Aegina is easily accessible from Athens — just an hour away — but the island feels like a different world from the capital. Aegina is a small island, without many tourists. It’s popular with locals on public holidays, as Athenians make the journey south to the island for peace and quiet away from the capital. But Aegina has never […]
Beautiful Loch Ard Gorge has a dark and terrible past. On a summer’s day, it’s one of the most gorgeous small coves anywhere in Australia – but the legacy of tragedy still haunts this sublime beach. The coastline of Australia’s Great Ocean Road is immense and dramatic. Sheer cliffs stand imposingly above a wild, rough ocean. Near […]
Singapore is home to some of the most exquisite mosques I’ve ever seen. This deeply diverse city state has it all in terms of religious architecture, from Hindu and Confucian temples to Anglican churches. But it’s Singapore’s mosques that are the jewel in the crown. Like the rest of Singapore, the nation’s mosques take their influences […]
The Blue Eye is a natural spring in southern Albania. It holds the bluest, clearest water imaginable. Looking at it from above, the Blue Eye spring forms a swirling vortex that’s hypnotic to watch. The layers of the spring range from clear, colourless shallows to azure waters that border the intense, deep blue centre of […]
The small town of Mount Gambier is unknown and rarely features on tourist itineraries to Australia. But this small town in the state of South Australia has stunning and unique natural features. Mount Gambier is home to volcanic crater lakes, and impressive sinkholes that have been transformed into beautiful gardens. Mount Gambier is unlike anywhere […]
Just north of Greece lies southern Albania, and the breathtaking Albanian Riviera. This less touristed coastline shares the same Ionian Sea coast as Greece, and has a rugged, mountainous beauty all of its own. The Albanian Riviera stretches from Ksamil to Dhermi, in the southwestern corner of Albania. There’s a beautifully sited coastal road, which […]
The enchanting town of Sintra lies in the hills west of Lisbon, towards the Atlantic coast. Sintra’s picturesque sights are perched on top of the peaks surrounding the town. Arriving by train from Lisbon, you glimpse glittering Pena Palace and the atmospheric Castle of the Moors from a distance. A very short history of Sintra: […]
A guide for independent, budget-savvy travellers The Great Ocean Road is one sight you won’t want to miss if you’re visiting Melbourne or Australia’s southern coast. The wild, ice-blue waters of the Southern Ocean smash against spectacular high cliffs, forming dramatic and beautiful features like the Twelve Apostles and Loch Ard Gorge. Australia is a […]
Kayangan Lake is on Coron Island, a short boat journey across the bay from Coron Town. There are so many beautiful natural sights around Coron, but Kayangan Lake is arguably the most famous, along with the Twin Lagoons. Kayangan Lake is an exquisitely beautiful place. When the sunlight is right it’s hard to believe your […]
Rottnest Island lies 11 miles west off the coast of Fremantle, in Western Australia. The island is home to the quokka, a unique marsupial that lives only on Rottnest Island, and is found nowhere else on earth. The island is mostly pedestrianised and without motorised vehicles, making for very laid-back cycling and walking tours. One […]
The spectacular scenery of northern Vietnam is dominated by karst mountains and islands. The natural landscape here has been shaped over thousands of years by rice farming, either in vast, flooded plains that fill the horizon, or steep terraces in the mountains near China. Many itineraries for Vietnam feature Halong Bay as the premier sight […]
Erawan Falls is a national park in Thailand, lying north-west of the town of Kanchanaburi and close to the mountains of Myanmar. It’s a beautiful rainforest setting, where a series of sparkling green pools cascade into each other amidst rampant tropical vegetation. Visiting the Falls you get to clamber around exposed tree roots, low-hanging vines […]
My article on Western Australia has been published by the travel magazine Go Mad Nomad. Western Australia covers one third of the landmass of Australia, and if the state was an independent country, it would be the tenth largest in the world. The state of WA is sparsely populated and, apart from the capital city […]
The ancient temples of Angkor are the remains of the Khmer civilisation, an empire that stretched from the heart of Cambodia, across Thailand to the edge of Myanmar, to southern Vietnam in the east and Laos in the north. The ancient Khmers built their capital at Angkor, which is the largest temple complex anywhere in […]
After three weeks travelling through Thailand, we flew from Bangkok to Hanoi. I’m quite behind on the blog as we’ve been so busy exploring. We used Hanoi as a base for getting around the north of the country, as the capital has good connections to the surrounding rural regions. We’ve been back to the city […]
One of the sights I’ve been most looking forward to seeing in Thailand is Ang Thong National Marine Park. The National Park incorporates a vast number of small islands in the Gulf of Thailand. These forested, rocky islands are surrounded by a smooth azure ocean, and have outstanding white sand beaches. The islands of Ang […]
I’m currently staying on the island of Ko Samui. We’re on the quiet side of the island, in a small fishing village called Taling Ngam. The village has a beautiful temple called Wat Kiri Wongkaram. It’s a Buddhist temple, and is incredibly brightly coloured and well-maintained. It’s kept in immaculate condition, with even the sandy […]
I caught the bus from northern Phuket to Surat Thani, a town near the Gulf coast. I stayed a night there to break up the journey from Phuket to Ko Samui. Most visitors don’t stay in the city and just go straight through, but I’m glad I got to spend a bit of time in […]
It’s Day One of my five month trip backpacking through South East Asia and Australia. We flew into Phuket very early in the morning (4.30am) and I’m now at Nai Yang beach. It’s the rainy season here on the Andaman coast at the moment so our visit to Phuket will be brief this time, but […]
Rough Tor is the second highest point on Bodmin Moor, and in Cornwall. It’s a particularly striking and atmospheric feature of Bodmin Moor, as its rocky summit is topped with boulders piled up in a unique way. Climbing Rough Tor gives a great view over the surrounding Cornish countryside. Walking to Rough Tor involves crossing […]