I’ve just come back from Cyprus, and whilst I’ll be writing several detailed pieces on different areas and attractions, for starters I wanted to put out a simple plea: go there. Now. Of course, there are purely pragmatic reasons to head to Cyprus. The current crisis has created an environment of good deals, and availability of accommodation is bett...

We flew Qatar Airways recently in order to spend a week in Doha. Our expectation were, ahem, *sky high*, given the accolades that they've won, including World's Best Airline Awards at the World Airline Awards in both 2011 and 2012. First signs were good, with generous legroom and reasonably comfy seats. The crew are friendly but harassed. Unaware h...

Today I’ve realised that until right now, I’ve been existing in a state of miserable ignorance about how beautiful the Peak District is, and how much there is to do on a visit. Maybe it was the residue of crisp white snow, but parts of rural Derbyshire felt almost Alpine on the drive up from London. Matlock was a startling sight as I peered at the ...

Sporting an impressive beard and nursing some broken ribs from his most recent adventure, Ben Fogle heroically managed to give a fascinating lecture on the Azores last week all the same. I was lucky enough to be invited to attend the Royal Geographical Society event by the excellent team at Hills Balfour , and I was pleased to be joined by my best ...

It all started innocently enough in my hotel room in the Latvian capital, with some crisps that look a bit like my daughter's name. However, as you can read in my piece all about it in Travel Culture Magazine , it didn't take long for me to be cruising the streets of Riga in search of local refreshments. I found them in bars on winter wonderland Ol...

It’s not very often that you get a backstage pass to a place of which Richard Twiss remarked in 1775: “this I believe is the only house in Ireland to which the term palace can be applied”. It’s fair to say I pretty much bit the hands off my wonderful hosts at Barberstown Castle when they suggested that I could do just that, by touring Castletown of...

We had wandered up and down the Corniche for a few days, hovering rather cluelessly near the Museum of Islamic Art, before we eventually achieved our goal of taking a sunset boat ride around West Bay, with spectacular views of the city skyline.   What finally galvanised us was the presence of my dear old schoolfriend Lisa, a longtime Qatar resident...

On a recent, fantastic visit to Barberstown Castle, I also took the opportunity to explore the village that Barberstown lies on the edge of, Straffan. Straffan boasts a Steam Museum and a Butterfly Farm, but I was there off season, so I had to get a bit more creative about my activities. (Apparently when the Steam Museum is open, Robert Guinness hi...

I've written about Herathera Island Resort in the Maldives on previous occasions after a fabulous trip there a few months ago. I was very pleased to see my article on Herathera and on locally-produced luxury go up on the Travel Belles site last week. The fragility of the ecosystem in the Maldives gets you thinking about conservation issues and risi...

Any Dane will tell you that Jutland is unlike any other region of Denmark, and the particular, pretty remote, forest region that I headed for has its own microcosmic unique features too. On the shores of Hald Lake, I was there as the Historic Hotels of Europe 's Historic Traveller to write about the cosy, torchlit oasis amongst the dense trees that...