“I awake to a hazy city scene blanketed in smog, like a particularly foggy Lowry painting, a subdued contrast to the flashing brilliance of the animated adverts of the night before…” Like a modern day Alice, Gabrielle arrives in Wonderland…
“If ever there was a day to be out in the British countryside, it is this day. Early-August and baking – the hottest day of the year.” Noah reminisces on a trip to the Cotswolds…
“I have arrived in the most extraordinary place. As I write I am sat in a wooden treetop bar, straining against candlelight, the distant hills of Burma sporadically illuminated by streaks of lightning.” In Part 2 of his epic adventure, Larry enters the wilds of northern Thailand…
“My father spent much time in Geneva…and suggested that I spend some time there in the calm and tranquil surroundings of classically approved beauty. But what did I care for such things?” Lavinia Blundell-White savours a Swiss idyll…
“While traditionally associated with red trouser-wearing old men, Cognac has undergone a welcome transformation.” Lucy Shaw finds gold in a glass off the coast of France…
“A warm orange sun burned through the haze that diffused the Doi Suthep mountains and, instinctively, I heard the theme to ‘Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence’ in my head – until I realised it was coming from the stereo in the bar behind me.” Larry begins an odyssey across Thailand…
Sian Boyle talks to The Times’ travel writer, Tom Chesshyre, about his book A Tourist in the Arab Spring and asks, ‘When thousands were leaving, what made him go…?’
Annabel Grossman talks to travel writer Monisha Rajesh about the splendour and the squalor of travelling India by its trains…
From the Algarve through Alentejo, up to Porto and the Douro valley, we conclude our journey across Portugal as Larry arrives just outside the capital, Lisbon, from an invitation On Her Majesty’s Secret Service…
Harry Chapman continues his country pursuits in Sussex and concludes his trip with a visit to an intriguing ruined Tudor manor…
“Soon my propulsions had washed a couple of elderly dowagers into the shallows where they bobbed against the steps like untethered life buoys.” Harry Chapman embraces life outdoors in the South Downs…
“I’m on a stiflingly muggy tube in mid-July. Ever the contrarian I am heading for Gstaad in the Swiss Alps…” Tom Garton seeks solace in Switzerland…