How to (re)create the feeling of travel at home

travel at home: vegetable photographs!

How much time do you spend travelling every year? Two weeks? Three? Four if you’re lucky? What about the other 48+ weeks? How can you experience what you love about your holidays and travel in everyday life? Here are some top tips for creating – or recreating – the feeling of travel at home. Be a tourist […]

My top 9 travel tips for Nicaragua

my top 9 travel tips for Nicaragua - Leon cathedral

Grab a cuppa coffee – or a fine batido (smoothie) – and read my top 9 travel tips for Nicaragua, an often-overlooked slice of Central America. Nicaragua has a spirit you can feel. World-class wildlife and a growing eco-tourism movement combine with a cacophony of noise, and locals who aren’t afraid to talk politics. It makes for a destination with more fire and passion than […]

11 tips for travel in Mexico

An old red VW beetle available for hire as a public address system in Izamal, Mexico

Bags of culture. Decent public transport. Good value. Chatty residents. All these make Mexico one of my favourite destinations. Here are 11 tips for independent travel in Mexico. Getting around – 11 tips for travel in Mexico 1. Combis Collectivos / combi vans are a steal for local transport (think camper van of the VW […]

Returning home to the UK: reflections

returning home to the UK

“Here’s to journeys near and far, short and long; to the people we meet on the way, and to those we come home to.” I can’t believe it. My month-long trip from Budapest to Athens is at an end. It’s been awesome. From the hospitality in Albania, to the Greeks who kept trying to overfeed […]

Bologna – where hipsters meet history

Bologna - Via Clavature

Famed for its porticoes, leftish tendencies, and a deserved foodie reputation; Bologna and its surrounds echo with the united footsteps of old and new. It’s a city where hipsters meet history. Cyclists’ simultaneously pedal slowly and talk quickly on their mobile phones. Students in converse trainers and skinny jeans chat to their amici, smoke curling from their cigarettes, as they scuffle […]

Ljubljana – the beloved boy next door?

Ljubljana castle

If Ljubljana – meaning “the Beloved” in Slovene – were a man, he’d be the boy next door.  He’ll treat you like a Princess: buy your favourite wine, bake your guilty-pleasure cake for you; he’ll even take out the rubbish. You’ll rave to your friends about his overall wonderfulness and clean, kindly and thoughtful ways. […]

Budapest city break costs – eats and experiences in Hungary’s capital

Budapest city break costs

What is there to do in the Hungarian capital? And how much should you budget? Here I give a breakdown of Budapest city break costs from my five-night “flashpacker style” stay; where I went, what I did, and whether I’d do it again. All prices are based on an exchange rate of 398.99 / 311.82 […]