Rediscovering Bristol’s Harbourside Charm Sipping a pint of beer the other day, the thought struck me that we humans are an odd lot. Many of us will have often made the same observation, but on this occasion it was inspired by both the beer and the lively and interesting view out of the bar’s window. Here I was in the heart of Bristol - a city I know well, but haven’t visited for years - and I was struck by how odd it is that we humans we often tend to ignore the good things

Discover the Algarve’s Hidden Heart Some places have a kind of instant reputation - you hear the name and straight away you think of the things for which they’ve become renowned. In the case of this article, I’m talking about the golf-courses and beach-resorts of Portugal’s Algarve. And if this theory needed any proof, I can tell you that my flight from Bristol last week was filled with golfers and seekers of winter sunshine. Nothing wrong with that. If you’ve got it, flaunt

Discovering One of Cornwall’s Least Touristy Harbours If you had to make a shortlist of the Westcountry’s finest attributes, then the peninsula’s harbour towns and villages would be near the top. You only have to visit our seaside venues at any time of the year nowadays to know that is the case. Some of the prettiest havens are nowadays filled with visitors summer and winter. Which, to many of us, immediately begs the question… Which are the least visited most untouristy com

Autumn Festivals in Portugal’s Algarve Mountains The seasons tend to have their quintessential moments or occasions - winter, of course, has Christmas while summer has village fetes and other outdoor festivals. Apart from the Harvest Festival celebrated by some religions and the overly commercial Halloween, autumn doesn’t have that much to offer when it comes to stand-out celebrations. So imagine my delight when I came across a small, but unique event in the mountains of sout

A Special Sunday Lunchtime in Southwest France Sunday lunchtime can be special. I don’t know why exactly, maybe it’s the way I’ve been brought up but I still regard this special time of the week as a moment to celebrate in some way. Which is why I was more than delighted to find myself heading towards one of the most beautiful villages in France one Sunday morning recently. Monpazier: A Perfectly Preserved Medieval Bastide Monpazier is considered one of the finest “bastides”

A visit to the amazing Lagar dos Pardieiros olive oil producing business up in the high hills near the lovely little town of Monchique.

A Taste of England’s West Country — in the Heart of France Imagine a vast area that boasts all the best bits of the West Country and very few of our less scenic zones. A place of forested hills and deep river valleys which combine to provide a rural heartland that seems to stretch on-and-on. A region so rich in history, there seems to be a castle on every knoll and evidence of prehistoric humankind somewhere near every cliff and cave. Okay, so the Dordogne , which lies hundre

A Dartmoor Hike from Cadover Bridge to Great Trowlesworthy Tor If you love Dartmoor’s wild edges and secret stories, this short circular walk from Cadover Bridge takes you deep into Trowlesworthy Warren , past ancient pillow mounds, granite tors, and the haunting white scars of the china clay pits . It’s a fine mix of moorland solitude, industrial history, and far-reaching views over Plymouth and the South Devon coast During our stay at Boringdon Hall , we took a five-minute

A comprehensive guide and review of Boringdon Hall, near Plymouth

A Journey to the Wye Valley: Where England Meets Wales “Oh sylvan Wye! thou wanderer thro' the woods, how often has my spirit turned to thee!” So wrote William Wordsworth 227 years ago in his poem Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey. And I am repeating them here because I happen to be in Tintern, looking across at the River Wye. Like a great many West Country folk, I have visited this most beautiful of valleys on several occasions and never failed to be impressed

Perfect Porlock Weir Porlock Weir is one of my favourite places in the world and I have written about it many times. As the nicest of our local seaside haunts I’ve been visiting the place since I was a small boy - and later writing many different newspaper articles based on many different subjects down there where the Exmoor hills dip to meet the sea. I popped down to the Weir this week with a spare hour to spare and walked in the rain. (To see more Exmoor Walks click here )

Ortigia: Where Greek History Meets Baroque Splendour Syracuse (Siracusa in Italian), on Sicily’s eastern coast, has a history that rivals just about any other old port in the Mediterranean. Once described by Cicero as "the greatest Greek city and the most beautiful of them all," its true nucleus remains the tiny, altogether captivating, island of Ortigia . Connected to the mainland by a couple of short bridges, this island is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and for very good r

Rediscovering Old Friends and New Adventures in South Devon Social media has many downsides but one useful role it plays is in allowing users to keep up with old friends. Occasionally their posts can surprise and delight you - which is what happened recently when I saw an Instagram photo and note from an old colleague saying: “Really enjoying life - wish I’d done this years ago.” The photograph showed a lovely waterside inn, tucked away deep in the South Devon countryside - a

A Taste of Tunisian Life in Just 20 Minutes Just 20 minutes - that’s all we had time for as we entered the central medina in Tunis some 20 years ago – and I was fed up because, to do the vast, fascinating, colourful labyrinth justice, you need a day. That was a year ago and I had to be dragged out of the medieval bazaar kicking and screaming, grabbing handfuls of ludicrously cheap herbs and spices as I went. The man from the Tunisian tourist office looked concerned – it hadn’

Fantastic News for This Website Fantastic news! For me, at any rate. This website has earned me the position of finalist at the British Guild of Travel Writers annual awards . Along with two other people, I am up for Travel Blogger of the Year. So I am over the moon - partly because I began the website six years ago merely as a bit of fun and as a challenge to see if I could do such a thing. And that is exactly how the website has continued. Oh, and I’ve also been shortliste

Six Guinness World Records Smashed at Malvern The CANNA UK National Giant Vegetables Championship Six Guinness World Records were broken the Three Counties Autumn Show last weekend, with 132 growers battling it out for medals, including the longest sweet pepper and heaviest celeriac. Other world records included the world’s tallest runner bean plant (26 feet, two inches) and the world’s longest radish (25 feet, seven inches - there’s a lot of long thin root involved). Weird a

There Ought to Be More of Them… There ought to be more of them… is what my friends and I were agreeing while driving home from the Three Counties Autumn Show at Malvern last weekend. We were talking about large-scale country shows that take place at this time of the year because we hugely enjoyed our visit to the show, which is billed as the “UK’s biggest harvest season celebration”. It offers the ultimate demonstration of something this nation can do very well indeed… We are

A Sudden Shock on the Local News The thing about belting around travelling here, there and everywhere is that you can miss important things which happen back at home. For example, after one trip abroad this summer I was sitting in our living room with the local news on in the background, when I spotted a very good friend dominating the TV screen. It was Ian Macnab aboard his boat the Duchess of Cocklemoor - so I turned the sound up and was appalled to hear that this wonderfu

The Magic of Estuaries No one needs a newspaper article to tell them that estuaries are very, very special places. These zones where rivers meet the sea create a magical mix of fresh and salt water - a brackish blend that makes them some of the most productive and important habitats on Earth. Estuaries serve as nurseries for fish and shellfish, and are critical feeding grounds for thousands of migratory birds. But they’re more than just wildlife havens, estuaries are nature’s

End of Summer - Autumn in the Air Most years since the turn of the century, my newspaper column has found itself tumbling into that mellow period which marks the end of summer, and declaring: “Autumn is in the air!” as if it’s been some totally new and unexpected sensation. Which is odd… I hardly ever write newspaper articles which herald the arrival of winter or summer. Once or twice I have written about the first hints and glories of spring, but there’s something about the