Travel

If it’s Tuesday, it must be the Hôtel Barrière Le Majestic in Cannes. After a summer that felt like a blur—over ten destinations ticked off, including the usual escapades with adventure car tours—this iconic hotel was a fitting crescendo. The Hôtel Barrière Le Majestic is not just a stay; it’s an experience. So, once more unto the breach.

What fun sometimes merely to fly and flop. To be just 20 minutes from a small airport like Olbia. To see out over a wide expanse and lie under the great globe of unblemished sky that’s simply serene. To witness the mesmerically azure blue sea along miles upon miles of untrammelled coastline.

Flock to this Eternal City, this ‘urbs sacra’ for the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope, the first ordinary jubilee since the Great Jubilee of 2000. Celebrate a special year of grace as the jubilee begins just before Christmas to end on the Epiphany next year. For the papacy gives the Jubilee a spiritual meaning in granting the remission of the temporal punishment of sins for all pilgrims who visit Rome during this specific year. The most exciting and well-known rite is the opening of the Holy Door (open only during the jubilee year): a symbolic re-enactment of the opening of the gates of Heaven.

My son Ben and I are self-proclaimed water adventurers, happiest when zipping across the waves on powerful motorised watercraft – better known as WaveRunners. Nothing beats the adrenaline rush of carving through water at high speed, and we’re always looking for new thrills.

From Nxamaseri Island Lodge, we took a boat, a 4x4, and then a light 8-seater plane flying southeast (with me as co-pilot), before finally hopping back into a 4x4 to reach Leroo La Tau in southern Botswana. This lodge sits on the Boteti River, which forms the natural western border of the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park.

Botswana is one of the most remarkable countries in the world. This landlocked gem in Southern Africa, home to just 2.5 million people, is celebrated for its breathtaking landscapes, thriving wildlife, and strong commitment to conservation. Botswana artfully blends natural beauty with forward-thinking progress. It's also home to over 130,000 Elephants, 11,000 Giraffes, 15,000 Hippos, 1,200 Lions and 10,000 Zebras. I have been on safaris where you were lucky to spot one or two elephants at a time. In Botswana, it's more like Elephant Piccadilly at rush hour.

So, what do you do with the new Ferrari Purosangue, starting at £312,845? How about getting six of them and tearing around the southwest of France? A luxury tour from Biarritz to Bordeaux with friends, stopping at some of the finest hotels and vineyards along the way.

Gleefully, I hopped on a flight to Bilbao and was chauffeured over to Biarritz, arriving in the late afternoon.

Sitting directly behind a ski-jumper upon Innsbruck's Olympic Ski-jump Tower, was like looking through the sights of a gun, such was our focus, elevation and trajectory. The athlete pushed away from his 'start bar', immediately crouching into the customary aerodynamic form. His 'inrun' was underway, accompanied by a swishing sound, as the skies followed their channel until ‘take-off’ and then silence. 

Our bullet-nosed deutsche-Bahn ICE train, silently glided under the arching glass and steel canopy defining Frankfurt Central Station, leaving the city of Goethe and skyscrapers behind. The train interplayed and intertwined with the ‘Main River’, vaguely following its meandering path until the steep-sided ‘Steinwein’ (stone) vineyards signified we had arrived at the Franconian city of Würzburg.

To get a proper sense of what Florence has to offer four days is what I’d suggest. To get away in a successful manner I need to change climate, language, culture and, perhaps most vitally, to change centuries. The secret, I find, is to surrender, to be transported in time, to sharpen my eyes and train myself to look, look and look again at all the detail and refinery. It’s so edifying and so reviving of my spirits. How life-affirming to appreciate the artistic skill of Florence’s forebears.