London’s nearest glamping site offers something for everyone. London’s sprawl doesn’t end abruptly at a point where townscape suddenly becomes landscape, it has fringes where city bleeds into country. And near one of those fringes lies Home Farm Glamping, London’s nearest glamping site. Although only a few minutes’ drive from the end of the Jubilee […]
Châteaux and Champagne – visiting l’Aisne
Beyond the Battlefields – l’Aisne, France. A trip to l’Aisne in Picardie, France, is often triggered by an itinerary to explore the battlefields of the World Wars – but there’s much more on offer in this little-known region just an hour or so from Paris. Here’s a taster of what you can expect if you […]
Visit Antwerp – An Atypical Adventure
A Whistlestop Visit to Antwerp, Belgium. ‘Atypical Antwerp’ is the marketing slogan for a city that is creative, dynamic and vibrant, a small city of half a million people that punches far above its size in art, fashion, architecture and more. I had passed through Antwerp once before en route to Amsterdam and I suspect […]
Agatha Christie in Devon – The English Riviera
Exploring Devon and Agatha Christie. Who would you put on a list of English Literary Heroes? There are some obvious contenders – Shakespeare, Chaucer, Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, Byron, Shelley and Wordsworth for instance. How about more recent figures like J K Rowling or Julian Barnes? For whatever reason, despite being the best-selling novelist of […]
Comté cheese – the Jura region France
The making of Comté cheese. An iconic French brand, Comté was one of the first kinds of cheese to receive an AOC (Appellation d’Origine Controlée) status in 1958. Having lived and worked in the French Alps I was already a fan of Comté and Tomme cheese, both of which are made in this area, and […]
Eating Europe – Lisbon Food Tour
Cuisine, Culture and Heritage in Lisbon on a Food Tour with Eating Europe. ‘What do you know about Portuguese cuisine?’ asked our guide, Beatriz Pestana, at the start of a long afternoon exploring Lisbon’s food culture. Salt cod, seafood, pastéis de nata were some of the responses. All true, but we were about to discover […]
Burgh Island Hotel – Devon Art Deco and Decadence
The Great White Palace – Burgh Island Hotel – channel your inner Agatha. What better setting for a murder mystery than an island. Perhaps that was why Burgh Island inspired not one but two of Agatha Christie’s novels (‘Evil Under the Sun’ and ‘ And Then There Were None’). Or was it just because she […]
The Perfect Holiday Retreat – Wild Oak Barn, East Devon
The Devon Spotted Pig and Wild Oak Barn. The Story of The Devon Spotted Pig. Once upon a time in Devon, a holiday home nestled among the rolling hills… Carolyn and Paul Bellinger planted some seeds and took off for a well-earned summer break in Corfu. They returned a few weeks later, to a […]
Hotel Indigo, Stratford upon Avon
A new place opens alongside Shakespeare’s New Place! Themed destination hotels have come a long way. On a business trip, I once refused to spend the night in a Wild West-themed bedroom complete with covered wagon, only to find myself upgraded to “Ali Baba’s Cave” and sleeping in Scheherazade’s bower! At the newly opened Hotel […]
The Scarlet Hotel – Mawgan Porth – Review
The Scarlet, a modern eco-hotel in Cornwall The Scarlet, a modern, eco, adults-only, hotel is set in a beautiful location on the North Cornish coast overlooking Mawgan Porth. Having read a lot of positive press about the hotel I was intrigued and very keen to visit for an overnight stay. I had been informed that […]