Skip to content

I Am A Polar Bear

Travel, adventure & wellness with plenty of snow

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Travel
    • By country
      • Nordic & Scandinavian
        • Denmark
        • Finland
        • Iceland
        • Norway
          • Svalbard
        • Sweden
      • Western Europe
        • Belgium
        • France
        • Ireland
        • Italy
        • Netherlands
        • UK
          • Scotland
          • Wales
      • Central Europe
        • Austria
        • Czechia
        • Germany
        • Hungary
        • Poland
        • Switzerland
      • Eastern Europe
        • Estonia
        • Georgia
        • Latvia
        • Lithuania
        • Romania
        • Russia
        • Ukraine
      • Mediterranean
        • Croatia
        • Cyprus
        • Malta
    • By type
      • Daycations
      • Weekends away
        • Cheese & Chocolate (2026)
        • Parc Asterix (2025)
        • Christmas in London (2025)
      • Road Trips
        • A Birthday On the Ring Road (2025)
        • Accidental Ring Road (2023)
        • The Quest for a Volcano (2022)
      • Train Adventures
        • West Bohemian Spa Triangle (2026)
        • The Original Spa (2025)
        • Great German Spa Towns (2025)
      • Short Breaks
        • Winter in Helsinki (2026)
        • The Romanian Do-Over (2025)
        • A Short Trip to Pula (2025)
      • Longer Trips
        • Traversing Cyprus & Georgia (2024)
        • The Russian Odyssey (2019)
        • The Laugavegur Diaries (2018)
      • Year Abroad
      • School Trips
    • Unique Places to Stay
  • Adventures
    • Water
    • Snow
    • Land
    • Height
    • Indoors
      • Girlguiding
  • Wellness
  • YouTube

Category: Camping

Rebel Summer Camp 2025: Sunday & Monday | iamapolarbear.com

Rebel Summer Camp 2025: Sunday & Monday

September 15, 2025

Part two of Rebel Summer Camp! If you don’t know what it is, go back and read the first part because I’m picking up on Sunday morning with no further explanation. Sunday started with a hike down past the gladiator duel, through the woods, under the road and through a bit more woods until we … More Rebel Summer Camp 2025: Sunday & Monday

1 Comment Rebel Summer Camp 2025: Sunday & Monday
Rebel Summer Camp 2025: Friday & Saturday | iamapolarbear.com

Rebel Summer Camp 2025: Friday & Saturday

September 11, 2025

Rebel Summer Camp is always such a big thing that it deserves two posts – you just can’t get the whole thing in one. So this is Friday and Saturday. I dithered over going to camp this year, since it’s three or four hours away up the M5 and M6 but eventually I decided I’m … More Rebel Summer Camp 2025: Friday & Saturday

Leave a comment Rebel Summer Camp 2025: Friday & Saturday
Back to Basics Guide camp was definitely type 2 fun | iamapolarbear.com

Back to Basics Guide camp was definitely type 2 fun

June 9, 2025

There are some camps that go down in legend, to be talked over ten or twenty years later. The one with the storm that knocked the Ranger tent over so that they were scared to go and alert the leaders and everyone ended up getting sent home for two days so we could clean up … More Back to Basics Guide camp was definitely type 2 fun

2 Comments Back to Basics Guide camp was definitely type 2 fun
My latest camping disaster | iamapolarbear.com

My latest camping disaster

May 15, 2025

I like to go camping. That is, I think I like to go camping. The reality is that for one reason or another – or several reasons – I never really actually sleep in a tent. But I like to get away from my life for the weekend without feeling like I need to explore, … More My latest camping disaster

2 Comments My latest camping disaster
Rebel Summer Camp part 2 | iamapolarbear.com

Rebel Summer Camp part 2: Sunday and Monday

October 14, 2024

In part 1, I told you what the Rebel Badge Club is and what Rebel Summer Camp is all about so if you don’t know, you can go and read that. In the meantime, I’m jumping straight into part 2, Sunday and Monday. Greta 2’s first scheduled activity at 9.30am was board games. I’m not … More Rebel Summer Camp part 2: Sunday and Monday

Leave a comment Rebel Summer Camp part 2: Sunday and Monday
Rebel Summer Camp part 1 | iamapolarbear.com

Rebel Summer Camp part 1: Friday and Saturday

October 10, 2024

Let’s talk about the other big exciting thing I did this summer: I went to Rebel Summer Camp 2024! I didn’t go last year; it was a lot of money and I had doubts about whether a single person can put on an event of that scale. For context, it’s about the same price as … More Rebel Summer Camp part 1: Friday and Saturday

2 Comments Rebel Summer Camp part 1: Friday and Saturday
Camping on Brownsea Island (again) | iamapolarbear.com

Camping on Brownsea Island (again)

June 3, 2024

At first, camping on Brownsea Island seems dreamy and idyllic – your very own island, free of tourists for the evening, and more astonishingly, free of Scout camps! But then you realise there’s an infestation of hornets within the campsite and then thunder rumbles over and you realise you’re on an island a mile and … More Camping on Brownsea Island (again)

Leave a comment Camping on Brownsea Island (again)
Tent review: Eurohike Sendero 4 vs Cairns 5 DLX | iamapolarbear.com

Tent review: Eurohike Sendero 4 vs Cairns 5 DLX

May 6, 2024

A couple of years ago now, I bought myself a new tent. I’m very fond of my two-man tunnel tent with porch but I kind of fancied something a bit bigger and I found a 4-man on sale for £80. That’s a really good price! Sometimes you’d struggle to find a decent 2-man for that … More Tent review: Eurohike Sendero 4 vs Cairns 5 DLX

2 Comments Tent review: Eurohike Sendero 4 vs Cairns 5 DLX
A horse invaded my tent: camping in the New Forest | iamapolarbear.com

A horse invaded my tent: camping in the New Forest

May 2, 2024

It’s been a really long winter. Summer is due any day and we still haven’t had spring. I began to feel a bit stir-crazy – I have a new (to me; I rescued it) tent that I really wanted to try out and the year was flying by and I still hadnt planned any camping … More A horse invaded my tent: camping in the New Forest

1 Comment A horse invaded my tent: camping in the New Forest
Sparkle & Ice 2023: the biggest one | iamapolarbear.com

Sparkle & Ice 2023: the biggest one

December 8, 2023

I love Sparkle & Ice. I haven’t missed a single year, not even 2021, when it was cancelled because of some killer mutant virus. I took a mix of Guides & Rangers in 2017, just Rangers in 2019 and 2020, volunteered in 2018 and 2022 and I’m taking my new Rangers this year. However, this … More Sparkle & Ice 2023: the biggest one

1 Comment Sparkle & Ice 2023: the biggest one

Posts navigation

Older posts

Who am I?
I'm Julie, a travel, adventure and wellness blogger. I love Iceland, I love jumping into hot water and I do love a bit of snow.

  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Bluesky

Most popular posts

  • Tent review: Eurohike Sendero 4 vs Cairns 5 DLX
  • Zedwell Capsule Hotel review: what's it like to sleep in a coffin?
  • How to visit and explore Brijuni National Park from Pula
  • The Guide Camp Kit List part three: the bedding roll
  • Löyly: a traditional Finnish sauna experience (for tourists)
📌 Charles Bridge, Prague 📌 St Vitus Cathedral, Prague Well, this is the most terrifying book update I’ve ever done! I didn’t take pictures of all the springs in Karlovy Vary but here’s a sample - the really hot ones, the fun ones, the ones thick with orange mineral deposits and my personal favourite, the one you can bathe in. I didn’t enjoy sampling the hot mineral springs of Karlovy Vary but here are a few things from around the town that I did enjoy. Join me on a little tour of some of the statues around Františkovy Lázně, from the emperors who shaped the town and the region to the dubious fertility symbols. And who does the angry face on the side of the hotel remind me of? Let me take you on a really short tour of some of the mineral springs in the spa park of Františkovy Lázně. This is what spa means here, taking (drinking) the spring water and enjoying the curative properties of spending time in the gardens, out in the fresh air. I thought today I’d take you on a little tour of Mariánské Lázně, which is a smallish pleasant town with a Neo-Renaissance Neo-Classical Neo-Everything spa town bolted onto the side. It’s had its fair share of celebrity visitors over the last 150 years, it’s got an abundance of very mineral-rich fizzy springs which you have to sample and it’s dotted with weird artworks. I think I like Mariánské Lázně but I don’t think I need more than about two days there. This is the ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Hotel Nové Lázně in Mariánské Lázně, the most prestigious hotel I’ve ever stayed in (although not for quite such an outrageous price as I might have expected).

About Julie

I'm a blogger, adventurer, lover of hot water, amateur paddler and polar bear who wilts in hot weather. Time (by day, I'm a researcher) and funds keep me within Europe and I make regular trips up to the north, especially to Iceland. I like the occasional adventure across Europe by train and I'm starting to make use of my weekends for 48-hour adventures. This isn't my only creative outlet - I've written two travelogues (one on a winter adventure across the Arctic Circle and one on exploring volcanoes during a warm summer road trip around Iceland) plus a little book of Icelandic pools and I have a fourth book in progress right now.

Blog at WordPress.com.
  • Subscribe Subscribed
    • I Am A Polar Bear
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • I Am A Polar Bear
    • Subscribe Subscribed
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar

Loading Comments...