501 Places

In a previous 501 Places post I wrote about a crazy 3 day road trip we took with some good friends of ours who were over from America for a few days. London to Inverness in 2.5 days is not for the faint hearted, but it got me thinking. If we had longer, say two [...]

Arriving in a new place, our senses are alive to the strange sense, sights and sounds that surround us. We revel in the unknown and absorb our environment and all its surprises. The joys of travel are all about the sensations we experience: tasting new foods, hearing  different languages and music and of course the [...]

Over the years I’ve encountered many Europeans and Antipodeans who have travelled extensively throughout the world, yet they have never been to America. When I ask them why they have neglected this big chunk of the globe the reply is nearly always the same: “we can do America when we’re too old to do the [...]

In my previous life I was a crisis management consultant in the travel industry. I would often conduct training sessions with clients, and as the main part of the day I would construct a nightmare scenario that would take place on one of the client’s tours. It might be a coach crash, a terrorist attack [...]

Phnom Penh was one of my favourite stops on our SE Asia trip. Considering I spent a large part of one day there (Christmas Day to be precise) in close proximity to our hotel bathroom, that is quite a compliment. It’s not a pretty city, with only a few buildings of note. The Royal Palace [...]

For many visitors to a country their interactions with local people form the highlight of their stay, and create their most vivid memories. And of these encounters the ones with children inevitably tug at the heart strings and foster feelings of joy and, too often, sadness and helplessness. It was no different for us in [...]

The latest guest post on 501 Places is from good friend and fellow St Albans resident Veronica Cooper. Recently home from a trip to the East Coast, Veronica makes her debut in the world of blogging by sharing some of the highlights of her time in one of my favourite US cities: Boston. Over to [...]

Using Bangkok purely as an entry-exit point to SE Asia, we ended up with three nights and only one day in the city. It was our final day, and we were relaxed at the fact that we would do little more than scratch the surface of this giant city. We have so many plans to [...]

I wish we’d had more time to spend in Cambodia. The little we saw of it was captivating, and the warmth of the people along with the delicious Khmer cuisine meant that we were sorry to leave when we did. I am grateful at least that we did get to see a little of the [...]

There are several “what type of traveller are you?” type of quizzes out there. They are  usually good fun to complete, with some interesting and humurous scenarios where the answers are used to attempt to determine your travelling type. The trouble is, I’ve never quite managed to fit myself into a category and always end [...]