What a science tour of Wales taught me about time, the earth – and my nan July 21, 2025 The history of time, and a touching family connection, brought Damien Gabet closer than ever to rural Wales During the war my grandmother, Gwyneth, would walk from her parents’ farm in the South Swansea Valley to a neo-gothic mansion called Craig-y-Nos. Once home to the fabled opera singer Adelina Patti, it had since become a [...]
The Sense Experience Resort in Tuscany review: Blissful eco-chic July 16, 2025 When you conjure an image of Tuscany in your mind’s eye, it probably involves rolling vineyards, dusty olive groves and charmingly ramshackle wine estates. This is, after all, the land of Super Tuscans and ancient medieval towns and a tower that can’t stand up straight. What you probably don’t imagine is a modern eco-chic resort [...]
Where have the music festival headliners gone? July 14, 2025 Yoga in the Healing Fields and communal sing-a-longs around the Stone Circle were more popular than ever at Glastonbury this year, after headline writers and audiences slammed the music line-up as the worst in history. Headliners are the most expensive part of the festival experience, with fees for booking the world’s biggest acts running into [...]
Experience the Roman Empire in Bulgaria for history to rival Italy – just without the crowds July 13, 2025 What have the Romans ever done for us?” quipped my partner, Ed, as we stood on the main street of Nicopolis ad Istrum, formerly a Roman town in Bulgaria that is now a glorious assemblage of ruins. “All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water [...]
The best part of Sri Lanka just got a stunning new hotel July 12, 2025 When the Australian cricket team finished a day’s play against Sri Lanka in Galle in February, they came for a well-earned break at the Radisson Collection hotel, fives miles down the seafront.They liked it so much that when they won the series a few days later, they returned to celebrate into the early hours of [...]
This Pacific Ocean country is one of Earth’s most biodiverse places July 10, 2025 This Pacific Ocean hideaway offers incredible sea life in brilliant luxury Anyone for fruit bat stew? “It’s delicious!” the museum guide assured me. “You cook the bat whole and serve it up in a soup, so it gazes up at you from the bowl. And you eat the entire bat. Because its diet is fruit, [...]
Inside Los Angeles stan culture, where it isn’t embarrassing to admit you’re a celebrity nerd July 10, 2025 Fans behave very differently in Los Angeles than they do in London. Longtime celebrity nerd Adam Bloodworth visited to explore the city’s outward love for celebrity A sea of aggressive power lunches are taking place on the terrace next to a swimming pool. I’m in the Tower Bar on Sunset Boulevard, which runs along the [...]
A spoiled travel editor’s guide to luxury hotels July 9, 2025 I know, it’s not en vogue to brag, but as City AM’s travel editor, I stay in the world’s plushest luxury hotels for a living. Here’s the shocking thing: despite the £1k-a-night price tags, they often fail to do the very simplest of things to make your stay better. So, here is some constructive criticism [...]
Lunchtime tourism: Rosetti at Guildhall Art Gallery July 3, 2025 Bob Vylan at Glastonbury 2025 showed how art and entertainment is often explosive in the political and cultural discourse. ‘Twas ever thus. Just take a walk into the Guildhall Art Gallery. Upstairs in the Victorian section you will find La Ghirlandata, Dante Gabriel Rosetti’s self-proclaimed “very best picture,” painted 152 years ago in 1873. Her eyes [...]
Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons: Behind the culinary icon July 2, 2025 During my first visit to Le Manoir I could neither speak nor talk. This is not hyperbole about dumbfounded luxury – I was just a baby. But my parents still tell the story of how Raymond Blanc, in full chef’s whites, came to ask them if I had enjoyed the fresh pasta and butter the [...]