But if you are a friendly sort of person you may be able to halve the

But, if you are a friendly sort of person, you may be able to halve the cost of travel.The easiest prospects are between London Victoria and Gatwick. The “four-for-two” promotion on the Gatwick Express allows adults in groups of four to travel for half price. Individuals or couples can recruit other travellers at the ticket counter to form an ad-hoc group to secure these savings, recouping £5.50 on a single journey.There is a similar deal on the Heathrow Express – but only on Saturdays and Sundays. A party of four or more qualifies for a Group Weekender ticket at half the normal single price: you pay just £6.50.Destination of the week: Holland for culture and horticultureTulips from Amsterdam? From Keukenhof, more likely. The centre of the Dutch bulb fields has re-opened to visitors, and for the next seven weeks will put on a dazzling floral display. The location is close to the village of Lisse, and accessible by bus from Leiden station, itself only 15 minutes by train from Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport.

The site opens from 8am-7.30pm until 20 May, admission €12 (£7.50). Dating from 857, it combines acres of beautifully tended gardens with the more child-orientated delights of a hedge-maze, underground grotto and exotic aviary.A family ticket for four will cost £39 and the castle opens daily from 10am-5pm You can catch a bus from London Victoria Coach Station. A special day-trip leaves at 9am (and leaves the castle at 3.05pm) for a combined admission/ travel price of £16 per adult, £11 per child, (£18.50 and £13 at weekends. If you are still keen to rent a car, Car Rentals (0845 225 0845; ), helps you find the best deal from a number of firms.Send your family travel questions to The Independent Parent, Travel Desk, The Independent, 191 Marsh Wall, London E14 9RS or email crusoe independent.co.uk. Bargain of the week: the Gatwick or Heathrow Express for half price

Bargain of the week: the Gatwick or Heathrow Express for half price
The fast rail links from London to Britain’s two busiest airports are the UK’s most expensive trains per mile travelled. Home to the 7th Marquess of Bath, Longleat is a magnificent example of Elizabethan architecture and features a safari park, mazes, amusement rides and 900 acres of parkland designed by “Capability” Brown.

A “passport” to all 12 attractions costs £16 for adults and £13 for children (aged three to 14) but individual tickets are also available.For fun and accessibility, Brighton is well worth considering. Information on attractions in the city can be obtained from the Visitor Information line on 0906 7112255 (calls cost 50p per minute) or at . Even a day trip will be worthwhile – so long as you take a train, rather than drive along the dreadful A23. Trains from London, which take around an hour, leave frequently from Victoria, London Bridge, Blackfriars and King’s Cross stations. A day return from any of the last three costs £12.50 per adult and £6.25 per child (aged five-15).

You may find it worth buying a Family Railcard, price £20, to save on adult and child fares. National Rail Enquiries: 0845 748 4950; , I’d recommend a trip to the spectacular Leeds Castle (01622 765400; ) near Maidstone in Kent, around an hour and a half from London. The castle is also ideally situated for exploring the West Country: Stonehenge, Glastonbury Abbey and Bath are nearby.Close to Bath, but also a possible day trip from London is Longleat (01985 844400; ). There are around 10 million puffins in the Westmann Islands, whose tall basalt cliffs provide a breeding ground during the warmer summer months.A good time to see juvenile puffins is during August, before they learn to swim and take to the water in September, and the best place to view them is the Tjornes peninsula.Many tour operators organise trips to view the birds from Heimey, the only populated island, while Vik i Myrdal, Iceland’s most southerly village, is another good location.For more information call the Icelandic tourist board on 00 354 535 5500, or visit . Many children are eating twice the recommended amount of sugar. Add in breakfast cereals and their sugar intake soars.And what of the children (like mine) whose entreaties have been stonewalled, despite their pleas that everyone else at school has blue Slush Puppies after swimming? Do they feel hard done by? Take a guess. We can’t manipulate what they want to eat but – at home, at least – we can determine what our children do eat.