If you like your holidays served with a side order of nostalgia, look no further than this offering from Vintage Vacations (vintagevacations.co.uk). The company, which specialises in quirky holiday accommodation on the Isle of Wight, from vintage Airstream trailers to 60s holiday chalets, has converted a former scout hall into a gloriously offbeat holiday home. The old wooden hut in the village of Chale has been lovingly kitted out in retro style with 1950s fabrics and furnishings, but the views from the deck across rolling fields to the sea are timeless. The Scout Hall sleeps eight and costs from £750 per week. Shorts and woggles optional.

Travel clinic

The dilemma Every August bank holiday some friends and I take our sons away for a "boys' weekend", and it's my turn to organise it this year. We'd like somewhere not too far from home (Leeds) where the boys can run wild and do outdoorsy stuff. David, by email

The Hideaway at Baxby Manor (thehideawayatbaxbymanor.co.uk) is a new campsite on the edge of the North York Moors national park. Set on a 110-acre farm, it's the perfect destination for your boys' own adventure, with lots of space, trees to climb and nearby streams to fish. It only opened in June so there are still pitches available for August (from £9 per person per night).

A 10-minute walk away is the village of Husthwaite, which has a large recreation area for a game of football or basketball. Sign up for a mountain-biking expedition across the moors with local company Yorkshire Mountain Biking (from £25pp for a half day, including tuition, yorkshiremountainbiking.co.uk); or, if the weather is wet (almost certainly), try your hand at indoor go-karting in nearby York (karting.uk.com). In the evenings, enjoy a campfire cookout with sausages and burgers from the local butcher, who delivers to the site on a Saturday morning.

If you have a travel dilemma, email Joanne O'Connor at magazine@observer.co.uk

Three of the best… outdoor art events

Throughout the London 2012 festival, some of Britain's top beauty spots and heritage sites will be doubling up as art venues. For details see festival.london2012.com

1. Robert Wilson – Walking, Norfolk Holkham beach is the stage for this theatrical three-mile meander through space and time. 20 Aug-2 Sep. Cost: £15.

2. Harmonic Fields, Dorset Witness an "orchestra" of 500 instruments on a clifftop in Portland, played by the wind. 31 Aug-9 Sep. Cost: free.

3. Connecting Light, Hadrian's Wall New York-based art collective YesYesNo will transform the Roman wall into a pulsating ribbon of light.
31 Aug-1 Sep. Cost: free.