A Far-Flung Family Adventure

February 2, 2017

With your children getting older, is it time to start thinking of a more adventurous family holiday? Or after a long career is a sabbatical on the cards? Or maybe you would like to take advantage of the longer school summer holidays to do an extended family trip?

These were all considerations for one of my long standing clients who asked me to organise a four week trip last summer for him, his wife and three teenage sons. But what were the main ingredients? The family wanted guaranteed warm weather, a chance to relax on a beach or two, a mix of activities to keep mum, dad and kids entertained, amazing hotels and limited rain, which isn’t easy to find if you’re looking for an adventure in an exotic location in our summer months.

Do you have something to celebrate, part 2? My Bucket List trip

December 1, 2016

After our amazing time getting up close and personal with wild animals in Kenya (read about that trip here), Julian and I flew to Zanzibar for a few days of culture before our beached out bliss.

Ever since I was young, the name Zanzibar has always sounded so exotic and conjured up images of streets filled with spice traders and intrepid adventurers arriving on dhows with billowing sails. In reality, the traders and adventurers were actually on the hunt for gold and power and Zanzibar was, at one time, East Africa’s main slave-trading port.

Today there are no slaves but the waves of Swahili, Portuguese, Omani, and Chinese traders who passed through the island over the centuries have left their cultural mark. This is most evident in Zanzibar’s capital, Stone Town, where elaborately carved doors, forts and ornate traders’ houses reflect layer upon layer of its past heritage, all weather beaten by the sea breeze.

Do you have something to celebrate? Take a look at my Bucket List trip

November 3, 2016

I don’t know about you, but I’m of the view that life is way too short not to celebrate every occasion. So, when Julian and I were approaching our 10th Wedding Anniversary, we decided we wanted to celebrate with a special trip; one that followed a similar pattern to our honeymoon – Cape Town, Kruger safari and Mozambique beach – but also ticked off a few things on our Travel Bucket List.

The question was: where to go? To be honest, I knew the beach section had to involve a stay on an island I’d wanted to visit for such a long time, Mnemba, which sits on the north-east coast of Zanzibar.

As for the safari, Julian and I had always wanted to experience a river crossing during the Great Migration. So, looking at the route of the Migration in September, our best chance of seeing this phenomenon was around the Mara Triangle in Kenya. So that was the safari sorted.

Finally, as we had to pass through Nairobi, I had the chance to tick a third item off my Bucket List, a stay at the legendary Giraffe Manor.

Here are the highlights of the first part of our trip, with Zanzibar and the beach section to follow next month.

Why you should consider ditching Dubai for Abu Dhabi

March 4, 2016

Forgive me for making a sweeping statement, but for guaranteed winter sun with a less than 8 hour direct flight from Manchester, don’t most people just press the Dubai default button? Of course, Dubai is great if you want a city that shouts at you 24 hours a day and has a sort of “look at me” feel about it. And of course it does have rather a lot of good hotel options. But that’s the thing about Dubai, there’s just a lot of everything – hotels, skyscrapers, people, bling. For something a lot calmer and with less crowds my preference is Abu Dhabi, Dubai’s less brash neighbour.

Here are some of the reasons why I think it’s time to consider ditching Dubai as the default for winter sun and maybe give Abu Dhabi a whirl instead:

Search Blog Posts

Search Categories