, Mercury and the moon, as well as real asteroids. One was slightly older than the sun…the sun!!!
Honestly, Space Science is like attending a Christmas Lecture or great a talk at the Science Museum. It is gutting that it ends after an hour. I hung on until it was gone 17:00 even though my next activity was due to start then. How can you leave when your mind is being blown over and over again. I had to run to my next appointment!
African Harmony Choir
Our final credited activity of the weekend saw the three of us back together for a relaxing singing workshop. (OK, so it became relaxing after I managed to catch my breath). We had a nice chilled a Capella session, singing songs from Kenya. Arriving late, I didn’t get to dive into the right voice type so joined Naomi in the alto section. It was a fun new challenge resisting the urge to join the higher voices, which we both struggled with. It was nice to be back in a choir and especially to step into the centre of the circle and listen to the five harmonies. Some people were brought to tears, letting the music fill them up.
The next day we met a guy who had been in the session and he expressed how much he loved it. I’m inclined to agree.
The Patrol Games Finals
I was hyper. Red Bull and singing joy filled my tank and I was ready to cheer my socks off (I don’t mean whilst playing the water tub game to be clear). I made sure my patrol points were dropped into the jar in good time, ready for the final count.
We began with a super performance from a Fox called Amy, who wowed the place with a stellar hoops routine.
Then, the annual Camp Wildfire lip sync competition rocked the arena. The Hawks put on a full Friends fan show along to the Rembrandts which was a darn good time. It had water pistols for the fountain and even part of “the routine”. IYKYK.
The Foxes got every Gen Z and Tik Tok fan dancing in sync to H.O.T.T.O.G.O. (Chapel Roan for the win). Then our Squirrel lip sync queen did a wonderful rendition of Sk8er Boi which I’ve never rocked harder to. Finally, the Badgers did an incredible medley of all Patrol songs, featuring secret plants in each Patrol. It was so very brilliant!
Let The Games Begin
After tempting the entire arena with another flash of the Patrol Cup, the final scores were announced. Turns out, we may not have done too well at the Patrol Games this year, but we must have done some pretty good work elsewhere as our score brought us into second place. The Hawks, with the winning score, went straight to the finals and then it was down to the three remaining patrols to battle it out for the other spot.
The semi final was one of the multipart relays Connor is so good at creating. A frantic race of spinning screws, apple bobbing for tights and tossing hula hoops led to dramatic draw. The Squirrels and Foxes had a nail biting (and impressively improvised) tiebreaker which Amy (the hula-hooper) won. Our dreams of victory were dashed but it was time to cheer for the remaining players.
For the final, another devilish race was concocted. A locked box had to be opened by solving a balance beam puzzle and filling a tube with water which spat out a key. From here they had to use a catapult to hit a target, releasing a deluge on gunge on the opposing Patrol Leader’s head. It sounds complicated but it all makes perfect sense when you are there…so make sure you are next year!
THE FOXES WON in a splash of blue slime. It was a beautiful victory.
Dinner
Loaded Fries
I think we left dinner a little late and we were both too hungry to make a decision. We ended to returning to Harissa and Lemon. They were running out of food as it was very nearly the end of the festival but the halloumi and sujuk loaded fries were just what we needed. This time I topped it with harissa mayo to give it some kick.
Pizza Toastie
To go with this, we decided on Toasties and Coffee’s pizza toastie. I was genuinely excited for this but they used burger cheese (fake cheese slices things) for the inside and it made it pretty gross. I was expecting mozzarella, and not having that was fine but how can you sell toasties and not even have actual cheese? My half was abandoned to Mr Fluskey. Oh how I wish we had gone back to the actual pizza. It wasreally very good last time we tried it.
Evening Activities
The Talent Show
Last year’s talent show was great fun but a little slapdash. This year, the second Camp Wildfire Talent Show, was set to be a slicker show. We had some wonderful singers, a handstand master, some iprovisation, a Welsh rocker and then Naomi took to the stage (field). Now, Naomi is an actual professional opera singer and let me tell you, nobody was prepared. Every time she did the tiniest bit of operatic singing throughout the weekend I told her to keep a lid on it so it would be a surprise. That sounds mean but I just wanted to feel the full force of the stunned reaction.
These photos are next level terrible but the lighting was dreadful and we were far away sooooooo, here we are.
She took the waiting campers through a brief explanation of the plot of Turandot and then proceeded to blow the roof off the place with her rendition of Nessan Dorma. There was a standing ovation, people wept openly and for the rest of the night enthralled new fans stopped Naomi to sprinkle her with fairy-dusted praise. It was so lush to be her proud buddy!
Astronomy
After two years of failing to make it to astronomy, Naomi finally got my bottom down to Adventure Canyon to see some stars. There had been a nice, clear sky when the Patrol Games began but by now, the clouds were well and truly present. We hung around awkwardly, making some queue friends but not entirely hopeful the cover would clear. After about 10 minutes, one of the two telescopes was packed away and everyone was drifting away, just as a little gap appeared in the sky. With serious haste, we all got a quick glimpse of Saturn through the remaining telescope and thought it a job well done.
Amy Gledhill
Having failed to catch any comedy in The Auditorium, throughout the weekend, we dashed back to get our giggle on. Luckily, Amy Gledhill was very funny and we got a belly laugh or three during her very raunchy set. I hope to scope out some of her stuff online.
Patrol Leaders Party
We wandered round to The Clubhouse for the last big party of the weekend. It was all college rock when we arrived, which isn’t entirely our vibe, but I decided to dance whatever it was on and the mood soon evolved into a more poppy playlist. They even played Hakuna Matata which made this geek very happy. Again we bowed out at about 01:25 which is fairly early I suppose but with such action packed days, I don’t how anyone manages much more!
Time for bed…
DAY FOUR
A Drizzly Goodbye
Doors began to slam at around 8:00 as a few vehicles made for an early exit. The site had to be cleared by 12:00 so most people left at around 10/11, with a few stragglers who managed a lovely lie in. We pulled out at around 11:00, ready to have a nice visit to nearby Hever Castle but not at all ready to leave the Camp Wildfire bubble.
I know that technically you get three full days but it goes SO quickly with all the activities, games and entertainment. Time seemed to be rushing ahead of us the whole time! I think we suffer too much FOMO to just turn up and relax so it is entirely our own fault. Maybe an extra day with little to nothing to do there would be good so we can relax and rest our sore bodies. (Don’t get me wrong, every muscle ache is entirely worth it and just means I should do more exercise than one kickboxing lesson a year).
Final Thoughts for This Camp Wildfire Review 2024
So was it third time lucky? Honestly, it was third time still blooming brilliant. I have adored our experience every time and every time there has been something different enough to keep it fresh. From upgrading our accommodation to bringing a buddy along, we had exciting new things to freshen up our down time. Then of course, trying new activities and learning new things in old favourites made it just as fantastic during the days. I think I am gushing now….
Next year, 2025 is the tenth anniversary spectacular and we are SO excited to see what Camp Wildfire has in store. Maybe they will multiply everyone’s final score by ten just to make them sound extra super duper. We hope we will see you there (“Weekend Two, Weekend Two, Weekend Two”).
London Heathrow airport is one of the world’s busiest, with a plane arriving or departing every 45 seconds all day. I have compiled 7 London Heathrow tips to ease your journey, just a little. London Heathrow can be big, confusing and frustrating, but I work there so these are all legit London Heathrow tips!
This post may contain sponsored content or affiliate links that help support the blog. All opinions are our own.
1.) Know Your Terminal
Currently, Heathrow Airport has four working terminals. Terminals 2, 3, 4 & 5. Getting between them can be up to half an hour so it is definitely best to know your terminal before you leave for the airport. Heathrow has a handy tool on its website which is always up to date. (Don’t just google it, the search engine may bring up old information).
A quick note about lifts. There may be a queue at some lifts but don’t be tempted to take the escalators. There are multiple long escalators, it’s probably not quicker and it can be dangerous with bags. Lifts to take:
Terminal 2 from the underground tunnel to departures.
Heathrow Central from the Elizabeth Line/Heathrow Express platforms
Terminal 5 from Elizabeth Line/Heathrow Express platforms or Underground platforms to departures.
Train Options
Heathrow Express – At just 15 minutes from Paddington, this is the quickest option from Heathrow to a London terminal station. It is also the most expensive.
Elizabeth Line – A bit of a game-changer, this travels to Paddington in 25 minutes and then cuts through Central London in no time at all. It is the most popular train.
Piccadilly Line – The dark blue London Underground line is the slowest way into Central, but it is also the cheapest….and you can use this hack to make it even cheaper:
If you are catching the Piccadilly Line to London Heathrow (and have some time to spare) then there is a sneaky way to save some pennies. If you are travelling to Heathrow during off-peak hours (avoiding 08:30 – 09:30 and 16:30 – 19:00) then hop off at Hatton Cross. Tap your Oyster or card out of the gates and you will have been charged around £3.50 from Central London. Then, you can tap back through and travel on using the “Free Heathrow Travel Zone”. It is a pain in the bottom with luggage as there is no lift but if you are on a budget then it might be worth the faff. It saves £2 on your tube fare. Actually it saves you 0.50p during peak times but it just doesn’t seem worth it for that.
Coaches to Heathrow
You catch the National Express coaches to London Heathrow from around the country and from Victoria Coach Station in London too. It’s a good option if you live further afield. Just remember to leave lots of extra time for traffic snarl ups and break downs. It is also worth noting that they do charge more for going directly to the airport rather than into London itself so price up your options.
I don’t know an awful lot about this as we don’t drive but there is something you really need to be aware of:
The Drop Off Fees
If you are driving to London Heathrow, even if you are just dropping someone off or picking them up, you need to pay £5. This can be paid online using this website and can be done a little in advance or a little aferwards. There is no way to avoid this if you are driving within the Heathrow area so just be prepared to fork out a fiver.
Oh, and Heathrow is now in the ULEZ (Ultra Low Emission Zone) so there will be a ULEZ charge of £12.50 if you car isn’t compliant.
Trials at have begun at Terminal 3 for something they are calling Timeslot. Three days before you fly, you can search for your flight on this website and book a time to go through security. Slots are allocated in 15 minute windows but you can actually arrive up to 15 minutes before or after your entry time. Booking in advance allows Heathrow to limit the entrants and ensure there are enough staff for the people booked.
Let’s see how it turns out!
4.) Getting Through Security
Next on our London Heathrow tips is preparing for security. You can start this before you even leave for the airport. They are going to ask that you remove a few things from your bag as you go through. There are some fancy new machines which will make these rules obsolete but they aren’t everywhere yet. Oh, and at London Heathrow every bag gets its own tray to go through the x-ray machine so spread things out.
Know Your Liquids Rule – That’s one clear, resealable bag no bigger than 20cm x 20cm per person. Inside, no liquid container can be bigger than 100ml. The total volume cannot exceed 1 litre. Keep these out and separate in the tray as they go to the x-ray.
Remove Your Laptops – You will be asked to remove laptop, tablets and mindless. You will need to place these in a separate tray. Make sure they are somewhere handy.
Consider Your Clothing – You must remove all your metal and any boots or high heels. My advice is to wear soft, wireless clothes, skip the belt unless you really need it, and opt for slip off shoes that don’t require much lacing. Oh, and really empty your pockets as you got through.
Transfers – If you have through checked luggage and you are continuing your journey from Heathrow then you can use the transfers areas. Follow the purple signs rather than those for passport control. If you need to change term in is you will be using inter-terminal buses. These don’t come as often as anyone would like. They also don’t all go directly between terminals so you may need to catch two. Bare this is mind if your hand luggage is crazy.
Security – When transferring at Heathrow, you will be passing through security. This is just as thorough as the main security checkpoint so everything that applied to that, applies here. If you have a little drink from your previous flight, drink it or ditch it. Make sure you have gathered your mini liquids back into their bag and remember that even if you got away with something a little bigger at your origin they will spot it and throw it away.
Connection Time – Travel agents and flight aggregator websites will lead you believe that an hour is enough time to transfer at Heathrow. Let me assure you, it really isn’t. This is especially true if you have to change terminals. Realistically, I wouldn’t book a flight through Heathrow with less than two hours.
Staying Overnight – If your connecting flights arrive mean an overnight stay, book hotel accommodation. There are no airports in the transfer areas and nowhere nice to sleep. Most people are rounded up and shown to Gate 7 in Terminal 3 for the night. Book a hotel along the Bath Road or somewhere handy for your departure terminal. Remember, you will have to go through passport control and exit the airport to reach these.
Transfer Desks – As you transfer, make sure you visit the Airline Service Desks. The staff can make sure you have everything you need for your onward flight, enter any baggage numbers that may not be in your booking automatically and give you more helpful advice like this.
6.) Food and Beverage Tips
Download the Heathrow App – The app will let you know about all of the food and drink service outlets in each terminal. You can even order ahead on the app for some of them and collect when the food is ready. This is great if you need to grab and go. Order when you join the security queue and something yummy will be ready for you when you get through.
Grab a Meal Deal – Not included on the app are the shops that provide meal deals. These are the cheap and cheerful way to grab a bite at the airport. For £5-£6 you will get a sandwich, a soft drink and a snack. These can be as basic as a cheese sandwich to an elaborate triple sandwich pack. For snacks you can choose fruit, crisps, chocolate and more. Airside, Boots and WHSmiths are the best for these and you can add in M&S Simply Food if you are landside too.
Bargain Booze at WHSmiths – This is a rather recent development and I am intrigued to see if it will stick around. They are now stocking a pretty decent selection of wine, beer and cocktail cans for purchase. These are the cheapest alcoholic drinks at Heathrow so bottoms up!
Bring a Water Bottle – There are free water fountains near the entrance to many of the bathrooms at Heathrow. The water in these is safe to drink so you can top up and drink your fill.
7.) Getting to the Gate
For our final London Heathrow tips, get to the gate on time and prepared.
Terminal 2 – Get your legs ready if you are flying from here. Half of the gates are in a separate part of the terminal which is a good 15 minute stride. There are moving walkways to help but travelling down a huge escalator, walking under the tarmac and re-emerging at these gates can be a long way.
Terminal 5 – There are some far gate at Terminal 5 too but luckily there is a train. For a hint on which doors to aim for if you are in a rush, follow the British Airways staff. They know the quickest way!
At the gate – Have your boarding card and passport ready. They may use self service boarding, in which case you will only need your boarding card but listen for announcements to tell you so.
Bathrooms – Heathrow has lots of closed gates. This means you are scanned onto the flight at the point you enter the gate room. Coming back out to find a bathroom means the gate staff have to stop what they are doing to mark you back off the flight, and that you have to carry your boarding card and passport to the loo. Use the bathrooms en route to your gate or hold it until you board.
Final Thoughts on Our London Heathrow Tips
Heathrow is one of the world’s busiest airports so anything you can do to feel prepared and a little smarter than your average passenger can only be a good thing! Do you know any more London Heathrow tips or hacks that we have missed? I’d love to hear them in the comments. (Oh, and if you see me, wave hello).
En route to join our Windstar Cruise, we needed to fly to Gran Canaria. I thought a one way to Spain would cost an arm and a leg, but was surprised to find an excellent fare with Vueling. Vueling is a budget partner of British Airways, part of the Oneworld alliance, and is based out of Barcelona. So what is Vueling like? Join us as we travel from London Gatwick to Las Palmas in this review of Vueling A320.
This post may contain sponsored content or affiliate links that help support the blog. All opinions are our own.
Our Vueling and London Gatwick Airport Experience
Check In
Let’s start our review of Vueling with baggage. I decided to book one big bag between us as taking a large hand luggage each was more expensive. We were both surprised to see that outside the Schengen region, Vueling’s check in only opens 2 hours and 20 minutes beforehand. That throws my “three hours before the flight” schedule right out. Well, we arrive at London Victoria in time for an earlier train so we decided to go straight to Gatwick airport already.
Vueling’s Self Service Bag Drop
Happily, when we arrived at London Gatwick Airport, we found a self service check in and bag drop area that was already open. I had checked in online so getting our bag tag was really quick. I tagged the bag with expert flair (of course) and we popped it on the belt. The light turned green (thanks for the naughty 300 grams extra that we packed) and it trundled away. So easy!
With more time than expected, we zipped through security and found a lounge to hang out in before the gate was announced.
The Gate
Gatwick has cramped closed gates with no bathrooms so I was very glad that we had popped to the loo before walking down. British Airways staff were manning the gate. I guess they are the handlers at Gatwick. They referred to the airline as “vewling” which probably adds to everyone’s chronic mispronunciation of it.
We were there before most people and grabbed a seat next to the crew. People wandered up to the bank of vending machines with nothing else to do and the time ticked by.
There was an announcement to apologise for delayed boarding. It was due to a slow disembarkation of the inbound from Malaga. We eventually started boarding about ten minutes before we were due to take off. They called groups one and two, which had about thirty people in total. Then group three, which consisted of the rest of the plane. It was slow boarding. There was no call for people with small children and not using seat row numbers seemed a bit mad considering 80% of the plane was in group three.
The inside of the Vueling AirbusA320 plane was bright, but not super clean. The panels above our heads were mucky, as was the tray table and the exit door.
Our Seats
A few days before the flight, we got an email from Vueling advertising a bidding system for extra leg room seats. I popped in a relatively low bid (£13 each) and it was accepted. I hadn’t realised it was for the exit row. In my commuting brain, I was opting for the front rows (1-6 or so) which are called Space Plus. It was a little annoying but it was my misunderstanding and still very nice to have the extra room on a 4.5 hour flight.
The seats themselves were standard budget seats with not quite enough padding and lacking any recline. The colour scheme was odd. The seats were a dark taupe which I find distinctly unappealing with yellow head rest covers which were also leather.
There was small, adjustable tray and a mesh seat back pocket. This didn’t have sides so be careful when putting anything small in here. I think we all know by now that I don’t like to use these as they are hard to clean and can harbour nasty surprises left by previous flyers, but at least this one isn’t all enclosed.
The Storage
The overhead lockers were meant to be reserved for large cabin bags only. In fact, they had stickers that said as much. Most people adhered to the rule but of course, there was the odd handbag or coat in there too. There seemed to be a lot less hand luggage in general and I think that means everybody did as we did and opted for the cheaper check in option. It was nice to see that the crew weren’t struggling to fit everything in as they do on many other cheaper airlines. This does indicate that their boarding strategy is less than ideal though, as the hand luggage is usually what causes delays on the jet bridge.
The Entertainment
This part of our review of Vueling is easy; there is no entertainment but there is a USB A plug each between the seats so best to fill your phone with things before you leave. Saying that, our plugs didn’t work so make sure you’ve got a power bank too, just in case.
Amenities
No inflight kit was provided.
The bathroom at the front was small but clean enough. It was odd that they had tiny hand soaps instead of hand wash. The amount of plastic waste this generates doesn’t feel great and the idea of touching someone else’s used soap can put a lot of people off. I think anything that makes hand washing harder should be discouraged, especially in the germs world of the aircraft bathroom. At least they had plenty of hand towels.
Vueling’s Inflight Food and Drink
I took a quick look through the on board menu (all chargeable) and was delighted to see the prices. Whilst not cheap by regular standards, when compared to other budget airlines, the prices were pretty good.
Two 20cl bottles of Cava for €11.95 was better than a London pub and a tea or coffee with free refills at €3.50 is a bargain! (I wonder how hard it is to get refills).
This was clear when the cart came down the aisle. Everyone bought something, and not just one thing, people were buying full meals. I decided it would be fun to try an “Codorníu Orange Spritz”. However, the crew got to our row, asked one side what they wanted and then disappeared! I thought they were just letting people through to the bathroom but no, they didn’t come back. A guy in the row behind pointed this out and another crew member went after them. They came down collecting empties and we both jumped at them to buy something. I got the spritz and it probably wasn’t worth the wait. It was nice-ish; a one and done.
Final Thoughts on this Review of Vueling
We hope you found this review of Vueling useful. If you can book early and get a cheap ticket, then it is a good shout. They go from major London airports and I did like the affordable food and drink options. However, if the tickets are a similar price as carriers like BA, I’d opt for the “full service” carrier. That said, I would definitely fly Vueling again.
At the end of their on board safety video, Vistara announces itself as “India’s Beat Airline”. Having flown with Indigo a few times, Spice Jet and Air India, we were really intrigued to see how they would live up to that moniker. Is Vistara really India’s best airline? Read on for our review of Vistara 787-900 economy as we travel from Mumbai to London.
This post may contain sponsored content or affiliate links that help support the blog. All opinions are our own.
Why Vistara?
We were meant to fly home from Mumbai with Virgin Atlantic, but we’re enjoying our time at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel so very much, that we decided to change our flight and go later with Vistara. I guess you can say we just wanted our fill of Tata (that own both the hotel and Vistara). Vistara has the latest flight from Mumbai to London (around 14:55 on the day we flew), arriving back in the UK around 20:00.
The Airport Experience
Our check in was quick and easy. We dropped our bags as we had wine to bring back to the UK. We wouldn’t normally check in bags but with Vistara’s 7kg hand luggage allowance, plus the boozy souvenir, we decided it would be best. Vistara had about 10 desks at Mumbai which is pretty good to say they only have one flight.
We made our way through security and passport control before making our way to McDonalds. Yes, we just had to grab a Maharaja Mac to see if it was as good as we remember from 2009…turns out, it was.
The boarding gates at BOM are big, open seating areas with some lovely lamps and big sections of green plants which make it quite a pleasant space. They also have huge windows out onto the ramp and runway so we found a nice spot for trying to plane spot as we waited for the plane to board.
Economy was split into two queues, one for the back section and one for the front. It worked reasonably well but as the queues were formed outside of the tensa barriers, the usual slight scrum occurred.
Vistara’s 787 Interior
Let’s do a review of Vistara inside. I love the Boeing 787 and I love that Vistara uses the unique features offered on this plane to full effect. (Almost, the sliding recline on the ANA 787 still wins).
The lighting on the 787 is nicely adjustable. On boarding, they were a pinky purple (not as purple as Virgin’s lighting but very reminiscent.
The windows on the 787 are lovely and large with dimmer switches on the bottom. This is fun but it was a little annoying that they were all dimmed quite early in the flight. The lights were brought down and the message was clear, its sleepy time. When the lights were bought up for the second meal service, they left the windows dark so it still felt like it was nighttime. I tried to brighten mine but I guess they had master control. It would have been to see the sun to help adjust to U.K. time.
After meal two the windows remained dim and the lights were shut off again for another post dinner nap. It felt so odd to wake up the plane for that snack and then try to get them back to sleep.
Our Economy Seats
Seats are in a 3-3-3 configuration in economy, decreasing to 2-3-2 in premium. The seat covers are navy and made of a thick woven material, topped with a head cover with the Vistara logo.
In economy, the seats have a … inch pitch and … inch recline. It feels fine when you are sat but getting in and out is a real squeeze. Luckily, we managed to snag three seats between us so I wasn’t clambering over a stranger but it would be…intimate.
The headrest was very adjustable and was almost low enough at its lowest point for me to use the flippy bits. This is unheard of!
Under the TV, in the seat back is the reading material shelf. This contained the inflight magazine, the safety card and a sick bag.
Below this was the tray table. This had a very neat clip rather than the more common spinning lock. It felt quite snazzy. The tray folded down and then out, sliding towards the seat (but with no room to do so after dinner).
The Storage
Technically, Vistara only allows 7kg in hand luggage but there were clearly a fair few people flouting those rules. Several large bags were slotted into the overhead lockers around us, which the bins took well.
Vistara’s Entertainment
Being an Indian carrier, the entertainment system, Vistara World, was a mix of Indian and American options. There was an abundance of HBO programming and several films starring the same actors. (A few Cate Blanchett, several Ryan Goslings and a couple Leo DiCaprios). They also had music and games but I never got around to those.
I started the flight enjoying the Bernie Madoff film, “The Wizard of Lies”, and then settled in for a rewatch of “White Lotus”. An excellent show as it is, the heightened viewing experience of planes really sucked me in.
Mr Fluskey managed to finish “Crazy, Stupid Love” which he started on the Virgin Atlantic flight on the way over. Don’t you love it when things work out. He moved onto Bullet Train, featuring the new James Bond.
He also found the live channels which were all showing the news. What a happy bunny he could have been with nine hours of BBC World News on one screen and the world map on the other.
The best thing about having three seats is having that middle seat set to the map the whole way. I especially loved spotting some cool mountains from the window and checking out where we were flying over.
Vistara offers paid internet access. Personally, I didn’t need to be online so I didn’t use it but it was good to see the options. Combined with the plugs offered in economy, you could definitely be doing some work on a laptop or just scrolling on your phone if you like to stay connected.
The Amenities
For our review of Vistara amenities, lets start with what is on the seat. There is a pillow, blanket and headphones and all were surprisingly good for economy. I liked the blankets smooth feel but it wasn’t super warm.
The plugs in the TV (a USB and a sound connection) was actually a dual prong. I was worried that this would result in the horrible twiddling that you have to do to use a normal 3.5mm jack but it worked perfectly with just one. Happy days.
The bathrooms were fine. By midway through the flight, they ended up pretty messy and didn’t seem to improve. I would definitely say this was user misuse rather than bad cleaning by the airline. I don’t know if the cabin crew are meant to spot clean them.
Each toilet had the normal foamy hand wash in, some antibacterial gel and curiously, some mouth wash. This was an interesting addition as it requires the user to squirt it right into their mouth and it doesn’t seem like many people would use it?
Vistara’s Economy Food & Drink Service
Round One
Our first meal was served about an hour and a half into the flight. There was an option of chicken or veg and we both opted for chicken. The trolley had a decent selection of drinks including spirits, wine and beer. It is worth noting that although there was Diet Coke, the sugary version was Pepsi. This doesn’t bother me but I am aware there are people that might consider this a deal breaker.
For the review of Vistara’s main meal I had a chicken curry with cumin rice. The curry suffered from being a little two salty but the chicken was really tender and wasn’t dry, a serious accomplishment for an economy meal. The cumin rice was full of flavour and quite fluffy, I was impressed. The bread roll was pretty dry however, but a liberal slather of the good, salted butter solved that.
The little salad on the side had cucumber, tomato and cumin. With the squeeze of lemon it was very refreshing and still crunchy. I would say it’s the best airline side salad I’ve had.
For afters we had a gooey chocolate cake dessert which was yummy scrummy and it was demolished at speed! Finslly, there was a packet which at I first I thought was sugar. Turns out it was a sachet of the minty, herby nibbly stuff often seen at the end of Indian meals.
There was only one drink offered with dinner, with tea and coffee afterwards.
Round Two
At around 2.5 hours to landing, the lights were brought up and the trolley rolled through a second time. Again we were offered the choice of chicken or veg and we both chose chicken. It was another almost full tray with a hot chicken wrap. The wrap was whole meal and slightly chapati-esque and the filling was soft pulled chicken packed with spice. The potatoes were spicy but not really flavourful.
The dessert was a soaked sponge with a crumble topping and sweetened creamy custard. It was another total winner.
On the tray we got another tiny water and a masala lemon water which was fun. It’s nice to have so much water but one bigger bottle would probably be better as they must produce an awful lot of plastic waste with all these cute little ones. They have paper cups and bamboo cutlery so they are obviously making strides in the right direction.
For some reason, our crew member didn’t offer drinks from the trolley whilst the others were pouring away. We caught her on the way back and grabbed a couple of Cokes. We were offered tea or coffee after the meal again but we both declined.
Honestly, I think this is one of the best economy services we have had in terms of food. The quality and quantity were both better than expected. We have often had one good meal followed by a terrible snack, but both meals were tasty. The only things I would change are the cutlery (we had to use the same spork for our savoury food as our dessert) and the plastic bottles.
The Views
Final Thoughts of our Review of Vistara 787-900 Economy
I was pleasantly surprised with Vistara and their service. The food was genuinely tasty, the entertainment selection pretty decent and the seats comfortable enough for a long haul flight. The crew were super friendly and very professional. I didn’t enjoy the lighting settings being dark for so long on a day flight.
In the past, flying from Stansted Airport could be such a drag, but a necessity for the budget travellers of London. However, significant changes over the last 10 years have improved things considerably every time we travel, we learn a little something new and decided to share them with you. Using our our top tips, should help make flying from Stansted a little easier and a little more enjoyable.
This post may contain sponsored content or affiliate links that help support the blog. All opinions are our own.
1.) Top Tips for Getting to London Stansted Airport
We don’t have a car and so we can only talk about public transport:
The Stansted Express
Taking the Stansted Express from Liverpool Street Station is easiest way to reach the Aitport. The platform is announced a few minutes before departure, giving you time to wander along and find a seat. In winter, these warm few minutes are a god send. You can also travel from Tottenham Hale on the Victoria Line but this is outside.
Book your tickets early to save a bundle. Buying your tickets online up to three months in advance can save you 50%. Whatever you do, don’t use contactless to board the trains! The machines at Liverpool Street and Tottenham Hale will allow you to tap through with an oyster/phone/contactless card. However, when you reach Stansted you will be fined for not having a ticket.
Once the train reaches Stansted, everyone will pile towards the escalators. There are slow ticket checks here and it can feel a little like a rugby scrum. For an easier time, make your way to the lifts. There will be very few people waiting for the lifts and the whole thing is a lot more civilised.
The Coach
Catching the coach is cheaper when your travel date is close, and vital if you are stuck with train strikes. National Express offers routes from across London and runs 24 hours a day so this is the most flexible option. They have plugs and free wifi…which is nice. You can pay £5 to make your ticket flexible, allowing you to catch any coach if your flight is delayed.
Airport Bus Express is even cheaper but only goes to Stratford and Liverpool Street. You will also find that they don’t keep an eye on the seats sold. You are not guaranteed a seat on the coach you book, which could be a problem if you are due to catch a flight.
Checking In
When you make it to the departure hall, bear in mind that the alphabetised system is the wrong way round. A is furthest from security, to your right as you look at the desks. There are a fair few budget airlines that operate from Stansted which you might think means nobody is checking in bags but don’t underestimate the queues to drop bags. We recommend getting to check in two and a half hours before you flight is due to leave. This gives you some contingency time to play with.
2.) Top Tips for Stansted Security
Getting into Security – Go Right
As you look at the security entrance, take note of the special assistance and fast track lines on the floor, veering off to the right. if you follow these, you will find a few security machines that are actually for general use in between these two faster lanes. Scan through these and you will be at the end of security with fewer people.
Preparing for Security – Electricals
London Stansted Airport has very strict hand luggage rules. Not only do you need to prepare your liquids properly, more on that in a bit but they want to see all of your electricals. This means that any travel hairdryers straighteners, curlers etc need to come out as well as the standard laptops, e-readers & tablets. Make sure that anything like this is packed towards the top of your hand luggage to make your life a little easier.
Preparing for Security – Liquids
Then, of course, we have the liquids issue. The way Stansted airport test its liquids means you must have them all in a proper plastic Ziploc bag. A thick clear bag with a normal zip does not cut it. They do have small plastic bags available at the entrance of security but it is just easier to make sure you have a compliant bag in the first place. You wouldn’t want to get to security only to realise that your bag was slightly bigger and your bits will not fit in theirs. a Ziploc sandwich bag, no bigger than 20 cm x 20 cm is perfect.
Preparing for Security – Clothing
Remember to wear shoes you can slip on and off quickly. Don’t wear clothes with lot of zips and metal catches and you will have to take your jumpers and jacket off so don’t wear just a bra or little crop top if you are self-conscious…learned that the hard way. If your bra has alot of underwire (M&S are bad for this) then prepare to beep. Maybe a wireless bra or bralette is the way to go.
Getting into Security – Go Left
Alternatively, go all the way to the left. Stansted is trialling two new machines which mean you can leave everything in your bag (liquids and electricals). It is very novel! Sadly, we haven’t had a chance to try this out ourselves as they were shut on most recent journey.
3.) Top Tips for Stansted Seating
The majority of the seating in Stansted departure lounge is crammed in the middle and hard wooden seating. It is noisy and crowded. However, there are three spots to sit that are vastly more pleasant.
The Windmill
Wetherspoons is usually crowded and can be noisy but, if you head upstairs with a bit of luck, you can find a table with a wonderful runway view. On most mornings, this will be a little grey, but seeing the planes move and take off always helps with that holiday excitement. Plus, you can get a refillable hot drink for £3.40! Thats cheaper than a coffee anywhere else in the airport. It is worth noting that the prices here are now as bad as anywhere else other than this great deal, so don’t expect Wetherpoons’ high street pricing.
The Escape Lounge
There is one airport lounge at Stansted, which is used both by airline business class passengers, and most airport lounge schemes. You can buy a reservation online through their website or use something like a Priority Pass, as we do. You will find comfortable seating, airport screens, and included in the price are both food and drinks. This includes alcoholic beverages, so a small meal and a couple of drinks it’s probably worth it. Plus, it is so much quieter than the main terminal.
Additional Seating
For a completely free, quiet area, make your way through all of the Terminal until you reach the transit train. On the right hand side, you will see a sign, pointing downstairs for additional seating. Follow this, and then head around the escalator to Stansted’s best kept secret. There are rarely many people down here. It’s hardly aesthetically pleasing, but if you just need some headspace then this is a nice option.
4.) More Top Tips for Stansted Airport Airside
Stansted Food Tips
Meal Deals – This is the cheapest way to eat at the airport. Boots does the best value meal deal at less than £5 for a snack, main and drink. Choose a nice big packet of crisps like Walkers Max, a triple sandwich and a fun fizzy drink for the best value.
Grab – This app allows you to preorder food at several outlets. You can then pick it up and go. This is great if you are short on time, you can order in the security queue and then pick up your food once you’re through.
Drinks – Don’t forget you can bring an empty water bottle through and refill once you are through security. There are water fountains by all the bathrooms. This is why you shouldn’t waste your drink option on water in a meal deal!
The Liquids Hack
If you are travelling hand luggage only, this one is for you! You can do an online order at Boots.com and choose London Stansted Airport as a click and collect location. This ensures you have your favourite full size sun cream or hair products ready and waiting for you at high street prices.
The Transit System
Many of Stansted’s gates are located on the other side of the apron. To reach them, you will need to take the transit train. Our advice is to check the gate number as soon as possible using the screens, your airline’s app or Google. Head straight for the transit and make you way to your stop. There are bathrooms at the satellite gates so no worries.
Stop One: Gates 1-19
Stop Two: Gates 20-39
Don’t miss your stop and end up travelling back round the main terminal or you’ll be required to clear passport control and go back through security again…you very well may miss your flight.
Bear in mind that sometimes, it is broken and you will need to take the stairs to buses or to walk a different route so make sure you can carry your hand luggage easily.
5.) Top Tips for Returning to Stansted Airport
How to Ace Passport Control
If your gate requires you to take the transit back to passport control, then make sure you ask, heading to the left to board. Then when you disembark go straight for the passport control sign. Here the queue is split into and basically everybody will go left, go right and you will be to the machines in no time. Make sure your passport is out of its cover and ready to go.
Don’t Arrive Too Late
It might seem like a good plan to save some money and catch that late flight. Arriving just in time to catch the last train is all very well and good if your flight is on time. However, if you hit a delay, you will be slightly stuck. Without a guaranteed coach seat booked back to London, you may have to watch several coaches leave without you. This is especially painful in the cold and/or rain. Trust this gal that didn’t manage to get on a bus until 03:00…it is NOT the one.
Final Thoughts on Our 5 Top Tips for Flying From Stansted Airport
We hope this plethora of info will help you as you navigate the meandering walkways of Stansted Airport. If you have any Stansted top tips to share, let us know in the comments.
Tunisia is a year-round sunny destination that is just 2.5 hours from the UK. It feels like another world with North African food, culture and sunshine. For many, Gatwick is the gateway to this jewel on the southern edge of the Mediterranean. We flew Tunisair from London Gatwick to Tunis for our 2024 trip on one of their newest planes. Here is our review of Tunisair A320neo Economy LGW – TUN.
Iceland has had its fair share of budget airlines. It makes total sense. Iceland is close to Europe and the USA, making it a great stopover between the two. Plus, Iceland one of the most popular destinations for nature lovers in its own right. However. somehow, they don’t seem to last. Well, here comes PLAY Airlines, the latest competitor from the land of fire and ice. A fun, young brand with a name to match, it aims to secure the route that so many others have lost. Read on for our full review of PLAY Airlines, travelling on their A320neo from London Stansted to Keflavik in Iceland.
This post may contain sponsored content or affiliate links that help support the blog. All opinions are our own.
Airport Experience – London Stansted
There were just two check in desks at Stansted, tucked away in Zone A (counterintuitivly, this is to the right when you enter the terminal). PLAY Airlines doesn’t charge for online check in so you can just turn up but of course we still checked in online and picked the seats we wanted. The staff were friendly and told us how to get the transit to the gate. They even knew the gate number ahead of time which is always a nice feeling.
Reminder: Always check the screens as gates can change!
We popped to the Escape Lounge (not a bad one if you have a Priority Pass or similar) for a little breakfast. Iceland is expensive and we wanted to fill our boots before we were in the land of pricy, imported food.
About ten minutes before the gate was due to be announced, we grabbed our bags and made our way to the transit train. Well, it was temporarily broken so they had set up a way to walk out the gates. This was much nicer than last time when we had to queue for coaches. I was very glad that we had ditched our big bags at check in for once as it meant we didn’t have to lug them all the way across the airport.
The gate staff were a little on the snappy side but they were agency staff, so you can expect the same service for plenty of airlines out of Stansted. However, as we boarded, we were welcomed by the cheerful crew standing cozy in their red puffer coats. These must be so comfortable to wear in the Stansted chilly morning, let alone the wintry conditions in Reykjavík.
Luggage
We are usually hand luggage only people but PLAY very kindly included a check in bag each so we took advtantage. Check in bags are provided at different weight allowances for different fares:
PLAY Basic means hand luggage only.
PLAY Value passengers can take 20kg which should be more than enough for a week of travel in a chilly place.
PLAY Flex can pack up to 23kg
Any passenger can pay excess for a bag weighing up 32kg, which is the legal limit for bags in Europe.
In terms of hand luggage, everyone is entitled to one small 10kg underseat hand luggage (42cm x 32 x 25 cm). If you opt for a PLAY Value or Flex ticket, you can also pack a large 12kg hand luggage (55 x 45 x 25 cm). This would have been absolutely fine for our normal way of travelling but when the bags are included, why not treat ourselves?
On Board
The Seats
The seats are all a light grey colour which is clean but a little dull. It would have been nice to see some pops of red in here as so much of their branding is red and white.(No, I don’t count the safety cards as decor). There was a 3 inch recline function which I wasn’t expecting at all. You don’t get that on the other low cost carriers on this route.. or in general really.
On the back of the seats was a standard tray table and a literature slot. Don’t put anything in here as it may well slide out. At the bottom of the seatbsack is a small net. I prefer these to the deep seatback pockets that never get a proper clean, and I am happier to use them for the bits and bobs I need to keep handy.
The standard leg room on PLAY Airlines’ A320neo is pretty good at 29 inches. This is one inch less than Ryanair and one more than Wizz. Strangely, Ryanair has always felt tighter than that? Mind you, with the little recline offered on PLAY, it feels bigger. Their extra lleg room comes up to 34 inches, the same as extra leg room on long haul carriers.
Entertainment
There isn’t any to speak of. There is no seat-back TV, or streaming service so make sure you bring a book or download some music, podcasts or videos. Thank goodness for that USB charger. Mind you, you cannot always rely on these power outlets so maybe pack your trusty powerbank too! Of course you can browse the inflight magazine but honestly, it was a five minute thumb-through job without much substance.
Food & Drink
There is no food or drink included on any fare with PLAY Airlines. This is absolutely fine on a short stretch but I think this would be hardgoing on the full trans-Atlantic journey. The stopover in Keflavik is not a cheap place to pick up food or drink either so you will be splashing out a fair bit on eating either way.
The only thing that surprised me, was the price of the alcohol. It didn’t seem that bad. Alcohol in Iceland is wildly expensive so €10 for a mini bottle of wine (a large glass) isn’t crazy.
Amenities
Coming straight from a flight with Tunisair, who use the same planes, I was shocked at the difference. This bathroom was spotless, stocked with plenty of toilet roll, hand towels and it was almost pleasant. The space is quite tight but large mirrors made it feel big enough. We were on quite an empty flight so maybe it wouldn’t have stayed as neat if it were being used more, but I believe I saw the crew giving it a quick tidy so maybe they just take more care.
The Flight
I adored the announcements from the flight deck. They were so informative, polite and funny. For example “Dear passengers, It has been an absolute pleasure. It is a lovely day in Iceland….so put on your warm clothes”. It seems to reflect the fun, youthful energy PLAY Airlines is trying to convey. What other airline has their crew in cool, white trainers in the air!?
We had a pretty smooth ride, loving the moment we burst through the clouds and left grey London behind. Well, we landed back in a grey, snowy Iceland…but that is not the point.
As soon as we entered Keflavik’s departure hall, we spotted the PLAY signs by the self-check in machines. Having checked in online, we had barcodes on our phones. Popping these under the scanner, we were expecting to have to fill out a few screens but instead, a bag tag printed straight out! It was so fast, so efficient, things my airline’s self-service bag drop can only dream of. I expertly attached them to our backpacks (that is ten years of practice not gone to waste) and as I did so, a nice member of staff came over to point us to the out of gauge section. Having strappy backpacks, it was best to send them through the fragile section. The smiling security officer accepted the gas and we made our way through security.
The departure lounge was buzzing and I was having a sad moment, not ready to leave Iceland and super sad that we missed out on experiencing a big northern light display…first world problems, I know. We had some slightly overpriced sandwiches and walked to the gates. Turns out our gate was basically a corridor. It was dark and had no seats. People leaned on every wall, many sat on the floor. It was really weird. Most of KEF is well-designed. At least, once the door opened and we all walked up the stairs, they did a good job of separating the passengers with priority boarding and it was a nice, quick process getting on board.
Final Thoughts on This Review of PLAY Airlines
PLAY has all the ingredients of a decent low-cost carrier, and that is fine for a quick three-hour hop from London to Reykjavík. However, I think I would want a few more included extras if I were a transiting passenger, carrying on across the Atlantic.. A snack would be nice and at least a bottle of water would be good as a minimum. The stopovers are nice and quick (unless you opt for a stopover overnight) so it seems like a very cost-effective way of hopping the pond. Maybe we will get a chance to review the full journey one day soon.
This post may contain sponsored content or affiliate links that help support the blog. All opinions are our own.
Airport Experience
Stansted
With a brutal 03:15 alarm, we surfaced bleary-eyed and a bit stroppy into the London cold. It took us two night tubes and the first Stansted Express of the morning but we made it bang on time for our expected 06:32 arrival. Two hours before a flight is an hour less than I really like but it was the only way to ensure a little sleep.
We found our check in desks and there was no queue. There was a very clear Jet2 check in area at London Stansted with some fun Instagram additions (giant teddy bear). We decided to check in our bags as they were included in the fare and the chap who checked us in was very perky. It was impressive for such an early morning. He let us know that the Stansted transit train wasn’t working and that staff would point us in the right direction. We were very happy to see that there were four staff stood by the train entrance and they were all Jet2. No other carrier was represented here. We all went down to waiting coaches over to the remote terminal. I was very glad we’d checked in our bigger bags as it was a lot of standing and stairs which would have been annoying with the suitcases.
The terminal is very scrappy but that is not Jet2’s responsibility. There were lots of seats and nice big windows where you could see our plane and a few other Jet2 planes too. They had nice, shiny signage and nice, shiny staff. Everyone was wished a good holiday as they passed through the gate which was a very nice touch and it was really good that they maintained that line for everyone.
Athens
We arrived at Athens airport three hours before our flight took off but the check-in wasn’t open yet. There wasn’t anywhere to sit nearby and it was very buy and tight so we went and sat out of the way for a while. When we returned, there was a huge queue…rookie mistake! It took around 20 minutes to get to the front and then the agent wasn’t too friendly. We checked in our bags and headed for security. Jet2 is in the satellite building and there is quite a long way to walk along travelators before you go through security (plenty of time to buy any drinks you have bought).
Once through security, there was a departure lounge that was very busy where we picked up a sandwich and crisps for the flight. Then we passed through passport control (another long queue) and found our gate. Remember to leave plenty of time to get through the airport because it takes a while. We entered the gate which was very busy and didn’t have many seats left. The staff were checking in hand luggage. they were not asking but instructing passengers and making sure they went over to the tagging desk. It didn’t feel very Jet2.
The Plane
The Seats
We paid to book our seats ahead of time both to ensure we could sit together and to guarantee a window seat. Honestly, we sit separately alot due to traveling on standby but when I am reviewing a flight, I like a window. Poor Mr Fluskey likes a window too, but he married a window lover so he doesn’t get it all that often.
The seats were pretty standard for a European short haul airline with 31 inches pitch and 17 inches width. This is slightly wider than both Ryanair and Easyjet and has at least two inches of extra leg room, This really does make a difference when the flight is more than two hours, especially when squeezing out to pop to the bathroom. There is no back to the seat in front where your legs are which, if you are tall, will give you those precious extra centimetres….I wonder if that is included in the legroom?
Instead of a traditional seatback pocket, there is a magazine stand. This means you cannot store your belongings in there. This is much cleaner (those pockets can be real germ-fests) and presumably prevents lots of lost property. There is a small tray table and the addition of a simple metal cup holder which I really like. It’s designed for the hot drinks they sell onboard so doesn’t really fit a water bottle.
The Windows
There was something very strange about the windows and I only realised about half an hour into our flight. I went to pull down the shade for an easier sleep but it wasn’t there. None of the windows have shades so the sun streams in undisturbed. It’s great for the views but it was tough to nap with the full force of the sun seeping through my eyelids.
I wanted to share some of the views we got.
The Way Out
Leaving a grey morning at Stansted is always satisfying. Bursting through the final layer of cloud and into the blue sky above really makes it feel like a holiday! Plus, trying to spot the Acropolis on our descent was lots of fun.
Coming Back
On the way back we were treated to a fabulous hour long sunset. I couldn’t stop snapping but here are just a few little photos.
Storage
The baggage bins have stretchy bands across the front so things don’t fall out when the bins are reopened. It also means people can shove their coats and other soft items in and they stay put. This is a very smart addition which I am surprised I have never seen on any other carriers.
Everyone is entitled to one underbag seat and one overhead spot. Of course, if everyone takes advantage then it gets overfull so they were checking in baggage at the boarding gate in Athens. I was surprised that they faced this issue seeing as everyone gets free chek in luggage. This surely reduces the number of large rolling hand luggage bags that end up at the gate. Well, it encouraged us to check our bags in, something we rarely do.
Entertainment
There are two magazines in the seat back but no TVs onboard. There aren’t any plugs so my advice is to bring a phone or tablet, a portable charger and some headphones. Mr Fluskey used both his Bluetooth headphones until they ran out of battery and was forced to read the magazines. (What a rookie, use one at a time!). There were a few interesting articles but not enough for a three hour flight.
The Tannoy
We really enjoyed the tunes as we boarded. They were all upbeat and put us in a good mood with our mini singalong. Of course, they played Jess Glynne’s banger Hold My Hand which is on the Jet2 adverts.
Now, about the announcements. They were all prerecorded and very cheery. We loved the fun tone and the two voices giving it some pep. However, they were SO loud! Every time one was played, the whole plane (who were trying sleep due to the early starts we had all had) was shocked awake. You could visibly see people jump out of slumber. It seemed unnecessarily loud when the boarding music had been considerably quieter so there must be a volume choice. I would hate to take this as a commuter without a pair of noise-cancelling headphones. In general, the announcements were too loud and too frequent.
That being said, we loved the flight deck announcements which were thorough, describing the exact route we would be taking and what we could expect to see along the way. They also kept everyone informed when we had a delay on the way home. Top marks to the flight deck!
Amenities
The bathroom was kept clean on both legs of our journey which is impressive on 3.5 hour flight. I liked the big pictures on the door which cheered up the small space….and they were small. You would struggle to change clothes in here or anything like that so don’t plan to use them as a space for anything other than using the toilet. There was some simple soap but no hand cream or anything so if you need that stuff, make sure it’s in your liquids bag.
Food & Drink
There was plenty on offer to purchase during the trolley service. I was expecting shocking prices but actually, compared to airports and other carriers, it was all quite reasonable. We stupidly paid more for food in Athens airport to eat on board which saw us standing in long queues. We should have just waited and chosen things from the menu!
There was a second round of trolley service on both flights where sandwiches were offered at half price. This is a nice way of ensuring less food waste but I would be pretty annoyed if I had paid full price just one hour prior. Good to know for future travel though!
Final Thoughts for our Review of Jet2
For holiday travel Jet2 is a brilliant choice. Free luggage, check-in desks and super cheery announcements at the gate and onboard all get you in a good mood. Whether you prefer a longer fly and flop or want a fun Jet2 city break, they will get you there safe, sound and smiling. Overall, Jet2 are a fantastic choice with genuinely friendly staff, an expanding network and an attitude we love!
In 2022, we attended our first Camp Wildfire…and we were instantly hooked. So, it was full of excitement that we got to join our fellow squirrels once again in 2023. So what had changed? What was better and what, if anything, was worse? This is our Camp Wildfire review 2023.
This post may contain sponsored content or affiliate links that help support the blog. All opinions are our own.
First things first, don’t panic! We are still squirrels…more about the badgers later.
What is Camp Wildfire?
Camp Wildfire takes some explaining because it is totally unique. Picture a fun American summer camp, tents, boy scout-y uniforms and a whole lot of campers that are there for wholesome fun. Next, imagine a music festival…but not the main stage. Picture the side tents with fun cabaret, alternative acts and wicked DJs…now smush them together! Throw in some healthy competition between the patrols and you have Camp Wildfire.
The Patrols
Everyone gets to pick a team, or patrol, to join. There are four: Hawks, Squirrels (our patrol), Badgers and Foxes. There are personality traits associated with each, (you can see them here) but don’t stress about it, you can pick any of them and find some awesome, fun patrol-mates. You could just pick whichever is your favourite colour too. Throughout the weekend you can earn points for your patrol by doing a good job at being a nice person, winning competitions and taking part in the patrol games. For more info, check out our full guide.
A Day at Camp Wildfire
By day, you run around getting involved in the different activities you have booked. These can be as varied as bee-keeping, tree-climbing, orienteering, cheerleading, sword-fighting, and terrariumming …sorry, I mean making terrariums. Then, at five o’clock everyone gathers and joins the Patrol Games or Patrol Quiz. This is a nice time to connect with your patrol and earn some points for them. The patrol games are a crazy mix of party games and the quiz is a more cerebral affair! As the sun starts to set, the evening entertainment stars. There are live music acts to dance to or a DJ spinning tunes (do DJs spin tunes any more or just click them?). You’ll also find interesting talks and stand-up comedy or you can hang out in the games tent until the wee hours. On Sunday, you do it all again!
Camp Wildfire Review 2023
DAY ONE
Getting to Camp Wildfire
True to form, we were running late. Even worse, every minute that we didn’t leave our flat added five onto our drive. Friday afternoon on the M25 is only ever a nightmare. We crammed our bags into the boot and got on the road. Last year, we took the train and bus combo on offer. That was fine but I wanted to take extra bedding for this weekend and it would been just too much to carry across London to the correct terminus. Turns out, hiring a car was a lucky decision as the ongoing train strike debacle left the route completely without trains. Plus, a huge rainstorm enveloped the car when we hit the outskirts of Sevenoaks and boy, was I happy to be in a dry bubble rather than huddling under a train station awning like last year.
The Initiations and Parade
Happily, the rain stopped as we waddled from the car to the entrance so our things remained mostly dry. Unfortunately, however, waiting in the car for a few minutes for the worst of the rain to pass ate up yet more time. When we got to the site and found our pre-pitched tent, we had missed almost the entire initiation ceremony. I was gutted as this is an important moment for the patrol. Old and new faces get to meet and bond over their combined passion for the patrol. It’s like a pep rally. Everyone learns the patrol chants/songs and then it is time to parade.
The parade is the official opening of Camp Wildfire. The gates to Centre Camp are opened and everyone dances their way through the forest along to song brilliant walking bands. The group is led to the Patrol Games Arena and it is time to kick things off with the first round of the Patrol Games.
Patrol Games 1
The first game was taken by the Patrol Leaders. They played dizzy dinosaurs, spinning around a broom before running the length of the arena and back again. Hilarity ensued of course. The floor was a little muddy from the rain and so a few people slipped over to general titters from the crowd. This was a lovely way to warm everyone up and we love those who lead by example.
The next three games were all undertaken by brave campers. For the first, a party of three had to balance a balloon between them and get it down the field without it falling off. It’s not he kind of patience I possess. Then there was a hunger games style game that involved snatching balls out of each camper’s hoop. It was seriously cutthroat. FIA Lily, one person from each patrol had to run their own one person relay, running hoops along a rope from one end of the arena to the other. This looked utterly exhausting and was timed so I have no clue how they kept the momentum up. Our squirrel had a t-shirt on that said “Hackney Half Marathon”…so I guess that’s how!
I love watching the Patrol Games. I cannot imagine the pressure of taking part but I am hardly the peak of physical fitness. These brave souls smashed it though!
Burritos and Butter Chicken
After watching all that exhausting exercise, it was time to get some dinner. We opted for a burrito as it had one of the shortest queues and they very kindly made it both with no onions, and with hot sauce just at one end. It was great and reminded me how much I love a burrito. Then we shared a tray of the addictive butter chicken covered chips that I had been craving since last year. They were yummy and scrummy and as good as I remembered. I know chips with curry sauce is “a thing” but why isn’t it always like THIS.
George Egg
I had never heard of George Egg before but when I read the words “Renegade Chef”, I knew he would be right up my street! His tips for cooking a meal in hotel room was fun and super practical informative, full of ideas I’ve never thought of.
Daft Funk
Now I’m not sure but I think half the crowd thought they were seeing THE adapt Pumk. This was actually their cover band who nonetheless put on a fantastic show packed with the band’s biggest hits. The place went wild for Harder, Better , Fast, Stronger,…including us.
Bedtime
We meandered through the darkened woods back to the tent. I think we got to bed around midnight which might seem early but we had a long day on Saturday and didn’t want to ruin it. (Plus, we had been so tired before even arriving that I was proud to make it through the whole day as it was!)
Just outside of our tent we saw a frog. I wondered if I kissed it, whether I might find an upgrade from Mr Fluskey but decided against it…the toilets were a long way away if it turned out to just be a frog and I need to throw up. Oh, and speaking of toilets, we had found some relatively quiet ones, tucked behind the coffee tent and they were still nice clean so no dramas on night one!
DAY TWO
A Good Morning
Tai Time – Tai Chi & Tie Dye
No, this wasn’t a slow-motion production line of coloured t-shirts (although that sounds like a brilliant way to spend an hour) but two separate activities.
Tai Chi
My first activity, bright and early, was Tai Chi. This was a lovely hour and fifteen minutes for just ten credits (quite the bargain). The class lined up in front of the teacher who explained this would be a little tapas style lesson with a few different techniques. It was a calming but invigorating lesson. I particularly liked the “drunk dragon serving tea” motion and the mini sound bath we were treated to. At the end of the class we were all asked to describe how we felt. Responses ranged from “calm”, to “tired” to “awake”. I went with “aware” as we had done some body awareness work and every movement felt hyper significant.
Tie Dye
Mr Fluskey and I had started our previous year’s Saturday with a nice class in the dying. I’m not going to lie, I loved my dress which came out in a blaze of yellow, red and orange. However, I was less keen on his top which had some overlapping colours which resulted in khaki and brown sections, not the bright splashes of colour he was going for. Round two and I was expecting perfection…we’ll, it was better. The colours still ended up on a hippy brown smudge side but it was less all over so didn’t seem so bad. (Yes, I know it sounds harsh but I know what he was going for and I was frustrated for him that it didn’t happen).
Mind you, he really enjoyed it again and that’s what really matters.
Sign Language
Every year at Camp Wildfire, there is a sign language choir performance given by everyone that has attended the sign language lessons over the weekend. At five credits, I couldn’t resist the opportunity. In the class we not only learned the song, “This is Me” from The Greatest Showman but the alphabet and some cute animal signs too. The leaders were both lovely, and so engaging. This is one I’ll be doing again and booking Karl onto whether he likes it or not.
Rest Time and Pasta
After not an amazing night’s sleep, and our early morning we decided to go back to our tent and chill for a bit. It was cooking up nicely inside but we opened the windows and doors for some cross breeze and munched on pasta and pesto that I had made in advance and brought from home. It was delicious if I do say so myself with kale, mint and almond pesto made from scratch.
Survival Skills
At 3:00 we made our way back into the Intrepid Woods for Survival Skills. I wasn’t sure what to expect but the young guy teaching us was a font of knowledge about the best techniques for staying dry and warm, what equipment we needed and even how to build a trap to catch dinner. The coolest part was getting to try out a fire stick. These small but incredibly useful pieces of kit send out crazy hot sparks when scraped which are brilliant for lighting a fire. It took me several attempts to send up my piece of cotton wool, as it did Mr Fluskey, but we both got there eventually. If we ever go real camping, we will absolutely be taking the knowledge we learned in this talk with us.
A Quick Bevvie
Our last activity of the day was Afrobeats Dance. We had just a tiny bit of time and decided that a drink would help loosen us up. The bar was open and so I grabbed a cider in my trusty squirrel enamel mug and Me Fluskey opted for a rum and coke. We necked them and prepared to boogy.
Afrobeats Dance
There is nothing quite like a new dance style to make you feel both thoroughly uncoordinated and shit hot all at once. Now, I am pretty sure that Me Fluskey’s choice of footwear (long wellies) hindered him a little. I am equally sure that we just don’t have enough moves to bust to make this look good. We had an hour long class and learned at a furious rate (that we demanded). It was fast and fun and not, so we look silly doing it.
Want proof? Check out the two idiots front left and you’ll see what I mean:
The Group Photo
After the dance class, we had just a couple of minutes to dash into the Games Arena for the big, group photo. This is another annual tradition and involves the whole camp getting together for one large and lovely snap. This year, a memo must have gone out before we arrived that nobody should lift their arms or signs at the final moment. I think there were a few sad people that got covered up at the last second last year. In fact, so think I was me of them.
I haven’t been able to spot us due to my visually impaired eyes not dealing well with tiny faces but I have been assured that we are there in the squirrels.
Another Quick Bevvie
It was then time to go for another quick drink at the bar. This ended up being rather longer than expected as we met some really nice campers and nearly missed the whole of Patrol Games 2! As we cut into the arena we caught the very end of the camp-wide limbo contest and all the hilarity that comes with people collapsing in giggles. It’s utterly infectious!
Dumplings and …Kind of Dumplings
Dinner beckoned and predictably, I was listing after dumplings (God, I LOVE dumplings). We decided to go for another weird combo of sharing things and started with the platter of Gyoza before hightailing it across to the Italian stand. Here, we ordered two big, fat, unctuous Arancini. It was all delicious and just what satisfied my cravings.
The Auditorium
Feeling full and not quite ready for dancing (we decided the world didn’t need to see our awesome Afrobeats stylings just yet), The Auditorium sounded like a great plan.
Bureau of Silly Ideas
Arriving, we realised that many people had been on our same wavelength and there wasn’t a seat to be had. The Bureau of Silly Ideas had pulled in quite a crowd and so we inches forwards slowly, standing outside and craning to see the antics on stage. The Bureau of Silly Ideas is an arts collective all about getting people to think about and interact with their urban environment, We heard about some of their hilarious street art. I can only hope to bump into their projects one day.
Jamie Barrow
The next listing on the bill just said TBA. Everyone disappeared (presumably for dinner, drinks or dancing) but we decided to stay and see what the next speaker was like. Well, it turned out to be the world’s fastest snowboarder. He was engaging and funny with a great story to tell which involved some seriously life-threatening crashes along the way. It was so cool to hear someone so utterly passionate about his world record that he pushed it to a point near death. I may or may not have drunkenly told him that his talk “was-h great” later that evening.
Robin Ince
The final person we listened to was one half the the Radio 4 show, The Infinite Monkey Cage. This, of course, means he is a great storyteller. He spoke at a millions miles an hour with pauses for laughter and a barrage of aside, the smiles and witticisms that kept us all thoroughly entertained. All this and with some proper science thrown in too!
Mista Trick Collective and Only Fans Dance Party
Itchy feet had set in so it was time to dance. We wiggled and jumped along to two great sets. Mista Trick Collective had great party trick, taking tubes we all know and love and kicking them up a notch with drum n bass beats. It was perfect for Camp Wildfire, a blend of the familiar and new leaving everyone with huge smiles.
Then, the mysterious Only Fans Dance Party took to the stage. It turned out to be two very cool female DJs that bust out some classic 70s and 90s tunes. I think we danced until the wee hours but cider had happened…
DAY THREE
A Rushed Morning
The bathrooms that were our secret nice ones had deteriorated overnight so after waiting there for a minute or two, I decided to go to the main ones. There was a bit of a queue so I lost about half an hour to my morning pee. We scoffed some breakfast (a Rice Krispie square and satsuma) but didn’t have time to brush our teeth. We decided to do it en route. Adding toothpaste at one water station and then storming through the woods, brushing furiously until we reached another across Central Camp. It wasn’t classy but we made it on time to our first activity of the day with minty fresh breath.
Aerial Bungee
This exercise class has been on my bucketlist for a long while. We wanted to try it on our Virgin Voyages cruise but couldn’t bag a spot in the class.
We were all strapped into harnesses attached to some very hardcore elastic. It took some getting used to, realising that if you threw yourself at the floor, you wouldn’t hit it, and running was futile. The bouncing back reminded me of being a kid on reins. We were taught some basic moves and then it was cardio time. The teacher put on some upbeat tunes and we had to jig and bounce around, acting out the song as best we could. It was a total mess and totally hysterical.
Mr Fluskey’s elastic seemed quite long compared to most and he nearly face planted the floor when we tried burpees. Some aerobics ensued and then everyone tried some trust exercise/tricks. We tried and nearly managed it. (At least, it felt like we nearly managed it). This was our favourite activity of the weekend and if they are back in 2024 I reckon everyone should give it a go!
Oh, and we were set the challenge of doing a whole song of burpees right at the end. It damn near killed me, and I was NOT good , but I persevered and got the squirrels my very first Patrol Point!
Space Science
My next activity was a lot more chilled. Space Science was run by the chap that does astronomy at night. Both times I’ve attended Camp Wildfire I have forgotten to go and do astronomy and I have regretted it both years. He is a fascinating guy with an encyclopaedic knowledge of everything that is cool about space. I learned a ton in the hour we had which I dashed back to tell Me Fluskey. For example, did you know that sucking a drink through a straw in a vacuum doesn’t work?! On Earth, you create a vacuum and the earth’s air pressure forces the liquid UP THE STRAW. World view shattered! Also, Newton invented the cat flap, who knew!?
Nerf Wars
Mr Fluskey’s activity was far more energetic. He enjoyed Nerf Wars so much last year that he signed up once again. This year, the bay nails were gone and giant inflatables made up the battle field. There was three rounds, a capture the flag style game, a stuck in the mud and a zombie apocalypse! The last game, the zombies, was his victory round. Somehow he was the only human left at the end and earned another shiny Patrol Point!
Seems that with Mr Fluskey’s zombie avoidance and our new combined survival skills, we will be set when the end days arrive.
Axe Throwing
Camp Wildfire has some fun “free” activities. These run all weekend and you can just go over and give them a go. These include a climbing tower, the free fall jump that Mr Fluskey did last year, and this year, axethrowing. This is another one those things that has been on my bucketlist for a while so it was excellent to just say get up and give it a go without spending any extra credits. Maybe, I had secret Viking skills that I’d been harbouring all these years? We lined up and prepared to lob the aces as shown. Well, we were rubbish. Nobody in our group managed to stick a single one but hey, it was a fun and free!
Rest Time and Rice
Time for another chill out moment in the tent accompanied by lunch. This time, we munched on microwave rice and a ton of sweetcorn. So nutritious! It was important to line our tummies with plenty of carbs as our next activity was our big spender…
Cocktail Making
At Camp Wildfire 2022, we had passed the cocktail making tent and listened with envy to the ice rattling in the metal shakers. It was our main priority when it came to booking as we wanted as close to the end of day two as possible. I didn’t manage to snag the 5:00 slot but 4:00 was open so I snatched it!
We had the chance to make two cocktails, a mojito and a blue badger margarita. Everyone was assigned a small bench with all the ingredients for the drinks (and a few troublesome wasps). It was great fun muddling mint, crushing limes and getting to know our fellow bench mates. My mojito was much more sour than Mr Fluskey’s as he had really gone to town on the sugar syrup but both were tasty. Not as good as the blue margaritas though! These were citrusy and had the twist of orange from the curaçao that took the edge off. I timed my glass with salt and sipped happily on the result.
Finally, we all played a game which involved free pouring a single shot. The closest pour won…mind you, we all got to drink our shot of passoa so we were all winners really.
Patrol Games Finale
Going into the last Patrol Games, the Hawks were very much in the lead. There was a 5:00 deadline for depositing any last Patrol Points and a small crowd gathered to add their winnings to the jars. We hoped that our fellow Swuirrels had been true to their name and were hoarding them all for winter (or until now). Then it was time for the final showdown. The first round was the epic Camp Wildfire lip sync. Every performance was pitch perfect (can you be if you mime) with backing dancers, air guitar and costumes all making appearances. I got a bit picky about the group performance, wishing that each person only did their own part but I am probably just bitter because the Hawks were already in the lead.
Next came the games proper with the two leading patrols, The Badgers and Hawks, going head to head in a fiendish final game. This involved several difficult stages (filling a high tube with water, solving jigsaws etc) and the whole finished with a target shootout. The beanbags flew towards precariously perched bucked of water which were ready to descend on to two patrol leaders below. It was nail bitingly dramatic with the payoff everyone wanted, one soaked and sopping but smiling patrol leader.
The Badgers won and flares, confetti and songs erupted.
Well done Badgers!
Burger and Pizza
In another classic combo dinner we ordered a venison burger and a pizza from two different stalls. I tried and failed to convince Mr Fluskey that as we were two people, we needed a double cheeseburger but he was having none of it.
We got blue cheese sauce and olives on half the pizza and munched the lot whilst watching the talent show.
The Camp Wildfire Talent Show
The talent show was a new addition to the Camp Wildfire lineup and it was great fun but put on at a rather strange time. The whole thing started with the sign language choir. To be honest, I had forgotten LOTS of the song but followed along as best I could had a blast doing it.
Then it was the turn of the plucky performers. By this point, the gorgeous pink sky had faded to black and the lighting was tricky as it flashed through different colours. Some of the acts were brilliant and some a bit ropey. It was difficult to hear most as the Lycra 80s Party (the awesome dance troupe/aerobics instructors from last year) were performing in the tent nearby. Im not actually sure who won…or if there was meant to be a winner as it all ended in a huge group singalong. Lots of fun but not a slick show by any means.
The Jenga Grudge Match
We caught the end of Lycra 80s Party and then spend around ten minutes popping smoke filled bubbles to the side of the tent. Then we decided it was drink time and made our way round to the games tent for what we hoped would be a shorter queue. We had a date with a hot tub and didn’t want to be late. It was correct to seek out the shorter queue but we ended up completely transfixed by a game of giant Jenga that took the tent by storm. It was so tense and watching people almost walk straight into he towers added a whole new level of danger.
When it finally collapsed, we hit foot it to The Sanctuary, ready for a soak.
The Sanctuary
The Sanctuary is the spa on site at Camp Wildfire. There are glamping tents for massages, wood fired hot tubs and even an old fashioned caravan converted into a sauna. We had a managed to get a last minute slot for 22:30, the last of the night) and waited outside for our turn. Turns out, there were about 20 people in our slot and we all we to change into our swimmers in the big tents, one male and one female. (If I’d have been clever, I’d have put it on under my clothes earlier in the evening).
Everybody made straight for the hot tubs so we dived into the sauna, staving off the evening chill. We had it to ourselves for around ten minutes and indulged in the wooden-clad solitude. Once others started appearing we left to claim their spots in the hot tubs. We joined another first year CW couple, who had been surprised at how friendly and relaxed it all was. It was really lovely to hear as we now felt some sort of ownership over it (silly, I know).
Sat in the toasty tub with the sound of the House Gospel Choir rolling over was an amazing feeling.
Obviously we had FOMO, not seeing the performance but I was thrilled that we could still hear it. Their voices were so powerful, even from afar.
Once we were ushered out, everybody dried off before heading back to their tents or to the last dance music blasting through the night.
A Bedtime Boogy
We planned to go to bed due to a shift each on Monday, but tunes got the better of us. We ended up dancing until 02:00, celebrating with the badgers and busting some sleepy but happy moves.
DAY FOUR
A Sunny Morning
Mr Fluskey had to go to work on Monday so we packed up, ready to leave quite early. I thought it best to fuel up properly for the drive and long shift ahead so we made our way to the crepe stand in general camping. He opted for a sweet Biscoff-laden beauty while I stuck to my normal habit of ham and cheese. It was a lovely end to the weekend sitting in the sun munching something delicious. Then we grabbed our bags and wandered away feeling oh so wistful.
Final Thoughts for This Camp Wildfire Review 2023
I was a little scared that our second year at Camp Wildfire wouldn’t live up to my own hype. I had such great memories of Camp Wildfire 2022 and have been gushing about it to everyone. Thankfully, it was just as fun, just as rewarding and just as mad.
We are crossing everything to get an invite for 2024. We can’t wait to see what they dream up for those special, secret woods down in Kent because we reckon Camp Wildfire is just going to get better and better!
Camp Wildfire has been popping up on my Instagram for years. A blend of festival, summer camp and al around good time, I was thrilled to be invited to see what it was really like in 2022. Well, I wasn’t quite prepared for just what a wholesomely good time we were going to have. Read on for my full Camp Wildfire review.
This post may contain sponsored content or affiliate links that help support the blog. All opinions are our own.
This review is going to be all about our experience of weekend two, 2022. If you are looking for a little more information, check out our Complete Guide to Camp Wildfire.
What is Camp Wildfire?
Part music festival, part arts and crafts circle and part fitness camp, Camp Wildfire is totally unique in the adult space. Campers get to try out all kinds of activities from making terrariums to learning the Dirty Dancing routine via juggling and zorbing. These activities run throughout the day and then, in the evenings there is free entertainment. You can dance to a DJ or a band, or listen to talks and comedy. The whole thing is super wholesome and tons of fun!
Day One
Getting to Camp Wildfire
Being carless wonders, we booked tickets from London to …. station in Kent. This is just 45 minutes from London From here, we were due to catch the shuttle bus to the campsite. It was raining a bit and there wasn’t a working toilet at the station which was a shame as the coach didn’t arrive until about 50 minutes after the train arrived. It would have been good for the timings to match up a little better but we took the chance to meet some of our fellow train goers. Once the bus did arrive, we piled on and eventually left for a 15 minute drive to the campsite.
Settling In and Initiation
Arriving, we showed our tickets quickly on the way in, ducking out of the rain as much as possible and then found the pre-pitched tent area. We opted for a pre-pitched tent as we don’t own a tent, didn’t want to buy one just for this trip and as mentioned before we don’t have a car so it made travelling much easier. Boy, were we glad we did. The rain was still coming down and nobody likes putting up a tent in the rain.
We sheltered and unpacked for about half an hour and then the sun made an appearance. We had a little wander around the campsite. The rest of the site is only opened up for the parade and so we grabbed a quick drink and awaited the gathering of the four patrols. These teams are self-assigned and we had picked to join the squirrels sporting yellow clothes and ginger ears. I was weirdly nervous and the hyper energy was spilling out everywhere! Luckily, some veterans took us under their wing and kindly gave us carabiner clip to attach our mugs to our bags.
“Oh, you are so organised”
“It’s not our first year”
…Rosie looks on in awe
We learned the patrol chants/songs before getting a hype speech from our Patrol Leaders and making our way into the magical forest. Everybody paraded through the woods with a samba band stomping their way behind us. It was so exciting! We walked to the Patrol Games Ground ready to kick the weekend off with some games.
The Patrol Leaders took to the floor and pumped up their supporters before embarking on a few example games to get everyone started. The first game involved putting as many pegs as possible onto somebody’s face. I think we were all quite glad not to volunteer for this torture. I mean, forget the pain of the pinching, but the Squirrel tactic of pegging around the mouth would have made me gag so badly!
Then it was the turn of the campers to compete. There was a mass limbo which everybody who felt flexible got up to tackle. It got incredibly low before the hawks took the title. Then there were a couple of cool games, one involving wooden spoons and eggs. It was a game of self defence and attacking but it’s awfully tricky to explain!
Dinner Time 1
We walked straight out of the games and into the queues for dinner. At Camp Wildfire there is a collection of food trucks serving all kinds of delicious street food. On day one we opted for the pan-Asian spot partly due to the fact Gyoza are delicious and partly because it had a shorter queue. The gyozas were very tasty but a little oily and possibly a little overpriced at £8. The noodles (maybe) tasted good but not they weren’t super memorable.
80s Lycra Dance Party
I’ll admit, we misunderstood the assignment here. We thought they were having a costume disco with lots of neon and 80s tune. Turns out, 80’s Lycra Dance Party is a music and dance act and they are the most fun! Along with a DJ, three dancers in their full spandex glory bust out some classic 80s jazz and aerobics. We all danced and sang along, warming up the audience for the weekend perfectly.
Eddie the Eagle
Eddie the Eagle is a British icon. He is the hero in one of those quintessential underdog stories. You may have seen the film about him that came out a few years ago but the guy himself was even more charming in real life when he took to the stage at Camp Wildfire 2022. He had the whole audience in giggles in his enjoyable and inspirational talk. I mean, he is one of the reasons we booked weekend 2. The curiosity was just too strong and it paid off.
Bedtime…or Not
I was pretty tired so I ditched at around 23:00, leaving Mr Fluskey to the stand up comedy. I wandered back through the forest on a pleasingly well-lit path, popped back to the tent and grabbed my hot water bottle and headed to the cooking area to fill it up. There was quite a long queue for the two kettles who were working overtime! After about ten minutes, someone tried the hot tap and found out that it was really very hot. I decided to cut my losses with the electric kettles and filled the hot water bottle with the hot tap instead. “Haha, I thought” “I have hacked this!” Well, turns out that it went cold quite quickly once I was in bed so it wasn’t quite the genius idea I’d thought it was. The combo of hot water vs boiling and the mini hot water bottle as a full size one meant I was quite chilly all night. Lesson learned, on day two I made my hot water bottle at around 21:00 before we went to the dance tent meaning there was no queue for the kettles.
Mr Fluskey appeared an hour or two later to a very grumpy wife who was cold and couldn’t sleep. Sadly, sleep was elusive that night and I shivered my way through the next six hours. Luckily, I’d packed a red bull or two and so I was able to fuel up ready for day two…..
We decided to start day two with a session of tie-dye. We figured it would give our items a chance to dry properly if the weather wasn’t ideal. I brought a cheap cotton dress from Vinted with me and a cheap cotton t-shirt for Karl from Primark. The leaders explained how to do the tie dye (the order to dip the dyes and some cool techniques) and then left us to our own devices. I wanted to pay homage to a fire candle I made at summer camp as a kid so went for yellow and red. Mr Fluskey decided to tackle all the colours. We began to dip with more hope than skill and rinsed out our creations. I was really pleased with mine and though it wasn’t half as impressive as those hanging on the line but it was better than I thought I could do! Mr Fluskey’s came out a little more army green than planned, not quite like the one he was inspired by but he plans to wear it in the future so I call that a great success!
Zorb Wars
We signed up for zorbing assuming that we would be popped in a ball and rolled down the hill next to general camping. Well, we were quickly earning that you can’t assume anything with Camp Wildfire. The zorb balls were in a giant inflatable ring and there wasn’t a slope in sight. Instead, there were two zorb balls in a large inflatable ring which were swarmed by shouting campers. It looked like chaos but people looked like they were having fun so we took a seat and waited for our session.
Everyone was advised to take absolutely anything that could become lost, earrings, bracelets, watches and bags, and to remove their shoes. We dutifully started removing these items as the previous session came off the pitch (pitch?). One person had a bloody face and another was limping. What on earth had we signed up for?
We were divided into two teams and the first game was a relay race. One by one we dived into the zorb and ran, using our hands to propel us to the other side of the arena and back. So far, so easy. Then, the madness began! We took turns inside the ball again, but this time, ran at the other team’s ball, bouncing off and pushed on our way by our team. It was crazy and hysterically funny. Inside the ball, it was near impossible to stand up after impact and for those pushing, the balance between driving the zorb forward and avoiding the reound took some practise.
We came awya pretty sweaty but, happily, not bleeding at all.
Flying Trapeze
Mr Fluskey has previously taken two flying trapeze lessons so it was with mild confidence he climbed the long rope ladder to the high platform. I watched from below, wondering what the faraway blob I was looking at was. Then, all of a sudden, he was swinging, his legs were up and the trick was on. It was kind of surreal watching him, remembering how scary stepping off the high platform is. From a long way off, it looked so serene! He swung a couple of times before doing a controlled fall to the net below. Then he rescaled the ladder, ready for a trickier manoeuvre. The next swing involved getting his legs up and over the bar. To be honest, I don’t think our core strength is what it was. Observing his attempt at swinging up to the bar, and my static trapeze later in the day was really quite embarrassing.
Rifle Shooting
Not only is Mr Fluskey a superior athlete, but also a keen marksman…apparently. Being a blind lady, I didn’t join him for the rifle shooting which was just as well, as the targets were miles from the shooting posts. The air rifles were long and fire little black pellets so a steady arm and a good eye were definitely required. Not only did he get a bullseye but he snagged a patrol point for the squirrels too!
Aerial Skills
Whilst Mr Fluskey was busy doing his rifle shooting, it was time for me to prove my circus skill prowess with a session of static trapeze and aerial hoop.
Spoiler: I did not manage it
We were all given a warm up and then the group was split into two. We were assigned to the static trapeze first. I think I underestimated how much the swing of the flying trapeze helps get your legs up and onto the bar. Turns out my arms are weak, my stomach muscles have turned to jelly and there is a lot of bulk in the way. I miss my fit pandemic moment! We were taught the way to hoist ourselves up onto a bar and then stand up. It was surprisingly wobbly when you stood up but I really liked sit up there. (It was all of a metre off the ground).
Then we swapped and got to try out the hoop. I was surprised at how tricky it was to wiggle into the right position without bruising your inner thighs. I tried to do the things we were shown but as soon as I was on the hoop, I totally forgot what I was meant to do. Added to this, my hoop was swinging in time with the one next to us and my head was narrowly missing the head of my fellow workshop participant.
The whole thing was a bit of a mess so I will leave it to the experts from now on and just enjoy Cirque de Soleil with a new respect.
Lunch
Being a very organised bunny, I had premade a couple of portions of pasta and pesto. I thought it wouldn’t do too badly at room temperature and pesto is the best. We scarfed it down and then went back to the ice cream van for dessert. The flavours were good and we demolished the ice cream in seconds as we dashed into the woods.
Ukulele
I always thought I was pretty musical. I can sing and pick out a simple tune on a fair few instruments. However, it seems my downfall is chords. Mr Fluskey and I were both signed up for ukelele and we arrived (just) on time to see a nice big group. We found Mr Fluskey a lefthanded ukelele and squeezed onto a hay bale, ready to let our newest musical hobby take shape.
Well, we started out just fine. The A minor, C and F were all OK…not great, but OK. We strummed our way through a few simple songs and we were feeling pretty cocky. However, we were then intorcued to the G chord. Now, I am going to make an excuse here. I have three weirdly long fingers (numbers 2, 3 and 4) and trying to cram them all onto a tiny fret was darn near impossible. The calm facade fell apart! We spent the rest of the lesson in fits of giggles and swearing gently to ourselves as those around us strummed away with aplomb. It was so much fun but boy, we sucked!
Patrol Games 2
Before getting down to the business of group games, there wads a spectacular show. One person from each of the patrols did a lipsync to a full song. We had performances of Lion King, Bruno Mars and Beyonce. Our squirrel singer did Single Ladies and the whole patrol got to join in with the dancing. It was such fun. I am thrilled to say that we won the lip sync!
Next came the most stressful game I have ever watched. Four people from each team ly on their backs and balnceda big tub of water on their feet. OK, stressful enough right Well, they then had to take off their socks one by one. I could barely breathe! After a slow practise round, they then mad e it a race. I was dead! It was such a coool game but how the contestants managed it just blows my mind.
By the end of the second round of Patrol Games, the squirrels were in lead. Roll on day three’s final.
Dinner 2
It was treat time! I had been craving halloumi fries all day since seeing someone munching on them at lunchtime. We queued for the halloumi fries and got the last portion. It was fate! Then we meandered over to the mac and cheese truck, opting for a pulled pork dish. The halloumi fries were perfection but the mac and cheese was pretty meh.
After our food digested a bit, we danced for a little in the main music tent but we were both exhausted so didn’t last long.
Bedtime!
Day Three
The Pain
Oh my lord! We were STIFF! My shoulders, my tummy and pretty much all my other muscles were aching like mad. The combination of zorb wars, hoisting my big bottom on the aerial hoop and my poor choice of pillow had left me broken. Karl was no better, creaky and sore.
Burlesque for Breakfast
There isn’t a lot that can get you out of bed early on a Sunday but going to dance burlesque should be one of them! There weren’t many people around when I turned up for the 09:0 session This was probably a blessing as the dress I was wearing was a little shorter than i had thought and there was plenty of bending over in our burlesque dance lesson. We started by learning some basics and improvising in couples a little. It was really fun messing about and experimenting. Then, by the time we began to learn a routine, the area had filled up with people getting a hangover-curing hot breakfast. We learned a dance to “When You’re Good to Mama” from Chicago, which I love I thought I was smashing it but looking back at the recording, I am awfully stiff. Turns out, I’m a better burlesque singer than dancer. It was the best start to day three I could have asked for though. My aching muscles were stretched out nicely and I was buzzing with performance energy, ready to tackle the rest of the day.
Choir
At just five points, choir was a no brainer. We have both sung in choirs and really enjoy it. This was quite a relaxed workshop with a lot of call and response, but I guess that’s par for the course if you’re in the woods! It was nice to be welcomed into the circle whilst everyone sang around us, a very calming moment but overall I don’t think it was for me. As much as I love singing, it was too reminiscent of a previous choir experience that was rather tedious.
“I sing” “You sing” “I sing” “You sing”
Lunch 3
Anotherchance to prove my amazing organisation… I was doing some googling about food that you can eat whilst hiking and found out that microwave rice doesn’t need heating and is shelf stable. Well, that was a win. We picked a pouch of rice each which sounded tasty. Then, we took a can of sweetcorn and poured it in. Et Voila! A flavour bomb of rice with vegetables in.
Forensics
True crime is a pandemic discovery of mine. I have always enjoyed learning about grizzly crimes and how they were solved (or not) but the world of podcasts really opened it up. When I saw a crime scene forensics workshop on offer I jumped straight on it. Mr Fluskey wasn’t bothered so I did this one solo.
We had a series of evidence items that we got to explore, learn about or puzzle our way through. The room worked through suspect interviews, learned how to dust for fingerprints, examined a crime scene and reconstruct brown evidence.
The whole workshop ended in a mock trial with all the suspects we had considered in the dock. I got to play the barrister and had a whale of time overacting with the guy playing the judge. Oscars all round!
Nerf Wars
The forensics workshop was two and a half hours so Mr Fluskey had time to go and do his own activity. He chose to join the Nerf Battle! The attendees were divided into two teams and then shot at each other with those iconic foamy nerf bullets. There were some fun hay bales and other obstacles to play around. It looked fun but I was far too blind.
Juggling
For just a few credit, the juggling lesson was a no brainer. I was convinced I could juggle three balls but very quickly found out that this was NOT true! The lesson started with light scarves and I had that down pat however, we were then offered a selection of rings, clubs, balls and other fun juggling accoutrement. I trie all of them with varying levels of failure Luckily, Mr Fluskey was also really quite terrible so we could laugh our way through the hour together, running after wayward balls and apologising profusely to people we had almost hit. The tutors, in desperation, taught us some fun tricks that required a little more showmanship and a little less skill.
Swing Dance
One of our buddies, in fact the lovely lady who choreographed our wedding dance, works for a fun swing dance class company called Swing Patrol. We were super excited when we reached our swing dance lesson to see it was being run by two more of their teaching staff.
Now, I left the filming of this one to Mr Fluakey and he failed to record any of it so yiu’ll just have to use your imagination.
We very quickly started swapping partners as we learned more and more steps. There were a few people who looked stricken when they lost their original partners but it was really fun teaching people or being flung around by confident dancers. By the last round, we had made it back round to each other and it was really cool to see how we had both progressed. I wonder how we compared to our wedding dance!?
Pre Gaming
The dance class was right next to the Patrol Games ground so we head straight over, ready for the final! Going in, we were winning and so ready to take the title!
Before proceedings began there was an amazing surprise. Two people made their way into the centre of the arena, the guy holding a mic. They were from different patrols and we all wondered if this was another lip sync or something. He brought the mic to his face and made a beautiful, heartfelt speech which ended in a proposal!
She said “YES”!
It was so lovely and all rather Romeo and Juliet-ish…but with less tragic death at the end.
Then we were treated to ta performance from the sign language choir. Throughout the weekend, classes had been perfecting the sings for a Pink song and everyone who knew it it joined in. I am 100% doing it next year. So cool!
And with that, the games began.
Patrol Games 3
The final involved an obstacle course of sorts which looked so difficult . I have no idea how my fellow patrol members felt brave enough to volunteer,. We both sat, very quietly, as other people yelled and waved their hands to be selected. Im goihg to be honest, i can’t remember/couldn’t see all the stage but there was throwing a thing into a bucket, throwing a hoop over a person and other such shenanigans!
Next two giant wooden frames were put in place and large catapults were constructed. The two winning teams, the Squirrels and the Hawks were both given a tub of water balloons and patrol leaders were dressed in large bullseyes. Then each team frantically began firing the water balloons across the field. It was mad! Both teams took a while to work out a good technique and adjust their angle. It was with a dramatic burst of water against the bullseyes that the hawks took the crown. They rushed onto the field in celebration and a blue smoke bomb went off to declare the winners. It was so cool and even my hyper competitive ass was pleased for them.
Dinner 3
Saving the best dinner for last, we opted for a pizza on the last night. These freshly baked lovelies had been tempting us the whole weekend but we wanted to wait until we weren’t hanging upside-down any more to eat one. It was a great Napoli style pie. To go with it, we went to the Indian street food truck and ordered tikka masala fries. Oh my lord! These might not look all that much but the curry was rich, spicy and indulgent. I want them all over again writing about them!
Boogie Time
Feeling all full of curry chips and happy vibes we decided to pop into the dance tent. We had a great boogie to some banging GJs and there was actually an organic dance circle. That NEVER happens! We even had the chance to dance with our Patrol Leaders who were all such lovely souls.
Charlotte Church’s Late Night Pop Dungeon
The weekend ended with a bang in the main music tent with Charlotte Church and her awesome band. |I thought it was so much fun! Charlotte was shopwing off her range in a set full of popular covers. Mr Fluskey thought she was quite self indulgent musically but I think a lot of people (including me) would have been disappointed if she didn’t get to show off a least a little. The backing singers were ACE and each got their own solo song too which whipped up the crowd even more. thought it was a fantastic end to the entertainment and walked out of the tent with a big grin.
Day Four
Home Time
There wasn’t much to do on our last morning, just get packed up and ready to go. We waited for the bus just as it started to rain again….which was a nice bookend I suppose. Again, the bus didn’t match up brilliantly with the train schedule and we waited for 40 minutes or so for the once-hourly train to London. It was nice to only be slightly hungover and not feel too worse for wear but I was definitely looking forward to my bed and electrical plugs.
What I Wish I’d Known Before Going to Camp Wildfire
Camp Wildfire was such an awesome weekend but there were few things that I got a little wrong and will do differently this year. Turns out:
I am a phone addict
I never realised just how much I rely on my phone. The battery hemmourage so quickly (especially as the signal is bad in the woods so it was constantly searching for a whiff of 4G). Next year I intend to take a camera separately to my phone so that I can turn it off and save it for the important things.
I need more bedding
The cold was real and I am a total wimp! We had airbeds and sleeping bags, along with a mini hot water bottle and thick PJs but even so, I got cold and couldn’t warm myself up again. I am going to pack lots of blankets and a full-sized hot water bottle next year! The days were nice and warm but once my feet are cold, I am doomed.
I need a nose gay
The toilets really weren’t bad and on the whole they were very clean and didn’t smell. However, one morning I turned up at the bathroom just before it was cleaned and after a bad night’s sleep, the smell was slightly too much for my delicate stomach. I gagged and had to vacate the fancy bathrooms sharpish. Next time, I fully intend to take a little face wipe or similar with some nice smelling spray on it just in case.
I want to try more things that I might suck at
Ukulele is NOT my forte, static hoop was slightly embarrassing and our juggling was truly laughable but boy, did I have fun trying these new skills! I am going to spend next year’s credits on a few more activities that I’ve never considered before and not those I think I might excel at. It is not a competition and the chance to get the synapses firing is so exciting. It isn’t something we get to do as adults very often and it feels pretty exciting.
I am now a Camp Wildfire devotee. We loved the weekend so much. It was wonderful to be surrounded by people that were there to learn new skills, have some wholesome fun and then have a boogie at the end of the night. It didn’t have the boozy undertone of many a music festival (until it was time for a bevvie in the evening) so it felt super safe, and super-duper fun!
If, as a kid, you were a scout, a brownie, a member of Woodcraft Folk…or if you ever wanted to be, you will be familiar with the joys of a summer camp. This isn’t the US idea of cabins s’mores and spirit sticks. Rather, it is tents, chilly evenings with hot chocolate, parties and portaloos a plenty. Well, did you know, within touching distance of London (but seemingly a world away in Kent) is a summer camp just for grown ups?! This is your complete guide to Camp Wildfire!
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