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 […]

It’s a small shop on an unremarkable street. Twirls and swirls of thick white paint flick across the shop window, shadowed by shades of crimson and green. And call me romantic but the words seem to have been written with love. Baccala e ceci. Il prosciutto del bon Gustaio. Porchetta di Ariccia. Inside, there’s a […]

I rode into town on the golden light of the sea. The boat skimmed across the surf with ease as the setting sun threw its arms out wide. Amber rays embraced fishermen, caressed pleasure boats, and caused harp bridges to glitter on the rugged Mediterranean rocks. Then the city walls of Dubrovnik’s Old Town stopped the […]

A Blueprint for Handling Flight Delays Flight delays and cancellations happen to us all. Travel far enough, often enough or just plain unlucky enough and eventually it will happen to you. So, what now? Well, just as there’s not much point crying over spilled milk or middle seats on a long haul flight, so it […]

The Only Travel Tip You’ll Ever Need… As I write this now, I have a bump. A big bump. One that wriggles about a bit when I’m lying in bed and that jumps into life with a glass of iced water. I’m also, as it happens, in the middle of replying to a string of […]

Today’s post comes from a conversation I had on Twitter, when a visit to Namibia, and then Africa at large came up. As it turns out, there are limits to what you can say in 140 characters. So here’s the longer version… Visiting Africa When it comes to talking about Africa, many people still think […]

The New Face of Welsh Food Talk about Welsh food and most people draw a blank, even if they’re from the UK. Hard pressed, they’ll come up with leeks (more an emblem than a dish.) Laverbread (hey, it’s something to do with seaweed!) Or cockles amid the laverbread, harvested from the southern coast around Swansea. […]

The very words the Arctic Circle and the promise of the Northern Lights are enough to send shivers down the spine. The reality of trying to find them can morph shivers into frostbite with a frozen camera to boot. When I touched down in frozen Lapland earlier this year, the residents told me it was […]

Wendover, Utah I was dozing in the front seat, the scenery slicking from arid Nevada to salt ‘n’ violet Utah on the journey from Mustang Monument back to Salt Lake City. The early morning sun seemed breathless, as though struggling to keep up with the pace of our speed and my friends and colleagues behind […]

Exploring Croatian Islands by Boat There’s a place in the Elaphiti Islands where weather-worn netting clings to a rough sea wall. Under the bright, white sun, the orange bleaches its web against rock, while in the distance, the heave and sigh, the ebb and flow, the unhurried rhythm of the ocean continues to pulse in Mediterranean […]

Toledo, Spain, lies only a short distance from Madrid yet I’d highly recommend heading there for more than a day trip. Here’s why. The Road to Toledo, Spain Truth be told, I wasn’t enjoying the journey. Instead, I was feeling pretty sick. Swerving, albeit at a slumbering pace, around hairpin bends while brimming with not-so-morning morning […]

What gets you to sit up, to pay attention and to try that little bit harder? What things inspire you? What fires you up and leaves you feeling fitter, stronger and ready to take on the world? I ask you now for a number of reasons. If you’ll allow me to explain… When the going […]

The city of Rome is one of those places that always seems to have existed. I suppose that explains the nickname the Eternal City. I cannot remember the first time I heard about Rome. The first time I learned about the bloodied sweat of gladiators, those scalloped sky-reaching columns and that jaunty laurel-and-toga attire. More […]

Acts of Kindness Ideas Today’s article comes as part of a campaign on the importance of acts of kindness in partnership with DoubleTree by Hilton.  But first, a personal story… A Jolt of Kindness I lay beneath the bright, fight of spotlights, in pain but keeping still. The small of my back ached but there […]

The Search for the Best Spas in the World There’s something about not being able to have something for a while that makes you long for it all the more. Or at least, that’s what my firing synapses have found. Temporarily banned from spas for medical reasons, my mind and aching limbs keep dreaming about […]

Dune Bashing in the Desert It is, as the ads say, like floating on air. Our hired jeep trembles slightly before falling, falling, softly over the edge into the cushioned sunset sands. No roads, no traffic, no parking problems. Only the ghostly currents that skim over the desert: the silent, terracotta sands. At the crossroads […]

  The Tablas de Daimiel: A Surprising Discovery in Spain’s La Mancha Spain, Spain, you’re all the same. Full of sunshine, sand and sky-high white complexes that spill lobsters into places so crowded with plastic, it’s hard to see the beach. Or, well, you’re not, really. Nope, not even a teensy little bit. Seven years […]

The Relaxing Power of Blue in the Lafodia Spa When I think back to my time in Croatia this summer, I keep coming back to the beautiful colour of blue. That’s what comes of staying on an island, I suppose. And in a hotel that provides near permanent views of the sea. But the spa, […]

Sargadelos and the Authentic Side of Spain They say to really get to know a place, you need to know its ceramics. Well, alright, perhaps they don’t say that, whoever or whomever “they” may be. But in my experience, local food and handicrafts shine a spotlight on a place’s culture in less time than it […]

The search for unusual things to do in Tuscany… Tuscany has plenty upon plenty of things to do, that’s for sure. With no fewer than seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the claim as the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and more, it’s no surprise that Tuscany remains one of the […]

What To Do with Aberglasney Now, this may not be an issue that many Americans face, but over in Europe, it’s a serious concern. What to do with the many, many castles, keeps and stately homes whose purpose have fallen from favour? Let them crumble? Rebuild? Restore? Reuse? Remember, whether through commerce (a striking hotel […]

Travel during pregnancy, like many other motherhood related things, seems to be a topic on which many have an opinion. And many utterly don’t care. It’s a marmite-esque, love hate, panic or plunge affair and I’m ready to enter the fray. I’m new to travel during pregnancy but what I’m not new to is travelling with […]

Loving Lopud Luciano Apparuti is a man of passion. And the love of his life, it would seem, is Lopud Island, Croatia. It’s a small place, albeit one of the bigger islands off the coast near Dubrovnik. Surrounded by the Mediterranean waves of the Adriatic, it has no space for cars, no time for traffic. […]

Unusual Graz It was a church like any other. Well, already that’s not quite true. There are monastic churches, all barren and bare. Peruvian churches with links to Seville, all dripping with gold and ruby red blood. Masterpieces and hidden Welsh hermit houses. But let’s for the sake of the story, stick with the basics […]

Graz. It’s not the most inspiring of names, now is it? Short, squat, and sounding more than a little like the French word for fat, it lacks the flourish that sweeps Barcelona and Vienna into the linguistic catwalk of European city names. But names can be deceiving. Not since my trip to Nuremberg has my […]

  Luxury in Croatia Hang around this blog for a while, or at least those social media thingies, and you’ll have noticed I went to Croatia lately, awash and a-soaked in cooling blue. I stayed at the Lafodia Sea Resort, the main hotel on the island, and in fact the only luxury hotel around. Here’s […]

The Namib Desert: The Oldest in the World Fifty-five million years. It’s a long time, no matter how you look at it. For 55 million years, particles of sand, in shades of blood red, caramelised orange and an exhausted, jaded rust have sifted one over the other in this part of the world. I stand […]

El Castaño Dormilón Along the curves and swerves of Spain’s secret Galician coastline, the nights arrive so peacefully, even the chestnut trees fall asleep. I wrote not long ago about my first impressions of Galicia: Spain’s most northwestern point. A network of sleepy fishing villages, wild clifftops with lighthouses and jagged, ragged inland rias, a three […]