Up the Pacific Coast from San Diego to San Francisco by submarine
It was travel but not one of the most scenic of routes, in that there wasn’t much to see. But back in 1979 my dad’s submarine the Pollack — as the history notes, he r[…]

In honour of Steve’s trip to Amsterdam here is a list of what I remember from my one visit there. We were there for a few hours during a school trip to the Netherlands when I was 14 so, perhaps contrary to your expectations, the lack of firm me[…]

NEXT STOP HAYMARKET!!!
One of the complaints about getting rid of Routemasters in London (I know, bear with me) was that conductors help passengers more, telling them where to get off (in a polite way). Last night, on a brief Twenty Three ride, I cam[…]

International Business Traveler
Steve’s post below skirts round the subject of fear of flying. I never used to be afraid of getting on a plane, then suddenly a couple of years ago I started getting the twinges of unease he talks about. I realis[…]

To delightful Amsterdam – one of my favourite things about the place possibly being it’s relative proximity to where I am now. An hour in the sky and you’re back on the ground, wham bam. My attitude to flying veers haphazardly from […]

Is travel writing inherently imperialist?
Chinua Achebe seems to think so. Here’s his take on The Artist Abroad from Home and Exile:

Diverse as their individual situations or predicaments were, these children
of the West roamed the world wi[…]

Over the river and through the woods… — going to see grandma (and grandpa, on my dad’s side) was always one of those special things for me, because they lived so far away most of the time. Not all the time — for two years, th[…]

It’s a clich’, but I could be in any city in the world right now. Who designs these mass-luxury hotels? This one is a Peninsula but it might as well be a Sheraton or an Intercontinental or a Sofitel. All mid-brown wood with rounded edges.[…]

Context may not be everything, but lack of context is much worse. Tourism is partially about trying to work out how different countries work. You do not speak the language, you may not be able to read the labels, or understand what is going on. That […]

HORROR HOTEL
There are plenty of television shows modeled around the ideea of Holidays From Hell. However none of them yet have use dthe sobriquet Horror Hotel, which is just as well because it is a real place in Sri Lanka.
After getting off a long f[…]