501 Places

Many places lay claim to the much hyped label ‘Eighth Wonder of the World’. A recent entrant to this list of aspiring wonders is the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandi, better known as the Neasden Temple. This unglamorous corner of London is better known to millions as home to two giant symbols of worship of a [...]

Wherever we are in the world, we always notice opticians’ shops. From the simple shack in the Indian town to the trendy optical store on the European high street, I see a glimpse of my own past; an environment in which I spent the first ten years of my working life as an optometrist and [...]

I set off on my first InterRail journey in 1987. It was long before the days of blogging, and the few notes that I recorded in a notebook are now long gone. Yet I did recently dig out some of the assorted junk that I’d brought back in my rucksack. At the time I must [...]

I think I know London pretty well these days. I’m in the city most weeks, and a couple of times a month we take a long walk through different neighbourhoods and see what we can find: blue plaques depicting famous residents of the past, surprising remnants of wars or fires that have shaped the city [...]

I spend far too much of my time reading ‘stuff” online. Usually it’s other people’s blog posts, sometimes it’s newspaper articles and other times it is random nonsense that I find when I’m looking for something that I’ve long forgotten I started looking for. On many days I couldn’t tell you how those hours disappear [...]

We’re only three weeks away from World Travel Market (WTM), and the world’s trees are once again in mortal danger as this major annual event approaches. Like turkeys lined up for Christmas, they will be destroyed without mercy in the chaotic dash to produce tens of thousands of brochures, catalogues, flyers, magazines and glossy folders [...]

Just for a change, a video post today. Enjoy :-)

Having ready access to cash is an endless concern for almost every traveller. Those who use the dollar or euro as their home currency can splash their own cash in other select corners of the world, but even they are not immune from making sure they have access to their cash while travelling. Here are [...]

This week’s guest post is written by Ben Colclough, founder of Tourdust and an avid traveller. Ben shares with us his views on the world of backpacking, challenging some of the common myths that are associated with the backpacking community. He also recalls some of his own travel experiences and how they shaped those views. [...]

Last night I co-hosted the weekly Travellers’ Night In (TNI) event on Twitter. It’s basically a couple of hours of chatter with several hundred people around 10 timed questions on a particular theme. This week it was all about the UK. While the audience is international it is fair to say that the majority of [...]