Travel Lightbulb

Having spent most of the summer on the beach myself (yes, I'm a lucky girl!), I found some new research about the costs of beaches very interesting. TravelBird's Beach price index ranks over 300 beaches around the world on the cost of spending one day at each.  Vietnam After pricing five essentials (sun cream; water; beer; lunch, and an ice cream) they ranked them to give holidaymakers the information they may want before booking a holiday. The most affordable beaches in the world are in Vietnam, while the most expensive were found in Norway.  Norway The bit that interested me most about the research though, was the beaches in the UK. I sometimes feel for families who stay at home to holiday in the British Isles, but end up spending more money than if they'd gone out of the country to holiday. For instance, the research revealed that the UK's most expensive beach is Priory Bay on the Isle of Wight.  Priory Bay, Isle of Wight So where is the chea...

I started my travel blog to bring some of the wonderful off the beaten track places I've discovered on my travels to other people, and I've recently found someone else who loves doing a similar thing! Vanessa Grail is a London girl who moved to Paris, and has written a book, 'Don't be a tourist in Paris'. The book gives readers some brilliant insider tips, and Vanessa shares her ideas of how to avoid the tourist traps and uncover the real Paris. Below are just a few of my favourite ideas from the book. Old artist studio in Musée de Montmartre  Montmartre is one of my favourite places to visit in Paris, but I had never heard of the Musée de Montmartre. It's inside the oldest building in the area and one of the old artists studios as been restored so you can imagine how it felt for the likes of Renoir to sit and paint in the French capital.  Le Refuge de Fondues, restaurant  So what about eating off the beaten track? Vanessa writes about Le Re...

I know plenty of people who love Italy with its stunning scenery and delicious food, but many of them have never ventured to Sicily, and that's the place I'm featuring on my blog today. Cefalù is a charming fishing town on the northern coast of Sicily, just a forty five minute drive from the island's capital, Palermo.  It's set against a dramatic backdrop of craggy mountains, and is the perfect size to wander round for a week or two and not get bored. If you're looking for the glamour of the Amalfi Coast, then this might not be for you, as it's wonderfully rustic. However if you fancy a change from that glamour, which almost always comes at a cost, then I can't recommend Cefalù highly enough. As well as having a fabulous beach (a great place to watch the fabulous sunsets); the town has lovely little winding medieval streets, a beautiful cathedral and some superb restaurants. The cathedral has some lovely little cafes around it and it's ...

As a proud Edinburgher, it wouldn't be right to blog today without mentioning the fabulous festivals that get underway in Scotland's capital city. The Edinburgh International Festival celebrates its 70th birthday in 2017, and was founded to foster a "flowering of the human spirit" after the second world war.  I don't think anyone realised just how successful it would go on to become. To mark the anniversary, this year's events are expected to be bigger and better than ever, with a grand opening party, and ending with the usual fireworks spectacular over the castle. It's not just the International Festival that runs this month, the hugely popular festival fringe is also on during August, as is the book festival. While you need tickets for the main events, the city is awash with entertainment during August, and you can watch plenty of fantastic street acts running the length of the Royal Mile, and by the city's art galleries on The Moun...

I think New Yorkers would forgive me for saying they don't mess with their words - I mean that in the nicest possible way, and it's sometimes a refreshing attitude that they say what they mean rather than skirting around things as many British people do! This attitude even extends to their street signs.  In the UK, it would probably say "No Parking"....but in New York, it's "Don't even think of parking here"! I love it!

It was perhaps inevitable that the UK's Brexit negotiations would have an impact on the way British people would change the way they travel. With so much uncertainty over how the talks will play out, and with the pound still weak, a new poll has revealed that more than half of Brits are looking to travel long-haul, rather than to European destinations. A poll of 2000 Brits carried out by Holiday Hypermarket suggests that Brexit is encouraging Brits to be more adventurous in their choice of holiday destinations. Searches to destinations such as Goa and Phuket are up, while bookings to the Dominican Republic and Mexico have also seen an increase. I am totally against Brexit and love being part of the EU, but perhaps the uncertain future is encouraging people to get out there and explore a little more when they go on their travels. Maybe it's one positive to take from a situation many Brits I know feel is a very depressing one!

This week you get three photos instead of the usual one, because when I got back from my trip to Rome a few months ago, and started looking through some of my photos, here seemed to be a bit of a theme going on....bikes! On every street here seemed to be one chained up, ready to be ridden home from work, or even used as part of a pretty display outside a clothing shop with flowers in the basket.  It didn't seem right to choose one and leave the others out, so I decided to extend my post this week to feature them all!  I remember a few years ago after coming back from Sicily, I had taken a huge amount of photos of the cute little Fiat 500's, and framed them all together in my house...I might have to do the same this time with the Roman bikes!

If you're into your history, and are looking for somewhere decadent to stay, then The Witchery in Edinburgh is a great choice. This boutique Gothic hotel is at the top of Edinburgh's Royal Mile, and is a fabulous place to stay for a special occasion. I featured The Witchery on my blog after spending a night here and absolutely loving it, so I can't recommend it highly enough. If you want to see my original post on one of the best places to stay in Edinburgh, click  here.