Thassos had its hey-day in the 90’s then tourism seemed to dry up (perhaps there were too many shell-suit fires in that heat?). The landslide in holiday makers is a good thing though and totally not a reflection of what lies behind the Hawaiian style slopes of this northern Greek island. And yet despite not…
Has The Cotswolds Made Your Bucket List!
Have The Cotswolds Made It On To Your Bucket List Yet? The Cotswolds is an area of Britain regularly visited by day trippers from London or foreign tourists in the UK wanting to experience a bit of Olde Worlde England. It’s what is known as an AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) and if visitors…
A Self-Guided Walking Tour Of Nottingham
A Tour Of Nottingham Nottingham is famous for many reasons, not least that it’s menfolk seem to like wearing tights – think Robin Hood, Dean off of Torvil and Dean. It’s also the home of Raleigh™, Boots The Chemist, Paul Smith, lace, the very first football club, cricket and the oldest inn in England. In…
Exploring Spitalfields And Brick Lane, London
London is not a city, rather a collection of little towns and villages patchworked together like a Gustav Klimt. Nowhere else will you encounter in one space a collection of people from so many walks of life both culturally and socially. Well, nowhere except London. Pimlico, Chelsea and Knightsbridge you associate with wealth and class….
Bilbao With Kids – 2 Days Of Fun!
Bilbao was never going to be great. My sister had visited a few weeks before us and when someone describes a place as nice you know they’re just gently letting you down for a disappointing trip. Still, we had to keep our hotel reservations as our ferry left from there in two days time. However, if…
The 10 Best Secret Spots In Rome – Sshh!
Rome Has Secrets Too! – The 10 Best Hidden Gems Rome was not built in a day and it would equally take more than a lifetime to really know the eternal city and all it’s secrets. It’s the kind of place that creates an inner struggle; to get off the beaten track is to discover…
A Istria Travel Guide In Photo’s
Istria, Croatia – A Travelogue & Photo Journal Istria is the northern peninsula of Croatia, shaped like an inverted triangular arrow pointing to the rest of the country, like it’s saying ‘don’t look at us, check out the big boys like Split and Dubrovnik’. It’s trying desperately to remain a secret and unspoilt by the…
A Day In Glamorous Opatija, Istria
Opatija is certainly one of Istria’s most charming towns and has plenty of things to see and do to make a pretty little day trip of it.
Five Reasons To Visit Nottingham
The Trouble With Nottingham… With a new Robin Hood film about to be released, Nottingham is again inching into the limelight. I say inching because like a shy 5 year old in their first school play, it’s a bit unsure of itself in the eyes of a larger, scrutinizing audience : for years, the locals…
Dungeness – The UK’s Only Desert.
A Dungeness Travel Guide Not your average desert… Did you know Antarctica is a desert? The largest in the world in fact. Apparently being hot and full of sand no longer stands you in good stead to make the desert awards short-list, all you need to qualify these days is less than 25 cm’s of…
Top 5 Coolest Areas Worth Exploring In London
London is full of personality and tourists come in their droves every year to absorb a bit of it. This is the capital city of a nation that has been great for centuries and top attractions like Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London and Covent Garden all contribute a little to the historical picture of…
Istria, Croatia – More Hidden Gems Than The Crystal Maze!
A Complete Guide To Croatia’s Istrian Peninsula As you look at a map of Croatia, Istria is the little triangle up in the top left corner. It’s had a chequered history, being passed from pillar to post in battles for land. One day it belonged to the Romans, the next the Venetians, then on to…
Doing Lake Bled Like A Boss
Do you think it’s possible that there could still exist a place on this planet that is so achingly beautiful but only the locals know about it? And where their secret life goes on as normal with no tourists to wreck the joint until instagram will inevitably discover it one day in the future? I’m…
Day 5 & 6 – Lake Bled
Summer Roadtrip : Day 5 & 6 – Lake Bled in Slovenia Lake Bled is definitely one of the prettiest lakes I’ve ever seen. It has a circumference of only 4 miles so even the most unfit tourist could manage that little saunter. In any respects, Americans don’t seem to have made it this far…
Day 4 – Brixen & Braies with some Austria on the side
Day 4 – Brixen And Lake Braies With A Bit Of Austria I’m really going to miss this place; the smell of clean air, being fenced in by the most beautiful pieces of limestone, the urge to buy trousers that zip off at the knee, the light – oh the light. At 7am the sun…
Day 3 – Staying Local In The Val Di Fassa
Waking in cold sweats my subconscious had clocked before I had that this was to be our last full day in the most beautiful country on earth. Moving on to Slovenia tomorrow meant I felt an overriding urge to drink as many cappuccino’s as I could before the morning was out so I was rather…
Day 2 – Italian Dolomites & Bolzano
Apart from the fact our waiter was far too happy for 7.30 in the morning and it was about all I could do to crack a bon giorno and not slap his cheery Italian face with a slice of Parma ham, breakfast was a treat when this was our view… … so we decided not…
Day 1 – Italian Dolomites
5 hours driving and many epics views later I sit on my hotel bed with this amazing view. Feeling a tad too city-gal next to all the other holiday-makers who look like Regatta threw up over them, I think I misjudged this place. Apart from not buying my holiday wardrobe from Millets I also didn’t…
Lamego And The Douro Valley – Portugal
Our Road-Trip Of The Douro Valley – Portugal Traversing the landscape of Portugal just wouldn’t have been worth it with a travel-sick trio of kiddie-winks in tow, so with a few days to spare ‘sans-offspring’, we wrote a must-see list for the Douro Valley in the North of Portugal and set off in our brand new,…
Figueira da Foz – The Rainbow Beach
Figueira Da Foz Beach – Portugal Walking down Balamory High Street, licking a Neapolitan Ice-cream, with rainbow sugared almonds in the pocket of the coat you borrowed from your friend Joseph, holding a shopping bag of ‘party rings’, wouldn’t make you feel more colourful than the beach at Figueira da Foz. Beach huts in stripes…
Mountain Fun In The Serra Da Estrela, Portugal
The Serra Da Estrela Mountains, Portugal It’s Oh So Quiet, Sshhh, Sshhh…. You’ve never seen so many potential kitchen work tops in your life! Except rather than fashion out a table-top surface for themselves, the Serra da Estrela locals decided to carve out little houses with little doors and little windows to live and make…
Does Lake Maggiore Cut It For Teens?
Let’s face it – when it comes to the idea of a holiday, most teenagers would be happy to stay in bed all week with extra fast wifi and pizza for breakfast, lunch and tea. And, as a parent, it would be all too easy to just let them – leave them on their own…
Hidden Gems Of Nottingham You Don’t Want To Miss
Nottingham’s Secret Stuff – The Hidden Gems I’ve been exploring Nottingham for 25 years and I still manage to discover new gems even now. And, whenever we visit a new town or city, I always wish I had some insider knowledge, a local tour guide, someone who knows the gen – the best independent shops…
Review : Lake Maggiore Zipline
I don’t want to lie to you – I was having secret panic attacks at the thought of Ziplining 2K across a huge forest at 80mph. They had to be secret as I wasn’t about to let my kids know how much of a wuss I was : I teach them to be brave on…
