Escape to Tea Country: With over 150 years of tea making heritage, Sri Lanka is a brew-lover’s paradise June 18, 2018 Sri Lanka, the teardrop shaped island in the Indian Ocean, is the size of Ireland, yet it’s home to an incredible diversity of wildlife. In the deep waters off the southern cape, blue whales, the largest animal on earth, come to breed. Herds of the largest land animal, the elephant, freely crisscross the island. Leopards [...]
For King and Country: As Swaziland celebrates 50 years of independence, the king took to the stage to make an astonishing announcement June 8, 2018 Portraits of the Lion and the Great She Elephant — King Mswati III and his mother — stare down from the wall of the immigration office. The animal print pattern of the king’s tribal dress seems a world away from the border-bureaucracy of entry stamps and customs forms, but it’s part of the dichotomy of [...]
Barsham Barns review: These luxury cottages in North Norfolk raise the bar for self-catering getaways June 4, 2018 When it comes to travelling with my entourage of beautiful friends, I’m finished with hotels. I’m done with hanging around near a cheese plant in the lobby as the last stragglers check in. I’m tired of resorting to £6 cocktails in empty hotel bars, and of “let’s freshen up and meet downstairs in 15 minutes”. [...]
Feeling brave? Then try bob rafting on the slopes of La Plagne March 23, 2018 If you’re the kind of skier for whom speeding backwards down a black run in an ice storm no longer delivers the requisite adrenalin kick, you need to try bob rafting. Mooted as an amateur’s alternative to bob sledding or the luge — which really should only be attempted by those with a death wish [...]
Can Eco-Tourism Help Cape Town During Its Worst Ever Drought? March 19, 2018 You wouldn’t suspect there was anything odd about the bathrooms at the Cape Grace hotel. Until, that is, you looked inside the tub. There, dangling uselessly from the porcelain, you’ll see a neatly snipped-off inch of chain that once held a bath plug. This plug, along with every other in the hotel, has vanished. Clues [...]
Cliveden House review: Celebrate your last moments of childlessness with a luxury babymoon to this stately home March 9, 2018 A babymoon may sound like a wheeze designed to milk that most susceptible of consumers, the prospective parent, but dismiss it at your peril: it’s a last chance to indulge your egocentric childless selves, so grab it with both hands. With that in mind, I whisked my better half to Cliveden House and Spa. Where: [...]
The region around Vietnam’s UNESCO heritage city of Hoi An is home to tourist sites worthy of Lara Croft herself March 9, 2018 The narrow stone passageway opened into a small stone altar featuring the carved statue of a goddess. Was this a place of worship, I wondered, or sacrifice? At this stage it was hard to tell, but I was enjoying scaring myself. The shadowy passageway curved around again, this time leading to a set of steps [...]
Off-piste in Fieberbrunn, the little known freeride resort of the Austrian Alps March 5, 2018 Fieberbrunn is at one end of the elaborately named Skicircus Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang Fieberbrunn, an area of Salzburg dedicated to winter sports, and one in dire need of a rebranding agency. Fieberbrunn itself is named after the fever (“fieber”) quelling properties of its waters, which are said to have cured such dignitaries as Claudia de [...]
Explore Ontario with the First Nations – Manitoulin Island offers an insight into Canada’s rich cultural heritage February 9, 2018 Flags line the terminal as I land at Toronto Airport, celebrating ‘Canada 150’, the official birthday of the nation. My trip to a remote part of Ontario, however, would reveal that there is much more to the country’s history than the past century and a half. This was my first time in Canada, and as [...]
The Long Weekend review: The Grove in Hertfordshire is the countryside escape that’s only 20mins from London February 9, 2018 The weekend The Grove hotel and country retreat offers all the trimmings of a weekend getaway but without the Friday night journey from hell out of London. You can be on the terrace with a G&T in less time than your average daily commute. Where Just a 20 minute train ride from London in Hertfordshire, [...]