Q: What do you need for a sandcastle competition? A: A beach and an audience. So where better than the South Bank of London, where thousands of people promenade on the weekends, when the tide of the mighty Thames is low? There’s a beach, right there, with a view over to St Paul’s Cathedral. [...]

Photos by Peter Hunt

Photos by Marion Hume
Let’s go to Lecce. Yes let’s, because although it is dubbed “The Siena of the South” it’s a lot less crowded and, in the spring, before the tourist hordes heading for their trulli arrive, it’s actually rather cheap.
They say it’s like an oven in summer, down here in [...]

There are places that we describe as being “paradise” and then there are places that are actually called Paradise. This Paradise is an hours drive out of Queenstown, New Zealand and certainly matches my definition of paradise.
Candle light, open fire cooking, mountains as neighbours, $30 a night.
Paradise Trust, Glenorchy, New Zealand; www.paradisetrust.co.nz

“Ready?” shouts Stina. We nod. “Remember to brake down the hill”, she warns, and hands me the anchor.

No time for goodbyes, our seven huskies heave into their harnesses and we tear downhill through the snow clad trees. One foot balances precariously on a single icy bar; the other stamps down hard on the black plastic [...]

Plunge into the mysterious world of Marrakesh. To do this you want to be staying deep in the ancient Medina, where navigating home from dinner in Djemaa el Fna, the city square with its snake charmers and story tellers and stalls selling snail soup, is a challenge.
To me, Marrakesh is about secrets, which is [...]

Fashion week always takes it out of me and as part of my recovery ritual I love to treat myself to a treatment at AMOREPACIFIC Spa in Spring Street. Famous for their use of Asian botanicals such as bamboo sap, green tea and Korea ginseng, and with one of the most well respected research [...]

The Commonwealth bond is