Travel Blog

The Azores After 6 sea days our first part of call was Punta Delgada on the island of Sao Miguel in the Azores. There are nine islands making up the Azores; the largest being Sao Miguel at 293 square miles and the smallest called Corvo at just 7 square miles.…

I was one of the last to board and one of the few who hadn’t had a COVID test prior to arrival so I was tested by a nice Canadian chap who had the most delicate swab technique. I was grateful. The ship was the Emerald Princess, built in 2007…

It’s been a while since the last blog. I didn’t want to put you through another trip to Aruba (March) and DR (June). I left Heathrow on the 5pm direct flight to Toronto on a 787 Dreamliner. 7 hours later after a pleasant enough flight where the highlight was watching…

The chaps and I have just returned from a relaxing, low-key week, staying at a villa in the Algarve region of Portugal. It had been 31 years since the two Simon’s and I were there, when a group of about 16 of us descended on Quarteira and delighted the patrons…

After 11 days driving around 6 states writing part one of my book, I arrived in Hilton Head to spend Spring Break with Jo and the family and it was very relaxing indeed. Well, apart from changeover day on Saturday when the traffic becomes like Mumbai during rush hour. Changeover…

They don’t know how lucky they are.. Lucky because whilst many parts of the world have stopped all but essential travel, DR is open and they made the mistake of telling the Russians. And the French but by far the biggest contingent at the Hilton La Romana are Dominicans who…

Dianna arrived on Thursday the 29th on an American Airlines flight from Miami. Just 2 1/2 hours compared with a four hour drive from the house to the airport. I went to pick her up with a taxi driver called Max, who had the best English of all the locals…

Well they’re taking no chances with Covid in the Dominican Republic. Because of a reduced number of tables in the restaurant, we’re having to “book” a slot for the buffet. I mean has anyone ever heard of such a thing. A buffet reservation? It’s barbaric. As for the gym and…

On only his second day working for Cannon Cars, Amir, originally from Bangladesh picked me up in his pristine white all electric Nissan van thing. What it lacked in style it made up for in efficiency - £4 of electricity gets him about 100 miles. It was probably the slowest…

After rousing at an ungodly time in the morning we reached the airport and flew to Corfu in a little under three hours. It was a glorious sunny day and we were transported to Gouvia Marina to find our boat. We boarded late afternoon and we went about allocating bunks.…

Well I knew the peace and solitude would come to an end at some point. Aruba opened to Americans six days after the first European flight and half a dozen planes arrived from various US cities on Friday 10th followed by another 10 flights on Saturday. The island slowly came…

After Tui cancelled all direct flights to the Caribbean until at least October, I had to find an alternative route back to the US which I managed to do through KLM via Amsterdam. The flights didn’t match up so I had a night in the Hilton at Schiphol airport. London…

Having to leave the US every 90 days is proving to be a real chore. We had 5 nights in Montego Bay, Jamaica which is located on the north coast and the second largest city in Jamaica. Jamaica is actually split into 3 counties - Surrey to the east, Middlesex…

This was my second visit to Cozumel and it immediately felt far more laid back than Roatán. Randy and Susie had rented a jeep and we drove along the coast to the southern tip of the island where I held my first iguana. Possibly my last. The coastline was rugged…

Gdynia, Poland was our first day of the cruise without something organised so we took advantage of our new found freedom and didn’t leave the ship until almost 11am. All aboard was 2:30 so this was going to be a whirlwind stop. Have you ever been to Poland, someone may…