The Possibilities in Porto
“It may well be that the northern Portuguese are uniquely equipped to withstand the rigours of the economic crisis. It’s perhaps due in part to their nature, more placid and patient than many of their neighbours.”
Browsing: Travel
Into the Red: Amsterdam
“The No5 tram pulled round the corner, sending a few loitering pigeons into the grey sky. I was somewhere close to Rembrandtpark to the west of central Amsterdam, looking for the towering Ramada Apollo hotel.”
Voyages Extraordinaires: Paris
“The time is around 10.30am, but rather than coffee, I brought a bottle of champagne: Möet – Vintage 1966 – which we’ve dispatched, so we’re in rather high spirits.”
A Cornwall Artscapade
“I don’t need to check your tickets, do I?” the inspector beams, before guffawing, as he enters the swanky Pullman Dining Carriage…
Return to Baku: Azerbaijan
“It doesn’t look like much beneath the wing of the plane. A sand coloured, shrubless land and a low, pale sky, not exactly tourist board porn; if anything it looks like a biblical landscape, Old Testament.”
Ventnor or Bust!
Harry ventures to Ventnor, wife and toddler in tow, taking in the annual Fringe and Film Festival, late summer swims and traditional tea rooms as he goes…
Once Upon a Salop Time
I met a traveller from an antique land who said, somewhat to my surprise, ‘Have you been to Shrewsbury?’ To be honest, I’d never really thought about it…
Greece’s Two Graces, II: Mykonos
Our next port of call, literally, was to be Mykonos. And here was a taste of the infamous island hopping so inclined by itinerants, backpackers and lunatics.
Greece’s Two Graces, I: Santorini
This trip feels like it’s been a long time coming. It was conceived nearly two years ago over dinner at Quo Vadis, when I was told about the Grace hotels on Mykonos and Santorini in the Greek Cyclades.
Anything is Possible: Anassa, Cyprus
“By mid-April it’s hot, the wheat fields are golden and the hay has already been cut and is drying in huge round bales. The swallows are here too, swooping and diving around the coast.”
Carry on Glamping: Dandelion Hideaway
“It springs, I feel, from a youth spent being forced to go to Scout camp.” Canvas, tent pegs, cold, wind, rain. Nick Hammond explains why camping really gets his goat…
Liming at the Barbados Crop Over
Unlike some Caribbean holiday destinations that don’t always live up to the paradisal connotations fed to us through the Malibu rum TV ads of old, Barbados, in real life, really is that beautiful, that hot and that laid back..