For years we made sure we had a Christmas outing, and this year was no exception.  For a change, however, we actually went away for a dew days for an extra special pre-Christmas treat. The highlight of our visit was Christmas lunch at Highgrove House, the country home of King Charles 111 and Queen Camilla. Each year the estate opens for a series of special events, from tours of the gardens during the summer months, champagne afternoon teas, spring walks, private tours and of course, Christmas lunch. The original Georgian house was built between 1796-98, but was bought in 1980 by ..read more

Perissa Beach Much has been written in the media this year about anti-tourism (particularly British tourists) with demonstrations across Spain, the Spanish Islands and Greece - particularly Santorini and Mykonos. In fact I have just read an article stating that tourism to Spain was actually up 12% from January to July 2024, with a staggering 53.4 million international visitors in seven months.  Greece also saw a 16% increase in visitors during the first six months of 2024. In response, Santorini tourism chiefs have announced a limit on cruise ships docking at any one time, and will impo ..read more

The United Kingdom is rich in history and geographic diversity.  I believe we don't truly appreciate the beauty of our own country - probably because the weather is so unpredictable.  However, this year we have both taken mini breaks (in addition to our trips to try and find some sunshine) to take advantage of what we have to offer on home turf. While we have both enjoyed trips to Italy earlier this year, Anne C headed south with her family to Portsmouth for a long weekend. The reason for this was to visit the Naval Dockyard, with houses the iconic Mary Rose, HMS Victory and HMS W ..read more

Those of you who follow my personal account, rather than our travel blog, may remember that I celebrated (if that's the correct word!) my 70th birthday last year.  My gift from my wonderful daughter was a family trip to Venice for March of this year (2024). The trip included my husband, daughter and her partner.  To say my husband didn't want to go is an understatement.  He doesn't like travelling at the best of times, which is why I often travel with my best friend Anne or my daughter.  He was not happy even as we sat on the plane for take-off.  But I have to report ..read more

Recently the governor of Lanzarote has announced she wants to ditch the island's dependence on British tourists. This of course has caused uproar amongst the the 2.5 million tourists - more than half of them Brits - who travel to the Canary Islands for some much needed sunshine - something we are sorely deprived of in the Northern Hemisphere. The island plan is to reduce the number of British tourists, but to "increase spending in the destination so that they generate greater wealth in the economy as a whole." Growth would therefore be expected in the French, Italian, and Dutch markets. So ..read more

If you're looking for a city break in warmer climes, then look no further than Madrid - a perfect destination from the UK.  In a little over three hours you can be landing in Spain for sunshine, siesta and sangria. Anne H flew from Liverpool airport - with convenient on site parking, then over the road into the terminal, so no messing with off-site parking or pickups. Anne took the trip in October last Autumn, where the temperature was a very pleasant 29/30 degrees, staying at the central and very modern Carretas Apartments, which was central for everything she and her friend wanted to ..read more

  Flying post pandemic Thank you for reading our bucket list last four blogs - our epic holiday taking in Las Vegas, Honolulu, the Hawaiian Island cruise and Los Angeles.  We can honestly say that it was one of the best holidays we have ever taken.  And we would love to thank the lovely people at our travel agents, North America Travel Service, who swapped and changed our bookings four times over the period of two years as lockdowns and restrictions thwarted our travels. We travelled in May/June when we still had to take COVID tests to travel to the US.  It was incredibly ..read more

Our final destination on our mega holiday was Los Angeles - the City of Angels. But leaving Hawaii was more of a wrench than we expected, since it had been a wonderful ten days of activities. And I know we will never be able to go again. The contrast couldn't have been greater - from beautiful islands with a relatively laid-back way of life to the frantic pace of suburban Los Angeles - home to most of the movies and TV programmes with which we were familiar. History Los Angeles originally made its money, surprisingly, through oil - and there are currently 68 named oil fields in the grea ..read more

Pride of America This is part three of my mega holiday with my daughter Louise and I thought I would do a separate blog about our fabulous cruise around the Hawaiian Islands.  Having spent five days in Vegas and three days in Honolulu (see previous blogs), we set sail on board Norwegian Cruise Line's the Pride of America for the beautiful islands. While I am not a particularly seasoned cruiser - this is only my third cruise - it was a first for my daughter, and we both absolutely loved it! The huge ship is a 80,439 ton, 15 deck vessel which normally carries some 2,186 passengers w ..read more

Where to start with Hawaii?  It was the most amazingly stunning place I have ever visited! But it got off to a very inauspicious start.  Honolulu Hawaii is certainly an area of contrasting weathers!  Excited to finally be in Hawaii, we dumped our bags in the beautiful Hyatt Centric Hotel  (complete with heated toilet seat) in central Honolulu and rushed out to see the world famous Waikiki Beach ... in the rain! Fortunately the shower was short-lived and our 10 days in Hawaii more than exceeded our expectations. Honolulu itself is certainly a city of high rise hotel ..read more