Category Archives: Travel experiences around the rest of the world

This is where I share some of my most interesting travel experiences, accumulated over the years.

Picture of the Day: the Monaco Grand Prix taking shape!

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I’ve been away for a couple of weeks due to work between Asia, Switzerland and the Balkans and returned to the French Riviera this week to see Monaco transformed into Grand Prix mode, especially around the port. This year’s event begins on Thursday 23 May and finished off with the big race on Sunday 26 May, while the electric ePrix, which has become more and more successful in recent years, takes place on Saturday 11 May. Find out more and avoid getting ripped off using my practical guide to the Monaco Grand Prix : I’ll be missing/escaping all the action as usual this year, with another business trip to Asia!

Picture of the Day: the Riviera above the clouds

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It’s sometimes important to take the higher ground! This is the high altitude view I’ll be enjoying quite a lot of over the next 6 weeks, with 12 flights lined up across 3 trips and 5 countries for various business and leisure trips, the first stop being Hong Kong… This particular lovely sky was observed last month just above the French Riviera when landing on the Lufthansa flight from Munich, the second leg of my trip back from Sofia in Bulgaria.

Picture of the Day: clouds, ice and mist blend together over Chicago #worldtravellerblog

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I’ve never actually been to visit Chicago, just transited 3 times through the airport but this shot I got before landing at O’Hare airport in January 2018 certainly makes me want to go and visit this apparently beautiful and windy city (though perhaps at a time of the year where the weather is more clement!). I have to say that flying over a frozen Lake Michigan whilst jet-lagged and seeing the famous skyline suddenly piercing through the layers of clouds made me wonder if I hadn’t mistakenly taken a flight to a modern-day Asgard instead of the American Mid West! This is a great way to close off February, hoping to get a touch of spring soon #tbt

Picture of the Day: sunset over Tirana, Albania #worldtravellerblog

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Flashback to my unforgettable Balkan road trip of August 2015 and the view from the Sky Bar in the weird and wonderful capital of Albania that looks like pretty much nowhere else in the region or the world, total culture shock! In order to get to grips with this city, we decided to have a drink at the highest bar of the city and were greeted with this stunning panoramic view at sunset before going for a delicious typical dinner at a restaurant called Oda. By the way, if you’re wondering why I’m posting random pics from around the world on the French Riviera Blog, I’m currently preparing a new sister blog, the World Traveller Blog, which will relate some of my global travel experiences in a similar style and so you can consider these as a kind of trailer 😉

Discovering the Cinqueterre Villages on the Italian Riviera: a weekend drive down the coast

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Discover the unique charm of the Cinqueterre villages in Italy, with their multicoloured houses, unspoilt nature and amazing food, that can be visited on a weekend excursion from the Riviera.

As I mentioned when I launched the blog, I am not just covering the French Riviera but also some places that are a bit further afield which I have had the opportunity to visit in order to share my experiences. This Easter, I had the opportunity to discover in some depth the beautiful villages of the Cinqueterre in Italy and I am going to relate my experiences in this article…

From my experience in the hotel business, plenty of visitors who visit the French Riviera, especially those from other continents, tend to use the Cinqueterre as a stepping stone before heading to Florence or Rome, and these five little gems are well worth the visit. Naturally, given that I have very little local expertise of the area, this article is no substitute to a real guide book: my sources are just the French Guide du Routard Northern Italy book as well as local knowledge I gleaned whilst speaking to the very friendly inhabitants of the villages. But I hope this article and the practical tips I will provide, written from a “French Riviera” tourist’s perspective, will help you enjoy your stay in the Cinqueterre and enable some of the inhabitants of the French Riviera to discover a beautiful and very accessible part of Italy, just a  few hours down the coast!

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