16 January 2025

For the last two years, I travelled to Berlin to celebrate the arrival of the New Year with my cousins and nephews there. Like many capitol cities around the world, they know how to put on a show of fireworks, however, I preferred to stay close to my cousin’s residential area and watch the street parties. Traffic apart from main roads is virtually stopped and a great many fireworks are set off fro

09 January 2025

For my big birthday, I wanted to sample the delights of Iceland and as it happened the cruise on Apex fitted perfectly with our plans. So after months of waiting, the day finally came to drive over to Southampton Docks and board our 11 night voyage. I booked a concierge grade cabin and the basic drinks & wifi package. The cabin was on deck 9, high enough for us, and came with a balcony that had a

08 January 2025

In September 2024, I had the pleasure of a week’s cruise on the Danube and the river’s largest and best vessel, namely the AMA Magna. Our trip began with an early easyJet flight to Munich, and a meet-up with AMA’s charming host lady at a café within the airport terminal. A 2 hour transfer took us to the ship moored at Vilshofen in SE Germany. After an overnight stay, a leisurely cruise down river

08 January 2025

Tokyo’s colourful autumn parks. Tokyo, a city perhaps best known for it’s glitzy high-rise urban sprawl has some amazingly beautiful parks to enjoy not only the spring cherry blossom season but also the turning leaf colours of Autumn. I was lucky enough to be there in the 2nd week of December, still well into the autumn colour season. It helped that the weather was great considering it’s early wi

12 December 2019

Having recently had clients returning from a Peru trip I booked and giving great feedback, I decided with my wife Peru would be our main holiday destination this year. After treating ourselves to Latam’s business class on their 787 Dreamliner, and after an overnight stay at Lima’s airport hotel, we flew to Cusco, an hour’s flight, to begin our guided tour adventure. First stop was the Incan site

21 August 2019

For my wife's 60th birthday in July, we decided on a Prague city break as neither of us had been there before. EasyJet took us there, and the airport in Prague is overdue a modernisation refit - arriving and departing passengers all mingling in the piers! The lovely Grand Bohemia hotel was our choice - really central but in a quieter sector. A bonus was that with the deluxe room we booked, they

02 April 2019

A friend of mine retired to Bangkok and now runs a business taking people to lake fishing venues around the city. He invited me to come along for a few days, so in early March 2019, I did just that. I flew out on Thai Airways' big A380 superjumbo to arrive into 34C sunshine. We met up and I stayed at his apartment conveniently close to the new airport. A variety of waterways was explored and fi

02 May 2017

Marrakech and Essaouira visit 22 – 26 March 2017 I was one of 40 Travel Counsellors hosted by the Moroccan Tourist Board to a fam trip here, my first time anywhere in Morocco. Our trip started in an unfortunate way with easyJet having to switch aircraft at Gatwick once we had already boarded, but after a two hour delay we were on our way and three and a bit hours later landed at Marrakech’s

12 June 2015

In May 2015, I was one of four Travel Counsellors granted a place on a Holland America cruise experience from Venice to Istanbul on board the Nieuw Amsterdam. After an early morning flight from Gatwick on a BA A320, I met up with Holland America's sales team on arrival at Venice and a quick transfer to the ship followed. Check-in at the Venice cruise terminal seemed a little laborious but I ha

26 March 2012

In late May 2011, I sampled the new extention to the Japanese bullet train network that runs down to Kagoshima in the south of Kyushu Island in Western Japan. The route is covered by the Japan Rail pass that can be purchased for travel on the JR rail system in weekly durations. On arrival at the smart new rail terminal in Kagoshima, a local train was used to get to the resort town of Ibusuki Onsen

16 February 2012

Over Christmas 2008, my wife & I spent a week on the Pacific island of Guam, a destination seldom featured in UK tour operators products. The island is in the far western Pacific, which sounds like taking an eternity to reach, but is actually slightly less flying time than Hawaii is by going via Japan. Tokyo - Guam is just over 3hrs, and flights connect with the overnight direct flights from Londo

16 February 2012

In May 2011, I attended a travel trade function run by a Caribbean hotel association marketing company and met with the general manager from the exclusive Curtain Bluff hotel in Antigua. It was a fantastic opportunity to experience his hotel first hand. We flew with Virgin Atlantic and their flights both ways were almost fully booked, The transfer from the airport was approx 30 minutes or so a