An unabashed tourist and her family explore the world one holiday at a time.
I thought I knew Italy pretty well and have seen most of the things I wanted to see in that country, but Always Italy definitely proved me wrong. Mayes (of Under the Tuscan Sun fame) and Cohane went to great lengths to showcase the best of Italy in this enormous tome – don’t let the weight and thickness of it...
Although I recognised his name from reading various Weg magazine articles, Erns Grundling really came to my attention while watching the Kyknet series Elders: Die Camino. I thoroughly enjoyed his very South African take on the well-known Spanish pilgrimage and never missed an episode. By the time he walked the Kumano Kodo route, I was a firm fan and I...
I recently read an article about literary destinations for children, which made me wonder what book first awakened the traveller in me. I’ve always wanted to explore the world, ever since I was a little girl, and I think that thirst for foreign countries and exotic destinations was inspired by (would you believe it?) Enid Blyton. I don’t remember when...
Bill Bryson is one of the best-known (and best-selling) travel writers of our time, so it’s actually a little embarrassing to admit that I’ve never read any of his books before. I thought it was about high time I rectified this sorry state of affairs and picked up his third travel memoir, Neither Here Nor There, since it documents a...
Lonely Planet’s The Best Place to be Today is an amazingly fun book. Let’s face it, who wouldn’t want to know where the perfect place to be on any given day is? And apart from the editors’ obsession with bat colonies, there should be something in here to suit everyone’s taste. I’ve already added at least ten new must-dos to my...
The third book in Lonely Planet’s fantastic travel series, Great Escapes, is just as much of a treat as its two predecessors, Great Journeys and Great Adventures, were. Its subtitle states “Enjoy the world at your leisure”, and that’s exactly what this book is about – short escapes, usually no longer than a week or long weekend getaway, that you can either...
Peter Ackroyd’s sumptuous book Venice: Pure City is both evocative and mesmerising. It is a masterpiece of intellectual writing that manages to entertain and inform at the same time and is a wonderful read for anyone interested in the history of the iconic lagoon city. Starting from its very origins when Venice was nothing more than a desolate marsh, Ackroyd paints...
I absolutely loved Lonely Planet’s Great Adventures and couldn’t wait to get my hands on other books in the series. Great Journeys was published first and, while still a lot of fun, doesn’t quite live up to its successor. The book is divided into eight sections: Overland, Rail, Explorers & Conquerors, Rivers & Seas, Ancient Trade Routes, Literary Journeys, Road, and...
The cover is what first caught my attention. As some readers may know, Gareth and I visited the Finnish Arctic Circle in 2012 in the hope of seeing the Aurora Borealis. Unfortunately, although we had a fantastic time, the pyrotechnics of the arctic sky was obscured by a perpetual cloud cover while we were there. I left Finland with a...
Disclaimer: I was given a free copy of this e-book in return for a review. My opinions are my own, however, and are unbiased by the author. I’m also an affiliate, which means that if you click on the link at the bottom of this post or elsewhere on this blog AND purchase the e-book, I will receive a percentage...