Off the beaten track European summer destinations are still possible to find. You need to look just beyond Europe’s obvious summer hotspots – the Cinque Terre, Côte d’Azur, Italian Lakes and so on – as sometimes Europe’s secret beaches, sleepy cities, quiet towns, and cool...
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European summer escapes were on my mind at this time every year during the many years we lived in the Middle East. A summer in Europe split between its sophisticated cities and the Mediterranean sand and sunshine was my idea of heaven. Here’s a personal guide to...
I was asked to craft a Grantourismo-style romantic city escape or luxury honeymoon holiday, a break focused firmly on love and romance but one involving a slow, local and experiential travel, and a lot of food and wine. Grantourismo’s romantic city escapes and luxury honeymoon holidays Barcelona,...
Our third morning* in Portugal’s UNESCO World Heritage-listed Douro Valley wine region began with the now mandatory drive through magnificent countryside, our bus skirting the edge of the misty valley before climbing up to Favaios, on a plateau which at 600 metres is the Douro’s...
I’m not sure if it was the three days of intense activity at Wine Pleasures’ International Wine Tourism Conference in Porto, Portugal — watching presentations, live-tweeting, blogging, networking, lunching, drinking and dining, and, on the last day, giving a presentation on Grantourismo. Or whether it was...
We’ve been absolutely frantic, working on a book, a city guide, lots of stories for magazines, and developing some exciting Grantourismo partnerships. We’ve also been in Portugal sipping port wine. In case you missed them, catch up here on our Portugal trip with a read of this first...
Quaffing vinho verde in Portugal’s Minho Valley we may well have been – and with a Count no less! – but not for two weeks, as the date on our last blog post To Porto, to Present Grantourismo, Talk Travel and Taste Wine suggests. We’re actually...
From chilly Edinburgh, where our yearlong grand tour officially ended, we went to the splendid Atlantic coast city of Porto in Northern Portugal, where we shed some layers, soaked up some welcome sunshine, saw cobalt skies for the first time in months, and attended Wine...
