August 21, 2022

Family Interrail adventure 10 Madrid city break 12 Take a hike from Melbourne 14

TRAVEL
SECTION OF
THE YEAR

Untamed
Ireland
The 1,600-mile-long Wild Atlantic Way is Europe’s best road trip by far 6
2 August 21, 2022 The Sunday Times
Travel
IS TIPPING
CULTURE
AT TIPPING
POINT?
JONATHAN
DEAN
often think about Simon, a barman
I
in New Orleans. I was in the city
ten years ago and found a pub in
the French Quarter for a beer and
a cooling-off. Simon, though, was
heated. He scowled at me. He seemed
furious that he had to pull a pint. Still, I
gave him a $1 tip. It felt like convention,
a dollar a drink being the rule I followed —
an American friend told me that was fine.
Simon sighed. “We work for tips in this
country,” he fumed. I felt a bit threatened,
so reached into my pocket and gave him
another dollar. He stormed off. I sipped
the beer — it was dreadful.
Ah, America, land of the . . . tip.
And now, a decade on from
Angry Simon, the country’s
tipping culture has gone
past the tipping point.
This summer I am
spending a month in
Los Angeles. I love it
here, yet there is a
problem. A month away
requires planning —
Airbnb, a car, mosquito
bite cream — but what I did
not factor in was spending
hundreds of dollars on tipping
people who have, quite frankly,
done nothing. America has
become a place where you
give someone $10 (£8) for
bleeping an object through
a till. Mother, send
money — I am broke.
Exhibit A: brunch.
At a restaurant counter
I ordered avocados,
eggs and coffee. The
lady serving gave me
one of those devices that
buzzes when the food is
ready, so I went back to my
table then returned to pick up my
meal. All the effort was mine, but when
she put my card in the machine the screen
suggested a tip of 18, 20 or 25 per cent.
She waited, expectant. I did not want
conflict, so I pressed 18 per cent, which
in hindsight was 18 per cent too much.
Exhibit B: milk. One night in a hotel,
with the kids and my wife asleep, I went
to the bar. I tipped for a glass of wine —
I get that. Then I remembered that I
needed milk for the morning. A waiter
scurried off for what I assumed would be
a freebie, until they handed me a bill for
$5. For milk. Then I was handed another
screen suggesting a tip.
So, a couple of things. First, why pay
them anything? Well, you try to look
someone in the eye when they’re holding
a machine that requires effort to actively
not pay them. After a rise in contactless
payments during the pandemic, these
are now everywhere, and in reality a
cash-free society just means more places
to tip where you didn’t before, such as
in shops.
Secondly, as Americans say when
Brits complain about their tipping
culture, they are “not paid much!”. But
let us deconstruct that. Is anybody
making an effort to tip people on worse
salaries, doing arguably worse jobs,
such as loo cleaners? No, they are not,
because they never see these people,
so can ignore them.
Also, the proliferation of tipping does
not take into account that some of us
are simply not rich enough to spend
hundreds of dollars a week extra on the
people who make our coffees and bring
us our food in restaurants — and it’s not
clear what we get in return anyway. In a
way, tipping in restaurants was a method
for those eating to assert even more power
over those serving, but now that it has
spread far beyond restaurants,
it is unclear who is better off:
the server or the served.
Tipping was in the
headlines in the UK
this month, with the
Cameron House hotel
on Loch Lomond
allegedly withholding
tips from staff. Tips are
important everywhere,
then, but at least we are
not gripped by the ludicrous
fear that prevails over America.
A piece in The New York Times
recently admitted to “tipping
fatigue”, largely because of
“requests for tips at food
businesses of all types,
from bakeries and
yoghurt shops to food
trucks and juice bars”.
The piece, of course,
prompted a backlash
from the hospitality
sector, but fear and
fatigue are real.
On Uber there is now
an option to tip drivers — it
exists in the UK too, but in the
US it feels essential, because if you give
a low tip, will the driver rate you badly?
And if that happens, will you ever get
picked up again? And it is not as though
it is cheaper to drive — parking a car at a
hotel tends to mean flinging $20 at the
valet every time you want to drive it.
T Travel
T
I have no idea what the etiquette is
anymore. The other week we put the kids
in a summer camp, and at the end I tried
to give a member of staff $20. She looked
appalled and declined it. Was I ashamed?
A bit, but mostly relieved. At least I could
afford another coffee. And I’d avoided an
encounter with another Angry Simon.
Has tipping culture gone too far?
Send us your thoughts by emailing
travel@sunday-times.co.uk
BIG
SHOT
RIPPLE EFFECT
Performers the
world over are
dusting off their
finest charro
outfits in
anticipation of
the International
Mariachi Festival
that starts on
Thursday in
Guadalajara, the
Mexican music
capital in Jalisco
state. The annual
11-day celebration
is the biggest of
its kind, and
includes many
folk ensemble
performances,
some involving
the twirling of
extravagant skirts
— with plenty of
tequila flowing
to get spectators
dancing too
On track
the urge to strip off and dive into Lake
Bled. In 1964 we had our cameras
YOUR confiscated when a ministerial guest
in India
arrived for a two-day fishing trip, and the
VIEWS sparkling riverbank was lined with armed
guards. When he departed we were told
it was Georgy Malenkov, who succeeded
LETTER OF THE WEEK Stalin as the leader of the Soviet Union.
The best of this
week’s emails, posts Sally Howard’s article (“Passage to Pamela M Crowe, Isle of Man
and comments India”, last week) reminded me of our
hissing, steaming locomotive on the The Franja Partisan Hospital, now
Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, its dinky preserved as a war museum, is a
carriages clinging to the 2ft-wide track. remarkable place, hidden in a remote
Staff hung off the front and chucked sand gorge in a forest in western Slovenia.
onto the rails to give extra traction on the Heroic staff there saved the lives of
really steep bits. At times we were so close anti-Nazi Slovenians, as well as wounded
to shops that we could grab our lunch Allied troops.
en route. The railway may be small, but Javier Pes, via thetimes.co.uk
Trav
it’s a serious piece of engineering.
T Gwen Kinghorn, Edinburgh
I’m in India at the moment. E-visas
are available — just not to UK citizens;
if you have an EU passport (as my wife
TURQUOISE TREASURES
My family too became besotted with
Kalkan (“Turkish delight”, last week) on
our first visit some 15 years ago. Like Mary
Greenham we had been pessimistic, but
does) then it takes a fraction of the time
and cost to get a visa. And apply early
were lured by a review of a villa. On that
and subsequent holidays we spent our
Travel — appointments in London were in very
short supply, with a wait of several weeks.
mornings visiting archaeological sites
close at hand, gorgeous Patara beach,
For expert guides Andrew McManus, via thetimes.co.uk the inland mountain plateau region and
to your favourite nearby towns such as Kas. Afternoons
destinations, plus VIP PASS involved snorkelling in the bay, where
the latest travel I am sure that the prime minister and multicoloured fish shoals are guaranteed
news and the best his wife had a wonderful time in Slovenia and a passing turtle is a distinct
trips and deals to (“Keeping up with the Johnsons”, last possibility. Once visited, always hooked.
book now, see our week). We visited the country last year Sarah Richards, Dorset
dedicated travel to renew memories, having spent our
website the honeymoon in this beautiful area 58 Does anyone remember Kalkan from
times.co.uk/travel years ago, although this time we resisted the 1980s (without the development),

when it was just an overnight stop for the
yachties? A time when Morton the goose
patrolled the harbour with much honking.
Also, the pristine corniche drive from
Kalkan to Kas.
Grant Armstrong, via thetimes.co.uk
PICTURE PERFECT
Every week I intend to thank you for
the beautiful illustration on the city breaks
page. The picture always epitomises the
architecture and mood of the city. Thank
you, Clare Collins, for the illustration of
Stockholm (“The Big Weekend”, last
week). Unfortunately travel is now a thing
of the past for us, as time has taken its
toll, so it is a matter of being reminded of
happy times through your Travel section.
Judith Milnes, Nottinghamshire
Not only is Stockholm totally unique,
interesting and beautiful, the daylight
in midsummer must do something to
brain chemistry, as there is a vibrant,
fun yet slightly eerie atmosphere that
differentiates it from any other city I
have visited. I absolutely loved it.
Formaggio, via thetimes.co.uk
The Vasa Museum is awesome, and
don’t miss the Ostermalms Saluhall,
a superb food market just a short walk
from Birger Jarlsgatan.
Stoobs, via thetimes.co.uk
FAR NORTHERN EXPOSURE
The Shackleton polar training in
Norway is a great experience (“Access all
COVER PHOTOGRAPH: SEBASTIAN WASEK/ALAMY; VW PICS/GETTY IMAGES
POSTCARD FROM...
NAIROBI
As the city reels from political protests, Darlene Adaji
says that, despite everything, people are still smiling
C
lashes will always occur in a
country where there are more
than 40 tribes, and the recent
presidential contest between
William Ruto and Raila Odinga
gave people an excuse to let their anger
out. Those who are unhappy with the
result are burning tyres, breaking into
houses and vandalising shops in
impoverished areas such as Kibera and
Mathare, both 30 minutes’ drive
outside central Nairobi. But, mostly,
there is a feeling of peace and hope
that better times are ahead.
The general sentiment is that
after the pandemic, it’s time to
move on. We don’t want the
unrest — or expense — that a vote
recount would bring; we want to
focus on rebuilding the country.
The pandemic led to a huge rise in
mental-health issues, as many people
struggled to cope with job losses and
relationship breakdowns. Mental health
isn’t acknowledged or addressed by the
Kenyan government; if someone is
struggling psychologically, most people
tend to say that they have gone mad. A few
of the big companies here did start to give
counselling sessions to staff, but where
this wasn’t available many turned to
alcohol. I have an uncle who now drinks
every day to function, but in his village
they just say, “Oh, he loves to drink.”
It’s easy to see Covid as being the worst
thing that has happened to us, but it has
brought lots of good too. I’m a tour guide
and my work stopped for nearly two and
a half years. That gave me the time to do
areas”, last week). The guides, Louis and something I’ve always dreamt of: reaching
Wendy, are giants in their field and the summits of Mount Kilimanjaro and
learning from them in such a fantastic Mount Kenya. I also got to spend lots of
environment was an honour. It’s well time with my 13-year-old daughter, Mya,
worth checking out. as she grew into a young woman. As for
Adam Birchall, via thetimes.co.uk online learning and helping with her
schoolwork, that was trickier; there were
Ah, Finse — happy days. I first went some days I had to teach myself first.
there more than 30 years ago, on a There were other girls I wish I could
holiday in February, skiing from hut to also have helped during this time. I’m an
hut over the Hardangervidda. I never anti-female-genital-mutilation (FGM)
was a good skier and that proved it — ambassador and support a community in
had the weather not been mainly a the Masai Mara. We rescue girls as young
blizzard I would probably have been as nine from FGM and help locals with
sent home. My second trip was in May little or no income, and not being able to
the same year and completely different do this was really hard. It killed me to hear
— we were skiing in bright sunshine. their stories of life during the pandemic —
Elvira Cheeseman, via thetimes.co.uk
VICKI JAURON/GETTY IMAGES
APE RECORDER
A reader mentioned the possibility of
virtual reality replacing travel experiences
(“Your Views”, last week). On a trip In
Sumatra I left my base at 3am and walked
through jungle to a possible orang-utan
sighting area. After dawn I observed a
female and two young from a metre away.
Not only was I able to see, hear and smell
the group, I was aware that they were also
looking at, hearing and smelling me. This
could never be replicated using VR.
Vicky Macnair, Devon
Share your experiences, opinions and
tips with us by emailing travel@sunday-
times.co.uk, tweeting @TimesTravel
or commenting on one of our stories
at thetimes.co.uk
The Sunday Times August 21, 2022 3
their worlds stopped when tourism was
paused and they had no food or water.
I’ll never complain about my own
experience of the pandemic.
Most tourists don’t realise that their
trips support so many livelihoods. The
government provided no financial
support during the pandemic, so people
had to rely on savings or start up small
businesses, such as food kiosks or
offering motorbike-taxi services. Now
that travel is back there’s optimism
that the most popular areas — the
Masai Mara for safaris and Malindi
for beach breaks — will fill up next
year. For now, tourist numbers
are less than 50 per cent of what
they were before the pandemic.
Despite everything, Kenyans
are still smiling. They’ll tell you
about the times they had no food,
but joke about it, and the conversation
will end in laughter. I think this attitude
will help us through the economic crisis.
The biggest price jumps we’ve seen have
been for commodities — the price of loo
paper, cooking oil and cornflour has
doubled since June. Cornflour is the
staple ingredient for our main dish, ugali,
It’s easy to which is a kind of doughy porridge.
Kenyans tend to have big families too —
see Covid as about five kids is normal — so there are
being the many mouths to feed. The cost of public
transport has also risen dramatically.
worst thing One good thing that has come out of
that has the pause on tourism is that our wildlife
has thrived. It boomed during the
happened, pandemic, and in Lake Nakuru National
but it has Park, where I lead game drives, numbers
of cheetahs, leopards and rhinos have
brought massively increased. Lockdown kept
good too everyone indoors and, happily, that
included the poachers too. There were
baby animals everywhere when we got
back to the trails, and it was really easy
to spot them, as they had reclaimed
roads that are usually taken up by
vehicles — it was just another thing for
us to smile and joke about.
Darlene Adaji is a guide with Intrepid
Nairobi’s skyline Travel and lives in Nairobi. She supports the
and, above, a Tepesua Community-Based Organization,
cheetah with which empowers women and promotes
her cubs in the education and community development
Masai Mara (tepesuacbo.org). She spoke to Lucy Perrin

Travel Cruise
GOING
SOLO
On his first voyage, single thirtysomething Ben Aitken sets sail
alongside experienced cruisers — will this millenial be all at sea?
O
ver the course of a two-week
Baltic cruise with the new
British line Ambassador, I
took more things than I had
in the previous 30 years:
classes in line dancing and Welsh; a blow
to my ego when I joined the ship’s choir
and was told that I was off the scale by
some margin. I took in every inch of the
vessel’s 70,000 tons; I took part in three
karaoke competitions, on each occasion
sending much of the audience to sleep
with my version of Nessun dorma.
Other things I took were strolls around
the top deck, where I took a good look at
the sea, the stars and the woody islands of
the Swedish archipelago. I took a shining
to shuffleboard and a liking to the aft of
deck 10, from where you could prospect
for porpoises and whales; and a chance
on the Abba museum in Stockholm.
I took it on the chin that we wouldn’t
call at St Petersburg, and took a leaf out of
the book of 90-year-old Leslie, who told
me that the secret to a successful cruise
was a nap after breakfast.
It would be wrong to suggest that my
inaugural cruise was entirely smooth
sailing. Despite having travelled with my
elders before (and written a book called
The Gran Tour about it), and having
survived Covid lockdowns all but tethered
to an unfamiliar 85-year-old (see The
Marmalade Diaries), I arrived at Tilbury
Town station, 20 miles east of central
London, unhelpfully apprehensive.
I was on edge because cruise ships
aren’t the conventional home from home
for single blokes in their thirties. Walking
the mile or so from station to cruise
terminal, where Ambassador’s refitted
flagship vessel Ambience was purring
impressively, my nerves were still reeling.
After clambering aboard and spending
ten minutes approximating someone
unpacking, I headed down to the ship’s
main dining room for a five-course dinner
in an outfit diametrically opposed to a
tuxedo (it involved shorts and a T-shirt).
I took a seat at a table occupied by seven
fellow singletons. Although it was a motley
crew, I was the youngest by some margin.
On that first evening I was painfully
self-conscious and tongue-tied, but over
roughly 67 courses (baked Alaska and
spotted dick not the least of them) the
eight of us became, if not mates, then
something not far off. There was Derek
from Somerset, 86 years young but
3 MORE CRUISES PERFECT FOR TRAVELLING SOLO
MEDITERRANEAN WITH NCL
Seven of Norwegian Cruise Line’s ships
have studio cabins that share a lounge
where the ship’s entertainment team
host a singles’ meet-up every night.
The 4,100-passenger Norwegian Epic
sails from Barcelona all summer, calling
at ports including Livorno, Rome,
Naples, Cagliari, Mallorca and Ibiza.
Details Nine nights’ all-inclusive on
Norwegian Epic costs from £1,249pp for
sole occupancy of a studio, including
speciality dining, wi-fi and credit
towards shore excursions, departing
on July 30 (ncl.com). Fly to Barcelona
NORWEGIAN FJORDS WITH SAGA
Saga’s Spirit of Discovery has 109
solo cabins, all with private balconies.
The atmosphere on board the over-50s
line is as inclusive as cruising gets.
Single travellers can request a shared
table for meals and a buddy for
excursions, and there’s a party and a
lunch for singles. This cruise to the
somehow looking like George Best at
40; Sarah from Nottingham, an unruly
ex-teacher who wouldn’t reveal her
age but mentioned that she had
once voted for Churchill; and
Alasdair, a former bank manager
from the Highlands whose stated
mission in life is to extract value
for money.
After dinner a group of us
would often repair to one of the
several lounges on board, for a flute
of something uplifting accompanied
by a violinist, before heading to the
Norwegian fjords visits Bergen,
Geiranger and Stavanger (from
Sandnes).
Details Seven nights’
all-inclusive from £2,912pp in
a single balcony cabin, including
speciality dining, wi-fi, tips, two
shore excursions and car to the
port, departing on July 30 from
London Tilbury (travel.saga.co.uk)
FESTIVE SPAIN WITH FRED OLSEN
Fred Olsen attracts a large following of
solo travellers with singles’ gatherings,
mixed dining and activities such as
helping the Orca conservation charity
to conduct surveys. Get into the
Christmas spirit on this cruise to Vigo
and La Coruña, as well as Gijon and
Getxo, for Bilbao and the Guggenheim.
Details Eight nights’ full board on
Borealis from £1,099pp for a single
cabin, departing on December 14 from
Liverpool (fredolsencruises.com)
Sue Bryant
The Sunday Times August 21, 2022 5
Ambience’s principal theatre for a
MAX WILLCOCK/BNPS; PAWEL GAUL/GETTY IMAGES
shortened My Fair Lady.
Other musicals were available, of
course, and one of them was The Lion
King. When the Brazilian conductor of
the ship’s choir, playing Simba, advanced
on all fours to the edge of a promontory
and sang the lines, “There’s more to see
than can ever be seen; More to do than
can ever be done,” it was the first time in
my life that I’ve been able to strongly
identify with a lion — because love them
or loathe them, a cruise has plenty of
strings to its bow.
For a start there’s the simple magic of
living on something that has a rudder.
Then there’s the blessed disengagement
from the “real world” that a cruise
facilitates, especially if you turn down
the ship’s internet package; the array of
optional diversions, such as ice carving,
oil painting and lectures on marine
biology; the endless opportunity to natter
with people from all walks of life; the
miscellaneous pleasures that a cruise will
routinely throw up, like the sight, on
drawing one’s curtains in the morning,
of an enchanting Swedish summerhouse
or a rotten Danish castle that used to be
owned by Hamlet.
And on top of all those strings are the
ports of call. When in port passengers
could either join one of the organised
excursions (for a supplement) or head
into town and explore under their own
steam. I tended to do the latter, because
for me one of the virtues of travel is long
spells of clueless ambulation.
In Helsinki I dipped a toe into Finnish
sauna culture by spending a happy hour
shifting between sweaty captivity and icy
Baltic immersion. In Copenhagen I
Ambience and, doggy-paddled at a public swimming spot
below, Ben.
Bottom, Helsinki
before learning about the notoriously
high-spending and war-mongering life
of Christian IV of Denmark. In Tallinn I
opted for bear-meat dumplings on the
picturesque main square. And in Visby
I chose to familiarise myself with the
Swedish practice of fika, which
involves stopping what you’re doing
several times a day to drink coffee
and eat something sweet.
Can cruising be fun for a
younger person travelling alone?
As sure as eggs is eggs, it can.
Indeed, I reckon you’d have to be
uniquely difficult to please not to
enjoy one — because even if you
had zero interest in ports or people
or panoramas or pastimes such as
painting or pétanque, you could just set
up camp in the engine room and read
royal biographies back to back, emerging
exclusively at dinner time for your filet
mignon, when you’d have to break
your enjoyable silence to let the
waiter know which sauce you
would like.
Were there moments during the
holiday when I felt something less
than shipshape? When I felt a bit
at sea? Absolutely there were. But
that’s just being human — as things
stand, even when you travel alone,
you still have to go with yourself.
Am I a cruise convert? I’ll certainly
be keeping my eyes peeled for bargains,
that’s for sure. I wouldn’t mind having
a look at the Norwegian fjords, for a start,
and Ambassador’s seven-day cruise
around the British Isles looks right up
my cup of tea. The line is even offering a
For me, world cruise in 2024, and if between now
one of the and then I inherit a small fortune from an
unforeseen aunt, I’ll be on board in a
virtues of heartbeat.
travel is
Ben Aitken was a guest of Ambassador
long spells Cruise Line. Sixteen nights’ full board on
of clueless the Hidden Nordic Treasures itinerary,
departing on May 16 from London Tilbury,
ambulation from £989pp (ambassadorcruiseline.com)
6 August 21, 2022 The Sunday Times

Travel Road trip

T
here are seven
million books in
Trinity College At 1,600 miles, Ireland’s Wild
Library in Dublin.
In the Long Room Atlantic Way is one epic drive.
alone more than 200,000
volumes. As a tourist you will Better to savour a smaller slice at
never have time to read even
one of these books. You can
only wonder what secrets and
revelations lie between their
covers, and that’s exactly what
CALL OF your leisure, Chris Haslam finds

THE WILD
it’s like to drive Ireland’s Wild
Atlantic Way: a road on which
every fork and crossroads,
every dead-end detour hides
its own stories.
One of the longest coastal
routes on earth follows the
shore for 1,600 miles from
Co Cork to Donegal. They say
you can drive it in a fortnight,
and, in the past, I’ve done it
in six days. But such haste is
nothing to be proud of unless
your aim is to miss the point
completely, so this time
I took the advice of Eamonn
Gallagher, whom I met
enjoying an early Guinness in
the Crane Bar in Galway.
“The road is like a birthday
cake,” he said. “Eat it all at
once and you’ll be sick, but
enjoy a wee slice and you’ll
always be hungry for more.”
The next morning my dog
and I drove west along the
north shore of Galway Bay to
Connemara: a wet and empty
 The Sunday Times August 21, 2022 7

MAKE YOUR

RICHARD WAYMAN, IMAGEBROKER, DIARMID WEIR/ALAMY

Five Finger Strand WAY Looking
out over
Maghera beach,
Co Donegal, left;
Co
a Connemara
Donegal
pony, below left;
Rusty Mackerel boats at Rosroe
Pier, right

Wild Nephin
National Park
Co Mayo
Westport
Renvyle House
Connemara Co
Galway
Galway
20 miles

land of rock and lough and
wind-bent blackthorn. I tuned
in to the local radio station
and the car filled with the
mysteries and the music of the
Gaeltacht, where Gaeilge (the
Irish language) is spoken.
Sunbeams punched
through rain-dark clouds
to spotlight whitewashed
bungalows, Connemara
ponies in heroic poses and the
leaden glint of the summits of
the Benna Beola. In the middle
of a rain-lashed wilderness I
stopped for a hitchhiker clad
in short shorts and a vest, his
thumb out from under an
umbrella. He was going
shopping in Clifden, and was
dressed for Benidorm.
“The sunshine will be
deadly in a while,” he insisted,
and by the time I reached
Mannin Bay, his prophecy had
come true. The sea was glassy
blue as I joined the guide
Calliam Johnson for a kayak
trip around Knock Head, the
dog alert like Ishmael on my
prow. We paddled past a chain
of white-sand beaches, over
swaying kelp forests into Salt
Lough, where, to the dog’s
dismay, we were immediately
surrounded by seals.
Connemara was beautiful,
said Johnson, but life was
tough. “Outsiders are buying
up all the properties as second
homes, so rents have
rocketed,” he said. “Three
years ago I was paying €450
[£380] a month. Now it’s
€1,200 [£1,010], and you need
three jobs just to get by.” As
locals are forced out, the
culture is weakening, but
outsiders wouldn’t be buying
if locals weren’t selling.
I spent the night at Renvyle
House, a seaside hotel worthy
of an entire shelf in Trinity
College Library. It was once
home of the chieftain Donal
O’Flaherty, husband of the
pirate queen Granuaile, or
Grace O’Malley. The house
then passed to the Blakes,
who considered themselves
descended from a Knight of
the Round Table, then to the
statesman and poet Oliver
St John Gogarty, who
entertained WB Yeats here.
Despite that history it’s an
unpretentious spot serving
fabulous mussels, and still
popular with writerly types.
I met an Irish journalist and an
American poet here but, due
Continued on page 8 →
8 August 21, 2022 The Sunday Times
Travel Road trip
→ Continued from page 7
to the whiskey, have forgotten
their names.
Mornings are moments of
hope and regret on the Wild
Atlantic Way: the former for
what lies ahead and the latter
for the unknowns left behind.
I started with a wrong turn on
Killary Fjord but kept driving
for the sake of it until I came to
a dead end at Rosroe Pier. A
plaque on the wall of a pebble-
dashed bungalow with UPVC
windows announced: “Ludwig
Wittgenstein lived and worked
here April-October 1948”. A
local called Tom Mulkerrins
was asked to keep an eye on
the philosopher, who lived
almost entirely on tinned
food. Mulkerrins suggested
this was an unhealthy diet.
Wittgenstein didn’t care.
“Most people live too long
anyway,” he replied.
Across the fjord lies Co
Mayo. You may think you’re
well travelled. You may have
sailed the 76 seas and you may
feel there are few wonders left
unseen on this earth. Then
you and the dog hike up the
2,671ft Maol Reidh and behold
the ridiculous beauty of
Ireland’s Atlantic coast. Left to
right, under cloudless skies:
the islands of Inishbofin and
Inishturk; the sands of Uggool,
Silver Strand and White
Strand; and the glittering
heights of Croagh Patrick,
where Ireland’s patron saint
fasted for 40 days. He wasn’t
the only one: in 1847, when
the scale of the Great Hunger
was becoming clear, the parish
priest of Kilgeever, at the foot
of the holy mountain, wrote
of “a population of 12,000
persons, hitherto solely
depending on the potato, now
without one ray of earthly
hope [and suffering from]
famine, fever and dysentery”.
Beyond Westport, the road
follows the northern shore of
Clew Bay, where 141 emerald
islets are a playground for
pleasure boats. That all
changes at Dumhach Bheag.
Suddenly, the sheep look
tougher. There are no more
In a rain-lashed
wilderness
I stopped for
a hitchhiker
clad in shorts
and a vest
trees, the sky
grows darker
and you can
see the
Atlantic
exploding on
Clare Island,
five miles
distant.
It was on this
coast that the
Spanish Armada
foundered, with 24 ships lost
in the stormy September of
1588. Many drowned, or
survived only to be hanged by
the British, but others
escaped. “To the mixture of
Spanish blood in [the locals’]
veins we may attribute the
glossy hair, dark eyes and
bright complexions which give
to their countenances a degree
of beauty superior to their less
contaminated northern
neighbours,” wrote Henry
Blake in 1825. He wouldn’t
get away with that today.
The N59 leads north through
Wild Nephin National Park:
37,000 acres of blanket bog
and mica slate mountain. The
tarmac and telegraph wires are
humanity’s tightropes through
this wilderness, and you
understand how the thoughts
of travellers might slide
towards the supernatural —
especially when a Satanic ram
blocks a bridge, demanding

CHRIS HILL/TOURISM IRELAND; RICHARD WAYMAN/ALAMY; GARETH MCCORMACK
Tranarossan Bay, your soul in return for safe
left; grey seals passage.
are a common I crossed into Donegal — the
sight along the most beautiful county of them
Wild Atlantic all — and spent the night at the
Way, inset; the Rusty Mackerel, where an old
Rusty Mackerel, man told me how a witch
Co Donegal, called Bridget Devenney
above; kayakers conjured a storm in Bruckless
take a break in Bay that drowned 130
Mannin Bay, fishermen in a single night in
above right February 1813. “They say she
did it because no one would
give her a fish,” he said. “So
if you want a fish, just ask.
No one from Donegal wants
another disaster.”
Next morning I spent an
hour with a father and son,
digging turf from a bog with
the long-handled spade they
call the slean. Michael made
the cuts while his father
Labhras laid the breeze block-
sized sods out to dry. This
high-carbon peat is Ireland’s
traditional fuel, but
environmentalists want the
centuries-old practice banned.
“How do you think they
expect us to keep warm,
then?” asked Labhras. “Will
they pipe in the gas? Or send
coal lorries?” He relit his
roll-up and nodded at the
treeless slopes. “Or tell us
to chop wood?”
For the time being, Labhras
and his son are reprieved: the
government has ruled that
they can continue cutting
peat as long as they don’t
The Sunday Times August 21, 2022 9
advertise it and don’t sell it
in shops.
But they can sell jumpers.
I’m not really the retail type
but at Rossan Knitwear’s
factory shop (find it next to the
megalithic tomb at Malainn
Mhoir), I dropped £125 on
three sweaters hand-knitted
by the McNelis sisters. West
of here is Malainn Bhig and
another Silver Strand: a
theatre of south-facing sand at
the tip of the Slieve League
peninsula, where a mountain
three times higher than Clare’s
Cliffs of Moher falls nearly
2,000ft into hungry seas.
Then there’s Maghera beach:
green cliffs, aquamarine water
and a dozen or more deep
caves; or Tranarossan Bay on
the Rosguill peninsula; or
spectacular Boyeeghter Bay
next door, which only this year
gained public access; and the
wild jumble of grassy rock,
sand and crystal-clear water
that stretches from Tullyillion
through Cloughglass and
Kincasslagh to Mullaghderg.
I ended the trip where it
felt right, watching the dog
barking at clouds while 6ft surf
smashed on the empty sands
of Five Finger Strand. I got
chatting to a fisherman casting
for sea bass, telling him I felt as
if I’d had my cake and eaten it
on the Wild Atlantic Way.
“They say Donegal is
Ireland’s poorest county,
but in many ways — culturally,
scenically and in terms of its
generosity — it’s the richest,”
he said, so I asked him for
a fish. He said he didn’t have
one to spare. Turned out he
was from Dublin.
Chris Haslam was a guest of
Tourism Ireland (tourism
ireland.com) and Irish Ferries,
which offers return crossings
from Holyhead to Dublin from
£238 (irishferries.com). Renvyle
House has B&B doubles from
£186 (renvyle.com); the Rusty
Mackerel has room-only
doubles from £85
(therustymackerel.com)
10 August 21, 2022 The Sunday Times

Travel Europe

London

Gyermekvasut
A FIRST-CLASS
As Interrail turns 50 — and with its
A
board the new
Munich Vienna
Nightjet sleeper
Paris
Lake Balaton passes now covering 33 European train from Paris
to Vienna, my
Salzburg
Budapest countries — Tristan Rutherford three young
sons enjoy hot showers.
Zagreb
Pula
whisks his wife and three children Afterwards, my wife
Kathryn and I snuggle
100 miles
on a cross-continental train journey them into our private
cabin’s trio of fold-down
bunks. I press the waiter
button, summoning a
complimentary mini bottle
of sparkling wine while
filling in breakfast order
forms. The next morning,
five trays — laden with
bircher muesli, liver pâté,
salami and more — arrive
as we gaze at Munich and
Salzburg through the dawn.
It wasn’t like this 25 years
ago. Back then, my
locomotive adventures
around Europe entailed
nights in stations and a
Staropramen-soaked train
pass. This year, Interrail
is celebrating its 50th
anniversary with a magical
app that inspires go-anywhere
rail journeys across a record
33 European countries.
Better still, under-12s go free.
Our plan is simple: start
in London, sample a sleeper
train, some high-speed
international trips and rural
chuggers, before
disembarking on a
Croatian beach. The
damage? A five-day,
first-class pass for our
family of five (used
within a 30-day
period) costs £630.
And even though
sleeper services and
some high-speed
trains still require an
additional paid-for
reservation, it’s still
cheaper than all of
us flying.
The adventure begins
with a Eurostar journey
to Paris; us first-class
interrailers are automatically The Nightjet train, main;
upgraded to standard premier, the Rutherfords enjoyed life
where leather recliners on board, above, and spent
surround foldaway tables. Our time in Paris, right; the
six-year-old twins, Aurelio and Zagreb funicular, far right
Lupo, devour a lunch of
Suffolk chicken with couscous, Haussmann boulevards
while Russo, their four-year- overlooking graffiti-covered
old sibling, assembles an climbing frames. At the
Uno tower. On arrival, we covered Marché Saint-Quentin
immediately descend on the food market, we purchase our
City of Light having already sleeper-train dinner — a
completed passport control portion of tagine, two pongy
back in St Pancras. cheeses and 18 maki sushi
Our plan is to undertake rolls — before departing. That’s
one must-try activity per city. the nature of interrailing: it
In Paris, that means eating allows for a tantalising
oysters. In the newly buzzy snapshot of a city and leaves
Gare du Nord quartier, we you hungry for more.
descend on hole-in-the-wall At Vienna Hauptbahnhof
shack Pleine Mer. It’s just over the next morning, we put our
£8 for a dozen oysters (Rue de “child-enfranchisement plan”
Chabrol 22). into action. The twins must
The kids’ eyes bulge during carry their own backpacks,
our four hours in the French leaving Kathryn and I with
capital. Vaping Parisians whizz only a small wheelie between
by on electric scooters past us; we also put the kids in
butchers’ windows full of pink charge of navigation to the
cows’ tongues and handsome hotel using my phone. Just five

FAMILY ADVENTURE
minutes later, we’ve checked
into Mooons, which opened
late last year with a rooftop
restaurant and skyline views.
The Belvedere Palace is on
the same street (£12, children
free; belvedere.at). It was the
summer party pad of the
Habsburgs, the Austro-
Hungarian Empire’s divine
family. First we speed-eat
wiener schnitzels and some
sachertorte in the café here
(mains from £10; don.at).
At a neighbouring table, two
newlyweds sip Aperol spritzes.
Those were the days.
I herd my family to see the
palace’s outstanding art
collection. Gustav Klimt’s
gilded painting The Kiss,
depicting a couple embracing,
awes like an opened treasure
chest. But Aurelio’s only
comment is: “Is she dead?”
We drag them back to our
Mooons bedroom, where
giant windows overlook
Vienna. At sunset our boys
watch one of Europe’s great
cities blush vivid purple with
mint cupolas and red spires.
“It looks like a video,” reckons
Lupo. Praise indeed.
The next day in the city’s
public transport museum,
Remise, our kids enjoy vintage
trams, double-decker buses
and push-all-the-buttons
U-Bahn trains (£7, children
free; wienerlinien.at). A
timeline explains how steam
stood in for horse-drawn
trams during the First World
War, while female conductors
replaced men who followed
That’s the nature
of interrailing: it
allows for a
tantalising
snapshot of a city
and leaves you
hungry for more
those horses to the front line.
Direct trains run from
Vienna to the old empire
hubs of Prague, Krakow and
Bratislava. On our EuroCity
service to Budapest, we
occupy a private cabin with six
reclining chairs, and watch as
oceans of purple wildflowers
and fields of green leeks slip by
sedately over two and a half
hours. I can’t help feeling that
only a masochist would fly
between the two cities.
Courtesy of the twins again,
we walk from Budapest’s Keleti
station to the IntercityHotel in
two minutes. Also opened last
year, this is the city’s first hotel
to be powered entirely by
renewables, with a vast lobby
decorated with upcycled
lamps and jungly plants.
We’re en route to
Gyermekvasut, a seven-mile
train line that snakes across
western Budapest’s hills.
Cheeringly, its signalling,
ticketing, announcing and
conducting are performed
entirely by children aged 10-14.
They also greet trains with a
stern salute at the seven
station stops, and many go
on to become drivers. Our £8
family ticket allows us happy
pauses for short hikes, picnics
and chairlifts to viewpoints
(gyermekvasut.hu).
Five days in, though, I have
to admit to feeling exhausted
during our six-hour journey to
Zagreb, the Croatian capital.
Despite this being the trip’s
longest ride, however, our
brood are loving it. In Russo’s
The Sunday Times August 21, 2022 11
HARALD EISENBERGER; KATHRYN TOMASETTI; ALEXANDER SPATARI/GETTY IMAGES; GUNTER KIRSCH/ALAMY
golden age. The art deco
landmark was constructed in
1925, catering for counts and
debutantes hopping off the
Orient Express. We arrive in
perfect time to book a
babysitter and a table for two
tired parents at the on-site
restaurant Zinfandel’s, where
we later devour snails in
chanterelle cream and a
mound of steak tartare (mains
from £15; zinfandels.hr).
Later we ascend to Zagreb’s
medieval centre, paying 50p
each for its funicular. Fun
sights up here include the
original Museum of Broken
Relationships, whose
exhibits include an axe used
cathartically by a jilted woman
to decimate her ex-lover’s
furniture (£6, children free;
brokenships.com).
Wealthy and liberal,
socialist-era Zagreb wowed
Eastern Bloc visitors. Recalling
that, the city’s museum tribute
to the 1980s — a lifesize
diorama of a working-class
Croatian apartment — is a
history lesson in Formica,
one where mod cons include
double tape decks, an
Amstrad computer and (less
family-friendly) monochrome
erotica (£4, children £3;
zagreb80.com). Back then,
most Croatian families could
afford a coastal summer house
and a Yugo car. They averaged
two kids too; now the birth
rate is under 1.5, making
our three terrors a novelty
in themselves.
Our final trains rattle
through pine-swathed
mountains to Pula on Croatia’s
heart-shaped Istria peninsula.
The shores here, such as
nearby Ciklonska Plaza, are
what the children have been
most looking forward to after
ten days on rails. But on seeing
the sea, they are most riveted
by the Croatian teenagers
tombstoning (cliff-jumping)
into the crystalline waters.
“Can you do that, Dad?” Russo
asks. If you rewind a few
decades, I reply.
The whistle has nearly
blown on our European
happy words, “This is an journey. Will we return home
action holiday, not a relaxing using Interrail’s discount on a
one.” He can say that again. ferry to Italy? Will we boldly
Later, when we flank Lake push on east, utilising the
Balaton, things go slightly reinstated service from
downhill. Popular with Croatia to Istanbul? Alas, with
domestic Hungarian all three kids imminently due
holidaymakers, this inland sea in school, we fly home into
is ringed by vineyards, boat- Luton. The boozy, boisterous
hire shops and beach bars. atmosphere we encounter
“Can we get off, Dad?” Uh-uh, there might have thrilled me
I reply. “I’m hot, Dad.” “Have a 25 years back; now, I just
shower in Zagreb later,” I say. fancy an early night.
At this point my wife gives me
a look and reminds me that Tristan Rutherford was a
interrailing is supposed to guest of Interrail (interrail.eu),
involve hop-on, hop-off fun. Mooons (B&B doubles
Five minutes later, we alight at from £97; mooons.com),
Balatonszemes for ice creams IntercityHotel Budapest
and a paddle. (B&B doubles from £82;
That evening we check in hrewards.com) and Esplanade
to Zagreb’s Esplanade Hotel, Zagreb Hotel (B&B doubles
built to host rail tourism’s from £165; esplanade.hr)
12 August 21, 2022 The Sunday Times
Travel City breaks
O
dd to think of Madrid as a
new discovery. Yet the seat of
Spanish royalty can seem a
bit provincial, unknowable
and, critically, beachless
when compared with, say, Barcelona. So,
it’s exciting that innovative restaurants
and opulent hotels keep raising the
capital’s profile, and drawing attention to
its Enlightenment-era architecture,
abundance of parkland, convivial tapas
culture and plazas that serve as hivelike
public spaces. Each neighbourhood offers
the weekender its own distinctive angle
of attack, from Salamanca’s boulevards of
boutiques to late-night Senegalese drums
in the medieval backstreets of Lavapiés.
WHAT TO DO
Get your bearings wandering the
historical core of Madrid de los Austrias,
though it’s just as easy to lose them.
Between Plaza Mayor and the Royal
Palace there are ateliers that have
survived for generations. Stop to watch
Felipe Conde craft classical guitars at the
workshop founded by his grandfather,
whose customers included Bob Dylan and
Leonard Cohen (condehermanos.com).
El Rastro flea market has practically
defined La Latina, the city’s oldest barrio,
for 300 years. Sunday is the big day for
street vendors, but Saturday is better for
browsing the bazaar-like clusters of
antiques dealers. Food and music turn
nearby market halls La Cebada
(mercadodelacebada.com) and San
Fernando (mercadodesanfernando.es)
into block parties on both afternoons.
Built as a pleasure garden for a summer
palace that no longer exists, Retiro Park
also gets crowded on weekends, as strolls
around its boating lake and landmark
statue of Lucifer have become a matter of
civic pride and social custom. But there’s
always a quiet corner to retreat to along
its shaded back lanes of hedgerows.
The golden triangle of Madrid’s big
three museums — the Prado (£13; museo
delprado.es), Reina Sofia (£11; museoreina
sofia.es) and Thyssen-Bornemisza (£12;
museothyssen.org) — involve too much
art for one weekend, so focus on one
must-see masterpiece; perhaps Bosch’s
The Garden of Earthly Delights (Prado),
Picasso’s Guernica (Reina Sofia) or
Hopper’s Hotel Room (Thyssen). View at
about 2pm, in the relative hush allowed
by long Spanish lunches.
In this all-night kind of town, two
institutions stand out in the moonlight:
Corral de la Morería is a hallowed shrine
to live flamenco (from £44 for show and a
drink; corraldelamoreria.com); Toni 2 is
a piano bar where every Madrileño of
drinking age stops by for a singalong
between midnight and dawn (£9 entry
includes a drink; toni2.es).
THE COOLEST NEIGHBOURHOOD
Chamberí was relatively low key until
a scattering of new ventures opened
between the neighbourhood tapas bars
and beer halls along Calle Ponzano,
reviving the street as a dynamic strip of
hospitality. The Spanglish verb
“Ponzaning” was duly coined for the
practice of trawling from hyper-stylised
gastrobars such as Sala de Despiece
(saladedespiece.com) to cervecerías like
El Doble (cerveceriaeldoble2.eatbu.com).
That nocturnal energy spills into Mercado
Vallehermoso (mercadovallehermoso.es)
and the café terraces around Plaza
Olavide, while daytime retail has
absorbed modish design stores including
R de Room (rderoom.es) alongside
galleries and bookshops.
THE BIG WEEKEND
MADRID
Visit the city that keeps on giving, says Stephen Phelan
WHERE TO EAT AND DRINK
Sacha
A side street opens onto a hidden garden
terrace that may be Madrid’s loveliest
place to eat, though the cluttered interior
of this bistro has its own charm. The
owner, Sacha, cooks Basque and Galician
classics to the standards of his parents,
who opened the place 50 years ago
(mains from £17; restaurantesacha.com).
Galería Canalejas
This gourmet food hall occupies the
basement of lavishly conjoined and
repurposed bank buildings that house
the new Four Seasons hotel. Some of
Madrid’s best chefs operate between
the restored 19th-century glasswork
and vault doors, including the Spanish-
Japanese fusion maestro Julián Mármol at
Monchis and the Eight (mains from
£14; galeriacanalejas.com).
La Venencia
This sherry-only tavern has served
nothing but six types of cask
Jerez since the early 1930s.
Within its sepia miasma of
smoke stains and bottle
dust, winningly surly staff
write your tab in chalk on
the wood bar, banging out
plates of wonderful chorizo
and manchego by way of
tapas (tapas from £3).
DiverXO
The triple-Michelin-starred avant-gardist
Dabiz Muñoz is trying to conjure the best
restaurant in the world from 12-course
ILLUSTRATION BY JULIAN OSBALDSTONE
Chamberí
Viva Madrid
Salamanca
Plaza Mayor
Mandarin
Posada Oriental Ritz
Del Dragón
Corral de
Los Austrias
la Morería
Lavapiés
Malacatín El Rastro
1 mile
tasting menus, or “canvases”. The result
is the priciest meal in Spain, but Muñoz’s
showmanship and polyglottic culinary
fluency make for a pretty unequivocal
experience (£308; diverxo.com).
Viva Madrid
Diego Cabrera, Madrid’s reigning king of
cocktails, recently took over this gorgeous
wood-and-tile tavern from 1856. The
menu recreates tapas classics such as
croquettes and pepito sandwiches to
pair with superbly mixed drinks (tapas
from £7; vivamadrid1856.com).
Malacatín
There is no dish more local than cocido
madrileño — a stew served in three
courses of chickpeas, cabbage and meats
in noodle broth — and this restaurant has
specialised in it since 1895. The fourth-
generation owner, Jose Rodríguez, claims
that only two diners have completed the
full meal (cocido £18pp; malacatin.com).
WHERE TO STAY
La Posada Del Dragón
This traditional traveller’s inn is one of
the last of its kind by the old city gate, on
what is now Madrid’s busiest row of tapas
bars. Though refurbished with artfully
designed guest rooms, it retains a classic
tenement-style structure around an open
courtyard with a decent restaurant (B&B
doubles from £68; posadadeldragon.com)
7 Islas Hotel
Tucked behind the Gran Via, this
boutique hotel punches way above its
price point with an exhibition space, a
bar stocked by the craft distiller Narciso
Bermejo, a kitchen run by the rising star
Xabi Guitart and furniture from the
design studio Kikekeller. Its three attic
penthouses open to an expansive deck
(B&B doubles from £101; 7islashotel.com).
Mandarin Oriental Ritz
The recently restored Ritz serves as a
portal to a world of belle époque finery:
champagne, oysters, afternoon tea, a
pool framed by marble and chandeliers.
The portrait-filled cocktail bar could be
an extension of the Prado museum next
door, while masterchef Quique Dacosta
makes all the food (B&B doubles from
£549; mandarinoriental.com).
IF YOU ONLY DO ONE THING
Food and music Watch sunset from the Temple of Debod,
turn La Cebada an ancient chapel transplanted from
Egypt to a hilltop near the city centre.
and San Fernando
into block parties
at weekends
T Travel
For dozens more guides to your
favourite city-break destinations,
and those you’re still to discover,
see our dedicated Times Travel
website thetimes.co.uk/travel
14 August 21, 2022 The Sunday Times
Travel Australia
e may
Nina Caplan embarks
W have been
banned
from
on a culinary odyssey Australia
for years, but nobody told the
Melbourne “hospo” industry
of Melbourne’s new (as the locals call it) to down
tools: new restaurants and
restaurants and bars — and bars have been popping up
almost daily. On my first visit
since 2019, I was keen to try as
works up an appetite on many of them as time and
physiology would allow. And,
because nonstop eating comes
the Grampians Peaks Trail with one tiny drawback, I
thought I’d tackle the new 100-
mile-long Grampians Peaks
JULIAN KINGMA; EMILY WEAVING; PAUL GOSNEY
Trail, which finally opened
HIK
after several years in the
making. A gourmet odyssey is
hardly the ideal preparation
for a 13-day hike, but visiting
Australia without getting out
into the incredible landscape
makes no sense either.
Fortunately, for fair-
weather walkers like me with
a fondness for luxury, there
are top hotels along the route,
including the Royal Mail in
Dunkeld, which has the
biggest private cellar of
burgundy and bordeaux in
the southern hemisphere
(room-only doubles from
£128; royalmail.com.au).
With their help, I thought as
I tramped the Melbourne
lane-ways on my way to my
first bar, this would be my
kind of outback adventure.
The Caretaker’s Cottage is
a cute bluestone house
among Melbourne’s shiny
skyscrapers, built in 1914 to
serve the church next door.
Its founders bill it as a pub,
but where I come from, pubs
don’t have a trio of top
bartenders pimping liqueurs.
Another welcome change: at
last, central Melbourne has
an indigenous restaurant.
Big Esso opened last year in
Federation Square. The name
means “the biggest thank you”
in Torres Strait Creole; chef
Nornie Bero belongs to the
Komet tribe and grew up on
Mer, one of the islands. Her
restaurant is a cheery
hotchpotch of tables backlit
by the indigenous artist Aretha
Brown’s monochrome mural.
This is the place to try
pepperberry-fried crocodile sprouted abruptly out of a
or coconut and chilli-cured tawny landscape that shelters
kingfish (mains from £13; old wine cellars and older gold
mabumabu.com.au). mines: I’d reached the
Five minutes’ walk away Grampians.
there’s also Gimlet by Andrew Mount William Station at
McConnell, the quiet hero of Willaura is a newly refurbished
Melbourne’s food scene, with 19th-century homestead in
wood and brass fixtures and 7,500 acres that has belonged
Aussie wine pairings by to Will Abbott’s family for four
Anthony Pieri so good that generations (B&B doubles
the couple at the next table from £240 for two nights;
interrupted their anniversary mountwilliamstation.com).
dinner to ask what we were The kitchen was modern but
drinking (mains from £25; everything else looked as it
gimlet.melbourne). I’ve never once would have — if earlier
found anyone who doesn’t inhabitants had had
love McConnell’s food — the electricity, white goods and
lobster roll at Supernormal is internet access. Beyond the
legendary — and while Gimlet windows, rolling grassland
is more European in style, the led to the bluestone stables;
flair is the same. Local duck inside, salons and dining
breast is pepped up with blood rooms decked in glowing
plum; spanner crab is sauced jarrah, an indigenous wood.
with a tarragon pesto. Even the From here, it was 45
signature cocktail was the best minutes to Halls Gap, where
gimlet I’ve ever tasted. anyone walking the trail
My sleek high-rise hotel, without a guide is encouraged
Next, in the new 80 Collins to stop at the Brambuk
Street complex, offered a National Park and Cultural
breakfast omelette with chilli Centre for maps and advice.
salsa that could have lasted me The trail is remote, with
through lunch, if that weren’t a patchy mobile reception and
waste of an eating opportunity stretches scrambling over
(room-only doubles from £175; sandstone rocks or ascending
nexthotelmelbourne.com). steep trails; I’d recommend
There are plenty of things a guide: among the best is
to do other than eat too — walk Braeden Hyland, of Grampians
along the Yarra River, head Peaks Walking Company. Not
south to St Kilda beach. only can he tell you how the
Instead, I jumped in the car yellow-footed rock wallaby
and followed sun-dappled was saved from extinction, he
roads northwest for three recognises the mournful call of
hours, until mountains a yellow-tailed black cockatoo,

KE, EAT,
REPEAT
knowing too that, for
indigenous people, it is an
indication of coming rain.
The walking is glorious.
I tramped through tea trees
and pine gums up to the
Pinnacle, 2,000ft above sea
level, looking out over layers
of forest beneath vast blue
skies. There were wildflowers
and waterfalls with wonderful
names: the trail threads
behind the sheet of white
water that is Bridal Veil Falls
and along Silent Street, a path
cut through the rock to form a
narrow gorge, and up steep
stairs from the dramatically
striated rock of Grand Canyon.
You’ll only avoid seeing
3 MORE SHORT TRIPS FROM AUSTRALIAN CITIES
TAKE FLIGHT NEAR PERTH
From Western Australia’s capital,
rent a car and drive three hours
to Margaret River along the
coast. Once ensconced in this
pretty wine region, alternate
beach walks beside the Indian
Ocean with wanders through
the leafy town, and take a
helicopter tour to the three
wineries (with a stop at one for
lunch) and a scenic flight along
the coast.
Details Two nights’ B&B at the
Cape Lodge Hotel from £875
(capelodge.com.au). Helicopter
wine tour £425 extra, including
two winery tastings, lunch and a
coastal flight. Fly to Perth
kangaroos and wallabies by
walking with your eyes shut.
If you’re less keen on serious
hiking, there’s Dunkeld
Arboretum, where kangaroos
watch you without fear before
leaping unhurriedly into the
brush. It is a short, flat stroll
from the Royal Mail Hotel;
there’s also a mile loop that
passes a 400-year-old gum
tree, undulating along the
ground like a giant snake.
It’s easy to work up an
appetite. In the tasting menus
served in the restaurant facing
Mount Sturgeon, Royal Mail
head chef Robin Wickens is
proud of using only local
produce (seven-course menu
COMMUNE WITH KOALAS
NEAR ADELAIDE
The beautiful Adelaide Hills, with
their wineries and parks, are just
20 minutes’ drive from the city.
Stay at Sequoia Lodge, a new
luxury hilltop hotel overlooking
the Piccadilly Valley, with hot
springs and the Mount Lofty
Botanic Garden next door. The
hotel can arrange a private
wildlife experience at Cleland
Wildlife Park where you can feed
kangaroos and cuddle a koala.
Details B&B doubles from £900,
including some activities
(sequoialodge.com.au). Wildlife
experience for two £520 extra.
Fly to Adelaide
GET ARTY NEAR HOBART
Tasmania’s Mona Museum of Old
and New Art is a privately funded
institution arranged over three
underground levels, 15 minutes’
drive up the Derwent River
from the centre of Hobart. The
best way to enjoy the eclectic
collection, which ranges
from ancient antiquities to
contemporary works, is to stay
in the complex’s luxury Pavilions,
also home to a café, winery
and sauna.
Details B&B doubles at Mona
Pavilions from £455, including
priority access to the museum
and wine and beer tastings
(mona.net.au). Fly to Hobart
The Sunday Times August 21, 2022 15
The
You’ll only Grampians
avoid seeing
kangaroos
or wallabies
by walking
with your
eyes shut 50 miles
£145; royalmail.com.au). I
visited the conservation area,
where the hotel shields many
marsupials from extinction:
a rufous bettong (or rat-
kangaroo) nibbled on corn; a
mouse-like fat-tailed dunnart
munched a ball of beef mince
and crushed black beetle; and
in another enclosure, the
beautiful polka-dotted fur of
an eastern quoll glimmered
from under a log.
Those who prefer can
avoid walking altogether.
At Stawell Airport — a grand
name for a hut and a car park
— Justin Neofitou of
Grampians Helicopters
checked our seatbelts and
headphones, then took us up
Dunkeld over the flats, the blue-grey
Arboretum, in
the Grampians,
mountains rearing in the near
distance. This is a spectacular
main; Anthony landscape whether you
Pieri, the choose to fly the trail or land
sommelier at beside a vineyard — say, Best’s
Gimlet, and a Wines Great Western, for a
cocktail at tasting and platter.
Farmer’s Back in the city, my second
Daughters, hotel was more fabulous than
top left; the bar the first: the W Melbourne has
at Victor a mirror above the pool and an
Churchill, underground bar, Curious,
above; a dish where cocktails come
at Royal Mail wreathed in whorls of dry ice
Hotel and one (room-only doubles from
of its mountain- £205; marriott.co.uk). After
view rooms, hiking in the outback I felt
above right justified going back to dinner
research, seeking out the
marble bar behind artisan
butcher Victor Churchill for
oysters and steak (mains from
Brambuk National
Park and Cultural
Centre
Stawell Airport
Mount William
Station Melbourne
Dunkeld
Arboretum
£28; victorchurchill.com).
And I bagged a high stool at
Farmer’s Daughters, where
everything — the ham, the
wine — comes from farms in
Gippsland, 180 miles east of
the city (set menu £73;
farmersdaughters.com.au).
Everywhere, service was
efficient but relaxed. At hip
Aru, dishes combining Aussie
produce (kangaroo jerky,
warrigal greens) and fragrant
seasoning (kampot pepper,
furikake) were so beautifully
presented it was almost a
shame to eat them (mains
from £22; aru.net.au).
When I finally put down
my fork and made plans to get
to the airport, I just hoped
I wouldn’t exceed my own
baggage allowance after such
an adventure in Aussie grub.
Nina Caplan was a guest of
Tourism Australia
(australia.com) and Visit
Victoria (visitvictoria.com).
A Grampians Peaks Luxury
Package at the Royal Mail
Hotel, including a day touring
the southern part of the trail
with a private guide, two
nights’ B&B in a mountain-view
room, one dinner for two at
Parker Street Project and
another at Wickens, costs
from £1,150 for two (royalmail.
com.au). Flights with
Grampians Helicopters cost
from £130pp for twenty
minutes (grampianshelicopters.
com.au). Fly to Melbourne
 16 August 21, 2022 The Sunday Times
Travel
EDINBURGH CASTLE
In the battle for castle
supremacy, this Scottish
stalwart lands a blow against
the Tower of London thanks
TOP to its crown jewels, which are
even older than those of
England and Wales. They join
St Margaret’s Chapel (the
oldest building in Edinburgh)
and the medieval bombard
Mons Meg as the castle’s must-
see attractions. Brace yourself
come 1pm, when another
cannon’s blast shudders
through Castle Rock’s flowery
CASTLES IN THE UK FOR A DAY TRIP
IAN DAGNALL/ALAMY
Alnwick Castle in Northumberland and, inset above right, Knight School at Warwick Castle
gorse and across the Royal
Mile. Visit after the Fringe,
when hotel rates dip.
Details Adults from £18
(edinburghcastle.scot)
TINTAGEL CASTLE,
CORNWALL
With crashing waves, ruinous
slopes and the crumbled
arches through which King
Arthur and Merlin reportedly
once ducked, you can’t knock
Tintagel for drama.This
mythical spot requires some
legwork, but those who make
the ascent are rewarded with a
peek inside Merlin’s Cave (with
a subsequent descent; check
tide times), a selfie alongside
an 8ft statue of an Excalibur-
wielding King Arthur and a
walk across the symbolic
bridge — the 40mm gap at its
centre marks the transition
between past and present.
Details Adults from £17
(english-heritage.org.uk)
WINDSOR CASTLE,
BERKSHIRE
Fancy a glimpse into the
childhood of a queen? One of
the royal family’s quaintest
toys resides at Windsor Castle.
After being ushered along a
separate queue, you’ll enter
a darkened room where Queen
Mary’s 1924 doll’s house is
spotlit in magnificent detail
(it has working lifts for the
miniature chambermaids;
children, meanwhile, will have
to keep their hands off). Later,
swing by St George’s Chapel to
spy Henry VIII’s tomb and the
spot where the Duke and
Duchess of Sussex got hitched.
Details Adults from £27
(rct.uk)
ALNWICK CASTLE,
NORTHUMBERLAND
You don’t have to love Harry
Potter to enjoy Alnwick Castle,
but it helps. This 14th-century
riverside residence is best
known for its cameos in the
films. Little ones can have
broomstick training in
the outer bailey for
no extra fee (big
kids won’t be
refused on
quieter days).
Details
Adults from
£20 (alnwick
castle.com)
WARWICK
CASTLE
There’s almost too
much going on at
Warwick Castle, but that helps
to make it the perfect day trip
for families. For parents there
is a history lesson told via the
might of clashing swords at
Wars of the Roses Live! — a
jousting battle that runs until
September 4. Children can
hitch a ride on the zip line at
a mega-playground dedicated
to all things Zog, everyone’s
favourite dragon, and a trip
back to the castle’s darkest
times in the Castle Dungeon.
Details Adults from £24
(warwick-castle.com)
CAERPHILLY CASTLE
Thought Pisa was the only
leaning tower worth your
while? Caerphilly’s equivalent,
at 10 degrees to the vertical, is
even wonkier than that. It’s
“held up” by a statue of the
4th Marquess of Bute, who
saved the castle from
ruin in the early
1900s (head
to the Great
Hall for ghost
stories). The
site is having
a £5 million
makeover,
but you
can still visit
the resident
dragons and go
alfresco beside its
enchanting lake.
Details Adults from £10
(cadw.gov.wales)
HIGHCLERE CASTLE,
HAMPSHIRE
Highclere is one of the world’s
most recognised stately
homes, since becoming the
on-screen home of the
Crawley family in Downton
Abbey. Alongside the perfectly
manicured gardens and
afternoon tea, a fascinating
Egyptian exhibit becomes all
the more clear when you
realise that it was the fifth Earl
of Carnarvon who, with
Howard Carter, unearthed
Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922.
Details Adults from £21
(highclerecastle.co.uk)
Hannah Ralph
Overseas Travel

Travel Middle East
DUBAI’S ISLAND FLING
The resolutely urban emirate now has a quiet side. Cathy Adams reports
on the luxury outcrops hoping to tempt visitors away from the Maldives
T
wo miles off Dubai’s coast are
260 islands organised in the
shape of the world. Of course
there are — it’s Dubai. This is
the city that created the Palm
(twice) and the tallest building in the
world (the 828m-tall Burj Khalifa) in a
place with just sand for foundations. It
would be weird were there not an atlas
of sandbanks poured offshore.
The “world islands” project was
conceived two decades ago by the
emirate’s ruler, Sheikh
Mohammed, during the
city’s boom phase. It
sounds very un-Dubai
to say, but since then,
this man-made World Islands
constellation has
largely stood wind-
whipped and silty, Palm
with a handful of Jumeirah
nebulous plans for
development.
But build it with deep
enough pockets in this
razzle-dazzle emirate and
they will come. And come they
have — 7.1 million international visitors
during the first half of 2022 to be precise — perhaps Africa. It takes some practice to
which is one reason why I’m checking
into the Anantara World Islands Dubai
Resort, a collection of 70 thatched villas
and the first hotel to open on this much-
hyped island chain.
The Thai hotel group had long been
eyeing this new slice of beachfront. The
pitch is Maldives-lite, to diversify the
emirate’s hotel offering and tempt visitors
away from the high-rises for a few days;
and the banana-shaped “South America”
island, being the closest to the mainland,
seemed the perfect opportunity.
There’s plenty to like about this game-
changing resort hotel. There’s a fantastic
view overlooking glimmering Jumeirah
Beach that is particularly spectacular
at night; the restaurants are superb —
Indian Qamar is the highlight; and the
villas are spacious and airy, adjectives
you’d never usually attach to anything
in Dubai. It’s got that fairy-lights-in-the-
palms, feet-in-the-sand feel about it —
even if the sand is dredged grit.
The bad news is that it takes 20
stomach-churning minutes to reach this
spit of land by boat, and it doesn’t run
when it’s windy. (A causeway has
been obliquely mentioned, but
would involve another huge
engineering project — not
that Dubai is afraid of
that.) To access the
more far-flung of
the islands, central
DUBAI
Europe for example,
involves a boat
25hours journey of Columbus
ME Dubai proportions. While
emptying a pre-
Sonara Camp prandial gin and tonic
30 miles
on the windy north side of
10 miles Anantara’s island one night,
I squint to see some construction
work somewhere towards Europe, or
locate yourself correctly, and I also need
a few days to finesse “I’m on the South
America bit of the world in Dubai”, which
still sounds like nonsense.
After three enjoyable days of splashing
around in our swim-up pool, shooing
away the cooing peacocks (an opening gift
from Sheikh Mohammed, naturally) so we
can sleep, and darting between the beach
and the breezy beachfront restaurant
Luna, I’m still not entirely convinced
the hotel will have much luck in pulling
people away from the Maldives. What
I do appreciate, though, is an entirely
new hospitality offering in this most
neophiliac of cities: after many years of
The Sunday Times August 21, 2022 21
FRANCISCO NOGUEIRA; CATHY ADAMS
It’s got that fairy-lights-
in-the-palms, feet-in-the-
sand feel about it
holing up in cloud-skimming Dubai hotels
near the big-ticket downtown attractions,
checking into a quiet pool villa just steps
from the beach takes some recalibrating.
What this urbanite writer also
appreciates about the new Anantara is
that it’s easy (ish, as long as the wind
doesn’t pick up) to swap beach for built-
up. I’ve been visiting this city at least once
a year for about a decade, and I’m always
chasing the new Dubai — which is why the
second half of our trip centres on the
downtown neighbourhood.
It’s here you’ll find ME Dubai, which
was the architect Zaha Hadid’s last project
before her death. It opened in 2021, and
has all of Hadid’s signature curves: the
sinks are teardrops, the black lacquered
cabinets have hidden handles and even
the toilet flushes are a nested oval shape.
The lobby-slash-atrium has more tiers
than my bikini body; and the Mexican
restaurant Deseo, which spills out onto
the pool deck, is never quiet.
Five years ago, it would have been
inconceivable to find somewhere to stay
that you’d label hip in this money-flushed
city, but Dubai has opened two of them
in short succession. The second example
of the genre is the nearby 25hours hotel,
the first outpost of the German brand
outside Europe. The lobby is a study in
what happens when hipsters design
hotels, with woven egg chairs and
gramophones in the reception area and
a playful ceiling mural. The lifts have
twinkly dioramas of Dubai scenes while
On the beach in rooms have similar contemporary twists
“South America”, on local culture. My toddler son
at Anantara’s immediately bonds with an electric blue-
World Islands and-pink camel left on the bed. Naturally,
Dubai Resort, there’s an industrial-looking rooftop bar
above; Cathy with a view over the Museum of the
with her family, Future. We’re not out of Dubai just yet.
right; a room at So, what else is new? Metro stations
ME Dubai, below I remember being called one thing have
now adopted the names of their
corporate sponsors. There’s also the
aforementioned Museum of the Future,
which looks like a wonky doughnut
covered in Arabic calligraphy, housing
exhibitions and theatre by “visionary
designers”. There’s Ain Dubai, the
world’s tallest observation wheel; the
Aura Skypool, a 200m-high infinity pool
that snatched the record for the world’s
highest from Singapore Marina Bay
Sands; and the shell of Expo 2020, which
is set to be a new “urban experience”
called District 2020, mixing residential
and commercial space.
Millions of tonnes of sand may get
poured onto Dubai’s shores each year, but
some parts of the emirate are almost the
same as they were when Bedouins dived
for pearls. Our last night is spent in the
desert at luxe Sonara Camp. The brief is
sundowners, camel rides and a gorgeous
dinner — and as the sun dips below the
horizon, as it has done for millions for
years, only this time with a thousand
smartphones aimed at it, I wonder what
Dubai will look like next time I visit.
Cathy Adams was a guest of Dubai Tourism
(visitdubai.com); Anantara World Islands
Dubai Resort, which has B&B doubles from
£339 (anantara.com); ME Dubai, which has
B&B doubles from £283 (melia.com);
25hours, which has room-only doubles
from £147 (25hours-hotels.com); and
Sonara Camp, which starts from £156 for
adults (nara.ae). Fly to Dubai
24 August 21, 2022 The Sunday Times
Travel Go now
SUMMER’S
BEST LATE
DEALS
Looking to bag a bargain? Snap
up one of these discounted
breaks in Europe and the UK
CROATIA’S SEASIDE ICON
Taking advantage of longer-
stay discounts of up to 20 per
cent at the Valamar Lacroma
Dubrovnik Hotel, Jet2holidays’
packages to this member of
its Luxe Collection are great
value when compared with
the resort’s neighbours.
Situated on a prized spot on
the Adriatic coast of Croatia,
the hotel spreads out on the
wooded Lapad peninsula, just
three miles northwest of the
dazzling walled city in
Dubrovnik. A week’s stay
allows more time to sightsee
between the cruise-ship
arrivals, and to hop over to the
Elaphiti Islands, which dot
the view beyond the terraces.
Details Seven nights’ B&B
from £950pp, including
flights (jet2holidays.com)
DIVINE TIMES IN CYPRUS
Among Tui’s late summer
deals, some of the biggest
savings can be found on the
coasts of Egypt and Cyprus.
If you are likely to find the
heat on the Red Sea too much,
temperatures are a touch
kinder on the eastern
Take a boat trip from Gruz, in Dubrovnik, to the Elaphitis
Mediterranean island, the
legendary home of Aphrodite,
the goddess of love. Discounts
of about 25 per cent are
available at various resorts,
including the five-star Hotel
Elysium in Paphos, which is
poised tantalisingly between
the sea and the Unesco-listed
Tombs of the Kings.
Details Seven nights’ B&B
from £1,037pp, including
flights (tui.co.uk)
RIVERSIDE DARTMOOR
After two heatwaves in as
many months in the UK, who
Details Half-board
IVAN IVANKOVIC/GETTY IMAGES
doubles from £156
(secretescapes.com)
ITALY AFTER THE RUSH
Italian summer holidays
traditionally start to wind
down after the craziness of
the Ferragosto public holiday
on August 15, but while local
thoughts might be turning
back to schools and
workplaces, there are plenty
of late-summer possibilities
for visitors. Wexas offers a
range of discounts for
bookings made by August 31
(on stays up to the end of the
year) for Italian locales as
diverse as the rustic-chic
Baglioni Masseria Muzza in
Puglia, on the heel of the
wants to bet on an Indian peninsula, to the classically
summer? With many bookings beautiful Grand Hotel
via Secret Escapes you can Imperiale, right on the
cancel up to eight days before shores of Lake Como.
your scheduled check-in with Details Four nights’ B&B at
a full refund. Website Grand Hotel Imperiale from
members can find savings of £785pp, including flights
up to 30 per cent at Mill End (wexas.com)
Hotel, a country house on a
bend in the River Teign, in the UK STAYS WITH HISTORY
northeast part of Dartmoor, Sawday’s has availability after
Devon. Apart from the the bank holiday weekend in
national park’s attractions, a host of historical UK
the hotel is near-neighbours properties, including the
with Castle Drogo, the last Tudor-era Gatehouse at
castle to be built in England, Upton Cressett Hall in
more than a century ago. Shropshire, and the even
older Welsh Gatehouse by
the Severn estuary. At the
opposite end of Wales, the
porticoed Edwardian villa
Hafod Cae Maen is a
youngster by comparison,
but if you can gather up to
eight guests you can enjoy
10 per cent off short breaks
here, on a hill above the
village of Portmeirion, of
The Prisoner fame.
Details Four nights’
self-catering from £720
(sawdays.co.uk)
AROUND ORKNEY
Brought down in price by
£118 for its September 6
departure, Intrepid’s five-day
tour of Orkney gives a
wonderful overview
of the penultimate part of the
British Isles as you head north.
Between one of the tallest sea
stacks in the country, the
5,000-year-old settlement
of Skara Brae and the Italian
Chapel, crafted out of Nissen
huts in the 1940s by prisoners
of war, the islands constantly
surprise — and there’s always
a pub music session or whisky
tasting to end the day.
Details Four nights’
B&B from £1,062pp
(intrepidtravel.com). Fly
or take a train to Inverness
Rory Goulding
26 August 21, 2022 The Sunday Times
Travel
MY HOLS
PROFESSOR
GREEN
The rapper had a harrowing
first experience of flying in the
US, but loves the Amalfi Coast
I grew up in Hackney,
northeast London, in a
three-bed flat with my
grandmother and great-
grandmother. Holidays weren’t a thing
for us, but a bus used to come into the
estate once a summer and take us to
Clacton or Southend, on the Essex coast.
I used to do a lot of Rollerblading and
when I was 14 I went on a skating holiday
with a friend to Camp Woodward in
Pennsylvania. I’d never been on a plane
before, and when we took our onward
flight from Dallas the weather was
horrendous. I can’t remember feeling
scared, but looking back it must
have been petrifying; we could see
lightning and the turbulence was
bumping us out of our seats. Once
we’d flown through the storm we
weren’t able to land, so we had
to fly back through it to Dallas
and take a bus instead.
Later, when I was touring
and taking planes every week,
I developed a fear of flying.
I probably deserved it,
because my DJ was always
scared on planes and I used
to wind him up. Then I
started to wonder why he
was nervous, and think about
how it’s essentially a tin can
and magic that it can stay in the
air. It has subsided since then.
COMPETITION
WIN A
LUXURY
FOUR-NIGHT
BREAK IN
ITALY AT VILLA
PAOLA AND
CAPOVATICANO
RESORT IN
CALABRIA
WHERE WAS I?
Ring, ring! It’s Friend’s phone.
“Who’s calling?” I ask.
“No one,” he tells me.
“It’s an alarm. Knowing you,
I thought we’d be running
late. So I set one to keep
track of time. We’ve got two
hours until the concert.”
He has a point. At my
insistence, we’ve been here
all day — starting with a
swim. It wasn’t in one of the
waterways that flow along
this valley. We were in a
building, paying homage to
its architect (now deceased).
We followed that with
a tour of a second venue,
barely 250m west-southwest
of the first. It had to be a
morning visit — today it’s
hosting a 2pm fixture.
After that, how could I
resist U-turning back
towards the station? It stands
on the edge of a mall and I
had shopping to do. Friend,
however, complained.
“Money, money, money,” he
groaned. “How much more
are we going to spend?”
MARCO BOTTIGELLI, ANDREW BENGE/GETTY IMAGES
The town of Amalfi, on the Italian coast, where Professor Green likes to meet the locals and hopes to spend his retirement
One summer I went to Ibiza 13 times. spent three months there without getting got an ice bath set to 0.2C, and I never feel
There’s always work attached to my to know the place. I have been back to the as good as I do on the other side of that.
travels — I’m quite bad at taking holidays country since and loved it — the colours, I want our son, Slimane, to travel in a
because I feel guilty if I’m not doing smells, souks, people on donkeys. We way that I didn’t when I was young. He’s
something. I went to a bar in San Antonio always stay with a friend of Karima who in Morocco now. We went to the Peligoni
and there was fake tan and glitter all over has a place near the souk in Marrakesh Club resort in Zakynthos, Greece, when
the gaff; I hate glitter — people hug you with views of the Atlas Mountains. he was 16 months old and decided to use
and leave half their face on your My favourite place is the Amalfi Coast. the childcare there. It was the hardest
shoulder. The bar was rammed; You’d think it would be stuffy because thing ever handing him over for the first
some of the states you see over people with lots of money go there, but time — we just took the opportunity to
there — but don’t get me wrong, you just have to stick to the places where talk to each other, which was needed a
I’ve been one of them. the locals go. The best meal I’ve had was year after becoming parents. Nobody
My worst travel experience in a spit-and-sawdust restaurant there tells you how difficult parenting can be
was in South Africa around with a nonna working in it — it was such and it was really nice
2008. We were in Somerset a good ragu. I probably won’t be able to rebalancing our lives.
West, about 45 minutes’ drive afford it, but I can imagine retiring there. Then we caught Covid
southeast of Cape Town, and I did a TV show in the Dolomites in on the plane back — I
I got the most explosive Italy called Freeze the Fear with Wim Hof, tested positive for 17 days.
diarrhoea — we all did. and we had to swim under the ice on the
I spent lockdown in lakes. The British tenor Alfie Boe went Interview by Georgia Stephens
Morocco as my partner, first and said it was like swimming in a
Karima, is part Moroccan. It giant diamond. I was excited — despite Professor Green, real name Stephen
was bittersweet, because we being scared, I was looking forward to Manderson, 38, is a rapper and
were in Tangier and a state of seeing the diamond — but when I got mental-health activist. He recently
emergency was declared — under all I saw was dead leaves and muck started the Unlikely Dad’s Club on
we couldn’t use the beach and because the sun had gone in. Even so, I do Instagram (@theunlikelydadsclub). He lives
mostly weren’t allowed out, so I cold-water therapy every day now — I’ve in south London with Karima and Slimane
So now here we are by which include a private beach
the side of a river — with two and a thalassotherapy centre,
possible spellings — after see capovaticanoresort.it.
which the valley is named. The prize includes one
It runs past the second
venue’s western edge, and
dinner for two at each hotel
(excluding drinks), as well as
I am searching for the site
of a ford, once crossed by
two return flights to Lamezia,
to a total value of £400, and
a Roman road. It gave its
name to this district.
But Friend is growing
transfers in Italy.
It must be taken between
September 22 and
desperate. “You don’t want
to see this show at all!” he
November 6, 2022, or April 1
and May 31, 2023, subject
wails.
“I do! I do! I do!” I insist.
to availability and excluding
public holidays.
So we abandon the search
and head to the concert,
HOW TO ENTER
440m southeast of the
second venue. It stars
Friend’s favourite boyhood
Only one entry per person,
at thesundaytimes.co.uk/
band, even if its members
aren’t actually there.
THE PRIZE a natural balcony overlooking
wherewasi by Wednesday.
Normal Times Newspapers
We arrive just in time. But
only because, for the final The winner and guest will
Tropea’s historical seascape,
as well as its own citrus
rules apply. No correspondence
will be entered into.
100m, we break into a sprint. stay for two nights at the groves and vegetable
Sean Newsom five-star Villa Paola in Tropea gardens, which supply its
and two at the four-star restaurant, De’ Minimi. For LAST WEEK’S PRIZE
Capovaticano Resort details see villapaolatropea.it. The answers are Merthyr
THE QUESTIONS Thalasso Spa, B&B at both. The Capovaticano Resort, Mawr Warren Nature
1 What was the architect’s Originally a Franciscan a wellness destination, Reserve and Kenfig Castle.
name? convent, Villa Paola was stands on the beach, gazing Paul Stephens of Cornwall
2 What are the two spellings refurbished by the architect across the Tyrrhenian Sea. wins a week’s holiday for two
of the river’s name? Bruno Huber and occupies For more on its facilities, in Sicily with Villatravellers.