501 Places

A couple of weeks ago I drove from Salzburg to Innsbruck. It took a little under two hours, and along the way I drove into Germany and then back out into Austria again. Did I need a visa? Of course not. Did I show my passport? There was no-one to show it to. In fact [...]

In this week’s guest post Kathryn Bullock describes her recent experience of spending Easter in the lesser known parts of Romania. In fact I suspect all of Romania is unknown to the majority of travellers. After reading Kathryn’s account you might agree that it’s worthy of a closer look. The 12 day break between Good [...]

Two years ago I published my first post on 501 Places. Since that day I’ve posted another 463 posts and enjoyed many online conversations and face to face meetings that have come as a result. I look back and see that I wrote a post on a similar theme 12 months ago, so perhaps it’s [...]

Finding a loo/toilet/restroom/baño when you need one is a constant challenge for many a traveller. In many cities they can be readily found, but require you to spend a lot more than a penny. In others, they are in such an appalling state that even in a state of desperation you are reluctant to use [...]

You may remember a while back 501 Places featured an excellent guide to learning languages with a host of unorthodox but highly effective tips. James Willcox is back with a second post, this time on the subject of the famous Silk Road. He explores whether the route has managed to retain its sense of mystery and adventure despite [...]

The latest guest post on 501 Places is a moving story by Jerry Kubica recalling his travels in a remote part of Kazakhstan as part of his work for the charity Our Roots Trust. He set up the charity to help those families who were uprooted from their Polish homeland by the two world wars [...]

Portugal was a country that in my world had long stood alone. For many years it had been the only gap on my western European travel map. It may be because it’s out on a limb; you don’t go through Portugal to get to anywhere. So it was a long overdue moment when we touched down [...]

We spent yesterday walking the streets of Paris and visiting the famous spots we’ve had the pleasure to see many times before. Paris is choc-full of instantly recognisable monuments and symbols, and on a sunny day is a photographer’s dream. Add to the mix tens of thousands of tourists on any one day and you [...]

Following on from last week’s post about trekking and reaching Annapurna Base Camp (ABC), Kathryn Bullock returns to share with us the key highlights and add her reflections on some of the “uncool” sides of trekking. Having reached ABC we opted to trek back down for lunch and continue down to Himalaya camp. The prospect [...]

This is not the first post on the thorny topic of tipping on 501 Places. Previous posts have addressed the variations in the practice of tipping across the world, or have looked at the many national quirks in tipping etiquette and how they inevitably leave a visitor confused and often embarrassed. But in a week [...]