For months I have been staring through my office window in despair at the tantrum-ing weather outside; for respite I have been browsing holiday brochures, looking at city breaks, cruise holidays, and package deals.  I have held back from booking anything as the English weather has scared me – I am reluctant to book anything that doesn’t come with a stamped guarantee of good weather.  But finally last week I made my decision and I have opted for a cruise.  I am going to sail around the Caribbean, visiting stunning locations where I am guaranteed to feel the sunshine on my face and warm water lapping at my toes and if by some poor, unfortunate luck we hit a spell of bad weather I am confident the next port will hold some heat and the sun will shine again.

I’ve done my research and the best time to experience instant sun in the Caribbean is between June and August, although the sun tends to shine for most of the year making it a fabulous destination all year round.  I am aiming to go early in the season, just in case any pesky hurricanes decide to descend towards the end of the summer months which could cause my ports to change.

If you want to reach the sun on a cruise later in the year, I can recommend Hawaii between December and April and this is also the ideal time to go whale spotting on this beautiful Island.  Likewise similar dates suit the Mexican Riviera which can hit temperatures in the 80s during February.  Compare that to the furious February just past and I know I wish I had planned ahead and taken my cruise earlier.

If you want to experience more Mediterranean sunshine the best time to travel is May to June or September to October, although late April should allow you to see the sun in countries like Morocco, Turkey and Greece.  I have taken a cruise to the Mediterranean previously and found it a fantastic trip to explore the wildlife of the area.  Morocco showed me a fantastic mix of pelicans, flamingos and storks and I delighted in seeing Dolphins swim alongside the cruise liner, and we spotted a white shark when we sailed into Turkey.

So bon voyage, farewell to the rain, I have packed my suitcase, gone on a crash diet, and am hitting the deck.

Hello sunshine!

About the author: Jane Blackmore is a freelance writer, editor, and blogger.  She enjoys sunshine, vacations, and the odd cocktail on the beach.  She heavily dislikes the British weather!

The magnificent fortress-palace of the Alhambra towers over Granada and constitutes Spain’s premier piece of Islamic architecture. It’s named after the red colouring of its brickwork on the outer walls, and construction on it started in 1238, by the founder of the Nasrid dynasty, Ibn Ahmar.
His successors added to the building and it was finally finished in 1358. Just a century or so ago it was completely given over to vagrants and rare visitors like Washington Irving, who wrote a book about it, Tales of the Alhambra, which is still highly readable and instructive. Now it has been greatly renovated and visitors have access to the citadel or Alcazaba, the oldest part of the complex that still stands, along with the Great Palace which contains the famous Court of the Lions – a huge basin made out of a solid chunk of alabaster and supported by 12 marble lions.

The gardens of the Generalife with their fountains and pools, laid out in the 14th century, evoke a lost world of wonder and the heyday of Moorish civilisation in the Iberian Peninsula.
How to drive there: take the N-IV and then the E5 roads from Madrid, and follow the N323 to reach Granada, or follow the N334 and N342 from Seville in the south.

According to legend, the remains of St James, one of the Apostles, are housed in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in the north of Spain, a historic Christian stronghold while the wars with the southern Moors were going on. St James was martyred around 44AD in Jerusalem, and the first church here was erected in the 9th century by Alfonso II of Asturias. After Jerusalem and Rome, this was the most important place of pilgrimage in medieval times. Try to time your visit to coincide with one of the special masses, when a huge incense-burner is swung through the length of the transept, conjuring all the excitement of those turbulent centuries when Christians and Moslems were at each others’ throats.
You can reach Santiago de Compostella on the A52 or A9 from Madrid, or take the A9 from Ferrol.

For a fine example of a more light-hearted piece of religious architecture you can’t beat the splendid confection of La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Gaudi’s obsessive masterpiece, with its eight spires soaring to over 100 metres and its snaking contours. The cathedral was supposed to have twelve spires, representing the Apostles, but it remained an unfinished work. Nevertheless, La Sagrada Familia is a stunning symbol of this exciting city and looks like a surrealist portrait of Cologne or Notre Dame – definitely one for the modern age.
Take the A7 from France or the A2 from Saragoza and follow the signs.

You can conveniently whizz around these and many other historic sites on Spain’s excellent road network. Whether you’re into castles and cathedrals or simply want to lap up the wonderful and varied landscapes, Spain offers the lot.

David Elliott is a freelance writer who loves to travel, especially in Europe and Turkey. He’s spent most of his adult life in a state of restless excitement but recently decided to settle in North London. He gets away whenever he can to immerse himself in foreign cultures and lap up the history of great cities.

Volumes upon volumes have been written about Naples, and enough adjectives to fill an ocean, but the passage of time has had little effect on its perennial appeal. It’s true that the city used to have something of a reputation for petty theft; usually involving nifty Vespa motorbikes with a postilion passenger, but those days are long gone. Also, it’s a lot easier to get around now as recent mayors have been putting a lot of emphasis on tidying things up and keeping the roads and alleys well maintained, so nowadays Naples is as good as any other major European city in terms of ease of negotiation.

Taking public transport is probably the best bet, especially during the rush hour when traffic comes to a standstill. One of the advantages of having so many obvious historic attractions here is that they provide useful orientation when you’re exploring the backstreets, so palaces and castles such as the Castel Sant’Elmo and the Castel dell’Ovo are great visual reference points for tourists.

Neapolitans are renowned for their friendliness and great hospitality, and often will accompany you to the place you’re looking for if asked about the way. There is of course that lingeringly worrying advice about keeping a firm grip on handbags in these parts, but again that would apply to any big city.

If you’re coming to Naples for the first time, the best bet is to head for the Old Town on your first day, accessed easily from the Piazza Garibaldi. This is a major transport hub and is full of life at all times, but once you reach the old town you’re assured of quiet streets and much less chaos. Get here from the Piazza’s western end, and continue your stroll to the Corso Umberto I which used to be Naples’s main stronghold. Now there are numerous markets and hawkers clustering the narrow alleyways, where you can pick up bargain souvenirs to take back home.

One of the oldest urban streets in the world is located here, the Spaccanapoli, which cuts right across the city and used to be the main Roman road. This is the best street to get onto for accessing all parts of Naples quickly, rather than having to negotiate winding alleyways and often wasting much time in a short break here.

Once you’re orientated and streetwise it’s time to start exploring the many delights Naples has to offer. Italian food is legendary, of course, and many of the sights are just a short walk from each other. With a good pair of walking shoes and a backpack you’ll be all set for some great shopping and sightseeing in a truly exciting city.

David Elliott is a freelance writer who loves to travel, especially in Europe and Turkey. He’s spent most of his adult life in a state of restless excitement but recently decided to settle in North London. He gets away whenever he can to immerse himself in foreign cultures and lap up the history of great cities.

Apart from its more recent attractions, Larnaca also has a really impressive history going back to the 14th century BC. Because of its central location and importance for trade routes through the Mediterranean it has been fought over by every local and regional power worthy of the name throughout the whole of its history.

Anyone with even a passing interest in archaeology and the ancient Orient will be impressed with Cyprus’s incredibly rich and varied legacy in terms of culture and contribution to civilisation in this part of the world. There are a number of excellent museums to find out more concerning the different peoples who occupied the island down the centuries, and the city and its port themselves constitute a living museum and just the latest phase of its ongoing history.

The Acropolis is practically all that remains of Cyprus’s ancient capital of Krition, which was once rich in temples and palaces. The temples of Heracles and Aphrodite still have a few columns standing as a picturesque reminder of former glories, and there are also some 13th century ivory, gold and bronze tombs that give some idea of the wealth of the ancient city.

The Larnaca District Museum is easily reached on foot from the centre of town and has many interesting exhibits and displays of the numerous antiquities that have been unearthed here down the years. The Neolithic and Roman collections are particularly rich, but you can see things from all periods, including Byzantine coins and even odds and ends left by Crusaders en route to Jerusalem. Richard the Lionheart famously sold the island to the Knights Templar in the 13th century but they gave it back to him because even they were unable to defend it.

Another historical site worth a visit is the Hala Sultan Tekke, an Islamic version of a Christian monastery in which lie the remains of Mohammad’s foster mother, Umm Haram, who died here in 647 AD during an Arab invasion of the island, and later on Ottoman rulers built this attractive mosque in her honour. The Ottomans were also responsible for building another local attraction, the Kamares aqueduct, which most visitors understandably assume to be Roman.

Not all of Larnaca’s attractions however belong to dead civilisations and the city has a thriving contemporary culture as well. There are two art schools here that specialise in design and the fine arts, and also a municipal band with 60 members.

In the Old Town, a range of cultural events and art exhibitions are staged throughout the year at the Carnaro Institute cultural centre. There are also several major festivals, including the famous Festival of the Flood in early summer which takes place along the spacious promenade.

David Elliott is a freelance writer who loves to travel, especially in Europe and Turkey. He’s spent most of his adult life in a state of restless excitement but recently decided to settle in North London. He gets away whenever he can to immerse himself in foreign cultures and lap up the history of great cities.

Laos is a relative newcomer on the international holiday destinations scene as it is landlocked and surrounded by mountains, effectively isolated from the wider world. The country is reminiscent of ‘The Lost World’ or ‘The Land that Time Forgot’, a time capsule of a place where everyone is laid back and still living the same lifestyle of hundreds of years ago. In this region of South East Asia the neighbouring countries have embraced Consumerism with a vengeance, and Laos is a small oasis which many are starting to recognise as the precious remnant of a vanishing way of life. Even Vientiane, its capital, feels more like a relaxed provincial town lazing away on its riverfront.

However, just recently the infrastructure has been hauling itself into the new millennium and concerted efforts are being made to attract tourists to the many delights which Laos has to offer. If Vietnam and Thailand can have thriving tourist industries then so can Laos, and with the roads and bridges opening up its many attractions are becoming increasingly accessible. Laos may not have any beaches but it has plenty of other attributes, both natural and cultural, that make it an ideal spot for a honeymoon but also as a destination for anyone looking for an interesting and exciting holiday.

The Vieng Xai caves, for example, are a vast network of underground caverns which constituted an alternative, hidden, city throughout the Vietnam War when the rice fields and towns above them were being ravaged by war. The Communists were based here when they were fighting the royalist armies based in Vientiane. They were home to more than 23,000 people at that time and even contained a theatre along with bakeries, shops and a hospital. Nowadays you can take a guided tour and have a traditional meal down here, and there’s no longer any danger of being carpet bombed or sprayed with Agent Orange when you emerge afterwards.

Take a riverboat cruise along the ancient Mekong River to the Pak Ou Caves (there are plenty of caves in this country), north of Luang Prabang to see the famous miniature sculptures of the Buddha. There are hundreds of these wooden figurines stacked on a series of shelves, and it’s a good place to meditate whilst contemplating the reclining, meditating, teaching and always fascinating images, like an alternative and much more sensible Terracotta Army.

The charming city of Luang Prabang was the capital of Laos until 1975 when the Communists took over, and it makes a great base with its golden temples, French colonial buildings and quaint wooden houses, all clustered together between two lazily winding rivers. Sip a G&T with ice and lemon whilst sitting on your balcony and watching the sun set over a truly timeless scene.

Guest writer David Elliott is a freelance writer who loves to travel, especially in Europe and Turkey. He’s spent most of his adult life in a state of restless excitement but recently decided to settle in North London. He gets away whenever he can to immerse himself in foreign cultures and lap up the history of great cities.

Istanbul is such a sprawling city that hiring a car for the duration of your stay is the perfect way to see all it has to offer. There are two modern suspension bridges across the Bosphorus and there’s nothing like driving along the banks of the Golden Horn or Sea of Marmara, with a fresh breeze blowing and all the sights and sounds of the incomparable city passing by at a leisurely pace. Stop off at one of the many open cafes and fish restaurants for refreshments or a meal, and admire the dazzling walls and domes of Seraglio Point where the Sultans used to enjoy sipping iced lemon sherbets surrounded by fawning eunuchs and favourites from the harem.

Istanbul is the city to head for to experience ‘Islam light’ in all its glory, a unique blend of modern Western and exotic Eastern influences, everywhere evident from the glamorous spice bazaars and calls to prayer to the pounding international club scene and some of the best shopping on the planet.

Some of the top attractions in the world are here in Istanbul, a city fairly drenched in history. Topkapi Palace was home to the Ottoman Sultans for more than 400 years and tourists have access to its four spacious inner courtyards. A museum in the palace houses some of the awesome treasures from the glory days of Ottoman history, including a gem-encrusted dagger worn by Suleiman the Magnificent and the incredible ‘Spoonmaker’s Diamond’, which is the size of a large egg.

The church of Hagia Sophia was the greatest in the Christian world for a thousand years or more, and its vast dome even now leaves you breathless with admiration. When the Turks captured the city, then called Constantinople after its founder the Byzantine Emperor Constantine, in 1453 they turned it into a mosque and now it is a secular museum.

When you’ve had your fill of Istanbul’s unparalleled historical monuments, museums and galleries you can chill out in one of its many modern international restaurants and taste some of the best and most varied cuisine in the world. It draws on a diverse range of culinary traditions that reflect the vast size of the old empire and the many cultures it encompassed. Or alternatively simply stop off at a good, old-fashioned kebab shop. You can enjoy a great three course meal on a shoestring here, and there’s not much that can compare with spending a mild summer evening sipping lemon tea from a tulip-shaped glass and watching the old steam ferries criss-cross the Marmara to a backdrop of domes and minarets – a timeless scene.

Guest writer David Elliott is a freelance writer who loves to travel, especially in Europe and Turkey. He’s spent most of his adult life in a state of restless excitement but recently decided to settle in North London. He gets away whenever he can to immerse himself in foreign cultures and lap up the history of great cities.

The umbrella term responsible tourism can cover many things and there are a fair few critics of some ‘helpful’ projects that fall under it. There are some projects offered by tour operators that direct first world people to build things or work in orphanages for short periods of time. Often, even if you haven’t signed up to take part in a project before you leave, someone will offer you the chance to visit an orphanage at some point on your way through the country. You’ll hear that this is beneficial for the children, in that you will bring cheer and entertainment for a day.

But there are many more voices saying a fleeting visit can actually be more damaging. Perhaps these children need sustained relationships with people who can nurture them the length of their young lives. There are many large charities who are responsible for the building of these orphanages in the first place and it has been suggested that perhaps orphanages are not the answer to the country’s child poverty crisis. It’s worth doing quite a bit of research that is as impartial as possible to try and establish what really is the best use of your time should you wish to help out while you’re there. Check that any project you wish to engage with is run by people with a deep knowledge of the culture and community, who are committed to helping them long term. Check that if you’re paying to get involved, you know where your money is going. Check also that you are being useful – that the project isn’t just letting you play so they can have your money – you feel like you’ve helped when really you’ve built a bench over a period of six weeks in a garden nobody uses, for example. If working with young or vulnerable people, ensure there are measures in place to protect your safety and theirs. Ask what volunteers have achieved in the past.

Perhaps the most beneficial thing you can do when in Cambodia is to teach, as English is something many people in the country wish to learn. Cambodia is a country pulling itself together, and while there are many people here who are impressively humble and wonderfully friendly in the face of everything that happened not so long ago, it is important to remember the genocide which left such a deep scar to gain a better understanding of the complex problems the country faces on its road to recovery.

Guest writer Sarah Wilkins loves to travel. Whether it’s hiking in the Scottish Highlands to exploring Australia’s Gold Coast, Sarah wants to see it all and hopes to spend a lifetime fulfilling her travel dreams.