There’s something decidedly melancholy about Bucharest’s turbulent history. Once lauded for the leafy boulevards and extravagant classicism that made it a dreamy, romantic city, scandalous reconstruction projects under post-war communist rule saw the large scale destruction of much of its heritage in favour of modern ostentation. What remains is a fascinating, mismatched collage of twentieth […]

With a long and glorious history built largely on the fortunes of its port, Dubrovnik once rivalled Venice as the premier maritime city on the Medieval Adriatic. An earthquake in 1667 levelled much of it but there are still a number of surviving Renaissance flourishes, including an impressive cathedral, while the baroque Old Town is […]

South Korea is a subtropical peninsula of misty mountains, towering skyscrapers, precipitously-positioned pagodas and rocky coastal islands. The capital Seoul, known as the ‘miracle on the Han’, is not only a world leader in design and architecture but a buzzing, vibrant city of old-fashioned bazaars, crazy neon lights and 1001 other things all vying for […]

Warm, hospitable and friendly, Greeks love to roll out the welcome mat and wear their hearts on their sleeves. Trying to get anything done, however, can be a singularly frustrating experience. Passions often run high, particularly after the economic collapse of recent years, and building relationships can take time. If you’re visiting for business, you’ll […]

The fashion-conscious will know it as the design capital of the West, the launching pad for the visionary talents of Gucci, Armani, Prada and many more. The sports-mad will know it for its football teams, AC and Internazionale, who have produced more European Champions and World Cup winners than any other city in Europe. Art […]

The winding terraces of white and ochre can be be viewed from well outside the harbour, like scatterings of autumn leaves amid a green and golden forest, draped across seven hills and seven fjords. Welcome to Bergen; Norway’s most beautiful city. This was once Norway’s capital and remains an important cultural centre as well as […]

While the rest of California reeled in the aftermath of the dotcom crash, San Diego continued to quietly get on with business. Though it lacks the wow factor of Los Angeles or the angelic beauty of San Francisco, the pleasant moderation of this green and open city can be a welcome breath of fresh air. […]

The concert halls of Vienna have played host to many of the great names in classical composition; Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart and Strauss to name but a few. Grand palaces and parks; sparkling fountains and sweeping boulevards; with gothic, baroque, renaissance and neoclassical influences infusing a sublime cityscape there’s still plenty to here to recall the […]

The freshwater springs that extend beneath the Persian Gulf have attracted settlers to Bahrain for four thousand years – not just for the drinking water, but for the pearls that they encouraged. Today the economy is based not so much on an international pearl trade but on rich oil deposits and a booming banking sector. […]

Spanning eleven time zones and twice the size of the USA, Russia is not a country that can be rushed. Many travellers go no further than Moscow, with its historic old city and lively nightlife, or follow the Volga boatmen along the waterways of the Czars to the baroque architecture of St Petersburg. This, however, […]

While the Table Mountains near Cape Town may have been the inspiration for Tolkein’s epic Lord of the Rings, it is the Matamata of New Zealand which provided the stunning backdrop for the 21st century films. Dramatic, snow-dusted peaks cast mirror images in crystal lakes, tapering to green, rolling foothills in the distance; gushing rivers […]

The Giant Bear of Russia has long been shrouded in mystery, but the city of Moscow feels somehow far more familiar. The imposing behemoth of the Kremlin and the view from Red Square in particular have become iconographic images of both the capital and the country as a whole. The association with the old Soviet […]