Going AWOL Over the next couple of months, I may be a little quieter on this blog and Twitter than usual. That will be because I’m travelling around the world (Canada, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore) and won’t get back until the beginning of June. I’ll still pop up the odd post when something [...]
The buffalo I have a clear picture of the buffalo. It had the faintest trace of a limp as it barrelled across the road in its ungainly solo stampede. It had made plodding progress out from the trees, then took one look at our van and decided to belt it across the road before we [...]
You’re currently reading the third draft of this post. It was initially designed as a name-and-shame hatchet job. I rewrote it once because I felt it may be a tad unfair, and I rewrote it a second time because I felt it may be a little hypocritical. In the process, I’ve become horribly confused about [...]
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New restaurant On Friday night, I decided to try out a new restaurant (Piccolino in Sheffield city centre if you must know). The food was good, the décor quite impressive and the location excellent. But the service drove me mental. Bad service? I’m sure everyone can point to incidences of appalling service they’ve had [...]
Early today I was alerted to a fabulously waspish Tweet from Hanoi-based blogger and journalist Steve Jackson. He said: “Travel writing is second lowest form of writing. The lowest form is travel tips (don’t pack too much – remember to haggle).” Sigh. Obviously I’m not going to agree with him, as that would damage [...]
Is there a point to travel writing courses, other than to provide people who don’t do much travel writing with a bit of extra cash at the expense of the clueless and unsuitable? Student media lectures On Saturday I went along to the Student Media Day at Sheffield University, where a few of [...]
Continue reading about Travel writing courses: Selling dreams to dreamers?
ONE Put tables alongside the security queue. Then we can get our laptops out early and reduce everyone else’s queuing time rather than waiting until just before we get to the conveyor belt. It is virtually impossible to pull a laptop out of a bag whilst holding said bag, incidentally. TWO Employ passport control [...]
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Dear hotel chains, While I completely understand your right to brand your hotels – after all, your guests will often choose to stay with you because they know what the brand name usually offers – you are starting to take the piss. Let me explain something about names. My name is David Whitley. [...]
Continue reading about When hotel branding gets silly: An open letter