Time to chill out

For many holidaymakers, spells of hot weather can cause them real problems trying to cope with the all-pervading heat.

But, with the help of VisitBritain the new name for England's Tourist Council I have come up with some alternative places and ideas to keep you cool when the temperature rises.

Let's start in the North which, many would claim, is by nature slightly colder than many Southern counterparts.

Keen walkers can chill out in Little Switzerland', the fascinating How Stean Gorge at Pateley Bridge, on the outskirts of the fashionable North Yorkshire town of Harrogate. Here, you can enjoy a cool walk along narrow paths and footbridges spanning a ravine which is 80-feet deep in some places.

And you can take a torch and head down a flight of narrow steps from the gorge to spend a calming, chilling time among dripping stalactites.

Push further into the Yorkshire Dales and you'll find Forbidden Corner, a labyrinth of tunnels, chambers, follies and surprises both in and under a four-acre garden on the Tupgill Park Estate, near Middlesham.

There is the intriguing Temple of the Underworld and the Eye of the Needle, a pyramid of shimmering translucent glass plus a host of extraordinary statues and paths which actually lead to nowhere but could maddeningly send your temperatures soaring.

Booking is essential and for further information, call: 01969-640638 or visit the website: www.yorkshirenet.co.uk/theforbiddencorner.

Or travel to the Lake District to visit England's only slate mine, which has the distinguished name of the Buttermere and Westmorland Green Slate Company.

Nestling between the peaks at the head of the Honister Pass, the slate mine offers a chance to see how the green slate is extracted from 11 miles of tunnels in an entirely environmentally-friendly environment.

Admission is £7 per adult, £4 for children and a family ticket costs £20. For further details, ring: 017687-77230 or visit website: www.honister-slate-mine.co.uk.

You could, of course, chill out in the Hell Fire Caves set 300 feet below the National Trust village of West Wycombe in Buckinghamshire. The amazing network, which once hosted meetings of the notorious Hell Fire Club, was originally excavated on the site of an ancient quarry in the 1750s. Call 01494-533739 or click onto: www.hellfirecaves.co.uk.

Alternatively, take a trip to Dover and discover the Secret Wartime Tunnels built into the famous White Cliffs.

The tunnels were first made in the Napoleonic Wars when seven were dug as barracks to hold up to 2,000 troops. And the tunnels saw active service again in the Second World War as an underground hospital and played a significant part in the evacuation of Dunkirk.

You could also happily do some shivering in Somerset with a timely visit to the famous Cheddar Caves.

Lead by a qualified caving expert, tourists are escorted through a system of wild' caves beyond the well-lit caverns of Gough's Cave.

The trip starts with a fine show cave and then a crawl complete with hardhat from the Mushroom Chamber to the Sand Chamber before taking a lifeline down a 40-foot steel ladder to Boulder Chamber.

And if that isn't cool enough, you then climb up to the Far Rift, through the appropriately named April Fool's Squeeze, before being clipped onto a wire traverse crawl over the Bottomless Pit. At £12 for adults, and £7.50p for children, the journey lasts an hour and a half, and certainly makes for a different kind of cool day out! For information, call: 01934-742343 or visit: www.cheddarcaves.co.uk/rock.htm.

If you want to avoid the Cold War, the Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker, near Nantwich, Cheshire, has the rather bizarre answer.

The semi-submerged bunker, is complete with decontamination dormitory, sick bay, early warning systems and a BBC studio.

The bunker itself was built to help protect the nation from the Soviet threat of both conventional and nuclear war.

There are a host of displays, including radar technology and even Soviet equipment. Further information, call: 01270-629219 or click onto: www.hackgreen.co.uk.

Personally, one of my favourite cooling off options is a visit to Blackpool Pleasure Beach and a ride on Valhalla, the world's largest water-based dark ride.

Here you experience temperature extremes from raging infernos to real snow at minus 20 degrees Celsius. And if that's not enough, feel the wind in your hair on The Big One, Europe's tallest and fastest roller coaster that reaches a spine-chilling 85 mph on a 265-foot drop. Now that's what I call really cool!