If, like me, you still have an old-style UK driving licence without a photo, you may want to pay the Chancellor the necessary to upgrade to a photo licence if you are planning a trip to the USA.

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Tags: money

In recent years Amsterdam has really been simply our preferred European airport for international connections. So we found ourselves, for the first time in nine years, planning a trip to Amsterdam as a destination.

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Tags: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

In the UK one of the standard topics of conversation among travellers is how much money they saved holidaying in the USA. Well, judging by our recent trip, these days are over.

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Tags: USA, money

Visitors to Los Angeles Airport (LAX) would do well to make sure they are in peak fitness before they get there.

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Tags: Los Angeles, LAX

I am currently in the USA and having to remember my US etiquette. There are a number of things that are different on this side of the atlantic that can surprise a British diner.

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Tags: restaurants, USA

I was reminded recently of an interesting dilemma from a few years back. I was sitting with a colleague in Pisa airport after a press launch waiting for our flight to the UK to be called. It was mid afternoon and I was really tired. The thought of returning home to a good night’s sleep was extremely appealing.

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Tags: Italy, Channel Tunnel

It is hard to get your brain round the fact that the wall decoration that you are looking is almost 2,000 years old. In one of the rooms it is almost Art Deco in style.

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Tags: Italy

There is something really enchanting about the Isle of Harris, in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. This really is a place to get away from it all.

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Tags: Scotland , Islands, Hebrides, Harris

It was a wierd sensation to have left on Sunday night, to have journeyed overnight and to arrive at Sydney on Tuesday morning. We felt cheated. After all we only had a couple of weeks in Australia to explore a little bit of this huge country and, even before we got there, someone had stolen one of our days!

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Tags: Australia, Sydney

Istanbul is one of the world's great cities with a population of more than 11 million. It also has an amazingly diverse society, thanks to its role as centre of the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires and a city, quite literally, straddling Europe and Asia. That makes it a fascinating destination for visitors.

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Tags: Turkey, Istanbul

Blackpool? As the guide on the open top bus confirmed, that is what Dublin means in Gaelic - black pool. But, unlike its namesake on the other side of the Irish Sea, Dublin has a very cosmopolitan atmosphere.

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Tags: dublin

On a clear day, Zermatt is all about the Matterhorn. But, on the day we arrived in this famously car-free town, where enclosed golf buggy taxis hum around the streets, the Matterhorn was teasing. It's head was stubbornly stuck in the clouds. We joked about our "room with Matterhorn view", but still it was not to be seen.

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Tags: Switzerland, Zermatt, Matterhorn

It is ironic that - as the country at the heart of Europe and one of the most scenic - we have taken so long to focus on its attractions and delights.

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Tags: Switzerland, Jungfrau

Interlaken has been a popular centre for tourists for decades. Not surprising really when much of the country is within an easy few hours travel from the town.

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Tags: Switzerland, Interlaken, Jungfrau

Access to the internet is rapidly becoming a necessity, not a luxury. Especially for travellers it is so handy for making forward bookings, checking in for flights, booking cars, finding restaurants and getting opinions on things to do and places to see on the next day's itinerary.


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Tags: gripes, Internet

I've always had a fascination for buildings that are built into, or cling to cliffs. I don't know why. But, as a kid I would pick up National Geographic and look with particular wonder at the cliff houses of Mesa Verde, or the buildings carved into rock at Petra.

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Tags: france, rocamadour

Before you go there you realise, of course, that Ayers Rock and Uluru (the aboriginal name for the rock itself) is in the middle of a vast continent. But it is on the flight from Sydney that you really begin to realise how vast the outback is.

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Tags: Australia, AyersRock, Sydney

Nairobi is East Africa's most populous city with an estimated population in the metropolitan area of between three and four million. Largely an uninhabited swamp until the end of the 19th Century, it became a supply depot for the railway then in 1905 it took on the status of capital city. It is said that Nairobi was chosen because, at 5,500 feet, the temperatures were too low for the malaria mosquito to survive (although current advice is you must take anti-malarial treatments).

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Tags: Africa , Kenya, Nairobi

The idea for Venice arose because we were looking for somewhere to spend a long weekend that would be truly memorable and different. Somewhere were we would not be tempted to try to cram too much into our time. Most importantly, somewhere to relax.

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Tags: Venice

Having been in Prague on a business trip some years before, I knew it was a place I wanted to return to. I didn't think too carefully about the time of year to visit and it was only as we saw the fields carpeted in snow as the plane came into land, that I realised March can still be quite cold in Central Europe!

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Tags: Prague

Brussels - the European capital. Centre of the European Union. Home of NATO. With that background it is no surprise that much of Brussels consists of rather soulless high-rise office buildings. But there are hidden charms to reward those who explore a bit further.

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Tags: Brussels, Grand Place

No matter how often you have seen big game in a zoo, nothing comes anywhere close to an eyeball-eye-ball encounter with a cheetah, lion or leopard in its natural environment.

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Tags: Kenya , MasaiMara, Wildlife, Nairobi

California is a land of amazing contrasts, great experiences and wonderful landscapes. How best do you get a flavour in ten days or a fortnight? I still think the route I took, on my first recent visit to California, takes some beating.

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Tags: California, USA, Yosemite, Bodie, Death Valley, Las Vegas, Lake Havasu, Mojave, Carmel, Grand Canyon, Big Sur, roadtrip, San Francisco, Monterey, Los Angeles, Morro Bay

It was really Route 66 that made the American road trip possible. This is the route that gave life to the West by opening it up to the automobile and the truck - hence it is often known as 'The Mother Road'. As one who enjoys road trips in the United States, this was the ultimate - the road trip we really had to do.

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Tags: USA, roadtrip, Lake Havasu, Route 66, Chicago, Los Angeles, Arizona, California, Texas, Oklahoma