Travel

Air apparent

2 Oct 2008

I am so stupid. I’m shuffling forward on a bench in a King Air plane above Hollister, California. Only now, at 15,000 feet, after a quarter of an hour of shivery anticipation, and a mere stride from an open door to the sky, do I realise the implications…

Summer wine

2 Oct 2008

‘Authentic Fado tonight!’ the waiter announced, as I peeped inside his restaurant on my first night in the city. I was pulled in and fed with espedatas, huge fish kebabs, just off the chargrill, while serenaded gravely by folk ballads. ‘The Fado songs…

Gavin Francis

Trekking round the back door of Europe

14 Aug 2008

Edinburgh-based GP-turned-adventurer and travel writer Gavin Francis’ next book – charting an epic motorcycle schlep from Orkney to Sydney – will finish on an ironic endnote. Having survived the mean streets of Beirut and New Delhi on its journey, his…

Norway

31 Jul 2008

Given that Norway is one of the few places in Europe more expensive, and with worse weather than Scotland, it’s not one of the most obvious destinations for a summer holiday. But for those who appreciate quirky historic towns, dramatic scenery and a…

Streets of glory - Edinburgh Rat Race

17 Jul 2008

Edinburgh will be reclaimed by hundreds of scurrying creatures this month. Claire Sawers meets the people behind the Rat Race

Nice and easy does it - Côte d’Azur

17 Jul 2008

Richard Moore braves the glamour and the husband hunters of the Côte d’Azur and discovers a wealth of treasures

5 Travel Books

17 Jul 2008

Ellie Nielsen Our Own Piece of Paris Subtitled ‘How We Fell in Love with the City of Light’, this follows one woman’s quest to find an apartment that oozes Parisian chic. Atlantic. Kapka Kassabova Street Without a Name Subtitled ‘Childhood and Other…

Three places nearby the Côte d’Azur

17 Jul 2008

Cannes Although most famous for the illustrious film festival that swamps the city in actor-types every May, Cannes' reputation for glamour is evident throughout the year. The main streets are packed with expensive boutiques, but most of the town's…

Three to try: adventure sports

17 Jul 2008

Transgression Park Head to the top of Edinburgh’s Ocean Terminal for a spin on your BMX, skateboard or inline skates. Not yet a consummate professional? Lessons and equipment hire are available for all three ‘freesports’. There is also a designated…

Munich

19 Jun 2008

Beer. It might as well be the first word here, since there’s no getting away from it in Munich, even outwith the world-renowned annual piss-up of Oktoberfest. Löwenbräu, Hofbräu, Augustiner, Paulaner, Hacker-Pschorr, Spaten, Fraziskaner – you name them…

Fears eased over Festival performer visa crisis

8 May 2008

Fears that thousands of performers at the Edinburgh Festival would be prevented from entering the UK due to new immigration legislation have been eased with the introduction of a new type of visa. The Home Office has announced that visiting…

Airline announces direct flight from JFK to Edinburgh

8 May 2008

Delta Airline has launched a new direct service from New York JFK to Edinburgh, with its inaugural flight taking to the skies last week. Tourist agency VisitScotland said the move would help raise Scotland's profile as a holiday destination.

Barcelona

10 Apr 2008

Everywhere you look in Barcelona, you see Ronaldinho. Reproductions of the FC Barca hero fill the shelves of each tourist tat-peddling stall and storefront, even in the shadow of Antoni Gaudi’s mighty Sagrada Familia cathedral, which emphasises the…

City Beaches

10 Apr 2008

The busy beach and Old Port at Barceloneta (head to the bottom of La Rambla and keep walking past Roy Lichtenstein’s ‘Barcelona Head’) is one more reason to fall for Barcelona, although it’s not the only city where visitors can find sand and surf within…

Scottish Surfing

10 Apr 2008

Even when the surf’s up in Scotland, chances are the temperatures won’t be. But with advancements in wetsuits over the past few years, it’s now possible to surf the Scottish coastline year-round. Fuelled I suspect by seeing one too many photos of…

Three others to try: Beach sports

10 Apr 2008

Body boarding If kids can catch waves by standing in the water with a polystyrene board and waiting, so can the most clumsy of adults. This is an ideal introduction to surfing, as body boards are smaller, lighter and cheaper than surf boards. Coast to…

Belfast

27 Mar 2008

St George’s Market on a Saturday morning. High, tented ceilings filling up with barbeque smoke; cheerful art graduates selling hand-printed T-shirts side by side with grumpy, knowledgeable fishmongers and cheese merchants; stalls offering gourmet olive…

Bargain breaks

27 Mar 2008

Flying visit Gallant little Belgium tends to get overlooked by weekend-breakin’ types which is good news for you, as Ryanair are currently offering flights from Glasgow Prestwick to Brussels from £2.99 one way. It only takes 35 minutes, too. Brussels…

Shopping in London

13 Mar 2008

Something cool For a one-stop shop of new designers Sunday Upmarket (Liverpool Street, sundayupmarket.co.uk ) has 140 stalls of accessories, fashion and interiors. Keep an eye out for Maria Helena Spector’s jewellery made from silver, lava and…

Shopping trips

13 Mar 2008

Blow the budget For every traveller who sees haggling as an integral part of any good holiday there are many more who would happily swaddle their first born in giftwrap and hand them to the next passer-by if it meant they never had to play the…

Isle of Harris

28 Feb 2008

To someone who, as a child, often prayed for the kind of harsh weather that kept the rest of the world at bay and provided an excellent excuse for ‘coorieing in’ and contemplation, the idea of staying on an island on the Outer Hebrides during the winter…

Safari Holidays

28 Feb 2008

Blow the budget With many safaris costing well over £2000 per person, it’s understandable that they are often viewed as a once in a lifetime trip rather than any old holiday. But you don’t necessarily have to re-mortgage your home to get up close to…

Ferry pilot scheme launched

26 Feb 2008

A new island ferry pilot scheme was launched by the Scottish Executive today at a press conference on the Isle of Lewis. Speaking at the ferry terminal in Stornoway, transport minister Stewart Stevenson said, “For years, our remote and fragile…

Zurich

14 Feb 2008

On my first visit to Zurich, my Swiss boyfriend dragged me along to the city’s annual Street Parade. I went along expecting a paler version of Berlin’s famous Love Parade and was bowled over by some 800,000 people partying frantically through the city…

Star Gazers

14 Feb 2008

Blow the budget Celeb spotting? How very 90s. For seriously cool star-gazing, you need to head south, to the Pic Du Midi. This mountain in the Pyrenees is famous for its observatory; among its collection of telescopes is a 106-cm whopper which was…

Love nests - where to stay on Valentine's Day

31 Jan 2008

Full hearts, empty pockets If you want to show how deep your love is without breaking the bank, this cute Cornish Shepherd’s Hut might be the solution. Originally used as a shelter during the long nights of the lambing season it has been restyled as a…

Travel - Excess Baggage

17 Jan 2008

Hurrah! The government has relaxed the restrictions on excess carry-on baggage, something this column obviously feels very strongly about. Following their lead, 22 airports, including Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Heathrow, have relaxed the one-bag…

Travel - Stavanger

17 Jan 2008

If Disney had designed the streets outside Duncan Robertson’s studio, you’d say it was too Mickey Mouse to be true. Like the view of the sunlit mountains that skirt the edge of the city, the wooden houses of Stavanger’s old town are chocolate box cute.

Travel - Festivals 2008

4 Jan 2008

Around Town There’s a lot going on in Liverpool this year; unsurprising, really, given that it’s the European Capital of Culture 2008. The celebrations begin with the last couple of weeks of 2007’s Turner Prize exhibition (Tate Liverpool, until Sun 13…

Stockholm and Reykjavik

13 Dec 2007

Let there be light As the largest metropolis in the biggest of the Nordic countries Stockholm proudly lays claim to be the capital of Scandinavia. Yet, the city – essentially a collection of small islands which collide at the point where the Baltic in…

Trans-Siberian railway

29 Nov 2007

The Trans-Siberian railway is the sort of travel experience that divides people. The idea of multiple nights on a train, sharing a cabin with strangers, no access to showers, dependent on the vagaries of the buffet car for sustenance is many people’s…

Eating in Inverness

15 Nov 2007

I’d never really thought about Inverness as a holiday destination. To be perfectly, shamefacedly honest, I hadn’t really ever thought much about Inverness. In an age of £20 flights to Europe, the idea of the weekend city break has come to mean something…

Travel - Finland

18 Oct 2007

When I first started making plans for my weeklong trip to Finland, I began the requisite process of droning on to anyone and everyone who would listen about my upcoming travels. However, on completion of my I’m-going-to-Finland-(ha ha you’re…

Travel - Excess Baggage

18 Oct 2007

Boldly going where no one else really wants to •Ta ta Lonely Planet Thorn Tree! Farewell Facebook! Baggage has a new favourite website that we’re getting all evangelical about. It’s called Nothing To See Here ( www.nothingtoseehere.net ) and it’s just…

Teaching English in Japan

4 Oct 2007

The door slid shut with a bang and all four customers turned and stared. I squeezed my way along the narrow space between walls and stools, perched myself on an empty one and opened my phrase book. ‘Biru . . .’ Pause to look at book. ‘. . .

Ibiza travel feature

20 Sep 2007

If you’re in search of a relaxing holiday, then Ibiza probably isn’t high on your list. After programmes like Ibiza Uncovered in the 1990s followed hoards of football shirt-bedecked British tourists throwing up in the streets of San Antonio’s notorious…

The outer limits

6 Sep 2007

We packed Allan Radcliffe and Kirstin Innes off on two very different Scottish weekend breaks – the former thrown to the wind in the rugged peninsula of Knoydart, the latter placed in the lap of luxury in a country house – with strict orders to…

Mountain biking

23 Aug 2007

You’re tired and you’re sore. Nights on the vodka still don’t mix with nights on the air mattress. Sunlight splits the trees as the smells of pine forest, fresh earth and your own Red Bull–tinged breath fill your nostrils. It’s daft o’clock in the…

Paths of glory

23 Aug 2007

By Coach Citylink will be providing buses to and from the festival throughout the weekend and you can purchase your shuttle bus ticket at the same time as purchasing your festival ticket. This way you can sit back, enjoy the ride and take in the…

Room to roam

23 Aug 2007

Summer festivals are attended by two kinds of people. Those who think camping is fun and those who think it is a near manifestation of hell on earth. If you’re the former, you revel in every muddy, messy moment. If you’re the latter, you are conflicted…

Lost Oasis

16 Jul 2007

TRAVEL ADVENTURE ROBERT TWIGGER Lost Oasis (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) Following in the footsteps of explorers such as Theodore Almasy, the inspiration for The English Patient, author and macho adventurer Robert Twigger decides to search for…

Travel - Russia

3 Jul 2007

(Image: The Moscow train) Imagine going to Moscow and not seeing Red Square. From behind the police cordon I cursed Condoleezza Rice - not for US foreign policy, but for potentially messing up my trip. She was visiting the Kremlin and as a result…

Life & Style - Travel

22 May 2007

The car rental clerk has me sussed. ‘Of course, for only an extra US$100 you can have this.’ Turning the page of his display book, he taps invitingly on the upper corner of a photograph. There, glistening in the Californian sunlight, is a Chrysler…

Travel

Life & Style

8 May 2007

(Picture: © Anne Pinniger) ‘Tropic of Capricorn’. It’s just there, written clearly on a road sign in the middle of nowhere. Dirty yellow sand in the air, the track ahead glittering with fool’s gold as though it had been chucked away. The landscape…

Also Published

7 May 2007

Also Published

Travel - Whisky galore!

Life & Style

24 Apr 2007

In almost any bar in Paris or Barcelona, you’ll spot young females drinking whisky. Not old men in tweed bunnets, swirling heavy tumblers and singing to themselves but young, fashionable women. A whisky-cola may be a very popular ladies’ choice in clubs…

Life & Style - Excess Baggage

Excess Baggage

10 Apr 2007

Watch out for a rocky few months in the shrink-wrapped world of the package holiday. The proliferation of cheap flight websites turning consumers into armchair travel agents has hit the ‘big four’ travel agents rather hard of late. Thomas Cook and…

Life & Style - Travel

A passage to India

10 Apr 2007

I’m sitting enjoying the shade of the imposing Lakshmana temple on a hot and dry day in Khajuraho when a party of Japanese tourists interrupts my peace. The small group stands bunched around one corner of the intricately adorned building, giggling into…

Travel - Magical Mystery Tour

Life & Style

27 Mar 2007

I should declare my partiality from the outset: I was born and bred in Manchester. Healthy disdain for our neighbours to the west is not so much a point of view as birthright. But perhaps I’ve judged too hastily. Change is in the air over Merseyside…

Feature - Travel Special

The Great Escape

12 Mar 2007

In desperate need of a holiday but desperately short of cash? Take inspiration from our two adventuring writers who were given the task of getting as far away from Scotland (and back) as they could in 24 hours for under £50. Read on to discover what…

Fawlty Towers Experience

The hotel inspectors

31 Jan 2007

A swarthy waiter pursues a hamster beneath a table of dinner guests, chased by a tall, quiveringly angry man with a moustache. The diners erupt with laughter as the waiter re-emerges, accidentally displacing the wig on a female guest’s head. The furious…

Loch Fyne

Love in a cold climate

31 Jan 2007

It’s not always easy doing nothing, but that’s what we’re here to do. Stop, relax, get away. And Loch Fyne, a blue grey landscape cut in two by an opaque, metallic body of water, gives the impression we’re hundreds of miles away from home and not just…

Rome on a budget

The cheap life

16 Jan 2007

The Romans have a saying: ‘you’d need a lifetime to see all that Rome has to offer’. This seemed a laughable notion as my partner and I only had a few days in Italy’s capital. After not having taken a holiday in over three years, I was determined to…