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…]

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…]

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”.

Family

1. Active adventure in America
Take in five national parks in America on this trip. The 16-day adventure takes in Yosemite, Death Valley, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon, as well as the cities of San Francisco and Las Vegas. The icing on the cake is a three-night ranch stay. There’s guided hiking, cycling, riding and rafting, but children must be aged eight and above.

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Aside from the facts that London is the home of the royal family and many renowned great actors and actresses in the world, this city is considered as one of the world’s top destination today. However, exactly what sets London apart from the other cities and why should it be your next travel destination? [Read more…]

Whenever Las Vegas comes to mind or is mentioned in a conversation I think about Elvis Presley and a song called, “Viva Las Vegas” and I have never forgotten it. Everything is a bit over the top and when you think that about 60 years ago it was nothing but desert, you would marvel at the structures that have gone up. Mainly casinos and hotels, although there are other things to do there.

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We’ve always had our core biking community, and with the emergence of gadgets and devices aimed to make camping a more comfortable experience, travelling around the UK on a big bike for the summer break is a very attractive proposition. The modern tent can be folded into a pocket sized bag, and with a set of panniers, you have more than enough storage space, and if you have never considered taking a bike tour of the Lake District or the Norfolk Broads, here are a few things to bear in mind.

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Some travelers are interested in excitement and engagement, or wild nights that you’re probably going to forget most of by the next morning. Other folks are more interested in quiet, peaceful excursions, that refresh the mind and the soul. [Read more…]

From the simple act of driving your car to work everyday, to taking a road trip vacation, traveling on the road poses different dangers all the time. While you don’t want to be so worried about these dangers that you have a panic attack every time you get behind the wheel, you do still want to be aware of them. [Read more…]