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Canada Train

Rocky Mountaineer

Since 1990, Rocky Mountaineer, the world’s largest privately owned luxury tourist train, has welcomed more than 2 million guests to inhale the mountain air and let nature take their breath away. So to celebrate 30 wonderful years of service on board and experience historic storytelling, world-class cuisine, a first-hand look at the vast and untouched wild beauty of the Pacific Northwest, and an opportunity to share memorable moments and make lasting friendships with fellow travellers.

Rocky Mountaineer
Rocky Mountaineer

You will not miss a single moment as the Rocky Moutaineer offers the only all daylight journey to travel the historic routes from Vancover through the Rockies. With over 65 different holiday packages and three unique rail routes

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Beach Caribbean City Cuba Havana Sun

Cuba Calling

Cuba has to be close to the top of the list of places to visit once we can travel again.  Thanks to US sanctions it is caught in a partial time warp.  Cuba is one of the few places in the world that you still can’t buy a McDonalds, unless you are serving or detained at Guantanamo Bay!

Havana Cuba

So you need to visit before it all changes. Unlike former Communist Central and East European countries where almost all vestiges of socialist ideologies have disappeared there are plenty of reminders around.

Outside of Havana where you must visit UNESCO listed the Old town and its impressive colonial buildings, you can access some of the most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean, with crystal clear waters and fine sandy beaches that are not overrun with tourists. 

And if you need any more reasons to visit, did we mention the old cars, the cheap beer and rum and world renowned cigars.

Old Cars Cuba
Old Cars Cuba
Categories
Asia City Singapore

Super Singapore

Written 100 years ago, many of us will know the song “On a Little Street in Singapore” from Glenn Miller, Bob Dylan or Manhattan Transfer. Today, it’s the attraction of those “Little Streets” that draw us to this Island State. Those “Little Streets” are the result of Singapore’s multi-cultural, colonial and wartime past and make it a destination in its own right rather than just a stopover. Being uniquely placed at the tip of the Malay peninsula, at the cross roads of trade routes it has been the meeting point for Asian and European cultures.  British influence is clearly evident as many of us are familiar with the Raffles Hotel named after Sir Thomas Raffles who brought the British to the island and the Anderson Bridge named after the Governor of the Region in 1910. 

Due to its size and history there is so much to see and do, it’s all very easy to access and so much can be packed into such a short space of time.  On the one hand you have traditional Chinatown and on the other the Sands Skypark and shopping in Orchard Street.  Singapore’s nickname is “City in a Garden” and it’s possible to get away from it all at the National Orchid Garden and the Jurong Bird Park which home to 400 species of birds.

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Asia Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Penang

Made in Malaysia

Travelling around the world you suddenly hear or see things and you go I didnt know that. Well my daughter have a fascination with shoes and in particular Jimmy Choo. We always thought of Jimmy Choo being a British icon. However we discovered that Jimmy was actually born in Penang, Malaysia where his father, a shoemaker taught him the craft. He came to London to study in 1982 and the rest is history.

Penang, Malaysia
Penang, Malaysia

Most tourists to Malaysia spending their time in Kuala Lumpur, seeking out the city’s delicious local cusines, art galleries, shops and famous landmarks and then moving on to one of the beautiful penisular coastal resorts where you can rewind and unwind. However try and make time to visit Penang, it has a completely different feel to Kuala Lumpur, with a unique mixture of British, Chinese and Indian influences.

With all year round warm weather there’s always a good time to visit and outside the capital it is still relatively unvisited by western tourists so do yourself a favour and visit before the crowds arrive.

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Budapest City Europe Hungary

East meet West in Budapest

Many of us are familiar with the opening lyrics of the George Ezra song “Budapest”. Ironically he had not been to Budapest when he wrote the song, he got drunk and missed his train. However once you start to travel, you should not miss out on this “hidden treasure chest”. Commonly referred to as the “Paris of the East” Budapest is packed with everything that you would expect from a city break and more. Even if you have been before, there is so much more to see and experience that the main attractions of the Buda Castle, the Fistherman’s Bastion and the Heroes Square. The main sites can be viewed in this entertaining video by the popular Hungarian band “Kowalsky meg a Vega”. The title roughly translates as “Still not Eden”. No it might not be Eden but its a great place for a short break from London with flights from BA, Wizz Air and LOT.

Kowalsky meg a Vega – Még nem éden

There are plenty of hidden gems to discover in Budapest. Amongst our favourites are the Hospital in the Rock, the Café Gerbeaud and the Budapest Pinball Museum. All great attractions if you are taking the children. Finally if you are a “Columbo” fan then don’t forget to seek out the “Peter Falk” statue.

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Africa Diving Egypt El Gouna Hurghada Marsa Alam Sharm El-Sheikh Taba

Walk Like an Egyptian

The Bangles might have like walked like an Egyptian. However with summer temperatures well up into the high 30s / low 40s I prefer not want to do much walking in Egypt, however maybe like me you will want to dive in the Red Sea.

Diving Egypt - Copyright Egypt.travel (Egypt Tourism Board).
Diving in the Red Sea.

With flights now resumed to Sharm El-Sheikh, all of the Red Sea resorts including Hurghada, Marsa Alam, El Gouna and Taba are bookable all year round for diving holidays. There is a dive school and dive destination to suit all standards of diver including beginners. I never fancied diving in a cold quarry in the UK! Red Sea from me every time.

I got drawn to this area of the world after reading my grandfather’s war records and discovered that he spent time on a hospital in Aden. Given the political situation, resorts on the Red Sea became the next best alternative to gain an understanding of the conditions that he faced at that time.

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Delphi Europe Greece

The birthplace of Western Civilisation

The birthplace of Western Civilisation, Greece has so much to offer. History and culture by the bucket loads, exquisite cuisine, 300 days of sun, beautiful beaches and much more. With 227 inhabited islands and the mainland to visit you will never be short on choice.

Delphi - Ampitheatre.
Delphi – Ampitheatre.

The ancient Greeks considered Delphi to be the center of the world and standing aat the top of the ampitheatre perched on the mountain of Parnassus it is easy to see why.

The area is recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site due to the fact that it had such a great influence on the ancient world. Not only is Delphi home to the ampitheatre but the Temple of Apollo, the Altar of Chians and the Hippodrome amongst others.

Delphi is less that two and a half hours travel time away from Athens and definitely well worth the journey.

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Canary Islands Spain Sun Winter

Winter Sun

Who knows what the restrictions will be as we head towards Christmas and New Year.

Playa Barca
Playa Barca

There is plenty of winter sun to be had in destinations such as Mexico, the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Oman. 

However you don’t have to travel so far to sit on a beach and enjoy the warmth of the sun. Daytime temperatures on the island of Fuerteventura (the second largest of the Canary Islands) are 22 oC in December compared to 24 oC in Cancun and you will get there nearly 7 hours faster.

Prices for a week in Fuerteventura are a lot less than you might think at this time of the year and represent great value when compared to long haul destinations like Cancun.

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Europe Finland Winter

Santa Claus

It is business as normal for Santa Claus this year in these Covid times. However your time to see him will be slightly different, but the but the Finnish authorities are doing everything they can to allow you to visit Santa.

Santa Claus - Rovaniemi - Finland
Santa Claus – Rovaniemi – Finland

An ideal destination is Rovaniemi which is the official home of Santa Claus. Just 8km north on the Arctic Circle is Santa Claus Village where you can find Santa at home every day of the year.

If you plan to travel to Finland for less than 72 hours you can enter without a COVID-19 test. Longer stays require two tests, read here for details. Finland itself has amongst the lowest rates of Covid in Europe and so Finland is on the UK government’s travel corridor list .

Snowland Rovaniemi - Finland
Snowland Rovaniemi

Finland is also one of the places to head this winter to see the Northern Lights. Not only can you see the lights but you can experience all that Lapland has to offer with moose, reindeer, husky and snowmobile safaris and that once in lifetime trip for that little ones that will make this time of year so special.

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City Madrid Spain

One Simply Reason

If food be the reason to travel then book now. It’s a bit of a twist on Shakespeare’s famous words from Twelfth Night, but as we start to put Christmas well behind us, it’s time to start looking forward to making plans to travel in the future. Looking back to our first post, one of the reasons we like to travel is to experience the fantastic variations in good food on offer round the world.

Empanadas
Empanadas

Food offers a unique insight to the history and culture of a region or country.  The empanadas pictured above were first documented in Galicia in North West Spain 100 years before Twelfth Night was written, but today they are a part of everyday cuisine in places as far apart as Argentina, the Philippines and the Cape Verde Islands. 

Many other cultures have their variations on an empanadas, in the UK the pasty, in South Asia the samosa and in Russia the Pirozhki.