Map without the faff
Where I’ve Been
Trips, cruises, city breaks and places I’ve walked around until Google Maps started judging me.
Akureyri
Akureyri is North Iceland’s easy-going base: fjord setting, compact streets, mountain views and access to waterfalls and volcanic landscapes that do most of the showing off.
Athens
Athens is hot, hilly, chaotic and brilliant: a real city with ancient history casually sitting in the middle of it like that is normal.
Birmingham
Birmingham is a proper working city with canals, shopping, food, industrial history and more character than its lazy reputation suggests.
Chester
Chester is a proper UK day-trip city: Roman walls, old streets, river views and enough history to make wandering feel like a useful activity.
Cobh
Cobh is colourful, steep, historic and surprisingly emotional, with Titanic history, harbour views and a cathedral that dominates the town like it knows it looks good.
Cork
Cork is Ireland’s lively southern city: markets, bridges, food, history and enough character to make it worth leaving the cruise port for.
Crete
Chania in Crete was one of those cruise stops that did not need much: a cheap bus, a Venetian harbour, sunshine, old lanes and a lighthouse walk that made the day.
Dresden
Dresden is grand, rebuilt, cultural and very good-looking, with old-town monuments, river views and a trip that arrived by coach, ferry and small-train adventure.
Dubai
Dubai is hot, polished, enormous and completely unsubtle. It is not trying to be old-world charming. It is trying to be Dubai, and it is very committed.
Dublin
Dublin works brilliantly as a no-luggage day trip: cheap flight, easy bus, proper walking, Irish stew, live music, old buildings and enough chaos to feel like you actually went somewhere.
Florence
Florence is compact, beautiful and absolutely packed with art, bridges, churches and Renaissance confidence. It is not subtle, but then neither was the Renaissance.
Ilkley
Ilkley is a proper Yorkshire reset: fresh air, moorland, Cow and Calf rocks, river walks, cafés and enough hill to remind you your legs are not decorative.
Kusadasi
Kusadasi is a bright Turkish cruise stop with marina views, hills, sea air and the massive ancient bonus of Ephesus nearby.
Limassol
Limassol is a relaxed Cyprus cruise stop with marina life, old town streets, sea views and mythology close enough to make the island feel properly ancient.
London
London is crowded, expensive and occasionally exhausting, but it still delivers history, landmarks and proper big-city exploring without needing a passport.
Mouscron
Mouscron was not the main destination, but it became one of those useful travel-stop memories: Belgium overnight, a town wander and a surprisingly important burger.
Mykonos
Mykonos is whitewashed lanes, blue sea, windmills, Little Venice and the strange joy of getting mildly lost somewhere very photogenic.
Nanortalik
Nanortalik is remote, raw and memorable: mountains, water, quiet streets and the feeling that you have gone properly off the usual travel map.
New York
New York is loud, vertical, expensive, cinematic and still completely worth it. It is one of those places where the famous sights are not just famous because someone put them on a mug.
Pisa
Pisa is more than the Leaning Tower, but the Leaning Tower is still the reason everyone turns up and pretends they are not going to do the silly photo.
Pompeii
Pompeii is one of the most powerful historic sites anywhere: a Roman city paused by disaster, with streets, houses, plaster casts and Vesuvius watching over everything.
Qaqortoq
Qaqortoq is colourful, compact and properly Greenlandic, with steep hills, harbour views, public art and the feeling of being somewhere very far from ordinary.
Reykjavik
Reykjavik is compact, colourful, northern and quietly strange in the best way, with Iceland’s dramatic landscape waiting just behind it.
Rhodes
Rhodes is a cruise stop with proper weight: medieval walls, Knights of St John, harbour views, old streets and the ghost of the Colossus lurking in the background.
Rome
Rome is ancient, crowded, chaotic and ridiculous in the best way: Colosseum, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Forum, churches, scooters and history stacked on history.
Vatican city
York
York is one of the UK’s best walking cities: Minster, walls, Shambles, Vikings, Romans, railways and enough history packed into a small centre to make it slightly unfair.
Ísafjörður
Ísafjörður is small, dramatic and very Westfjords: mountains, water, old streets, weather and the feeling that Iceland has turned the scenery up again.