The negative impact of cruising In the past, I have been somewhat critical of cruising. As a form of tourism, I believe it is extremely damaging, not only to the environment, but to the culture of the places the gigantic floating resorts visit and the experience of the unfortunate souls who happen to be in [...]
Dear café, sandwich shop or deli, If your level of expertise is such that you are trying to sell me A) a panini rather than a panino, B) some paninis rather than some panini or – god-forbid – C) some panini’s, then I’m probably not going to be impressed by the standard of your bloody [...]
Continue reading about An open letter to all cafés, sandwich shops and delis
On a guided tour, the quality often derives from the people you’re with. Get a good bunch, and you’ll have a great time. On the other hand, there are some people you most definitely don’t want to be mixing with. And if you get all of these ten on your bus, then you’re doomed… ONE [...]
Continue reading about The tour bus from hell – the ten people you don’t want in your group
As someone who makes a living from travel, I’m probably supposed to be a lot more open-minded and tolerant than I am. But, alas, I am often driven by utterly pathetic reasoning. There are some places that I avoid going to, but I’m almost ashamed to say why. There’s a high chance that by ditching [...]
Continue reading about 7 totally uncool reasons why I’ll avoid certain destinations
In recent weeks, I have been writing a few city guides, which means that I have had to visit a lot of hotel websites in order to get contact details. On the way, I have encountered some phenomenally irritating sites, but that of the Hotel De Las Letras in Madrid was the straw that broke [...]
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Old school feedback As any writer who has written something for an online publication will probably know, feedback isn’t always that much of a blessing. In the not so brave old world, you would write a piece for your newspaper, and unless it was controversial enough to spark hundreds of letters to the editor, you’d [...]
Places you just don’t like When you’re travelling, it’s inevitable that there are going to be some places that you just don’t like. I have less-than-fond memories of Catania in Sicily, largely because I was stuck in the rain for hours with nowhere to hide, and Ostrava in the Czech Republic will always be a [...]
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
The joys of modern banking In many ways, modern banking is wonderful. I can travel pretty much anywhere in the world and withdraw money from a machine using my trusty bank card. I can also pay for many things with my credit card just by a swipe and sign or tapping in a PIN. It’s [...]
Continue reading about Using credit cards abroad – with extra security measures