501 Places

A photo tour of Japanese castles

Tyneham: the British village that time forgot

Entrance fees to the 7 Wonders of the World: how much is too much?

Europe by train: why the magic never dies

El Salvador: La Ruta de las Flores

Travels in Guatemala: a day on the chicken bus

Dubrovnik: from war zone to tourist hotspot

Sarajevo: so much more than bombs and bullets

Wren’s beautiful churches of London

We rarely spend long enough in any place on our travels. Without the luxury of  being able to take an indefinite trip, our itineraries inevitably involve plenty of compromise and the list of places in a country we’d like to visit has to be ruthlessly cut down to fit the limited time allowed. Local people [...]

The pattern has been nothing if not consistent in the last few decades. Cities that spent millions (more recently billions) in their preparations to hold the Olympic Games found to their cost that their estimates of a tourism bonanza proved way off the mark. Thousands of hotel rooms remained unoccupied while those who did come [...]

Over the weekend we had the chance to explore two cities in the south east of England that have a fair amount in common. Both are a short train ride from London; both have enough olde worlde buildings to be regularly used as a filming location for period dramas; and of particular relevance to this [...]

It’s not unusual in an English bed and breakfast to wake up to the smell of frying bacon. Whether you’re staying away from home on business or pleasure and whatever the day holds in store for you, there are few better ways to kick off proceedings than with a no-holds barred full English breakfast. Yet [...]

I’m currently arranging a new mobile phone contract. In common with most people I have very low expectations of the customer service I’m likely to receive. This is borne out of years of bitter experience. While the staff often appear incapable of connecting my phone to a functioning network at the price I signed up [...]

So say the BBC, The Telegraph, The Observer and many other publications in relation to the chances of seeing the aurora borealis in 2012. A whole host of tour operators and cruise companies have lapped up this quote and without any apparent scrutiny added it to their press releases and websites. Look at anyone offering Northern [...]

As so often happens, the comments section of my recent post looking at what inspires us to choose our travel destinations has proved to be more interesting than my original entry. Both Maxine Sheppard and Pam Mandel highlighted the role that the history of a place can play in enticing us to visit; I was reminded [...]

We were in Budapest for barely 48 hours, yet on four occasions we watched in despair as a bus pulled away in front of us and left us waiting in the cold. Every connection was missed by a whisker, each time we stood and stared as our bus disappeared into the December gloom. It’s not [...]

Magazine articles, blogs, TV shows, even apps: all make regular claims to help inspire us to choose our next holiday destination. Some of these must work for there to be enough advertising money floating around to keep so many people in business. But so much of what is out there doesn’t inspire me at all. [...]

It is one of the most common traps for anyone writing a blog: I’ve been to a place so I must write about it. As if the act of merely being somewhere is a story worthy of telling to the world. Let’s face it; sometimes we visit a place and while it may be nice [...]

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About Andy

Freelance travel writer and lifelong traveller. I currently manage several blogs for clients in the travel industry (see 'Client Blogs' tab). I also provide a wide variety of web content, magazine articles and copywriting services.

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