21 July 2025

When wanderlust beckons, sometimes all it takes is a few days of river-borne serenity to feel utterly transformed. My recent three-night escape aboard Emerald Cruises’ Emerald Sun offered just that—a harmonious blend of scenic beauty, cultural richness, and refined indulgence. The adventure began in the skies, flying from Newcastle via Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Passport control there was refres

22 May 2025

When the milestone of a 40th birthday calls for a celebration, what better place to answer than Ibiza? A Mediterranean paradise that effortlessly blends world-famous nightlife with breathtaking natural beauty, rich history, and an undeniable sense of freedom. For four incredible nights, my friends and I embarked on a whirlwind adventure, diving headfirst into the heart of this vibrant island. Our

21 May 2025

In 2022 when our good friends told us they were moving back to Melbourne, I made a promise that we would visit at Easter in 2025. Fast forward some time and we made that promise a reality. Australia has a way of stealing hearts, and our family holiday to Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road did just that! From the vibrant city streets filled with art and culture to breathtaking coastal landscapes,

20 May 2025

Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure are linked on the outside by Universal CityWalk. Not knowing what to expect from this, it was great to have the time to see this from a variety of angles. When using the complimentary shuttle buses, you arrive outside of CityWalk and pass through security (on busy days, make sure to factor in the queues here too!) before walking down and seeing the infamo

04 April 2025

Twice a year, Travel Counsellors run a global incentive where TCs from across the world join forces in teams to compete for a place on an incentive trip. This year, for the first time in my 10 year career with TC, I was part of the winning team! The incentive trip saw 30 of us travelling to Universal Orlando, in early March for 6 nights. Having sold Universal, Disney and all things related with

06 December 2024

Cambodia; a destination that I knew very little about so when the opportunity to visit this country, along with 9 of my colleagues, came about, I couldn’t say no. Straight on the back of our annual conference, 7 of us left from Manchester headed for our first stop; Phnom Penh – the capital city. After a long journey, our first evening saw us being eased into the itinerary with dinner at a local

09 October 2023

Just an hour and a half’s drive from Penticton, we travelled here twice. Our first visit was to the Kettle Valley Steam Railway for their Great Train Robbery and BBQ. Here we got to experience the ‘Old West’ and the Garnet Valley Gang. The actors / volunteers were great at reassuring all of the smaller guests that it was all acting and for fun and so the children were able to really engage when th

09 October 2023

This year, Dan and I will be celebrating our 10-year wedding anniversary and with that, we thought what better reason to do a big holiday this year! My uncle lives in Princeton, British Colombia, and Dan has wanted to fly out and see this part of the world for some time. Combine these two factors and we had our family holiday destination for this year! Not liking to make things easy for myself, th

08 December 2022

This part of the climb was much slower with more stops for us to refuel. We had hoped to summit for sunrise, but we soon realised this was unachievable. That said, when sunrise came, it was a magical moment and a boost that some of the team needed. The 960 metres needed today to summit Mount Toubkal, took me 4.5 hours and from roughly an hour before we reached the peak, I was running on adrenaline

06 December 2022

As the children were returning to school following the summer holidays, I was preparing for the biggest challenge, and adventure, of my life. Travelling with a colleague and a friend, I was headed to Morocco to climb to the peak of Mount Toubkal; the ‘roof of North Africa’. On top of the challenge that I was setting for myself, I was also doing this to raise money for a charity close to my heart,

29 June 2022

Another holiday delayed by Covid finally upon us – this time 3 nights to Madrid with my husband Dan. 18 months later than planned and originally booked as part of his 40th celebrations. We had picked Madrid with intentions of catching a Real Madrid game or at the very least a stadium tour. Sadly, neither were possible! The stadium tour, which we had thought would be a given, was not possible due t

11 March 2022

This long overdue trip had originally been booked at the start of 2020 for us to travel in the August of that year. Now on our third amendment for this trip and none of us could quite believe that we were actually going! Having sent clients to Seville throughout my career, in the couple of years leading up to the pandemic when I was creating trips to this city, it was pushing its way higher and h

21 December 2021

From the moment I first saw a Lapland poster advertising day trips from Newcastle in my first travel agency role, it has been a dream of mine to go. Fast forward 20 years and that dream finally came true. In true lockdown style, we booked this holiday of a lifetime in November 2020 to travel the following December and managed to keep it a secret from our 3 girls until we travelled – not an easy fe

03 December 2021

During the first Covid lockdown, when easyJet released their winter 2020/21 flights, I noticed that they were offering a great price for flights to Krakow. A city which is famous for being home to Auschwitz-Birkenau, a former Nazi concentration and extermination camp, and the Wieliczka Salt Mines – these two attractions alone are generally the main reason tourists travel to the city and I am one o

08 December 2020

For our family holiday this year, we booked a week in Brittany. I have never done a self-drive holiday as an adult and our girls were excited that we would be going by car and taking the ferry from Newhaven – Dieppe; something on our doorstep that we have never done. We left the UK on a hot summer’s afternoon and sailed to Dieppe where we stayed at the Dieppe Ibis Budget hotel overnight. This hote

22 November 2019

For our final full day, we got up early to do some more tourist bits which included more of the hop-on hop-off bus which we took to the Atlantis Hotel at the top of the Palm. Our bus tickets included entrance into the Aquarium which we thoroughly enjoyed and even took some time to just sit and watch all the fish, something I find quite peaceful and relaxing. Following this we headed to the origina

22 November 2019

I was lucky enough to travel to Dubai in 2015 on a fam trip and instantly loved it! Since then, I have been trying to sell this incredible city to my husband. Fast forward to this year and I finally managed to do just that! We decided that this would be an adult only trip, much to the dismay of our eldest daughter, and booked our flights to depart a few days after school went back in September. W

21 November 2019

For our summer holiday this year, we decided to head back to the beautiful village of Kalavasos in Cyprus. Having visited 2 years ago, we fell in love with the tranquillity of the village and how it was a complete escape from our everyday lives. As before, we travelled with extended family making us a group of 10. Flying with easyJet, we didn’t depart Gatwick until mid-afternoon, so we decided t

19 November 2019

On a dreary Sunday morning in March, I headed along the coast with 2 fellow Travel Counsellors to Southampton for the launch of MSC’s latest edition, MSC Bellissima. The ship had invited around 3500 travel agents from around the UK to the launch and it was set to be an incredible 24 hours on board. Having only done one trip on a cruise ship many moons ago, and a couple of ship visits, I am keen

03 December 2018

Myself and a couple of girlfriends have been talking about a trip to Ibiza for ten years and we finally managed to go this year. As Craig David fans, we knew that he was playing his TS5 Pool Party on a weekly basis at Ibiza Rocks. Working around this, we booked a three-night trip, staying in San Antonio Bay. An early start out of Gatwick saw us flying at 5 am but with a quick flight of two hour

19 October 2018

My husband and I managed to get away for a brief overnight stay in London. I had booked a voucher that gave us access to The Shard along with a 3-course meal at Marco Pierre White’s New York Italian restaurant at London Bridge. This was reason enough in itself to add on a hotel stay. I have not previously stayed in this area of London and it made sense to me for us to be within walking distance of

19 October 2018

Cornwall is an area of the UK that I have wanted to visit for many years, but the journey time has always put me off. As we weren’t having an overseas family holiday this year, we decided that we would spend our UK holiday in Cornwall. A 6-hour journey from Seaford, traffic permitting, with parts of the journey single carriage. Once you hit Devon, you are on the A30 which travels from the top to t

11 October 2018

The Berkeley has been one of my favourite luxury hotels in London for a long time. I am lucky enough to have experienced Afternoon Tea at this stunning hotel a few years ago so when the opportunity came up to experience again, it was a no brainer! The Berkeley is part of the Maybourne hotel group which also includes Claridge’s and The Connaught in London. The Berkeley is located on the corner o

11 October 2018

I was lucky enough to join a group of nine fellow Travel Counsellors on an overnight stay at Yspa at Wyboston Lakes as a thank you from one of our suppliers. This beautiful hotel is located just off the A1 between Bedford and Cambridge making it easily accessible. As I am located on the south coast, it was a 2-and-a-half-hour drive for me to get there. Upon arrival, we were met by two members o

27 September 2018

Jersey has been a firm favourite of mine since I was little. This was where we headed for our family holiday for many years when I was a child. At the time, we stayed in a guest house overlooking the beautiful bay of Greve de Lecq which is situated on the north coast of the island. The owners of this guest house just so happened to have 2 children similar ages as my brother and myself and from thi

22 December 2017

I was lucky enough to travel to Fort Lauderdale on a fam trip at the beginning of December. The trip was hosted by the Greater Fort Lauderdale Conventions and Visitors Bureau and I travelled with a representative from the company along with three other colleagues from different areas of the travel industry. In July this year, British Airways launched a new direct service from Gatwick and this trip

04 October 2017

Our family holiday this year has been long overdue as we haven’t been abroad altogether in over 3 years. Cyprus has always been a destination that I have wanted to visit but I have ventured elsewhere previously due to Cyprus being that little bit more expensive to get to. My father-in-law and his wife have been visiting the same village, Kalavasos, in Cyprus for over 20 years and we decided that i

26 June 2017

Legoland Windsor has been on my family’s ‘to do’ list for several years now and this year, we finally booked it for our family adventure. We decided that we would book the 2-day park tickets and include an overnight hotel at the Hilton St Anne’s Manor, Bracknell which is a 20-minute car journey from the park. Travelling from Seaford to Windsor was quicker than I had expected and having set off

19 April 2017

I visited Marrakech and Essaouira, in Morocco, at the end of March with a group of 40 Travel Counsellors. We were hosted by 4 members of the Moroccan Tourist Board and with the theme of Much Morocco they went out of their way to show us how much MORE there is on offer in Morocco than you may think. The weather in March is usually hot, with the temperatures in the mid-20s the week before….and t

03 March 2017

As my Mum is hitting a big birthday this year, we decided what better reason for a few days in the sun. You are limited in February for short-haul destinations with guaranteed sunshine. Over the many years that I have worked in travel I would always suggest The Canaries for this, so we decided on 4 nights in Lanzarote. Unfortunately, we were unlucky with the weather and did experience heavy ra

31 December 2016

Today I spent a few hours in the beautiful city of Edinburgh. I haven’t visited Edinburgh since I moved to the south-coast almost 13 years ago! I knew I loved the city but I had forgotten just how much. As I am staying with family in the Scottish Borders, we drove to Newcraighall and used the park and ride to travel to Edinburgh by train. A quick journey saw us arriving into Edinburgh Waverly,

10 November 2016

After spending three nights on Malta, I travelled to Gozo with nine of my fellow Travel Counsellors. The ferry takes 25 minutes and takes car and foot passengers. We travelled as foot passengers and it couldn’t be easier. Ferries run every 45 minutes and you buy your ticket on your return to Malta. A quick, smooth and effortless journey. Gozo has been described as Malta’s prettier sister and I

09 November 2016

I visited Malta and Gozo at the end of October with a group of fellow Travel Counsellors. Having never visited either of the islands before and having some preconceptions about these destinations, I was looking forward to seeing what they had to give. The trip was hosted by the Malta Tourist Board and our itinerary was packed with a diverse selection of heritage sites, activities and seeing a lot

14 June 2016

I have been wanting to take my children to Cadbury World for a little while now. With May half term sneaking up on us, my husband and I decided now was the time to do it and we decided not to tell the children! On the Saturday morning we managed to pack an overnight bag and get the car organised without any of them registering. As we bundled the children in to the car, all we told them was that we