This tiny hidden treasure, La Ninfa Hotel, is carved into the rocky cliffs of the Amalfi Coast and is nestled in seclusion. Just 90 minutes from the chaos of Naples, romance and tranquility reign supreme here …

The knights’ castle of Hirschhorn, Germany beckons from its forested peak, as a four-star hotel.  It is set against the backdrop of the swift Neckar River.  The churning waterway swerves through the glen in a storybook fashion, disappearing into the distant horizon …  

A few months into my English teaching job in Southern France, by the wonderful predictability of the French system, public services went on strike.  The students chained up the university in protest of a new law which meant that I couldn’t work and was still being paid. "I love my job!" I yelled when I next saw Cyril, my French boyfriend.  We decided that the next free day we had together we’d celebrate by going to the beach in the Basque Country …

With a whine and a lurch, the truck stopped on the edge of a market in Chiang Mai and we all jumped off into the muddy street.  Morning sunlight was coaxing ribbons of steam out of the damp pavement where Thais shuffled about with bundles of fruit, fish still flopping, rice noodles, shrimp paste and the like, wrapped up in faded sheets or balanced on their heads in woven baskets.  Palm trees and bird calls filled the air surrounding a dark cement building where we’d find the ingredients for our Thai Cooking class …