501 Places

Whether we consider ourselves as seasoned travellers or occasional tourists, we invariably seek out the ‘authentic experience’ wherever we are staying. It may be the restaurant that sells authentic food, the authentic hotel run by local people, or the boat trip to visit the authentic village, where “people go about their daily lives as they [...]

As we drove towards south west London, the rain started to fall, and quickly got heavier until the wipers were working at full-speed. We questioned the sanity of going on, but having come so far and armed with a large umbrella we decided to carry on. And what a treat! Syon Park, the grand home [...]

“Take only photographs, leave only footprints”. I first saw this saying when arriving on a remote island in the Seychelles. It was written on a weather-beaten board and greeted us as we waded out of the warm water onto the pristine sandy beach. It seemed very apt, as we had taken a short boat ride [...]

In a recent 501 Places post about Travel Broadening the Mind, many people commented on the diverse benefits of travel. Some spoke of the valuable exposure to alien cultures, of the acceptance of others’ way of life and of learning that our way is not the only way. How far should we stretch our tolerance [...]

Long before John Gray declared that men were from Mars and women from Venus, we all knew that there were fundamental differences between us beyond the mere physical ones. But how do these differences show themselves in the travelling behaviour of the different sexes? Aware that I only recently wrote a post about the dangers [...]

The internet has changed our travel experiences in many ways. The ability to book ahead, make arrangements independently and to share stories and images with other travellers has revolutionised the way we plan and execute our dreams of seeing faraway places.Yet with all of this capability now at our fingertips, have we lost something of [...]

A few weeks ago we took a train into London and got off at London Bridge with no particular plans. We knew we wanted to walk, as it was a beautiful autumn day. But beyond that we were happy to see what came our way. The pictures below tell the story, and are a great [...]

Imagine the situation. You wake up, it’s 2am and you need to go to the bathroom. You don’t want to switch on the light as you know that will delay your return to the dreamy world you have just left. So you stumble your way across the room to the bathroom and do the rest [...]

Photographs are a natural prop to help us tell the stories of our travel adventures to others. Whether we are recalling our great journeys over a coffee or a glass of wine, or whether we are posting them online, a set of pictures makes it easier for us to find the words that describe what [...]

I don’t know if anyone recognises this book. I just retrieved it from my parents’ house, and it brought back fond memories. For three years of backpacking and Inter-railing in the late 1980s this book was my bible.What Katie Wood and George McDonald said was worth visiting got the thumbs up from thousands of young [...]