Whether you love a spot of art, history, nature or culture, you’re bound to find a museum for you in Reykjavik. The Icelandic capital boasts a huge array of museums covering everything from whales to maritime history, manuscripts and photography. There’s even a museum dedicated to phalluses, which bills itself as “the world’s only genuine penis museum”. Regular readers of my blog will probably have guessed that I’m rather partial to a museum. So it goes without saying I’d planned a visit to a trio of Reykjavik’s most illustrious institutions – the National Museum of Iceland, the National Gallery of…

From vividly hued craters to bubbling geysers, powerful waterfalls and a serene rift valley, the classic Golden Circle tour offers visitors a tantalising glimpse of Iceland’s stunning and varied landscapes. The day-long tour from Reykjavik takes visitors around a series of sites in south Iceland, including the Geysir Geothermal Area, the spectacular waterfall Gullfoss and historic Þingvellir National Park. Some tours add other nearby sites, too. I booked onto a tour by Get Your Guide that also stopped at the extraordinary Kerid Crater. I joined the tour, a coach-load of some 50 people, at a bus stop in central Reykjavik,…

The most northerly capital in the world, Iceland’s biggest city is small, compact and friendly, and can easily be explored on foot. I spent a lot of time during my five days in Reykjavik walking around the city centre as I traversed from one part to another. Here’s a whistle stop guide to some of the sights I visited… A very brief history of Reykjavik Founded in 870 by the Vikings, Reykjavik means ‘Bay of Smoke’ and was named for the steam coming from the area’s geothermal springs. It was a small and fairly inconsequential settlement until the end of…

The land of fire and ice is a beguiling, otherworldly place, its scenery as dramatic as its nickname suggests. From bubbling geysers to snowcapped volcanoes, stunning waterfalls (below) and black sand beaches, nothing quite prepares you for Iceland’s magnificent beauty. As I travelled across the Reykjanes Peninsula on my way to the country’s capital Reykjavik, I was struck by the vast expanse of yellow grass and jet black soil that surrounded us. It was a bleak, unrelenting scene, unlike any I’d seen before and I was instantly captivated. It took me a while to put my finger on why I…

Most first-timers assume the Ossau Valley is a single trail you follow from a visitor center. It’s not. The valley is a network of 200+ kilometers of marked paths, three distinct climate zones, and a handful of refuges that book out weeks in advance. If you show up without a plan, you’ll either end up on a crowded gravel path or miss the best sections entirely. This guide is for the person who wants to hike the Ossau Valley without wasting time or money. I’ll cover what actually matters: trail difficulty, real costs, gear you’ll need, and the mistakes that…

You booked a week in Alsace, pulled up a map of the Route du Vin, and immediately felt overwhelmed. 170 kilometers of winding roads. 67 wine villages. Dozens of Grand Cru vineyards. Every blog tells you to visit “charming medieval towns” but nobody tells you which ones are worth your Saturday afternoon and which are a parking nightmare with overpriced Riesling. I spent two weeks driving the Route du Vin in 2026, tasting at 22 domaines, and getting stuck in Riquewihr during August rush hour so you don’t have to. Here’s the itinerary that works — the one that balances…

The last château we visited in the Loire Valley was the elegant Château d’Amboise. Set high on a rock overlooking the historic market town of Amboise on the banks of the River Loire, this former royal château is where Leonardo da Vinci was laid to rest. The castle became a royal residence in 1434 when Charles VII took it from its then-owner Louis d’Amboise as punishment for plotting against Louis XI. Much of the current building dates back to the late 15th century when Charles VIII had it rebuilt. For the next 150 years or so, the château was a…