Tours
One-on-one tour On the e-mail, the words I secretly dread appeared. “We can offer you a guide for three hours,” it said. My heart sank. In many ways, having a personal, one-on-one guided tour around a city should be the ideal way to discover it. They can show you the best bits, explain the history [...]
Continue reading about Why private tours don’t work (for me)
Skiing holidays Summer is a wonderful time of year, if only because we’re spared the acres of newsprint spilled about skiing holidays. I may have got this all wrong, and skiing holidays may be so popular that 20% of the population goes on one at some point every year. But, to me, it seems like [...]
Ten tips for getting yourself noticed: PART ONE In recent times, I have come across a number of really interesting projects – be they unusual tours, genuinely excellent B&Bs or quirky experiences. And there seem to be some common themes with them. Firstly, they’re small, independent operations run by one or two people without [...]
Best tour guides A pattern struck me the other day, as I was thinking about what made a good tour guide. All the best ones I have encountered have had one thing in common – they weren’t from the place they were showing me around. Great outsiders This holds true for the superbly knowledgeable [...]
Or why you should avoid Great Sights Fiji’s Nadi afternoon tour Tourist vs traveller I’ve no desire to get into the hoary, old and frankly ridiculous tourist versus traveller debate. Going on a tour doesn’t necessarily make you a second class citizen to be sneered at. But this doesn’t mean that I don’t get [...]
Going solo When I was travelling down the Australian coast last year, I did so as a normal human being rather than a pampered travel journalist. One of the things that struck me was how difficult it can be to do anything when you’re on your own. How many? The classic example was in [...]
Continue reading about Solo travellers: Why tour companies are missing out on customers
On the tourist trail Apologies for this blog being quiet of late – I am currently in the middle of a fairly exhausting jaunt through South Africa. As part of this trip, I have been doing a lot of tours, and as a result, have come to a conclusion or two about how tour operators [...]
Continue reading about How tour operators should deal with journalists
I’m sure many travel writers have encountered a situation where they have been offered a ‘media rate’ by hotels, airlines and tour operators. And I’m sure many of us have struggled to know how to word the most appropriate response. Well never fear – just alter the details on this template letter to suit your [...]
Mental image of cruise ship passengers I’ve never been on a cruise ship, and I can’t see myself ever wanting to. This is partly due to the image I have of what a cruise holiday would be like – being surrounded by fat, elderly Americans who care about little but being able to graze on [...]
Continue reading about Cruise ships and the damage they cause to destinations