Expert Insights

September 11, 2013 Exploring The Canadian Rockies

Read time – 2 minutes Pioneer settlers in Banff found the Canadian Rockies to be a wilderness undisturbed by industry, excessive trade or the usual prerogatives of the ‘civilised’ man. Now, the wild stretches of Canada’s first National Park (1885) can still offer that tantalising taste of freedom – if you know where to go....

September 11, 2013 Greece’s Best Kept Secret – Discover Evia

Read time – 2 minutes Evia is as far removed as you can get from the bucket and spade, beach and booze, Brits-abroad style package holiday Greece has become synonymous with. The second-largest Greek island (after Crete) is only a short ferry-ride away from Athens, yet feels a million miles removed from the crowds and...

September 11, 2013 Tackling Altitude On Everest Trek

Read time – 4 minutes “Chickole, chickole” were going to be the wisest words I would hear on my Everest base camp trek. Meaning “slowly, slowly” our guides Lakpa and Nima would repeat them every time we hoisted our packs on. With every inch the trail snaked higher into the mountains, the closer their words...

September 11, 2013 Kerala – God’s Own Country

Read time – 2 minutes A gentle voice coaxed me from outside my cabin on board the Kerala houseboat. A faint knock accompanied the words, “good morning – tea or coffee?” Already awake, I had been lazily gazing through my cabin window since the first blush of dawn. Watching Kerala wake up, palm trees swaying...

September 10, 2013 Finding Shangri-La in Nepal

Read time – 4 minutes Let me start by saying “Namaste” – a Nepalese greeting, and a word which will always conjure up my fondest memories of Nepalese culture. It translates as ‘I bow to you’, just one facet of the respectful way the Nepalese treat all forms of life. Nepalese prayer wheels For years...

September 10, 2013 Walking Adventure in Morocco

Read time – 2 minutes As I stood in line wondering what I was going to make for dinner, the cashier said, “That’s nice, where did you get it?” I looked down to see her pointing at my bracelet glimmering in the bright shop light. Bought on my recent trip to Morocco, I had been...

September 10, 2013 Pilgrim’s progress

Winding between the jagged spires of the French Pyrenees before threading its way west across Northern Spain to the Atlantic Coast, the Camino de Santiago is well and truly scuffed by the footprints of time. The Camino de Frances, The Way of St James, El Camino de Santiago, or simply The Way, this historic trail...

September 10, 2013 Your Words, Not Ours: Maglic Moments in Bosnia

Maglic Mountain is the highest peak in Bosnia & Herzegovina, overlooking neighbouring Montenegro. Five-time Exodus traveller Terry Mullan set out on foot to discover this beautiful, though sometimes overlooked, Balkan country… Hikers on Maglic In November 1993 I sat at home and watched on the BBC evening news as the Old Bridge in Mostar crumbled into...

September 06, 2013 The (Gastronomic) Mont Blanc Circuit

You might think that two weeks of trekking in the Mont Blanc region would be great way to lose a little weight. Tour Leader Charlie Boscoe explains why this isn’t necessarily the case! It is impossible to walk the meadows and passes below the towering peaks of Mont Blanc without feeling a stirring of the...

September 06, 2013 Walking in Iceland

Read time – 2 minutes Iceland is about the most pronounceable name associated with the island. Despite spending two weeks here, I will never be able to pronounce any of the place names! Even the infamous volcano, Eyjafjallajokull has been renamed E15! Despite its somewhat misleading name, summers here are actually pretty hot and dry. The midday...