Step into a world of Wurlitzers, royal balconies and soaring ceilings for something a bit snazzier than your usual tea dance. Monday 4 June is diamond jubilee gala night – get involved in a great big sing-along to classic tunes from the last 60 years. While you’re in town, stop in at Notarianni Ice-Cream for retro peach melbas in old beige booths. And rest your head – where else? – at the Grand Metropole (doubles from £59 B&B) on Princess Parade, with its drapey powder pink and blue beds.
• theblackpooltower.com, gala night tickets £16 in advance, £20 on the door; dance nights from £8.10, up to two children per adult go free
Photograph: Christopher Thomond Photograph: Action images
This cottage’s mod cons are totally 2012, but the way it’s kitted out will make you pine for kitscher days. There are nautical-themed cushions, nicely nutty prints, stripy blinds and multi-coloured stairs. The vintage bathroom is a glam little place in which to spruce yourself up – the colour scheme is grey and custard yellow. And if the decor inspires you to dig out your old Singer sewing machine, you can buy retro fabrics at Ditto Fabrics in the North Laines.
• holidaylettings.co.uk, from £675 per week or £96 a night (three nights minimum), two bedrooms, sleeps up to seven Photograph: PR
They like to jazz up the scones at this vintage tearoom in Manchester’s Northern Quarter (previous flavours have included chocolate-orange and apple-cinnamon). But for June, afternoon tea gets a classic makeover – a specially commissioned diamond jubilee blend will be served with prawn Marie Rose sandwiches, back-to-basics scones, and iced shortbread. On 3 June, the Sugar Junction crew will also be getting their cake on at the Great Vintage Tea Party in Stockport, where there will be a gin parlour, hog roast, dog show and pomp aplenty.
• 0161-839 1444, sugarjunction.co.uk. Jubilee tea £15.50, entrance to Great Vintage Tea Party £7. Vintage parties and hen parties can be booked Photograph: PR
Airstreams are those cool, curvy, aluminium camping trailers from the US which look both ancient and futuristic at the same time. No need to yank one down Route 66, though – Happy Days keeps three of them in a patch of Dorset countryside. Dee Dee is the oldest – born in Ohio in 1959, she was the 173rd Tradewind off the production line. Its all-wood interiors are pepped up with gingham and polka dots. Get under the stripy awning for your own private garden party. Sleeps four.
• 01202 567606 or 07824 999115, happydaysrv.co.uk. From £460 a week or £270 for three-night weekend Photograph: PR
Got love for the 40s? Don’t particularly care as long as you can wear red lips and rollers? Buy your tickets for Wayne Hemingway’s Vintage Festival, which hand-jives into Kettering from 13-15 July, celebrating all the bits we care to remember from the 1920s to the 1980s. Fifties-wise, the Let it Rock arena will go hard on the rockabilly, and craft classes will applaud that “make, do and mend” mentality.
• vintagefestival.co.uk. Day tickets for £63; weekend passes £125 (without camping) or £139 (with camping) Photograph: Frank Baron
When she isn’t dunking Custard Creams, Mrs Stokes is organising secret tea parties, most of which take place in Bath, above the Green Park Brasserie. This weekend (26 May), her Frock and Roll party will include a swing and jive workshop, music from rockabilly outfit the Roadhouse Roosters, vintage hair and make-up and a “right royal raffle". If you can’t get tickets (they’re in short supply), she’ll be popping up in June in the Royal Crescent – or check out future dates on her website. Mrs Stokes herself sells splendid china teasets here.
• secretteaparty.com, Frock and Roll tickets £25 Photograph: PR
Pop into the former home of portrait photographer Edward Hardman and his wife Margaret. Their Georgian terrace on Rodney Street is now a National Trust museum, showing everything as it was in the 50s – unopened sugar rations, brown teapot, myriad milk jugs, minimalist toiletries. Some of Edward’s huge photo collection is also on display. When the Queen recently visited Liverpool, the National Trust posted this example on Twitter.
• 0151-709 6261, nationaltrust.org.uk/hardmans-house. Entrance from £6 adults, £2.95 children and £14.97 families. Usually closed Mondays and Tuesdays but open for the jubilee Photograph: Denis Thorpe
The skies and grass of White Waltham airfield will be chocka for the Wheels and Wings show at the Retro Festival on 10-12 August – a parade of classic and vintage cars, scooters, bikes, caravans, hot rods and steam engines. There’ll also be three live music stages, roller derby bouts, vintage shopping, bumper cars and camping. Sunday is family day, so expect plenty of animal petting and face painting.
• Day tickets from £12-£26.50 (depending on the day), weekend passes £50; family tickets also available. Camping pitches £30 per tent (up to six people) Photograph: PR
Meet Mabel – charming, low-key and hospitable – she’s a caravan. The kitchen is filled with tea sets and trays, gas stove, hob and pinny. There’s a double bed and two dinky bunks, crochet bedspreads and no-frills wooden furniture; one wall is devoted entirely to old knitting patterns. For now, the caravan is parked on the Brighstone Holiday Centre on the Isle of White, among pastel-doored chalets, deck chairs and acres of lovely space. Mabel doesn’t have a water hook-up, but what could be more nostalgic than a jerry can? (Brighstone has showers).
• 07802 758113, vintagevacations.co.uk, from £150 for a two-night weekend or from £325 for a week Photograph: PR
In the 50s, coach tours to Tenby in Pembrokeshire got trendy. Don't fancy being stuck on a bus? Then hole up in The Cabin, a sweet, unfussy cottage with sea views from every room. Spend your days mooching the seafront’s sundae-coloured terrace houses and pop to Fecci’s for salty chips and knickerbocker glories. Drive 15 minutes for a go on the dodgems, Golden Gallopers and helter-skelter at Folly Farm’s vintage funfair (£9.50 adults, £8.50 3-15 year olds). And stop off in Saundersfoot, where you can buy a quarter of aniseed balls or toasted teacakes at Chobbles sweet shop.
• The Cabin (coastalcottages.co.uk) sleeps 6, from £420 for three nights in low season, to £1,106 for a week in the summer holidays Photograph: Alamy
