Category Archives: Travel Blogs

New Zealand’s food story is worth travelling for. People often ask me what New Zealand food actually is, and I never have a tidy answer. France has a cuisine. So does Italy, so does Japan. Say the name and a whole tradition arrives with it, based on centuries of tradition and culture, and instantly recognisable. […]

You may recall a couple of months ago that we had the pleasure of staying at Gilpin Hotel & Lake House, between Kendal and Windermere, in the Lake District. As part of that stay, we dined at the hotel’s 2 AA Rosette Gilpin Spice restaurant. A few changes have happened since that visit, most notably […]

The French Riviera takes on a different character after the height of summer. The coastline becomes calmer and favourite restaurants are easier to enjoy. Local life also returns at an unhurried pace. If you’d rather have meaningful experiences over busy itineraries, this is the perfect time to discover a more refined side of one of […]

Located on the Costa del Sol the historic coastal town of Benalmádena boasts a port, a town centre and an old town – three distinctly different areas. The Paseo Marítimo Benalmádena is a long promenade, lined with cafés, bars and souvenir shops typical of many seaside towns. But this little town also has a fascinating history […]

A milestone birthday in Ibiza or a company offsite in Mallorca is really two jobs wearing one coat. You need somewhere beautiful for everyone to stay, and you need the whole thing to actually run once they arrive. The villa is the part people focus on, and honestly it is the easy part. The hard […]

Think you need hundreds of thousands of Avios for your next getaway? Think again. From the white sands of Greece to the bustling souks of Morocco, the historic cities of Spain and gastro-adventures of Italy, your current Avios balance could already be enough for an unforgettable trip. Here are 10 of my best Avios destinations […]

Somewhere around the second night of a family villa holiday, someone always says it: “This was such a good idea.” It usually comes right after dinner, when the plates are still out, the kids have disappeared to whatever corner of the garden has the best hiding spots, and the grandparents have claimed the two comfiest […]

There used to be a simple way to define luxury travel, honestly. The best hotel in town. The biggest suite you could book. Somebody idling out front in a black car, waiting on you. A table at whatever restaurant nobody else could get into that month. Luxury used to be something you could point at, […]

Half past ten on a Tuesday night in late September, parked on a gravel pull-off by Kleifarvatn lake, engine off. Our guests, a couple from Singapore celebrating twenty years of marriage, had been asleep in their Reykjavík hotel forty minutes earlier. Now they stood beside our van holding cups of hot chocolate, staring at what […]

A client once asked me, on the 14th tee at Cape Kidnappers, why nobody had mentioned his handicap all week. I told him I had stopped listening for it around day three. He looked almost relieved. That doesn’t mean golf is incidental on these trips. It isn’t. Tee times, slope ratings, signature holes all matter […]