Stephen Wise wins £250 for his tale of tracking down a taverna owner after 40 years in order to fulfil a simple promise. Susan looked at our old map of Lesbos. “This thing was probably printed before the last war,” she said. We were in the mountains and lost, a landscape of jagged summits piercing a cobalt blue sky. The idea of hiring an old scooter and going in search of a taverna we had visited 40 years previously in 1978 was looking more like a joke. We had taken a picture of the old lady holding a battered copper tray while serving us a Greek coffee and had promised to post a copy of the image to her. Alas, her scribbled writing was indecipherable and the photo had remained in a dusty drawer until we had returned to the island to try to deliver it in person all these years later. As we rounded a hairpin bend, the taverna appeared, set back and almost invisible through the pine trees. “That’s it,” Susan cried, above the complaining chug … [Read more...] about What happened when I returned to Greece after 40 years to track down one special taverna owner
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Rhine or Danube? Pick a Christmas market cruise to suit your budget
The heartland of Christmas markets – a highlight of mainland Europe’s winter calendar – lies in Germany and Austria. A river cruise is a fantastic way to soak up the yuletide atmosphere and as vessels moor in town centres you never have far to walk back with your shopping. Here’s a selection of seasonal sailings, tailored for your budget. Christmas market cruises on the Danube Value: Each year Vienna’s neo-Gothic Rathaus, or town hall, is turned into a giant advent calendar with images adorning the windows marking the Christmas countdown. The adjoining square has more than 150 stalls and is one of the markets visited aboard A-Rosa Donna, a comfortable German-owned ship chartered by Shearings offering seasonal specialities on the buffet menu. The cruise also visits Linz where the Volksgarten market features a nativity play performed every half hour. The six-night Christmas Markets on the Danube cruise leaving on November 20 costs from £654 per person, … [Read more...] about Rhine or Danube? Pick a Christmas market cruise to suit your budget
The South Pacific tourists rarely see
It’s 250 years since James Cook launched the first of three Pacific voyages in 1768 aboard HMS Endeavour. He didn’t set foot on the Cook Islands until 1773 but what he did record throughout, besides unflattering observations of the natives, was a South Pacific idyll of swaying palms and turquoise lagoons. Yet the paradise he first set eyes upon has come under threat in recent years, prompting the Cook Islands to declare one of the world’s largest protected marine reserves – Marae Moana. It spans all 15 Cook Islands, and its Maori inhabitants hope it will create a statutory framework to address concerns such as coral reef damage and foreign fleets ravaging fish stocks. It also chimes with the Maori belief in guardianship of the land and sea. Equally admirable is a commitment to convert wholly to solar energy by 2020, which left me wondering if the Cook Islands might become the greenest destination on Earth. There is of course a flaw in this supposition. The … [Read more...] about The South Pacific tourists rarely see
‘I’m surrounded by a princess, supermodels and a rockstar’s progeny’ – 50 years of the world’s most glamorous island
On a balmy July night, stars twinkling up above, the inspiring octogenarian Calypso Rose provides the first of the evening’s post-dinner entertainments. I’m on the dance-floor with a group of 14-year-olds, surrounded by a rock star’s prodigious offspring, an internationally famous artist, a supermodel, a couple of hedge-funders, two top art dealers, a supermarket heir, a European princess and a Formica kitchen magnate. Nearby, surveying his empire, stands Basil, eponymous creator of the famous bar. It’s the 50th “birthday” of Mustique, the legendarily discreet island resort in St Vincent and the Grenadines, where the world’s most wanted enjoy, if not total anonymity, than at least privacy. Earlier in the evening, I’d been introduced to our future king (I couldn’t possibly reveal which one) and his wife, who’d popped in for celebratory cocktails, leaving before the night’s more decadent festivities. If that … [Read more...] about ‘I’m surrounded by a princess, supermodels and a rockstar’s progeny’ – 50 years of the world’s most glamorous island
Hotel Hit Squad: Old-school class and hot pants hip – the stylish rebirth of the University Arms Cambridge
Fiona Duncan Hotel expert Follow 13 August 2018 • 12:01pm Hard to believe, but this is the first time I’ve been back to Cambridge since I was expelled. I spent my last morning there, wearing a dishevelled ball gown, on a punt to Grantchester having been up all night at a May Ball. Unfortunately it was also the morning of my history of art A-level. “You will end in the gutter,” my enraged headmaster shouted at my retreating back as he ejected me from the school. Years later he contacted me, having noticed that I wrote for The Telegraph. “Well, you didn’t end in the gutter, I see – not even the gutter press.” I adored my two years at a girls’ sixth-form college on the outskirts of town, but my parents’ loopy decision to send their already wayward daughter to live dangerously close to a campus where almost all the students were male (colleges were still single-sex) was not conducive to study. Cambridge … [Read more...] about Hotel Hit Squad: Old-school class and hot pants hip – the stylish rebirth of the University Arms Cambridge
How Michelin-starred chefs are transforming cruise ship cuisine
There’s a good chance that you’ll never have heard of Cornelius Gallagher, but this winter he will open 29 restaurants and bars all on the same day. “It’s quite a risk,” he admits. “Even the biggest hotels in Las Vegas don’t do that.” But Gallagher, who held a Michelin star at Oceana in New York and worked at elBulli in Catalonia, has an ace up his sleeve. His instantly created hospitality empire won’t be on land but at sea, aboard the new state-of-the-art Celebrity Edge cruise ship, with a captive audience of about 3,300 hungry guests. In a hostile economic environment which has seen many restaurant closures, a cruise ship is the best place to open such a venture right now. Nearly two million British holidaymakers opted for a cruise holiday in 2017 and industry analyst cruisemarketwatch.com reports 6.63 per cent annual growth worldwide. But what can passengers expect to eat in the middle of the ocean, where chefs can’t … [Read more...] about How Michelin-starred chefs are transforming cruise ship cuisine
Secret Cornwall: Where to escape the summer crowds
With Britain enjoying one of its warmest summers in living memory, Cornwall is struggling to cope with an “unprecedented” surge in holidaymakers. Heavy traffic in some areas has prompted safety concerns, while the county’s tourist board has even stopped promoting two of its most popular beaches - Porthcurno and Kynance Cove - because of the dramatic influx. Problems have also been reported in Perranporth and Newquay. “Nobody wants to see this sort of mass tourism affecting the area, affecting the tourist experience and clogging the roads,” Malcolm Bell of Visit Cornwall told the BBC. He estimated that visitor numbers were 20 percent higher than usual and called for tourists to ignore the county’s... Register for free to read this article, or log in to your Telegraph account Register Log in … [Read more...] about Secret Cornwall: Where to escape the summer crowds
How to have the perfect day trip in Ludlow, from its old castle to its newest delights
"We’re sorry for the delay, ladies and gentlemen,” came the crackling voice of the train driver over the PA. “We’re going to have to wait until these sheep have got off the line.” You’d have thought that Ludlow, a small-to-medium sized town halfway down the border between Wales and England, might have become a little bit more amenable to visitors since it was founded, not long after the Norman Conquest. But Ludlow has not got where it is today by welcoming interlopers (exhibit A: a bloody great castle). Indeed, it presumably owes much of its richly historical character, all those half-timbered pubs and Georgian hotels, to a pre-war failure to expand its population and renew its town centre. Given... Register for free to read this article, or log in to your Telegraph account Register Log in … [Read more...] about How to have the perfect day trip in Ludlow, from its old castle to its newest delights
Book It: Four hotels if you fancy a Great British beach break
When the weather is fine – and for once in Britain, it has been – there’s no reason not to be near a beach. Here are four of our favourites... Bedruthan Hotel & Spa, Newquay, Cornwall Best for... family fun The low-down: A stalwart of the North Cornish coast since 1959, Bedruthan is one of those hotels that keeps families coming back year after year. Now it’s entrancing a new generation with its gentle pace, excellent childcare and extreme natural beauty. While many hotels merely tolerate small children, Bedruthan caters to them, with daily kids’ club attendance included in the room rates, indoor softplay and an outdoor adventure playground (try pulling your toddlers away from the in-ground trampoline for bedtime) and on-staff babysitters. It’s stylish, with warm, retro-Scandi-ish design, and smart — our family sea view room had the ideal layout for a family of four (although the lack of air conditioning made the recent heatwave a mixed … [Read more...] about Book It: Four hotels if you fancy a Great British beach break
Macau: 10 fascinating facts about Europe’s last colony in Asia – and the most crowded place on Earth
When is a part of China not part of China? When it is Macau, and it is an autonomous territory that sits on the south coast of the Far East’s superpower, jogging along by its own rules and regulations (sort of), and spinning about to the whirl of the roulette wheel. Why mention this now? Because according to a new study by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Macau is set to overtake Qatar as the richest place in the world by 2020. Here are ten other things you probably didn’t know about the autonomous territory. 1. It was the last European colony in Asia On April 13 1987, Portugal and China announced the Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration – which said that Macau, having been a Portuguese outpost for more than 400 years, would become “Chinese” (see below) on December 20 1999. Which it did (although not entirely – again, see below). By the time the switchover finally occurred, Macau was the final European colony on the Asian landmass, Hong Kong … [Read more...] about Macau: 10 fascinating facts about Europe’s last colony in Asia – and the most crowded place on Earth