By and large, I’m a solo traveller and I think it’s time I started emphasising that a bit more.
Back in the days when I could solo travel, I gravitated towards Iceland, Scandinavia and the Arctic, with occasional visits to places like the Baltic states and eastern Europe but you’ll find plenty of Paris and Switzerland and western Europe here too. Actually, my non-Wessex UK travels are here as well, so come with me to Scotland, London and a few other places around my own country.
Grábrók is one of my favourite attractions in a country full of incredible things to see and do, and I can’t quite believe I’ve never written about it before. Technically Grábrók is “they”, not “it”. “It” is a little cluster of moss-streaked red craters beside the Ring Road: Stóra Grábrók (Big Grábrók), Litla Grábrók (Little… More Roadside Volcanoes: Grábrók
I said at the beginning of the year that I was going to work through some gaps and one particularly egregious gap is Hverir, the geothermal area at Mývatn. I love Mývatn. You can never run out of interesting geothermal or volcanic things to see and do, and one particularly popular spot is Hverir. Hverir… More Hverir: geothermal area or another planet?
I know, you’re a traveller, not a tourist, you don’t want to go on tours or be shown things by a guide, you’re independent and you’re smart and you don’t want to be a sheep and just go where everyone else goes. But I’d still like to tell you why you should use a tour… More Why you should use a tour guide
Iceland has had a major boom in tourism in the last 15 years, which was welcomed at first as an antidote to the kreppa, the financial crash of 2008. At that time, tourism was Iceland’s third biggest industry. Almost overnight, it soared to first place, leaving fishing and aluminium processing, the former first and second… More How to be a good tourist in Iceland
On Monday I talked about my trip to Gdańsk and I said I’d talk about Sopot today. Well, here we go. In short, I went straight to Sopot from the airport for a trip out on a pirate ship and then went to Gdańsk. Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia are three separate cities – or perhaps towns… More A pirate ship trip at Sopot
This year, I’m going back and filling in gaps in my blog, either where I never wrote the thing in the first place, or where it needs to be deleted and rewritten. I’ve never been particularly happy with the content from Gdańsk in 2019 so that was an obvious candidate for rewriting – but also,… More First impressions of Gdańsk
I absolutely wasted Sunday and I feel guilty for it, even as I try not to feel guilty. I was very much raised on the idea that you should make the most of your trips, squeeze in as much as possible and probably come home more tired than when you left. But that’s not what… More An authentic Croatian Sunday
I am categorically not a beach person. I don’t go on beach holidays. I don’t sunbathe. I don’t really swim in the sea (unless I’m trying to learn not to hate it sufficiently to become a kayaking instructor). On the water, yes. I like a paddle and I love a short boat trip. But you’re… More Swimming at Copacabana Beach
I said in my last post that I got an interesting and unique perspective on Dubrovnik’s Old Town and here we go. I did a night cruise on a pirate ship! Ok, technically the Karaka is a reproduction of the 14th century merchant ship of the same name. Dubrovnik has a proud history as a… More A night cruise on a tall ship in Dubrovnik
If you’re going to go to Dubrovnik, you’re going to go and explore the Old Town. For me, it was more out of a “this is the done thing” than out of any real desperate desire. I was in Croatia for the joy of being in Croatia and for the sea kayaking which I would… More Dubrovnik Old Town