Villa Mercede is a bit different to many of the hotels we choose to stay in on our travels. Personal choice, but we prefer quirky, boutique style (although not those with silly prices), old, traditional etc to modern and quite functional. Which is what Villa Mercede,...
When we were in Italy, last year, we had an awful experience with a hotel in the beautiful Calabrian town of Tropea. We’d booked into Hotel Valemare for four nights, but it was so terrible, we left the next morning, not knowing if we’d get a refund*. We’d heard of...
On our travels through Italy last year, we made the decision to explore the eastern coast of Sicily and having done some online research, decided that Ortigia (in the region of Syracuse), sounded like our kind of place. We took the car ferry from Reggio Calabria to...
Trapani (or Birgi Airport, located about 19 km south of the city) is accessible by Ryanair from the UK. Once in Trapani, the Egadi Islands – Favignana, Marettimo and Levanzo – to the west, are as easily accessible by ferry. We chose to spend six days on Favignana –...
On our travels in Italy last year, we were so lucky to find some real off-the-beaten-track places. We’d hired a car and had no real plan, apart from having a couple of weeks to get from Rome to Ortigia in Sicily on the first part of the trip. So, with trusty road map...
Easter may be well over now, and it’s a couple of weeks since we returned, but memories of Seville are still burning very, very brightly. We were lucky enough to be there during Semana Santa (Holy Week) and, oh my word! What a spectacle! The week features the...
Staying in southern Spain, with a hire car, meant that we could get out and about and really explore the region of Andalucia. One of our trips was across to the west and the amazing city of Seville. All the more amazing because we visited over Easter and this was...
In my book, a “cool” place to stay doesn’t need to be hip and trendy and cutting edge. It just needs to be somewhere that isn’t bog-standard. And this place we stumbled upon – quite literally – in Castellabate, Campania is very cool, if like us, you like things that...
We're big fans of Anthony Gormley's sculptures and whenever back in Formby, visiting relatives, we take a trip over to Crosby Beach and walk amongst the Iron Men statues, when the tide is out. So, on our recent Christmas trip back to the north east, we decided to get...
Although Paris is packed to the gills with the most gorgeous places to eat, sometimes its the unexpected ones you stumble upon that are the most memorable. We recently stayed in Montmartre and Saturday morning was cold and grey – much like a home from home, so it was...