Best new British B&Bs: quirky, family-friendly and budget

New British B&BS ... quirky Ffynnon Fendigaid in Ceredigion

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FAMILY-FRIENDLY

Staverton Hall Staverton, Northamptonshire

Guests enter through impressive iron gates and head to this grand house in a spectacular setting. Friendly owners Rupert and Serena, who have young children of their own, love having families to stay. Relaxed breakfasts (and dinner) at flexible times are served at one table. All is local and delicious. The large, light bedrooms and modern shared bathrooms upstairs have good views. There's a huge guest sitting room with sash windows, log fire and board games; there is also a heated pool, a play area, a big garden, and a pub a walk away.
• 01327 878296, stavertonhall.co.uk. Doubles from £90, annex sleeping six £200, small twin £50, all B&B

The Peatcutter's Croft, Ullapool, Highland

There's more beauty in a mile on Scotland's west coast than almost anywhere: vast skies, soaring mountains, shimmering water, barely a soul in sight. Pauline and Seori left London to give their family the freedom to roam. Now they have a colourful cast of companions: sheep, hens, ducks, rabbits – a definite draw for kids. Your quarters at this gorgeous little croft combine country simplicity with colour and style. Sea eagles patrol the skies and porpoises bask in the loch. All this, and Pauline's fabulous cooking, too.
• 01854 633797, peatcutterscroft.com. £35pp pn B&B, children half price, maximum of £100 per night per room

The road to Penang - the other side of Malaysia

Peranakan Museum, George Town. Photographs by John Brunton. Click the magnifying glass icon to see a map of the area

We've flown into Kuala Lumpur with the intention of going jalan-jalan, or on the road to the Malays. I lived in KL, as everyone calls this crazy metropolis, for five years, and it is still like a second home. But this time there is no hanging around, as my wife and I are setting out towards the northern border with Thailand, through the heartland of the Malay peninsula.

This part of the country is often overlooked by tourists, who prefer the golden beaches of the east coast or paradise islands such as Tioman or Langkawi. Our final destination will be Penang, an island my Malaysian friends tell me has suddenly become one of south-east Asia's hottest destinations.

KL is the modern face of Malaysia, a skyscraper city of the future, where Blade Runner meets Bollywood. There are few reminders of the complex history of a country that declared independence from Britain only 55 years ago. Driving out of the centre we soon find ourselves lost in a sprawling urban mass as intimidating as Los Angeles, and it is only with a little luck that we reach the busy north-south highway.

Kuala Lumpur station

The road is surrounded on both sides by rolling hills, marked by geometric lines of palm oil and rubber plantations. The scene resembles an Escher drawing, and there is little trace of the dense rainforest that once covered most of Malaysia. After we've been going an hour, the landscape changes suddenly and dramatically, with massive limestone outcrops leaping hundreds of craggy feet out of the flat plains. Up on a hill, a giant but rather tatty billboard announces that we have arrived at Ipoh – City of Millionaires, and our first stop-off.

Here are some of the photos,Travel Photos

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Canoeing the entire Congo river… and living to tell the tale

King Congo … Phil poling his way through the vast Bangweulu swamp. Click on the magnifying glass to see the river in the early morning mist. Photographs: Phil Harwood

I was alone in the middle of deepest, darkest Congo. Worse still, I was being chased by eight angry tribesmen in two dugout canoes – and they were gaining on me.

"Mazungu … Mazunguuu!" came the screams from behind. "Give us money!" They were all standing up and paddling like men possessed. The nearest guy had a huge machete at his waist. I had been paddling as though my life depended on it. As though? It did depend on it! The fear was rapidly growing within me, demanding an answer to the primeval question: fight or flight?

The word mazungu, white man, was being screamed and repeated along both banks. It was disconcerting, to say the least. I felt like a wolf that had inadvertently strolled into a farming community and was being hunted down. I had to go faster. But now, after paddling my heart out to the point of near exhaustion, I turned around and saw the nearest dugout canoe was less than 20m away. So close that I could see the whites of the men's eyes and their teeth bared in a contorted, hate-filled travesty of a smile. What was it going to be: roll over and expose my soft underbelly, or put up a fight? It was the venom in the next cry of "Mazungu" that made me decide. I grabbed my machete …

Thanks to winning a travelling fellowship and grant from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, I was on my way to making the first source to sea descent of the Congo river through the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo. From the true source in north-east Zambia, the Congo river is just short of 3,000 miles long and the eighth longest river in the world, with a flow rate and drainage area second only to the Amazon. It flows through savannah, swamp and dense tropical rainforest, crossing the equator twice before finally draining into the Atlantic.

Holiday Travel Diaries: Sofía Sánchez Barrenechea, Claiborne Swanson Frank, and more

If, like us, you had visions of African beaches and Shanghai sunsets dancing in your heads this holiday season, then consider those visions realized—virtually at least. In our second installment of holiday travel diaries, some of our favorite adventurers share pictures from their enviable winter vacations. Biking along beaches, touring temples—and meeting an elephant!—were all on the itinerary for art director Sofía Sánchez Barrenechea, while entrepreneur Hannah Bronfman and vbeauté founder Julie Macklowe both made the proverbial (but enviable) pilgrimage to St. Barth’s. Vogue.com Contributing PhotographerClaiborne Swanson Frank opted to take it easy in sunny Naples, Florida, a trip surrounded by family and topped off with a decadent birthday cake, but it was back to the ranch (and back in the saddle again) for Vênsette founder Lauren Remington Platt,