“The Silk Road” is an evocative notion, and redolent with imagery. It is, in fact, not a single passage from Europe to China, but a vast network of roads and tracks, cities and waypoints that lubricated the east-west trade of the first 15 centuries of the last millennium. Of the nearly 6,500 kilometres of identified track, I have chosen to look at the 400 kilometres of the network between Bukhara and Khiva in Uzbekistan.

Revisiting Uzbekistan: Khiva and Bukhara The Silk Road is an evocative notion, and redolent with imagery. It is, in fact, not a single passage from Europe to China, but a vast network of roads and tracks, cities and waypoints that lubricated the east/west trade of the first fifteen centuries of the last millennia. Of the […]

It wasn’t so much being kicked in the back that bothered me. It was Air Canada’s extreme corporate reaction to smother the event and make me feel like an idiot.

Georgia 2027! I am delighted to announce our tenth wine and cultural tour to Georgia, a most remarkable country nestled deep in the Caucasus. Georgia is a wonderful place to visit and enjoy its deep history, rich culture and truly unique food and wine. This will be my thirtieth visit to the country, and I […]

AUG 2026, Paramaribo> South America is unusual and oddly surprising, and Suriname leads in every category of peculiar! The language spoken by the most people is Portuguese, not Spanish; the northernmost point in Brazil is closer to Canada than it is to Brazil’s southernmost point. And, on the northeast coast, sandwiched between Venezuela and Brazil […]

Georgia keeps beckoning I travel a great deal, and there is always the question of going to a new destination and exploring the unknown or returning to an old familiar friend. And as I age, slow down a little and generally look for different amusements, the decision exaggerates. Georgia, the country, not the state, has […]

The Gulf is an often overlooked destination, but now eyes are being focussed on the region, and Oman in particular

I lie awake at night from time to time, conjuring up new journeys and reliving past travels. Cities explored, countries discovered, time zones conquered, and often a list of destinations to be re-examined jostle through my mind as I try to fall…

The Gulf countries, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, The UAE and Oman are fascinating, different and well worth exploring

Firstly, Luxembourg did now have an airline capable of flying across the Atlantic, and appointed Icelandair as their flag carrier. This was only allowed because the canny Vikings had negotiated the ability to work for a third country and out of the…

Mexico City was a wonderful escape, but this time I wanted to get a little further afield. Buenos Aires Which cities to choose is personal and idiosyncratic. I chose Buenos Aires because I love Tango dancing, red wine and steak, Asuncion because…

I, like most travellers, am often asked where my favourite place is, and like most travellers find the question hard to answer. Parsma, in Tusheti, is a hard act to follow. In a word, I have become hardened. Habituated to change and difficult to…

The Wild Atlantic Islands Remote areas are often overlooked, underestimated or simply ignored. Many of us will have, on the way to or from Europe, cast a glance at the flight map and seen the groups of islands they lie between Scotland and Iceland,…

It is ten years today since I departed from Cape Town on the RMS St. Helena, one of the world’s last working Royal Mail ships, for the six-day run to the remote island of St. Helena. I like remote and unusual places, and adding St. Helena to my list…

The Luxury of a Sleeper Of all the many modes of travel, perhaps the most evocative is the sleeper train. Travelling through the night over hundreds of miles, ensconced in a comfortable cabin can be the epitome of a travel dream. Or the setting for a…

Quirky places make interesting destinations. The homogenization of the world can make for dispiriting travel. One destination starts to look exactly like another, and global brands, identical shops, and “authentic pedestrian zones” litter the world’s…

A week in North Macedonia has been a remarkable transition. From what and to what, I am not quite sure, but suffice it to say, this rather off-the-beaten (actually any) -track has been a tonic. I have loved it for its ordinariness. There was no…

Who goes to Mexico City? Mexico City is simply a wonderful place to visit. But few do. It is one of those destinations that, through media coverage and staring at atlases at school, we think that we know. We have all hear of the country, Mexico, and…

Edinburgh is pretty, and it knows it. Like those infuriating teenagers bestowed with the best looks, Edinburgh preens and lies in the occasional sunshine smiling at everyone who cares to pass. It is truly a wonderful city, and a city for both the…