The English seaside

Photographer Peter Williams celebrates the peculiar eccentricities and quintessential charms – from helter-skelters to lighthouses, pirates, palmists and Punch and Judy – of this cherished and rapidly changing English landscape

Bon Bini! Curacao has it all in one very small island

Irene Thomas found Curacao the most successfully diverse country she has ever visited – and one of the most beautiful as well

Trading Standards

From the website:

“The Trading Standards Institute is a not-for-profit professional body formed in 1881. We have members in the public and private sectors in the UK and abroad.

TSI encourages honest enterprise and business and helps safeguard the economic, environmental, health and social well-being of consumers.”

Swansea by the Bay

The ruined castle in Swansea is overshadowed by a large metal clad skyscraper. Next to the castle is a vacant building plot surrounded by fencing and written on that it says 260 shops, 90 places to eat, 30 hair and beauty salons and 45 pubs and clubs.
Do not be put off by this.
Swansea has much more to offer the day tripper, the weekend visitor or anyone who spends a week there. Sometimes it seems Swansea is the place you pass through to get to the beautiful Gower. But linger and have a look at a city that has transformed itself over the last 20 years. It still has a shop called The Sheep Shop, its museum is still in an old Victorian building (more of that later) but so much else has changed.

Golfing Ireland

It seems that Irish golfers – and in particular Northern Irish golfers – have given the province the amount of publicity that tourism officials dream about. Having three players who have won majors has made commentators wonder what is in the water. Which vitamins are they on? Are Northern Irish courses the best breeding grounds for new champions?
Whatever it is Tourism Ireland has launched a £1.8 million campaign to persuade us to visit Ireland, not just the north, and to sample their courses.

Have a Smelly Holiday

You remember the Virgin Holidays survey I mentioned a day or so ago? Apart from discussing these depressives it provided another odd result. Three quarters of those that responded (Virgin asked 4500 people and we don’t know how many responded) said they found it easy to recall holidays by seeking out smells.And surprise, surprise, [...]

England celebrates Benjamin Britten’s 100th birthday

England is alive with the sound of music in 2013, as the year marks the centenary of Benjamin Britten (1913 – 1976), the world’s most performed opera composer born in the 20th century