Unfortunate Events - Travel Blog
Dave and Deb's travel blog
After working hard throughout the year and following your fitness routine you’ve earned a well-deserved holiday ? but should you take a complete break from the healthy lifestyle your body has become accustomed too?
Whether you’re exploring a new city or heading for the beach, a break from your day-to-day grind is a good thing, but you can still do a few things to stay fit while you’re away.
Well it might seem like a bit of a no-brainer really since the natural inclination would be to point at an SUV as the best vehicle for a road-trip, if we were living in an ideal world, but it all depends on what kind of road-trip you’ll be taking, and where. [Read more…]
I may have a friend who works for one specific airline, but I?m all too grateful that there are many other airlines competing for the same air routes and for the same customers. Competition is good in any industry, but particularly more so in the air travel industry with consumers ultimately being the main beneficiaries. [Read more…]
Well, it looks like we all made it through another UK winter. We had the usual heavy rain, floods, snow, ice and winds that nature likes to throw at us, but like good English people, we survived! Now, with the weather on the improve, my thoughts are wandering to distant horizons again. There’s nothing like a beautiful sunny day to make you think about travel. There is no end of places a person can go to and to where that person has never been before, so we might as well pull out a map of the world, stand back 10 paces, and throw a couple of darts. [Read more…]
The Central American country of Costa Rica is famous among travellers for its magnificent volcanos, incredible beaches and the numerous adventures which await in the country. Just book yourself a luxurious rental property in Costa Rica and dive into the various adventures and cultural experiences Costa Rica has in store for you. However, a big part of experiencing the local culture of someplace new is through food, and Costa Rica doesn?t disappoint its visitors in that segment too. The Costa Rican cuisine is truly excellent, and you really can?t go wrong with any of their dishes. That said, there are a few dishes which you truly need to try while you are there. Here are some of those must have Costa Rican delicacies, which you need to keep an eye out for. [Read more…]
Are you thinking about taking a holiday anytime soon? Is there a special vacation spot that you have been dying to visit? If you answer ?yes? to any of these questions then it is time for you to book a holiday. But before you take off on your journey, you will need to remember to do a few things. Use this simple checklist to help you remember the important things. [Read more…]
Sometimes vacation is all about the destination – you can?t wait to spend a week on the beach or hiking in the mountains since you live in a city, but sometimes destinations are incidental, to result of following our passions around the globe. This tends to be what happens when you turn the best of the global convention circuit into your travel guide and go wherever your greatest interests lead you. It?s actually a really enjoyable way to go places you might never otherwise think to go. [Read more…]
Leaving familiar soil to explore other destinations is a privilege that not everyone gets. Whether you?ve been planning this trip for years or it was spur of the moment, the hope is that you?ll have a good time. You?ve probably already decided where you?re going to go and what you?ll do when you get there, so all that?s left to do is pack. You?re probably excited to get going, but before you do, make sure you have these things with you. [Read more…]
Autumn is open us and this means crisp mornings, trees displaying a glowing range of leaves, and dropping temperatures. It?s a beautiful time of year and one which promotes plenty of great opportunities for a road trip. It?s a chance to see some spectacular foliage, enjoy dramatic sunrises, sensational sunsets, and prepare for Christmas in style. [Read more…]
The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
It?s 20 years since Bill Bryson published Notes From A Small Island, his observations collected during a tour of Britain that became one of the biggest-selling travel books ever. In this follow-up, Bryson, who arrived in the UK from America in 1973 and married an Englishwoman, is back on his old beat, casting his outsider?s eye over British idiosyncrasies with his trademark dry wit. He zigzags from Bognor Regis to Cape Wrath, grumbling ? sometimes growling ? about slow service in pubs, iffy hotels, litter-bugs, green-belt development, Heathrow expansion and HS2. He?s grouchy, but he doesn?t care.
Doubleday, 384pp; ?20. To buy this book for ?16.50, visitthetimes.co.uk/bookshop or call 0845 2712134
Deep South by Paul Theroux
In this offbeat travel book, Paul Theroux avoids the ?obstacle course? of airports by driving from his home in New England to North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas to cover remote places where America?s ?submerged 20 per cent? live. He?s interested in existence on the edge, so he goes to small, huddled towns with Baptist churches, cheap motels, gun shops and diners. His driving instinct is to report the unreported, rather than be ?voyeuristically stimulated by travel?. Despite the many hardships he sees, local ?kindness [and] generosity? shine through.
Hamish Hamilton, 441pp; ?20. To buy this book for ?16.00, visit thetimes.co.uk/bookshop or call 0845 2712134
Elephant Complex: Travels in Sri Lanka by John Gimlette
Intrigued by the large Sri Lankan community living in Tooting near his south London home, the travel writer John Gimlette takes three months off to explore the Indian Ocean nation. He is fascinated by politics in the aftermath of the Tamil Tigers? 2009 defeat in the civil war, and by the British colonial past. The ?elephant complex? of the title refers to ancient paths that the creatures have always followed on the island. Gimlette believes he must trace similar historical paths to get beneath the skin of Sri Lanka. He does so with wit and the occasional scrape with authorities.
Quercus, 478pp; ?25. To buy this book for ?22.50, visitthetimes.co.uk/bookshop or call 0845 2712134
Heat: Extreme Adventures at the Highest Temperatures on Earth by Ranulph Fiennes
Veteran explorer Ranulph Fiennes captured the imagination withCold, his book about his exploits in the polar regions. Now he?s back with tales of derring-do in some of the world?s hottest places, told in a memoir beginning with his early childhood in South Africa. With heat in his blood, he becomes a soldier in the Persian Gulf before travelling up the Nile (dodging ?green-eyed crocodiles?) and visiting Timbuktu. His latest feat is to have become, aged 71, the oldest Briton to complete earlier this year the Marathon des Sables over 156 miles in the Saharadesert.
Simon & Schuster, 394pp; ?20. To buy this book for ?16.00, visit thetimes.co.uk/bookshop or call 0845 2712134
A Traveller?s Year: 365 Days of Travel Writing in Diaries, Journals and Letters compiled by Travis Elborough and Nick Rennison
Concentrating on the ?classic era of European exploration and diary-writing? of 1750-1950, although allowing some later entries, Travis Elborough and Nick Rennison have scoured the pages of travel literature to bring snippets of stories and descriptions to cover each day of the year. More than 200 writers include Graham Greene, Mary Shelley, Mungo Park, Jack Kerouac, Wilfred Thesiger, Dervla Murphy, Samuel Pepys, George Orwell, Gustave Flaubert, Charles Dickens and George Eliot. The ?natural beauties? of Biarritz are ?transcendent?, says Eliot in an 1867 letter, with ?spray on the horizon like a suddenly rising cloud?.
