Quirky Traveller's Tales

Whether you’re headed to Nicaragua, Nepal, Namibia, or just up the road to Northumbria, your trip will inevitably be busy. but in between shrines, safaris and scuba diving (presumably not in Northumbria…), it’s important to keep your safety in mind.  So plan ahead, and stick to these top tips for safe travel, and you’ll be able to turn your attention to what you’ve gone away for…fun, fun, and more fun!

1.    Airport security

TSA luggage lock

In recent years, airport security has become much more rigorous, particularly in the USA.  Tighter security procedures mean your luggage is more likely to be opened and examined by airport officials; if locks and zips are forced open, it can damage your bags, or result in a broken lock.  A TSA (Transportation Security Administration) luggage lock offers a security feature that allows US security personnel to open and re-lock your luggage without any damage.  This leaves you to whizz through baggage reclaim upon arrival so that you can get out and get on with your adventure!

2.    Better safe than sorry

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  Portable Travel Safe

There are always spectacular sights and sounds to capture when you’re visiting a country for the first time – it’s great to show your friends and family when you get home – but flashing your smartphone or digital SLR camera can make you a prime target for pickpockets. There isn’t always a safe provided in a hotel room to keep your stuff safe, particularly in budget accommodation, and when there is one, it can often carry a subsidiary cost.  Taking a portable Travel Safe ensures you’ll always have somewhere to keep your belongings secure. The safe can be attached to any fixed objects in your room while you’re out and about, and can be carried in a bag or anchored to something on the beach if you don’t want to leave your valuables behind.

3.  Lock it or lose it

It can be a great experience to see a city from another point of view; for example, renting a bike and cycling around in Holland is a must.  While it’s a fun, efficient and eco-friendly way to get around, you want to ensure you keep your rental secure, and don’t lose your security deposit!  A bike lock can be a good solution. That way, you can rest easily while your bike (or anything else for that matter) is parked up securely outside.

4. Very alarming

With a busy day exploring ahead of you, you’re not likely to give it much thought when you skip out of your accommodation and lock up…but it’s important to make sure your possessions are left somewhere secure.  While there’s not much you can do about the integrity of the door (other than move rooms if your door has a broken lock!), you could always set up a battery-powered stand alone alarm to keep guard.  Placed freestanding on a shelf or fixed to a wall, your alarm will alert you if an intruder breaks in – think of it as a portable burglar alarm!

5.    Alarm yourself

Personal Attack Alarm

Once you’ve had a siesta, you’ll want to get out and experience the local nightlife.  A personal attack alarm is small and discreet to carry, with an ultra loud built-in siren, which is activated by pulling the hand loop.  Whether you’re out at a carnival, full moon party or fiesta, carry a personal attack alarm to ensure you can enjoy partying safely, and the only thing you have to recover from the next day is a late night!

This post was brought to you by Yale UK.  All of the Yale security products recommended are available from your local DIY store, locksmiths or hardware stores.

To travel safe, sound and secure all over the world, call 01902 364606 for more information or visit www.yale.co.uk.

Italy has its iconic, must-see sites that are sure to feature on many peoples’ bucket lists. St Mark’s Square and the canals of Venice, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Rome’s Trevi Fountain and the Vatican, the rolling hills of Tuscany… I could go on.

However, all these breathtaking icons of Italian tourism have literally hundreds of books, thousands of web pages and millions of photographs dedicated to them. More importantly, they are places that many people have already visited. So in this article we give you five quirky things to do in Italy for an Italian holiday with a difference.  Here’s an unusual, eccentric Italy; a little bit weird but all the more wonderful for it.

Join in an Orange Fight

Many people have heard of La Tomatina that takes place in Bunol, Spain. But real tough guys don’t mess about with soft tomatoes. Oh no, real tough guys come to Italy for the Battle of the Oranges! This peculiar and slightly dangerous festival takes place in Ivrea, about 70 miles West of Milan and what makes a huge fight with oranges even weirder and at least twice as wonderful, is that the fruit doesn’t even grow locally and the oranges (about 250,000kg) are brought from the South!

Stay in a Shepherd’s Hut

The Vatican is a great place to visit if you don’t mind hours of queuing and jostling for position amongst the fervent crowds of tourists in the vain hope of getting a glimpse of the latest elderly man in white robes giving a little wave. If you prefer your holiday to be a touch more tranquil, how about getting out into the wilderness of Sardinia?

The Fiummendosa Valley is stunning, a cornucopia of colour and scents created by swathes of wild flowers, trees and herbs. After a little too much Italian wine I somehow ended up bedding down with a friend of a friend of a friend in his shepherd’s hut. I can’t recommend it enough, although neither the sensational feeling of freedom it brings nor the lungful after lungful of fresh country air made me immune to hangovers.

The hardy amongst you could attempt to scale Sardinia’s highest peak, Punta la Mamora, which has an elevation of almost 2,000m. We decided against it, choosing instead a gentle stroll in the foothills where we found an amazing restaurant which served up a fine, stodgy but very tasty wild boar stew.

Go “fishing” for sea urchins

In many of Italy’s coastal towns sea urchins are a hugely popular delicacy. We tried them in Sardinia and with a squeeze of lemon they are an unusual, refreshing delight. We even tried to catch our own haul but after a few abortive attempts that resulted in perforated fingertips we decided eating was more fun that fishing!

When we ate the yellowy, gooey sludge that was served as “sea urchin roe”, we were a little unsure. But following the “when in Rome…” adage we tucked in. It was only later when I researched how a spiny spherical creature could be turned into said splodge that I found out we had been eating sea urchin gonads. Oh well, they  very were tasty.

Take a walk along World War I trails

For those who prefer a good walk over prickly aquatic gustatory pleasures, the Italian Dolomites near the Austrian border are a superb option. You’ll more than likely have the magnificent Alpine views, fields of wild flowers and clear blue lakes to yourself, or at least only have to share them with the local birdlife.

Many of the trails through the pastures, woods and forests were created by soldiers during the First World War and there are tunnels built into the hills, as well as an informative open air museum.

Visit Umbria’s dying town

Umbria has so much to offer, from historic Assisi, the stunning Subasio Natural Park and culinary delights such as black truffles and arguably the country’s finest olive oils. But that’s all a bit passé for us. We prefer Civita di Bagnoregio, the Etruscan town that pre-dates Christ and today has a population barely in double figures. Perched precariously atop a small rock formation, erosion means it may not be around too much longer, so visit this strange, beautiful town now, before it crumbles completely …

As you can see, there are plenty of quirky things to do in Italy with plenty of hidden delights magnificently complementing the more popular tourist spots. So, for an Italian trip with a difference, get off the beaten track and, if you fancy it, try some of those sea urchin gonads!

This article is brought to you by Headwater Holidays, creators of a global range of tailor-made soft-adventure holiday experiences, specialising in self-guided walking and cycling holidays, luxury accommodation and good food .

You can find them on Face Book and on Twitter @Headwaterhols

Ernest Hemingway wrote, “Nobody ever lives their life all the way up except bull-fighters.” In the same spirit, I believe that as life goes by so fast there are only a few moments that you really live to the max. Walking the Camino de Santiago, as opposed to bullfighting which is not for me, was one of those times where I felt truly alive. For a few days, weeks or months, I was able to extract myself from my day to day routine and focus on myself.

Camino Frances sign – photo c/o Follow the Camino

Lately, I walked the Camino Frances from St Jean de Pied to Pamplona with a company called Follow the Camino, which organises accommodation, meals, maps and heavenly luggage transfers. They have added a twist to the Camino that really attracted me and made my journey so much easier.  This twist was to link one of my favourite authors, Ernest Hemingway, to the Camino. The American author based his first and most celebrated novel ‘The Sun Also Rises’ during the Pamplona Festival, the San Fermin, which he used to attend regularly.

Bull-running Monument in Pamplona – photo by Владимир Шеляпин

The storyline follows a group of American and British expatriates who travel from Paris to the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls and the bullfights. The setting was unique and memorable, showing the seedy café life in Paris, and the excitement of the Pamplona festival, with a middle section devoted to descriptions of a fishing trip in the Pyrenees and end sections in San Sebastian and Madrid.

Follow the Camino therefore launched a new walking holiday called the Camino Heming-Way where you walk in the footsteps of Jake and Bill, two of the main protagonists of the book, from Saint St Jean de Pied in France to Pamplona in Spain. It is undoubtedly one of the most scenic, challenging and rewarding of all the Camino routes and a unique journey through time and literature.

Vierge D’Orisson in French Pyrenees - photo c/o Follow the Camino

The Camino Operator booked me into charming 2-3* hotels along the Way, which was a very welcom comfort. The staff were simply lovely and so typically French and Spanish! I did not want to try walking the Camino without pre-booking hostels etc. Although this option might suit some, I find it difficult to cope with the stress of not knowing where I am sleeping and if I will find a dorm before arriving in a town. Not to mention the snoring, little levels of comforts and the smell… No, I was more than delighted to pay the tour operator services so I had my own room, bathroom and all I needed to rest and refresh after a hard day’s walk. And then was I ready for a few tapas and vino! I never had to use their 24/7 emergency phone, thank God! 

St Jean Pied de Port – photo c/o Follow the Camino

The route departs Saint Jean Pied de Port, a quaint French market village in the heart of the Pyrenee. There are lots of things to see including the ancient bridge, historic buildings, full of history and a lovely old Church for pilgrims. In only five days,  I crossed the Pyrenees (tough but so exhilarating having achieved it), experienced French gastronomy - think yummy cheese, locally-produced charcuterie and traditional baguette, discovered the legendary Basque country and finally arrived in beautiful Pamplona. En route I stayed in the small quiet village of Burguete, on the Irati River where the two friends (from the book) fished.

Hemingway’s house at Burguete – photo by Phillip Capper

In Pamplona, they treated me to a Heming-Way style city tour. Thanks to Mickel, our lovely Spanish guide I found the Cafe Iruna and had a drink beside Hemingway’s statue.  I also had the chance to try a special Hemingway favourite: trout stuffed with chorizo.  I recommend this tour to Hemingway enthusiasts and anyone looking for an alternative to the last 100km of the French Way, the most popular section. So why not follow this route and take the walk from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Pamplona?  And if you are able to make it for the San Fermin Festival in July, you’ll be able to celebrate this famous Festival in true Heming-Way style!

Hemingway at Cafe Iruna Pamplona  - photo c/o Follow the Camino

This post is brought to you by Follow the Camino, a world-wide leading tour operator specialising in organising walking, cycling and horse riding holidays along the Camino de Santiago since 2006.  They created a new approach to this ancestral pilgrimage, respecting its spirit and enhancing its values, whilst making it more accessible, enjoyable and achievable for all. Find out more about the Camino Heming-Way here.

Via de la Plata Santiago de Compostela – c/o Follow the Camino

If you like walking you will enjoy ‘Fell Wandering – Slow Travel at its best’ and also

What’s the view like from your office window? I work from home so it’s usually the road outside, semi-detached house opposite and if I stand up tall, the tips of Cumbria fells.  For World Travel Blogger Natalie Morawietz it’s a different view every day.  Since beginning of 2011 she’s been travelling around the world in a truck. She’s a tour leader, a driver and mechanic, driving overland trucks from Cairo to Capetown and Rio de Janeiro to Quito. 

I’ve always loved travelling.  Being from Germany I was blessed with almost seven weeks holidays a year. But after a while three weeks holiday trips weren’t enough. I was bored with my office job, not challenged anymore and had seen almost all of Europe on my business trips. I knew there had to be something more out there.  However, I wasn’t quite sure what it was. Backpacking? Volunteering? Getting a job with an NGO? I decided to take my time …

During a half year sabbatical I went backpacking in West Africa, a place I’d always wanted to see but which is too difficult to travel for a short holiday. And as soon I was out there I knew I couldn’t go back to my old office job. I felt the freedom of the road … and it magically dragged me away. I decided to take a job which would allow me to travel while working.

Driving a truck around the world enables you to see the world in a very different perspective. I have been working in the craziest places, workshops and industrial areas in Nairobi, Addis Ababa or Cusco. I have met so many friendly locals always happy to help out to jump start the truck or direct you the right way. An overland truck makes you independent and it withstands the worst road conditions – well, most of the time.  Not so funny to change a spring in the middle of the Sudan desert!

You can stop pretty much anywhere and enjoy nature and the outdoors to its full extend. I have seen the most amazing wildlife in Africa driving my truck through such wonderful places as the Etosha National Park in the heart of  Namibia.

I’ve never regretted swapping my business costume for dirty trousers. I absolutely love what I do and although it can be pretty hard from time to time, no other “office window” can give you these amazing views. Who else can say that the view from their office window changes every day?  I’ve seen everything out there from elephants, lions and zebras to hundreds of waving people, 4000 m high peaks in Ethiopia, Bolivia and Peru, oceans and deserts.

Coming up soon – glaciers, volcanoes and, hopefully, big bears in Alaska!  I am taking a break from travelling – in a way. Because I love the idea of having my own overland vehicle so much, I decided to go a step further and start my own company together with Dave Patrick, who I met whilst working in Africa.  We have set up Infinite Adventures, offering overland adventure trips in a remodelled school bus in Alaska. I can’t wait to see my first bear – maybe hanging out on the viewing platform we’ve put on the top of our bus.

Natalie Morawietz loves to travel and drive big trucks around the world. After Africa and South America she is now in the United States remodelling an old yellow school bus into her own overland vehicle – ready to take like-minded people up to Alaska to have an amazing outdoor and wildlife adventure.  You can discover more about Natalie on her blog, follow her on Twitter @InfiniteAdv and on her Face Book Page InfiniteAdventures

For more quirky adventures in Alaska check out cycling enthusiast Ken Roberts article on another converted school bus – this time one you can stay in!

With winter on its way out and summer fast approaching, many of us are starting to think about that long awaited holiday. For time-poor families, getting away from it all offers the perfect opportunity to reconnect with loved ones.

According to a recent Daily Mail article, a holiday really is good for you. Aside from the obvious benefits of sunshine and fresh air, we eat better on holiday, exercise more, laugh more and sleep better, so investing money in the right break for you and your family is important.  Holidays add to our general sense of wellbeing, but it’s also important that it’s relaxing. This means finding the getaway that suits our family’s needs.  Seasoned parents accustomed to travelling with the tots in tow know that picking the right venue for the yearly getaway is vital when holidaying with children, and ensuring that the whole family will have plenty to keep them entertained while they are away is the key to a fun filled, stress-free break.

Weather is also an important factor. While the UK is great when the sun is shining, the unpredictability of our climate is often a major turn off for families, especially those with young children and teenagers.  With this in mind, the Canary Islands continue to rank in the top five holiday destinations for families looking for a chilled out week in the sun.

 Tenerife, with a manageable average flight time of just over four hours, is a popular choice. The largest of the Canary Islands, Tenerife offers year-round sunshine, modern resorts and various opportunities for day-trips and sightseeing.  The island is famous for its unusual lunar-like landscape, and a trip to Teide National Park is not to be missed: a cable-car ascent to the top of Mount Teide provides spectacular views of the surrounding landscape and great photo opportunities for the family album.

Siam Park – Tenerife

Another attraction to add to your Tenerife hit-list is Siam Park Tenerife. This is Europe’s biggest water-park and offers something to entertain all ages, from tots to teens. There’s a wave pool which will keep the toddlers happy, scream-inducing rides and slides for those hard-to-please teenagers, and a mini-aquatic park just for the kids.

Siam Park is extremely popular so it’s wise to book your family tickets in advance to avoid disappointment and to get the best price – sites such as Attraction World enable you to pre-order tickets and have them sent straight to your email inbox. It’s fast and convenient and will save you time and money while you’re away.  There’s also the option of purchasing a Siam Park twin ticket which combines entrance to Siam Park and Loro Parque, another top Tenerife attraction.

But that’s just the start: there’s plenty more to see and do on the island for days away from the beach. Families looking for educational days out may wish to take a trip to the Pyramids of Güímar – six rectangular pyramid style structures which are thought to date back to the 19^th Century.  The Botanical Gardens, one of Spain’s oldest botanical gardens, is also well worth a look with over 3,000 specimens of the world’s most unusual plants and trees.

They say that families who ‘play together stay together’, and with the options of sun, sea and sightseeing, Tenerife and its attractions ticks all the right boxes  when it comes to family fun in the sun …

This article is brought to you by Attraction World.

Did you know Tenerife has one of the biggest Carnivals in the world? Every year thousands of people visit the island for a lengthy festival of craziness, colour, exhuberance and yes, quirkiness.  You can read about my magical day at Tenerife Carnival here.

When writer and entrepreneur, Martin Dunford and his family went travelling round Australia, they discovered a haven of natural beauty in the heart of Queensland.  In our latest World Travel Blogger article, he describes some of the highlights of that trip.

Before we arrived at Rose Gums, Queensland we had thought there was only one kind of kangaroo. In fact there are several and, as Peta has promised, we are lucky enough to see several musky rat kangaroos the morning after our arrival at the rainforest.  They emerge from the bushes to feast on the corn she has put out for them, before being chased off by the omnipresent brush turkeys that roam everywhere around the compound. Afterwards, we sit on the terrace and watch hoards of rainbow lorikeets fight it out for food – a gloriously colourful sight that keeps my daughters rapt with attention.

Rose Gums Wilderness Retreat is an eco-friendly place in the heart of the rainforest in tropical Queensland’s Atherton Tablelands – a mixed highland area an hour inland from Cairns that varies from dense rainforest to green rolling pasture to bare outback sprinkled with banana groves and orchards. Peta and John bought the 230 acres that makes up Rose Gums almost 20 years ago, replanting much of its indigenous plant life and building themselves a dream home in the process, the first of the stunning treehouses that hide among the trees at Rose Gums.  It’s beautifully done, the houses comfortable yet rustic and close up to nature. They’re also well spaced out; indeed you could come here and barely notice any other buildings at all.

Peta provesto be a knowledgeable and genial host, pointing out the best walks and chances to spot wildlife. We are on a quest to spot platypus, and go off in search of them our first morning, following a well-marked path down to a creek, where we swim in crystal clear waters below overhanging trees.

We are disappointed on the platypus front – not just that morning but every morning; but perhaps we had been a little spoilt on a previous trip, when we witnessed a multitude of the little critters happily splashing about in a highland creek at the fabulous Yungara park to the south of here.

No matter: the rain-forest walk we do is gorgeous , the canopy alive with life and movement as we tread carefully along the path like pith-helmeted explorers of old, desperate for a glimpse of a snake or exotic birdlife.

We catch a glimpse of a large grey monitor lizard on the path in front of us, but he’s gone in a flash as he clocks our approach; down by the water there are turtles and enormous frogs, and something slithers up the bank as we approach – who knows what? We shush each other and the excitement builds as our eyes try to pierce the dense forest undergrowth and see deep into the muddy waters; but as Peta reminds us, although Aussie wildlife is fabulously abundant, most of it was hunted by the Aboriginals for centuries, some species to the brink of extinction, and most creatures don’t hang about long enough to discover whether we’re friend or foe.

Our lodge is, in any case, reward enough, its balcony facing a magnificent stage-set of forest birdlife, which we fixate on over drinks early evening, accompanied by the constant call of the well-named whipbird and chattering kookaburras. We never see either of these, but the host of other birdlife more than make up for it – honeyeaters of myriad colours and varieties feasting on the flowers that overhang our treehouse, blue-chested drongoes, red-faced king parrots and shrieking white cockatoos – the unruly hooligans of the rainforest – before the cicadas raise the volume to number 11 just after dark – an extraordinary loud and rhythmic sound that we mistake at first for a kitchen alarm.

The immediate area is full of interest, too – we swim in the clear waters of volcanic Lake Eacham, afterwards spotting the amethystene pythons that bask on its banks, snakes that we spot from a boat-trip on nearby Lake Bureen, along with forest dragons, erect and alert on overhanging tree branches, more turtles, ranks of cormorants arranged on logs, and big black eels which emerge from under the boat hoping for scraps of food.

Afterwards we repair to the balcony of the elegant boathouse for a cream tea of scones of jam – a peculiar juxtaposition you could only find in Australia. Nearby are one-horse towns like Yungaburra and Malanda – large villages, really, which cluster around vintage hotels, and where we come across the extraordinary sight of Yungaburra’s magnificent Curtain Fig  – actually a majestic turpentine tree, strangled by the tendrils of a strangler fig years ago, in its full triffid-like glory.

The platypus remain resolutely in the burrows, but who cares? We have our treehouse to go back to with its glorious views and, as we stroll up to our front door, our resident big-bottomed bandicoot scuttles by in shy, silent greeting ….

Martin Dunford is one of the co-founders and the former publisher of Rough Guides, and now works as a writer and independent consultant and investor. Find out more about his two digital travel businesses at Cool Places and Tripbod.

Other articles you might like about Australia include Sunrise at Uluru, Aboriginal Bush Tucker Walk and Best Beaches around Sydney.