Travel

There is nothing quite like Paris in the spring/early summer and particularly the 6th and 7th arrondissements. These two marvellous “Quartiers" lie on the Left Bank and are famous for the numerous painters, writers, photographers, sculptors and philosophers who called them home. The perfect spot for a romantic weekend “a Deux”.

Cascais is located just 20km from Lisbon airport between the picturesque Sintra mountains and the Atlantic Ocean. For the ultimate personalised service and privacy, you can fly into Tires airport just 15 minutes from central Cascais.

Lunch at The House Lounge at Heathrow was the perfect way to start our trip to Ozen By Atmosphere At Maadhoo Island in the Maldives. We had wisely picked our flight times to make the trip as comfortable as possible and to get the maximum time in the Maldives. The outbound flight to Male with Qatar Airways was at 15.05 with a 55-minute stopover in Doha. This meant we would arrive at 9.00 in the morning at Male and have the whole day to get over the jet lag and get acclimatised.

There are getaways and there are hideaways. And it was on Arran, an isle separated by the Firth of Clyde that I had chosen to come, to avoid the hassle of Covid, the endless paperwork and all those wretched travel passes.

So I took the ferry from Ardrossan to Arran’s Brodick Bay and then drove beyond a heathered wind-swept mountain graced with roaming deer.

Carol Drinkwater has a deep passion and knowledge of Provence, having made it her home for more than 30 years. On a hillside above the bay of Cannes, she and her husband Michel live on an olive farm producing delicious olive oil and other organic fruits. The recent series – A Year in Provence with Carol Drinkwater - aired on Channel 5, inviting viewers into Carol’s slice of Provençal heaven.

Imagine having an affinity with nature where Europe finishes to face the full force of the Atlantic as she unfurls her fury amassed after 3000 miles. It’s all here to discover for the extremities of the Algarve (that is a stunning coastline of miles of untrammelled white beach) are yet to be known by most travelling Brits.

My memories of Valletta from teenage family holidays to Malta in the '70s are of a noisy, chaotic place where it was nigh on impossible to park and, to my young mind at least, full of boring, dusty looking old buildings. How blind I was to its charms back then!  So I was delighted on a recent, post Covid, visit to have my outdated misconceptions shattered as I explored what this vibrant capital, the smallest in the EU, now offers.  

We reviewed and loved the Lexus LC 500 so with UK road trips now possible and staycations on the agenda for the coming months, here are some spectacular driving routes to enjoy this summer in the Lexus LC 500 with the top down. From Land’s End to John O’Groats, via sweeping bays, soaring cliffs and rolling fells, there are great roads to enjoy.  To provide inspiration, here are some gorgeous shots of the LC Convertible and the LC 500 coupe touring in the Lake District, on Snake Pass and in the Mam Tor area, where the driving experience and the views are breath-taking.

The A57 that stretches across Derbyshire’s Peak District is better known by a more emotive name; the Snake Pass. The A57 starts in Sheffield, to the east, and ends in Glossop in the direction of Manchester. The Snake Pass itself runs from the Ladybower Reservoir at Ashopton, its tarmac rising through the forest and wriggling north-west across the Pennines for 14 thrilling miles, plateauing at 510m above sea level.

The painterly bleakness of Dartmoor has encouraged the growth of many legends, not least that of the Hairy Hands – disembodied hirsute mitts that suddenly grab at one’s steering wheel or handlebars and force the victim off the road. It’s a ghost story that pertains to the Postbridge stretch of the B3212, which was purported to have seen an unusually high number of motor vehicle accidents in the early 20th century. So, you have been warned.