Monthly Archives: November 2013

The Four Mile Trail

I have always marvelled at how the majority of visitors to Yosemite National Park remain in the valley rather than exploring further afield. There is no doubt that the full majesty of the park can only be experienced by expending some energy and taking a hike but some of the walks on offer are rather testing if your fitness levels are not up to par. I am a keen hiker and just have to take on the Four Mile Trail when in Yosemite but it can provide a severe test especially in the heat of the Summer. Continue reading

Why Is The UK The Promised Land?

I always look forward to my travels with great glee. I can never wait to get away in order to enjoy beautiful scenery and a better climate. Furthermore my travels offer a welcome break from traffic jams and queuing for everything wherever I go. Whilst I am always dreaming of an escape, however, it appears that much of the rest of the world dreams of nothing but getting into the UK. Continue reading

What Happens When You Lose Your Passport?

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I have always suffered a bad case or paranoia when on holiday. I am one of those annoying people that stops to check that they have their passport every few minutes. I have moments when I am suddenly seized by panic if I can’t recall where I have put it and I have always thought that losing that treasured document would be my worst nightmare. Continue reading

Does Four in a Room work?

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Many of the best prices for holidays that you see advertised are based on four people sharing a room.  I have to say that such a level of overcrowding had never appealed to me despite the fact that I love a bargain and so I was shocked to find myself agreeing to such a trip. It was my friend’s birthday and he wanted to spend four days at Disneyland Paris. None of us had money to burn and so we opted for the cheapest deal and I was left wondering if we were facing disaster. Continue reading

Air Travel Catches Up with the Modern World

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I can still remember the days when the best you could expect from in-flight entertainment was a distant and partially obstructed view of a small screen or monitor showing a film. The sound quality from the uncomfortable headphones was generally terrible and the film was invariably something you had seen before or didn’t want to watch. I would spend most of the journey reading my book and that was the only choice you had on shorter flights anyway. Continue reading

Paris In A Day

You may well ask why anyone would want to attempt to do Paris in a day and the truth is that in an ideal world I wouldn’t even attempt such a feat. There is much to see and do in this great city but on a recent visit to France I had just one day to introduce the sights and sounds of the French capital to two friends who had never visited Paris before. After a little thought I devised a tour which resembled one of those theatre shows which attempt to present the entire works of Shakespeare in two hours. So there I was on the train heading into the city facing the highlights of Paris – abridged. Continue reading

Longacres Garden Centre

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I live on the Surrey/Berkshire border and there are several garden centres within a short drive of my house. They have not featured on my hot list of places to go, mainly because I hate gardening! If you don’t need any plants or tools a visit to a garden centre doesn’t tend to be a high priority but I have just discovered that it should be! In search of Christmas decorations I decided to pay a couple of these places a visit and boy did I get a surprise. Continue reading

Hiring a Car? – What a minefield!

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If you are an independent traveller or you would like to be, one of the issues that jumps up to bite you is car hire. OK you are not going to expect it to be cheap. Nobody is going to gift you a car but that doesn’t excuse the morass of extra charges and complications that you are invariably presented with when you try to book. The press are happy to slate Ryanair on an almost daily basis for their lack of transparency but in my experience that airline has got nothing on car hire firms when it comes to causing confusion. Continue reading

When A Hotel Bargain Isn’t Such a Great Deal

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There are some lucky people for whom money is no object when they travel. They can afford to book the most luxurious hotel at their chosen destination without having to worry. For the rest of us the situation is a little more complicated. Most of us have some sort of budget to accommodate and with limited funds any savings we make can help finance another trip. Accommodation is one of the most costly elements of any holiday and so we are all looking for a great deal but the cheapest hotel is not always the best value. Continue reading

Life in Alaska

 

Whenever I travel anywhere I try to avoid the overtly tourist experience. I like to discover how people live, what the local cuisine is like and to find special places that are off the beaten track. This was never more true than when I visited Alaska. As part of my trip I decided to stay in a family home to see what life was really like and boy was it an eye opener. Continue reading