18
Jun
If you use the internet for travel, here’s our tips on the best sites for flights, accommodation and a whole lot more.
Flight booking
Momondo
You may not have heard of it, but this is a powerful flight-search website with software that can access the low-cost airlines and little-known local ones that aren’t available to most flight-search websites. Its my first stop for finding a flight.
Train journeys
The Man in Seat Sixty-One
Train travel on short haul is so much more relaxing. No need to leave home four hours early for a distant airport, arrive bang in the middle of town, and your carbon guilt will be practically nil. But trying to figure out how to get from Glasgow to Gerona can be difficult. That’s where The Man in Seat 61 can help explain how to travel by train from Britain or Bali to countries all over the world,
11
Jun
You won’t find a TV at any of these four South African retreats:
REFLECTIONS ECO-RESERVE
071 683 4133
If eco-chic’s a real word, then it was invented to describe Reflections Guest Farm. Many talk the eco talk, but this lodge, built on 26 hectares of what was once alien vegetation and pine forest, is most certainly walking the eco walk too.
After an enormous clear-out, the new indigenous vegetation is thriving – a tribute to Tim’s determination. It is quite hard to believe what has been achieved here actually.
The three chalets are totally “off-grid”, which means a full solar/ wind turbine hybrid system. The pine-wood chalets are cosy, yet spacious with crackling fires, soft-cotton sheets and wrap-around decks.
Sip an ice-cold lager in your outdoor shower while gazing out at the raptors circling above the chalets.
8
Jun
Tree-top adventure course company Go Ape runs 26 courses in the UK and has just expanded to the US.
Tristram Mayhew, Go Ape founder, and his wife Rebecca Mayhew were holidaying in France when they discovered a tree top adventure course set deep in the Auvergne National Forest. Research showed there were 200 similar small-scale courses in France, but none in the UK.