Val Thorens - France So much time has passed that I can't actually remember the last time I went skiing for a whole week, but I’m guessing it’s around 17 years. Sure, I’ve had the odd day here and there but finding the time for a whole week hasn’t materialised because no matter how much …
Jordan I think the Middle East is one of my favourite places to be, a conclusion I arrived at when coming into land at Amman, Jordan’s capital. Flying from Dubai we had flown over nothing but desert which is an environment that always captivates me for a reason I have no idea of. On arrival …
Nosy Be to Dubai Nosy Be has played hard to get. I discovered the place when looking for a few days to stay on a beach close to the capital of Antananarivo three years ago on my first visit. All recommendations pointed to a tiny tropical island on the northwest coast, 90 minutes flying time …
Anakao - Madagascar Our final few days on tour in Madagascar was everything I expect from a holiday in East Africa. Heading out at 3.30am we had to negotiate a typical Malagasy road from Isalo National Park down to Toliara harbour on the west coast where we would catch a boat that would drop us …
Madagascar One of the great paradoxes of life is the fact that I’m passionate about protecting the natural environment, yet I get bored of viewing wildlife very quickly. Give someone a camera with a telescopic lens and they immediately believe they are on a National Geographic assignment, frantically papping away at anything that moves and …
Madagascar ‘Little in this scene suggested the twentieth century, and this very quality drew me to rural Russia. This was the selfish conceit of the traveller. What to me was a charming lack of modernity was, to the Russians who inhabited this landscape, a world of outhouses, of water hauled from wells, of endless chopping …
Narsaq - Greenland There are few greater sights in the world than flying over Greenland and watching the mountains on the coast disappear under an ocean of ice. It isn’t a rare thing to witness for many North America flights pass over Greenland, however on this occasion we would be landing on this enormous and …
Iceland I’m not a massive fan of Iceland after a previous winter trip around the Golden Circle although I promised myself to go back in the summer for some hiking in the more remote regions. And so, at the beginning of August I found myself heading out of Reykjavik in a hire car to speed …
Amalfi - Italy Agerola, a village up in the mountains of the Amalfi coast is a paradise away from the heat and tourists that clog up the local area. No one comes here except for the odd few such as ourselves that would like to hike the coastal path that is a relatively new addition …
Continue reading The chronicles of a disappointing Italy – Lemons
Rome Unfortunately, both my disclaimer and opinion stated at the beginning of the previous post still stand, and although Rome has made a firm and positive impression it still came at a price. I couldn’t have been happier boarding the train to leave Venice as I took the actual seat I booked and settled in …
Continue reading The chronicles of a disappointing Italy – Fountains and face masks
Milan & Venice - Italy After spending three glorious weeks travelling around Greece, continuing on to Santorini, Venice and Rome back-to-back at the end of July is nothing short of moronic but our itinerary had been designed for 2021 not 2022, and I had decided to take the slap in the face instead of making …
Continue reading The chronicles of a disappointing Italy – The sell-out
Crete to Santorini - Greece After making the short road journey from northern to southern Crete I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when boarding the ferry. We disembarked at Agia Roumeli, a tiny collection of whitewashed buildings wedged between the mountains and ludicrously clear sea with no road access. There is no reason to …
Athens to Crete - Greece One of the great advantages to not researching a tour beforehand is that they often deliver me to places I had no idea about and as a result impress me greatly, Meteroa is one of those places. Catching the train out of Athens and back into the incredible Greek countryside …
Kastoria to Athens - Greece A yummy salad Never have I felt so content upon entering a country. My first and last visit to Greece rates as one of my very best ever trips, and as I made my return, crossing the border from Northern Macedonia, I was thrilled to be surrounded by the empty, …
Skopje - North Macedonia I need to break this down into three parts because the country is wonderfully strange, but first the political house keeping. North Macedonia, a country of only two million people gained independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 followed by almost 20 years of arguing with Greece over the fact that the Macedonia …
Continue reading The city with a multiple personality disorder
Montenegro & Albania My glorious home county, The People's Republic of Leicestershire has 80,000 more people living in it than Montenegro's 620,000. Sitting on the Adriatic coast and surrounded 4.5 countries, as with most of the Balkans it is difficult to explain as an outsider. The 0.5 country is Kosovo, a country independent from Serbia …
Dubrovnik - Croatia It's always a sad start to the day when a number 2 sounds like a number 1 and it takes several Imodiums before feeling confident enough to leave the house. It's even worse having to stand in a crowded bus on the way to a crowded boat that is scheduled to arrive …
Dubrovnik - Croatia Our journey to Dubrovnik was like a scene from James Bond, the afternoon sun ricocheting off the impossibly calm Adriatic Sea as we came in to land on a little airstrip at the foot of the limestone mountains that make this part of the world so damn gorgeous. Our drive along the …
Continue reading An investigation into the behaviour of tourists
Morocco Every time I'm hiking up a mountain, I wish I hadn't bothered, but then every time I stand at the top of a mountain peak I've just scrambled up, I tend to feel a little less angry with myself and a small but perceptible sense of satisfaction ebbs inside me alongside a substantial feeling …
Santa Marta - Colombia I hadn't really considered the dangers of travelling to Colombia until Argentine family members questioned our sanity and provoked me to do some research the day before flying. Obviously Colombia had been torn apart over previous decades and kidnappings were common place but I assumed that was all in the past, …
Buenos Aires - Argentina There was only one good thing to come of the pandemic and that was delaying my trip to Buenos Aires by two years and thus plenty of time to become fluent in Spanish. Yet despite spending over an hour a day on Duolingo and holding on to an Argentine girlfriend, my …
Paris - France I apparently only live 392 miles from Paris yet I've never been. I've visited Tanzania three times, I once went to New Zealand for six days. So what's my issue with France and its hyped up capital? Quite simply, my Dad hated the French, I've always felt the French hated me, I …
Al Ula - Saudi Arabia I'm very defensive of Saudi Arabia and especially surrounding her move into tourism. I've been lucky to get out and see quite a bit of Saudi but I've been carrying a chip on my shoulder for two years since not being allowed to go wherever I want up in Al …
Monteverde to La Fortuna - Costa Rica After a week of lounging on beaches, we eagerly arrived in Monteverde up in the central mountains for several days of hiking through cloud forest, horse trekking, zip lining and bungy jumping. We left having done none of it. Instead, I spent the entire time crapping through the …
Montezuma to Playa Samara - Costa Rica Ever get the feeling you've peaked too soon? A plane, a car, and a ferry took us on the six hour trip from the Osa Peninsula in the southwest to Nicoya peninsula in the northwest of Costa Rica. We had booked a beautiful little hotel by the sea …
Drake Bay - Osa Peninsula - Costa Rica The Osa Peninsula is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. Such claims can be hard to believe, but in this instant there is no room to dispute it once you have visited. There is sustainable tourism and eco tourism, and then there is Osa. …
Cahuita - Costa Rica So, before I launch into a tirade about Costa Rica, lets get one thing straight; I'm very grateful that the country allowed the Argie Ferrari and I to enter as it is one of the few countries right now that the two of us can see each other in person relatively …
Jambiani - Zanzibar I love Saudi Arabia but..... After fifteen months in the country with only one three-week trip home to the UK, I was enormously excited to be looking out of a plane window as we flew along the East African coast with it's endless white beaches and the glistening Indian Ocean tempting me …
The Empty Quarter - Saudi Arabia Day 5 There is nothing better than watching a boss 'boss it'! On many occasions the tour leader would park up and take a nap or relax while the rest of the crew got on with cooking and setting up camp. Beyond doubt the best example of Arabian leadership …
The Empty Quarter - Saudi Arabia Day 3 Sleeping out under the stars is a bit of a paradox in itself due to the fact that if you are asleep, you won't see the stars so may as well be inside. To combat this issue, when going to bed at 9pm I made the point …
The Empty Quarter - Saudi Arabia Covering twenty percent of Saudi Arabia there is a desert that lies in the south of the country that also straddles the U.A.E, Oman and Yemen. This desert covers an area of 650,000km2 which apparently makes it a little larger than France. Its an area that receives thirty-five millimetres …
Jazan to Najran - Saudi Arabia A few winding kilometres outside of Abha is another famous, old village nestled in the Arabian mountains. Rijal Alma'a once again decieves the visitor with its age boasting a history dating back nine hundred years. As with Thee Ain village, a large part of Rijal Alma'a has been restored …
Al Bahah to Abha - Saudi Arabia It's been almost twelve months to the day since my last trip away and before you shout 'boo hoo, get over it', I would like to point out that I wasn't one of the people trying to get a summer holiday abroad in 2020. Nope, I was stuck …
Trig Tales 