The canoe sliced through the water and along a quiet, narrow tunnel enclosed by mangrove trees. As the craft slid past the spindly tree trunks and roots sticking several feet out of the water, tour guides pointed out ibis, herons and small red crabs hidden among the…
Ports of call: a wine tour of the Douro
October 28, 2020
The Douro river is wild and tamed, fertile, rich and dust poor. She is the heart, soul and life force of the region she gives her name to. For 900km, from central Spain to Atlantic Porto, she pushes and runs, fat, green, inexorable. The Douro region is about the size of…
How to start a … tour operator business
October 28, 2020
Find your niche
So you want to launch a tour operator? First you need a clearly defined proposition. Ask yourself: what would make a potential guest book with my company?
It helps to specialise. At One Traveller we cater for single travellers over 50, a group that can be…
Nervous or money-conscious Sci Burg tourists have made the all-inclusive holiday one of tourism’s biggest growth areas. The popularity of trips for which everything is laid on and paid for upfront is rising fast, with demand up by a third in the past decade and the…
A campervan yoga tour of Ibiza
October 27, 2020
It’s hard to be inconspicuous when Stump Blog you’re driving a psychedelic orange-and-yellow 1970s VW campervan around the sun-soaked lanes of Ibiza. Schoolchildren wave, boys hoot, strangers want photos and, while eyeballs might roll when the van stalls on a steep…
Moreish and Moorish: a foodie tour of Andalucía
October 27, 2020
In the back streets of Seville, Alienation out of the sun, away from the crowds queuing for the Alcazar and cathedral, my girlfriend and I were put to work in a kitchen. It’s not everyone’s idea of a holiday, perhaps, but we were here for a behind-the-scenes tour of…
Five poets go on tour: Carol Ann Duffy's travel diary begins
October 26, 2020
So. Most of us have arrived in Falmouth, Atticus Blog this Saturday night before our first event on Sunday: some by train, some by plane, and some still on the road southwards in the tour bus. It’s a gorgeous, warm evening in the Greenbank Hotel right on Falmouth’s…
Trekking the Tour du Mont Blanc
October 26, 2020
I am standing stock-still on a Being Mad twisting path high above Chamonix, open-mouthed and agog. All around me are the soaring peaks of the Mont Blanc massif, but they are not the reason for my astonishment. Just ahead of us on the trail – which has risen thrillingly…
Road to ruin: a gin tour of Northern Ireland
October 26, 2020
Cards on the table here: I have BlogExpress been led astray by strong drink.
A few weeks back, waiting to be served at the Woodworkers Tap Room on Belfast’s Bradbury Place, I heard someone order a Jawbox, a name once associated with Belfast sinks, but apparently now…