Where to find easy hiking trails in the United Kingdom
I have always held that every town, no matter how frumpy and dull it may appear, can give you one day of good entertainment. After that, the metropolitan wheat is divided from the Palookaville chaff, but for a single day, day trippers should not struggle too hard to find what they are looking for: a…
Some countries do city tourism well, others badly or not at all. At one end of the scale, you have France, Spain and Italy. Their great cities are firm fixtures on the global tourism itinerary, and most of these countries’ regional capitals have become popular destinations in their own right. Toulouse and Strasbourg, Seville and…
Visitors who come to the UK from abroad may think that all of modern London has been cast from the same expensive mould: and up to a point, they would be right. In the centre of London, it is rare indeed to find even a small flat for under one million pounds, while houses fetch…
Every major city in the world has iconic street furniture – Paris has the riverbank boxes of the bouqinistes, Berlin its Litfasssäule advertising columns, Venice the splashback pissotte that are designed to prevent men from urinating in street corners – … … but no city in the world is as blessed in this respect as…
Tourism is the world’s largest industry. It generates an annual turnover of 11 trillion dollars and employs 350 million people (10 per cent of the global workforce) but stands on feet of clay. Tourism does not fulfil an immediate and vital need (unlike, say, agriculture): humans have lived for thousands of years without spending some…
If you have recently found that very special person in your life, you may think that All You Need Is Love to engineer a successful Saint Valentine’s Day weekend – and you may even be right. The more world-weary among us, meanwhile, are aware that special persons may expect more than Words Of Love and…
There is one drawback about Anglesey: for a tourist destination, the island – not having many large towns – offers only a narrow range of places to stay and places to eat. This is why many visitors opt to stay on the Welsh mainland, which also makes it easier then to tour the sights on…
You can easily spend a long weekend and more exploring the charms and attractions of Anglesey. But, if you must, you can also experience all in one day, enjoying everything that the island has to offer in a single package: Anglesey’s medieval history, … … its rugged natural beauty, … … mysterious Welsh traditions, ……
Wales and Brittany have more in common than bad weather: both regions were once run as independent countries and then gobbled up by stronger neighbours (England and France, respectively). This happened almost a thousand years ago, but both Wales and Brittany are still sitting a little awkwardly in the countries to which they have belonged…
Traffic signs, street lights, bus stop shelters: street furniture is part of our lives, and we rarely ever give it a second thought. The pieces are one-dimensional: they have a specific job to do, and no other consideration – least of all aesthetics – seems to matter. In fact, however, street furniture is a lot…