The roads in South Africa have considerably improved since my adventurer dad made his first African endurance drive in the early sixties. However, there are still plenty of challenges for the adventurous driver and the Sani Pass is definitely one of them. This...
The Englischer Garten in Munich is so called because its style is based on the parks that were popular in England during the eighteenth-century. This large urban park was modelled on the English versions. This is why it’s easy to see why there was a famous...
The Tomb of the Unknown Warrior is to be found in Westminster Abbey, London. Many countries have similar memorials – which honour the dead of the First and/or Second World War but this is the first of its type being installed in the abbey in 1920. Most people...
You’d think it was sometimes. A power struggle, that is. A relationship between host and guest is supposed to be symbiotic. If it’s little early in the morning for you to understand such words, here’s the definition. A symbiotic relationship is: a...
Chetham’s is the oldest operating public library in the English-speaking world. It was founded in 1653. If you think that was a long, long time ago then I have to also tell you that the building (the gorgeous building) dates from 1421. It originally housed...
You’ve heard that name before, haven’t you? Hamelin? That’s right, it’s Hamelin where the legend of the Pied Piper began. The story of the Pied Piper refers to an incident which apparently happened in the Middle Ages, in 1284. The story...
Leeds is a splendid city. There are many things to see and to do within the city itself and going a little further afield to the outskirts takes the traveller to even more fabulous places. But today, we’re staying in the city centre itself. We start by shopping...
You can’t stay at La Concha Motel in Vegas anymore, but you can visit to see the astonishing lobby building. (As seen in the photograph above). The lobby building, which was initially erected in 1961, has been restored and is used as the visitors’ centre...
It’s likely that you know what the most recorded song in history is? It’s Yesterday written by Lennon and McCartney, of course. But do you know that the second most popular, the runner-up, is Girl from Ipanema? Ipanema, as you can see from the map below,...
The Village of Juzcar nestles in a valley in the Andalusia area of Southern Spain. It is – or rather, was – one of the White Villages of Andalusia – the traditional whitewashed villages that have not changed for hundreds of years. And Juzcar was...
At the time of writing, despite hosts muttering about the problem for years, Airbnb asks its guests to rate the location of the accommodation they stayed in. Hosts have, possibly understandably, been up in arms about this issue forever. Well, almost ever. Let’s...
If I told you that the connection between a Swedish water tower and a café in Canvey Island, Essex, UK, was the Sydney Opera House then you’d probably think that I’d lost it at last. Fair enough. But read on. Canvey Island in Essex is not really the sort...
That title is wrong, to be honest. Riverside, Iowa isn’t the birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk. It’s the future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk – as you can see on the photograph of the plaque. Captain James T. Kirk is, of course, the original...
Travelling by train overnight is – to me – one of the most luxurious and romantic ways to get from point A to point B. Someone else has to worry about the driving, the navigating … you’re in a proper bed and not trying to sleep in a cramped...
Writing your listing blurb for Airbnb or other accommodation platforms can be tricky. After all, you’re in the hospitality industry, you’re not a copywriter. The good news is that online, it’s much better to underpromise and overdeliver, rather than...
It’s very tricky to pronounce, it was used as a filming location for an episode of The Game of Thrones – and it’s totally amazing. For centuries, the sea of the Bay of Biscay has been pounding this Basque Country coastline and forming all manner of...
This fabulous hotel was built in 1957. I know that its style make it look as though it could be early twentieth century – or even late Victorian – but the Ukraina Hotel was commissioned by Josef Stalin and until 1976 was the tallest hotel in the world. The...
If you’re heading to Germany and wondering about the quality of the tap water then I have good news for you. Germany has one of the best quality water supplies in the world. Water is something that the German authorities take incredibly seriously. You’ll...
If your pulse rate raised just a little when you read ‘Macondo’ above then you’ll know why you have to go there. And go now before the place becomes ‘disneyfied’. This small town in Colombia is where Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born and...
The insurance people, Geiko, have recently launched a video entitled The Best Airbnbs Have These Things in Common. So I thought that I’d enumerate them and see how our own listings (here in fabulous Fort Lauderdale) compare. We have two – both are in a...
