Do you remember how Puglia was touted as “the new Tuscany” by the travel media last year? Well, as we recently discovered, the reality is very different. We’ve just completed a road trip in Calabria researching a guidebook, and spent some time in Basilicata at the start of the trip and drove through Basilicata and … Read more about Is Calabria the new Puglia?
These are the 10 places I think you should experience in 2008, based on places I have been myself, and here are some quick reasons why. I’ll give you my own wish list of ‘it’ destinations for 2008, places I have never been but hope to visit, in the new year.1. SYRIA: colossal history confronts … Read more about 10 Places You Must Go in 2008: places I have been
The most outrageous travel essay in recent history” is what budget travel guru Arthur Frommer called the New York Times’ ’53 Places to go in 2008′ in a superb analysis of the list. I’d only seen the online version, so if it really took up the amount of space he claims, it must be one … Read more about The most outrageous travel essay in recent history, according to budget travel guru
So why should we care so much if publications like the New York Times get their ‘hot new destinations’ lists so wrong? Because our leisure time is important to us. For those of you who don’t travel for a living, those one or two trips a year should be special. They should be memorable. They … Read more about Why travel wish lists matter, or, why a lack of imagination is a dangerous thing
So what’s wrong with the New York Times list?* LAOS, over Cambodia and Vietnam, because they are “so 2007”, and yet Vietnam is included further down the list (?). Does the NYT not realise most travellers visit all three together, and all three are only going to get hotter;* LISBON: NYT tells us it’s “emerging” … Read more about What’s wrong with the New York Times ’53 places to go in 2008′ list