The best parks and gardens in the world include everything from sprawling botanic gardens with lakes and ponds to palm-lined parks that skirt waterfront promenades. If you seek out green spaces when you travel, whether for respite from big city chaos, some exercise or a leisurely stroll, or to spread a picnic blanket out on … Read more
The patchwork of green rice fields and farmland dotted with lofty palm trees warmed my heart when I first got a glimpse of the scene from the window of the plane on our recent approach to Siem Reap last month. If the image above looks familiar, it’s because we posted that snap after our last … Read more
After a couple of months staying in boutique hotels in Siem Reap and Bangkok, we’ve reaffirmed something we’ve increasingly felt over the years and that’s that when it comes to choosing hotel accommodation when we travel, boutique hotels suit us better. We much prefer small local boutique hotels to big bland multinationals. We’ll take more … Read more
Food Street, Tong Duy Tan was our Hanoi home for three months. Lined with boisterous shophouse eateries, busy food stalls and rowdy late-night local bars, the street noise didn’t bother us. But the daily karaoke like clockwork on the other side of our apartment wall drove us absolutely mad. But who wouldn’t sacrifice a little … Read more
“So what is local travel and is it over yet?” a hotel general manager asked me the other day during a chat about tourism and travel trends. After struggling to suppress a groan of frustration, for reasons that I will explain, I told him what local travel meant to me. After all, local travel is … Read more