Even after something like 50 visits to Athens, I still find the geography occasionally baffling. Still, that’s part of the charm of this beautiful European city, and, the longer you spend there, the more you realise just how much there is to discover. By all means visit one of the spectacularly glamorous shoe shops on … Read more
The email landed a few days before our flight. ‘Dear Mum and Dad. Here are 32 places I want to go in Rome.’ There followed an exhaustive list compiled by our 13-year-old son Fred. We had only three days and the weather forecast was challenging. Still, it felt churlish to rain on a teenage boy’s … Read more
James M. Cain, the prolific pulp fiction author of The Postman Always Rings Twice, wrote that ‘whatever else may be said about Malibu… it is probably the finest beach ever created’. Cain was writing in the Thirties, but his description might not be too far off today. In fact, Malibu has a number of beautiful … Read more
London is still the world’s five-star hotel capital, according to Forbes Travel Guide’s 2020 Star Rating Awards. It is recognised as having 19 five-star properties – more than any other capital city – by the awards, which honours luxury hotels, spas and restaurants. Wynn Resorts dominates the Las Vegas market with seven five-star awards, while … Read more
Clear the mantelpiece! The ‘ultimate’ souvenirs to buy in 12 capital cities revealed, from a Christmas ornament in Washington DC to a Hamleys bear in London In Dublin, researchers say the best souvenir is soap from Sweny’s Pharmacy When in Budapest, tourists should pick up a bottle of Hungarian lavender oil The ultimate souvenir in Berlin is … Read more
Arizona made the cowboy famous. The term had been rousting around the Wild West since 1870-ish, mostly synonymous with the more pejorative ‘rustler’ tag. But a decade or so later the Copper State took accidental ownership of brand cowboy when it became the hideout of the notorious Cochise County Cowboys. A loose association of hoodlums, … Read more