Since I started blogging in 2011, I’ve done a review at the end of each year – a look back at the last 12 months in travel and on the blog, to see what’s changed and remember the people…
Travel tales
As you walk through the ruins of Witley Court in Worcestershire, you can feel the ghosts of its past life as one of England’s great country houses. At the end of the 19th century, it was a real-life Downton…
Not long after I started blogging back in 2011, I put together a post looking at how travel had changed in the 10 years since I did a round-the-world trip to Southeast Asia and Australia – back when people…
Picture Alaska and you’ll probably see images of glaciers, mountains, lakes, oceans, forests and wildlife – Alaska is all about nature in all its picturesque glory. But one aspect of the state that doesn’t get so much of a…
250 years ago, William Gilpin wrote Britain’s first travel guidebook. But it wasn’t dedicated to London or another major city. Instead it was the Wye Valley, on the border of England and Wales, which caught his, and the public’s,…
Beneath the streets of London is a hidden underground world of abandoned Tube stations and deserted tunnels, each with their own story to tell. Most of them are locked away and inaccessible, but a series of Hidden London tours…
As we reach the end of the year, looking back at the last 12 months’ travels has become a bit of an annual tradition. But if there was ever a year where nothing went to plan, it was 2019!…
An otherworldly landscape carved from living, shifting ice, some of it dating back thousands of years, the world’s glaciers are some of its strangest and most beautiful places. But they’re not exactly easy to see for yourself – normally…
Some of the first holidays I ever took were camping trips, and I loved sleeping under canvas, being out in the fresh air and surrounded by nature. But somewhere along the way the fun wore off – arriving in…
The hiss of escaping steam, the smell of the engine wafting through an open window, the sound of the whistle and the clinking of Champagne glasses… it could be a scene from Brief Encounter or Murder on the Orient Express,…
A winter wonderland of pink skies, husky sleds, frosty fir trees, steaming hot chocolate and twinkling lights – Finnish Lapland is where all your snow-filled fantasies come to life.…
I always love looking back on the last 12 months of travels as we get close to the end of the year – remembering the places, people and experiences along the way (not least as there’s usually a few…
Wooden chalets full of Christmas ornaments, towering Christmas trees, sparkling lights and the smell of log fires burning, roasting chestnuts and bubbling pans of Glühwein. Christmas markets have taken over Europe, and there are few cities which don’t have…