Mykonos has one runway. It is short, it handles a significant volume of traffic in July and August, and the approach over the Aegean in certain wind conditions is the kind of thing that concentrates the mind. The island has been handling this situation for decades and the operation is professional. What it is not, […]
It restores people without trying to. The wellness travel industry has become extraordinarily good at packaging the one thing that cannot be packaged. Rest. Genuine, unscheduled, nervous-system-level rest. Walk through any luxury travel fair and you will find sleep retreats, breathwork itineraries, cold plunge protocols, and anti-inflammatory meal programmes layered into every second proposal. There […]
The Southern Way is the name Tourism New Zealand has given to the network of routes linking the south of the South Island into one explorable loop. From Oamaru and Dunedin on the east coast, down to the Catlins and Stewart Island, through Murihiku Southland and into Fiordland before the icing on the cake of […]
This coming Saturday a couple from California land at Keflavík at a quarter to nine in the morning. They have nine days. They are not basing themselves in one town and taking day trips out from it. They are going all the way around the island, the full Ring Road, with their own guide and […]
For many Avios collectors, 100,000 points feels like a significant milestone. It’s enough to turn everyday spending, credit card bonuses and a few flights with British Airways, Iberia, or any of the other Avios earning airlines, into something much more exciting: a long-haul adventure, a premium cabin experience, or even multiple trips across Europe. The […]
Spend long enough in a good hotel and you start to notice what’s missing. You can’t wander into a kitchen at midnight for a glass of wine without putting on shoes. Dinner is whenever the restaurant decides it is. The terrace, if there is one, belongs to everyone. A luxury villa solves all of this […]
The couple had chosen Mykonos because they had been there the previous summer and fallen in love with a particular view from a particular terrace on the south of the island. They wanted their wedding at that spot. They had photographs. They had a vision. What they did not have, when they first contacted me […]
With Summer now officially underway (it starts on 1st June each year according to the Met Office), there’s no better time to explore the UK‘s wonderful array of gardens open to the public. Regular readers will be familiar with some we have visited in recent years – such as the wonderful National Trust Crook Hall […]
This August, something remarkable is going to happen over the Mediterranean. On the evening of 12 August 2026, a total solar eclipse will sweep across Spain and the western Med, turning a warm summer evening briefly, dramatically, dark. The Balearic Islands — Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, Formentera — sit right in its path. They were already […]
Most people’s Ibiza starts the same way. A villa somewhere inland, a car, daily trips to the coast, and a drive back each evening. It works. It’s also significantly worse than what happens when the beach is a short walk from where you’re sleeping. That gap matters more than most people account for before booking. […]
Kubili House is tucked into a seriously wild corner of South Africa‘s Thornybush Private Game Reserve in the Greater Kruger ecosystem. People who know luxury safari travel have always loved this place. But right now, things are moving fast behind closed doors as the lodge has changed hands. The new owners are keeping the original […]
I have been doing this since 1999. Twenty-five years. The telephone calls at two in the morning. The villa owner who said no, and then said yes. The yacht that needed a crew change forty-eight hours before departure. The table at the restaurant that had been fully booked for six weeks until it was not. […]
Travelling by train is very different to other forms of transport. You could even say it’s a luxury of sorts. Unlike sitting on a plane, where you might gaze ahead at your route map or watch a movie, a journey by train is somehow quite different. It encourages you to look around a little more […]
Many people treat Palma as a stopover. They land, spend a night somewhere near the old town, do the cathedral, and leave for wherever they actually booked the trip around the island. Having now watched this happen many times, Privadia, which books private villas for guests in Mallorca, and has done so for years, would […]
The Amalfi Coast is one of the world’s most photographed destinations yet much of its real character remains hidden from the view of most travelers. Beyond the crowded ferries, winding cliffside roads and busy piazzas lies a quieter side of southern Italy — one that reveals itself slowly from the sea. Experiencing the Amalfi Coast […]