A drive along the Great River Road in Louisiana left me with three distinct images and a haunting river of thought. Driving Louisiana’s Great River Road When I close my eyes and think of Louisiana’s Great River Road, there are three images that really stand out. The first, an avenue of Live Oaks, trees so […]

Ten Top Tips on Sun Safety Today’s travel tip involves brushing up on our sun safety skills – so that in combination with tech stuff like finding the best travel apps and insider info on how to sleep on a plane, you can stride into your travel plans as confident as a woman floating in […]

This review of the Ampersand Hotel in London comes as part of a series on Special Places to Stay in London that you can find over here.  Ah, the Ampersand. When it comes to beautiful boutique hotels in London, the Ampersand is hard to beat. Tucked into those Victorian terraces that stand like marble soldiers […]

Sandy coves and heather-tinged fields. Cobbled streets, jagged rocks, clotted cream and stacks of flattened Welsh cakes, served hot with butter and the crunch of scattered sugar. The West, as the motorway signs describe it, lays out a carnival of ideas when it comes to ideas for short breaks from London that will make you ooh and […]

Above green and white stripes, the fans spin around. And around. Faster and faster, round and around. Frantic, fizzing, furious above the speckled sugar, they spin and spin, the hot air hugging them with a stubbornness that’s almost chic. Cafe du Monde New Orleans This is Cafe du Monde in New Orleans, an icon for […]

New York can be a tricky topic for me. I know the Big Apple well and yet I’ve not seen her in years. I travelled there regularly, know corners of her intimately and yet the world and his wife/husband/civil partner/dog thinks they know her even if they have never been. And of course, I no […]

When it comes to Quito, Ecuador has the kind of problem countries like to have: a kaleidoscope of world class things to see. While hummingbirds flutter through cloud forests inland and turtles glide past pink sands in the Galapagos, Quito stands on the sidelines like a screenwriter at the Oscars: brimming with character and underpinning the action, yet curiously […]

Hello science my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again. There it stood on the wall, etched in shades of grey. No, not those shades of grey but speckles of grey instead. Patches here, a splatter there. The shadows that build up across canvas to reveal the true life shape of a molecule […]

If such a thing as tempting fate exists, then this is it. I am, right now, typing away mid-flight, baby asleep in a sky bassinet just inches from my face. I can see her little chest move, her eyelids flutter. She looks calm. And so, what better time to talk about what it’s really like […]

On the other side of the world there’s a pink-sanded shore. The water, warm and clear, brushes in and out like an easy breeze while scuttling scarlet crabs cling to glossy volcanic stone. That’s there, in the Galapagos. But I’m here, stood on cobbled stone and surrounded by white walls, medieval timber and the typical […]

Enter your favourite photos of Spain for the chance to win a Canon PowerShot G7 X camera I’m never quite sure whether it’s appropriate to write love letters to a country. But that’s what I’m going to do today with Spain. Spain, you see, was my ugly duckling turned swan. My fresh-out-of-the-lake Mr Darcy after a […]

Today I’m going to talk about something that most of you probably haven’t thought about for ages. Nursery rhymes. Now, wait a minute, don’t click away or swipe me up on your phone to do away with me and save your battery juice. Read on. There is a link. There is a point between talking […]

Elvis may have crooned about the Heartbreak Hotel, but Croatia’s capital has the real thing (minus the overnight stays.) Swap Lonely Street for Ćirilometodska in Zagreb and uncover the strange situation that is the Museum of Broken Relationships. The Museum of Broken Relationships I stumbled through its doors, years ago, as part of my #IronRoute series […]

Ideas for Unusual City Breaks in Europe So, here’s a question I get asked a lot: where are the best places for an unusual city break in Europe? It’s a topic I could write a whole book about (or, hey! At least a substantial section of a travel blog ;-) – see the best destinations […]

The Artist’s Residence, A Boutique Hotel in London The name was a pleasure, the stay a joy. Yes, so the name won me over with its sense of romance, but I simply didn’t care. The moment I hauled my aching body into the bare brick corridor, I felt my troubles soothe. My creativity return. Such is […]

The Surprising Truth About Rudolph And His Friends Through the snowflakes, something stirs between the trees. Silently, softly, the chestnut shadows of the forest shift between the leaves. My boots crunch through the ground, eyelashes flickering with white. Ahead, with muted footfall and striking, treacle-bright eyes, the reindeer step towards us then wait as we […]

While Snow White had dwarves, we’re going to have travel resolutions. In response to questions like “where’s the best place to travel to in 2017”, I bring you the 2017 travel wish list, resolution list, inspiration list, what have you. It’s just a different way for me to dish out advice in response to your […]

What is it that makes us want to explore? What is it that makes us want to explore new horizons? To look into the unknown, the half known, the semi known and the dreams and to stride on forwards, desperate, hoping, excited to find out? The more time I spend on this earth, the more […]

Unusual New Orleans… Honey Island Swamp. It’s a curious name. Part sweet syrup, part fetid bog. Part desert island discs, perhaps. But whatever it was supposed to represent, I had a hard time picturing it in my mind from the colour and character of old New Orleans. The wrought-iron balconies, rainbow paint and voodoo vibe of central […]

Stretching along Florida’s Atlantic coast, Daytona Beach is famous for its broad sweep of beach and its status as the home of the Daytona 500 NASCAR race, held at the Daytona International Speedway. But that’s not all Daytona Beach has to offer. As veteran travel write Ella Buchan found out on her epic DriveUS1 along […]

Wow. 2016 was an unexpected year. While politics and new parenthood taught me a lot, travel, after all these years, still had plenty of lessons to throw my way. Why? Because there is power in experiencing something for yourself. In feeling that subzero temperature hit your lungs, seeing stone-faced mosques ripple in the heat of an Arabian […]

She’s Here Take a deep breath and release because she’s here. She’s really, really here. After a precarious nine or so months (add up the weeks, there are more months than nine!) she’s here safe and sound. My wonderful, wonderful daughter. Grandaughter. Cousin. Niece. Person in her very own open-eyed, stargazing, tiny-toed right. Travel to […]

A Year in Need of Hope I won’t be the first to say it but 2016 has been a turbulent year. On the world stage, of course. And on my own little piece of the planet (I’m pausing here to think of the personal equivalent to a world stage… A school play? A Punch & […]

Hopping on a river cruise allows for easy access to some of the world’s best cities, without the need to unpack or queue your way through airport security. But when it comes to just watching the world go buy, a river cruise with a view seems all the better, somehow. Luckily, the world has no […]

There is an old and ongoing joke told in several different ways about arriving at an immigration desk in Australia. “Do you have a criminal record, sir?” asks one official to a British traveller. “Oh, I’m so sorry,” comes the reply. “I had no idea that was still required.” Britain and Australia For those not […]

Lakeside Drama, Bregenz With a dagger deep in his chest, he leans back, eyelids closed, a staircase eating into his cheek. Crowds gather beneath to take photos as his hand clasps a slab of writing and the lights of Switzerland come on in the distance. He is this year’s setting for the Bregenz summer festival, […]

It snaked towards us slowly. A scarlet, silted, rust-red, blood-red, iron-tinged flow. The water seeped around the edges of my boots, my footprints swallowed up within seconds. It visibly stained my soles. Up ahead, I saw two men walking, the two men who were travelling with me. But no other soul was there. Their silhouettes […]

Today’s article on things to do in Boston and beyond comes from travel writer Ella Buchan, currently making her way along the US1 Highway on a trip called #DriveUS1. What started out as a musing on things to do in Boston evolved into a discussion on a subject that first came across my path years ago […]

What luxury cruises are really like It’s a funny thing, our relationship with words and the ideas and imaginings we have behind them. Take the idea of a cruise. For me, that conjures up cruise ships the size of hospitals: slow cities on the move that heave into ports and cough up hundreds upon hundreds […]

Staying at the Welsh House There’s a cool, white mottled stone where yellow daffodils blow. Amid snowdrops, long grass-flanked bluebells and early morning dew. Thatched roofs, sloping timber and a flame-open fire. A cottage. A home. A history lesson with green field views. And cockles, with ripe cheese, leathered books and inch-thick green-glass. Lovingly Restored […]