It is easy to dismiss Cheshire as a WAGs’ playground, but dig a little deeper and it proves to be a class act. Take the 1,000-acre, National Trust-owned T... read more
Conche des Baleines, Ile de Re, France A wild and dramatic beach in the remote north-west corner of France’s Ile de Re, it’s a favourite holiday spot for we... read more
Adventure it was, and one of the most marvellous mankind ever embarked upon, wrote the American journalist John Reed. His eyewitness account of the Russian Revo... read more
Take an English Victorian seaside resort with its grand hotels, prom and arcades, and plonk it several hundred miles away on a rugged coast overlooking the Bay ... read more
Were Indiana Jones finally to retire and decide to go into the hotel business, this is surely the kind of joint he’d open. It’s a brand new ‘adventure’ ... read more
There comes a moment in any parent’s life when you think: why? Mine comes as I dangle off a rope tethered to a ten-metre high rock-face in south-central Franc... read more
An Inspector Calls: London’s newly-refurbished Athenaeum Hotel fails on every front except for its slick new bar The Inspector checked in to investigate T... read more
Sometimes stiff competition is just the inspiration you need. And in late 15th and early 16th-century Rome, rivalry was fierce. Particularly between two of the ... read more
There’s many a lovely tearoom in the Highlands, but no restorative cuppa will match the one I had halfway up a mountain with a llama called Atticus. It was la... read more
When it’s a choice between visiting an archaeological site or watching Paul Hollywood film a documentary, the Great British Bake Off star wins hands down. W... read more
Gliding through the water with the sun blaring above, the only sound is the occasional tweet of birdsong or observation from our guide. Oh, and the slurp from m... read more
When sprinkling celebrity stardust on your mountain-top hotel, aim high. At the Anantara Al Jabal Al Akhdar in northern Oman, there is a glass-sided walkway p... read more
Look out!’ cries my eight-year-old daughter, Sofia. I turn on my sun lounger. Heading towards us at a steady, but determined, pace is an enormous camel. This ... read more
Follow the river to France at its finest: Cycling and kayaking the Loire Valley, that Gallic haven of castles and charm The Loire region of France is famed f... read more
Were Lanzarote a woman, she’d be feisty and combustible. The smallest of the four main Canary Islands is dubbed the Hawaii of Europe. Like her larger sist... read more
My first mistake is to arrive in Verona with two men. One is tall, dark and handsome. The other is fair, with mesmerising green eyes. ‘Which will you choo... read more
Conversations around the pool speak volumes about this action-packed summer sizzler. ‘He dragged me out of my sun lounger, made me go sailing, hit me on the h... read more
Of all the countries in all the world, India least needs a festival of colour. An ordinary day is a celebration of every shade – from canary yellow saris tr... read more
We call it the most beautiful cul-de-sac in the world, says our host, gesturing at the Alpine panorama. This particular no-throughroad lies beneath an impassabl... read more
Ever since I was a child, I have wanted to go to Norway. It was those glossy black-and-white photos of fjords and fishing boats that caught my imagination. And ... read more
They call it the party capital of the Middle East. And judging by the cheerful crowd heading for the beach there’s no limit on their capacity to enjoy themsel... read more
Skiing has always been an expensive pastime – and as sterling slides down the fiscal mountain, it has got even harder to take a family on holiday to the A... read more
