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

  Las Vegas is an assault on the senses!  Previous followers may remember that I (Anne C) was on my way to Las Vegas six years ago when I was involved in an accident in New York which curtailed my holiday and I never made it to Vegas – which had long been on my bucket list. Well finally I made it!  After several more postponements due to COVID, I combined my delayed visit with a mega holiday, accompanied by my daughter, to the United States.  Over the next few weeks, I will be detailing our three destinations and comparing our experiences. The Hotel But first – Las Vegas ..read more

  We have been very quiet over the past few months – sometimes real life gets in the way of our blog.  We have both had first world stuff getting in the way of enjoying life – not least of which we have both – separately at different times – had COVID. Bad weather, isolation and, being honest a little bit of apathy, has meant the blog has suffered. But as Spring comes into full bloom we are making tentative steps to try and get back to a normal life.  And first things first – that involves travel. While we can honestly say this was one of the reasons we started the blog in th ..read more

Anne in Tropea We all know what a miserable couple of years it's been due to COVID-19 and ever-changing travel restrictions.  But we hope 2022 travel is looking more promising as entry requirements change.  It helps that both of us are now triple jabbed, so maybe able to travel again. While Anne H managed a quick trip to see elderly relatives in Italy (see a previous visit here) last year, Anne C hasn't been away for a couple of years.  And while we had some sunny days in the UK last summer, holidaying at home was incredibly expensive as resorts cashed in on international tra ..read more