Valaparaiso on Horseback

You and your partner are finally taking your dream vacation. The only thing is, by the time you got around to taking that dream vacation it’s no longer just you and your partner; it’s you, your partner and the kids. It’s not the end of the world. Traveling with kids doesn’t have to be drudgery, but it will require some attitude adjustments, some negotiating and a lot of planning and open communication.

You’ll be best off if, from the beginning, you accept the fact that this is not the same trip you would be having if it were just adults. Not better, not worse, just different. Expectations are premeditated disappointments; so adjust those expectations from the start and you’re more likely to enjoy the experience you’re having instead of longing for the one you’re not.

Remember when you were teaching your children about sharing? You…

 
A Gathering of “Travel Snobs”, Photo by Gretchen Wilson-Kalav

Travel snobbery. Does it exist? If so, how would you define it?

When mulling over the topic in the beginning, the first question seemed to be a “no-brainer” as I personally felt the collective answers would be a resounding “Yes!”. And, as you read through the replies, you will find that proved to be the outcome. It’s in the definitions of “travel snobbery” where things truly became interesting… Is it the backpacker? Is it the cruise ship dweller? Is it anyone, or everyone, who steps over their own threshold to venture somewhere else?

Ant Stone

Trail of Ants

Travel snobbery exists. It’s probably oozing over this very panel discussion in the guise of anti-snobbery. I imagine it as a slobbering beast that roams the globe — almost always “off the beaten track”. Its backpack is the lightest, it’s been…

Fish never tasted so good.  The BBC World Service report that London is being lashed by November storms with zero visibility in the Home Counties, but here, on the Akamas Peninsula in Cyprus, the view – and the fish – is perfect.

I am dropped off near Lara, a few kilometres down a bumpy track beyond Ayios Georgios.  A short walk later, I’m eating swordfish cooked by a 91-year old Cypriot fisherman named Vasilios, sitting at a table overlooking a silent, stony bay. The eggshell-blue tablecloth matches the effervescent, cerulean seawater below. There’s no-one around.

Vasilios wears the traditional vraka or baggy breeches. He doesn’t speak English but I manage to get by with my limited Greek.  He says he has fished off the Akamas and in Khrysoukhou Bay since the age of 15; he even fishes for swordfish out in the blue expanses towards Rhodes,…

For anyone with an ounce of escapism in their soul, there is no-where as magical as the Quirimbas Archipelago in Northern Mozambique with its Portuguese forts, tales of Arab merchants, ivory and slavery.

At tiny Pemba airport, in Northern Mozambique, a row of clocks on the wall tell different times around the world, but every single one has stopped. This oversight nearly results in me missing my flight to the Quirimbas Archipelago.

‘Don’t worry so, Sir, you’ll still make the flight.  It’s just you and 3 others on the plane.  And you won’t require a watch on Medjumbe, Mr Nic,’ says the check-in assistant. ‘Happy holiday in Moz-am-bee-kay.’

I climb into a single-engine 12-seater Cessna, and am thinking that the name of the destination – Medjumbe – sounds wildly romantic and idyllic, when the whup-whup of the propeller announces our departure.

‘We’ll fly over…