Chris

My Travel Tips

• If you are time short, try to pre-book as much as you can - then you can relax into your trip with your only consideration being what you will visit that day instead of queuing for tickets or trying to arrange accommodation at the last moment. If you are going for a longer holiday, then free wheeling is great and offers more flexibility.
• I really enjoy visiting food markets; this is a bit of a passion of mine, particularly if you can combine this with a cooking class. I especially like the Asian food markets as I feel you can learn so much about a culture by their food and I like buying cooking utensils that I can’t buy at home.
• I also like walking tours of cities and it is well worth paying the extra for an experienced guide.
• I also enjoy home stays, I did this in Russia at Lake Baikal and enjoyed meals provided by the family cooked from all their home grown produce. It was berry season and the family has enormous bowls of berries lying around the house ready for preserving!
• Take photocopies of your passports with you and always leave copies of passports, credit cards etc. with someone at home for a backup should you lose your documents.
• In Paris, I always recommend the dinner and cruise on the Seine with reserved window seating, clients always love this.
• Museum passes are great value and mean that you go straight to the top of the queue. Metro passes and rail passes are also great, saving time and making it easier to travel around without worrying about change or if you are putting in the right amount of money.