YOU don’t need to catch a plane to bask on the golden sands of Tahiti. You can get there by boat – and in less than a day – from the UK. I kid you not. Of course, this isn’t the Tahiti of exotic French Polynesia in the South Pacific that has captured the imagination…
The last thing I expected to stumble upon while exploring County Wicklow’s countryside was a walk-through birth canal (to put it politely). Nor did I expect to see several statues of the Hindu god Ganesh (one holding a pint of Guinness) or the world’s largest fasting Buddha (with a mobile phone tucked in his back…
We’d stayed in an apartment with a lovely sea view and we’d stayed in an apartment with a cosy log fire. But until recently, my wife and I had never stayed in an apartment built on the orders of the Pope on the very spot where a bona fide miracle had taken place. The apartment,…
The website says it’s the most photographed place in the world. Can you guess what it is? The Eiffel Tower, perhaps? Or what about Buckingham Palace, the Great Wall Of China, the Colosseum, Disneyworld in Florida or Egypt’s pyramids? In fact, you may be surprised to learn that it’s Keukenhof Gardens. And its boast is…
There’s a romantic castle in Bavaria which prides itself on being the main inspiration for Sleeping Beauty’s Castle in Disneyland, California. The fantastical turrets of the hilltop Neuschwanstein Castle, begun by King Ludwig II in 1869, has made it the most photographed building in Germany. But what inspired the castle that inspired Sleeping Beauty’s Castle?…
I had seen pictures of Carcassonne and read how this French medieval walled citadel was the largest in Europe. It all looked and sounded very impressive. But no amount of research could have prepared me for the jaw-dropping moment I first set eyes on its walls and the realisation that this was going to be home…
Holidaying Hack 