August 21, 2022

Family Interrail adventure 10 Madrid city break 12 Take a hike from Melbourne 14

TRAVEL
SECTION OF
THE YEAR

Untamed
Ireland
The 1,600-mile-long Wild Atlantic Way is Europe’s best road trip by far 6
2 August 21, 2022 The Sunday Times

Travel

IS TIPPING BIG
SHOT
CULTURE
AT TIPPING
RIPPLE EFFECT
Performers the
world over are
dusting off their
finest charro

POINT? not pay them. After a rise in contactless

outfits in
anticipation of
the International
Mariachi Festival
that starts on
Thursday in
JONATHAN payments during the pandemic, these
are now everywhere, and in reality a
Guadalajara, the
DEAN cash-free society just means more places
Mexican music
capital in Jalisco
to tip where you didn’t before, such as
state. The annual
in shops.
11-day celebration
Secondly, as Americans say when
is the biggest of
Brits complain about their tipping
its kind, and
culture, they are “not paid much!”. But
includes many
often think about Simon, a barman let us deconstruct that. Is anybody

I
folk ensemble
in New Orleans. I was in the city making an effort to tip people on worse
performances,
ten years ago and found a pub in salaries, doing arguably worse jobs,
some involving
the French Quarter for a beer and such as loo cleaners? No, they are not,
the twirling of
a cooling-off. Simon, though, was because they never see these people,
extravagant skirts
heated. He scowled at me. He seemed so can ignore them.
— with plenty of
furious that he had to pull a pint. Still, I Also, the proliferation of tipping does
tequila flowing
gave him a $1 tip. It felt like convention, not take into account that some of us
to get spectators
a dollar a drink being the rule I followed — are simply not rich enough to spend
dancing too
an American friend told me that was fine. hundreds of dollars a week extra on the
Simon sighed. “We work for tips in this people who make our coffees and bring
country,” he fumed. I felt a bit threatened, us our food in restaurants — and it’s not
so reached into my pocket and gave him clear what we get in return anyway. In a
another dollar. He stormed off. I sipped way, tipping in restaurants was a method
the beer — it was dreadful. for those eating to assert even more power
Ah, America, land of the . . . tip. over those serving, but now that it has
And now, a decade on from spread far beyond restaurants,
Angry Simon, the country’s it is unclear who is better off:
tipping culture has gone the server or the served.
past the tipping point. Tipping was in the
This summer I am headlines in the UK
spending a month in this month, with the
Los Angeles. I love it Cameron House hotel
here, yet there is a on Loch Lomond
problem. A month away allegedly withholding
requires planning — tips from staff. Tips are
Airbnb, a car, mosquito important everywhere,

On track
bite cream — but what I did then, but at least we are the urge to strip off and dive into Lake
not factor in was spending not gripped by the ludicrous Bled. In 1964 we had our cameras
hundreds of dollars on tipping fear that prevails over America. YOUR confiscated when a ministerial guest

in India
people who have, quite frankly, A piece in The New York Times arrived for a two-day fishing trip, and the
done nothing. America has
become a place where you
recently admitted to “tipping
fatigue”, largely because of VIEWS sparkling riverbank was lined with armed
guards. When he departed we were told
give someone $10 (£8) for “requests for tips at food it was Georgy Malenkov, who succeeded
bleeping an object through businesses of all types, LETTER OF THE WEEK Stalin as the leader of the Soviet Union.
The best of this
a till. Mother, send from bakeries and week’s emails, posts Sally Howard’s article (“Passage to Pamela M Crowe, Isle of Man
money — I am broke. yoghurt shops to food and comments India”, last week) reminded me of our
Exhibit A: brunch. trucks and juice bars”. hissing, steaming locomotive on the The Franja Partisan Hospital, now
At a restaurant counter The piece, of course, Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, its dinky preserved as a war museum, is a
I ordered avocados, prompted a backlash carriages clinging to the 2ft-wide track. remarkable place, hidden in a remote
eggs and coffee. The from the hospitality Staff hung off the front and chucked sand gorge in a forest in western Slovenia.
lady serving gave me sector, but fear and onto the rails to give extra traction on the Heroic staff there saved the lives of
one of those devices that fatigue are real. really steep bits. At times we were so close anti-Nazi Slovenians, as well as wounded
buzzes when the food is On Uber there is now to shops that we could grab our lunch Allied troops.
ready, so I went back to my an option to tip drivers — it en route. The railway may be small, but Javier Pes, via thetimes.co.uk

Trav
table then returned to pick up my exists in the UK too, but in the it’s a serious piece of engineering.
meal. All the effort was mine, but when
she put my card in the machine the screen
suggested a tip of 18, 20 or 25 per cent.
She waited, expectant. I did not want
conflict, so I pressed 18 per cent, which
US it feels essential, because if you give
a low tip, will the driver rate you badly?
And if that happens, will you ever get
picked up again? And it is not as though
it is cheaper to drive — parking a car at a
T Gwen Kinghorn, Edinburgh

I’m in India at the moment. E-visas

are available — just not to UK citizens;
if you have an EU passport (as my wife
TURQUOISE TREASURES
My family too became besotted with
Kalkan (“Turkish delight”, last week) on
our first visit some 15 years ago. Like Mary
Greenham we had been pessimistic, but
in hindsight was 18 per cent too much.
Exhibit B: milk. One night in a hotel,
hotel tends to mean flinging $20 at the
valet every time you want to drive it.
T Travel
does) then it takes a fraction of the time
and cost to get a visa. And apply early
were lured by a review of a villa. On that
and subsequent holidays we spent our
with the kids and my wife asleep, I went
to the bar. I tipped for a glass of wine —
T
I have no idea what the etiquette is
anymore. The other week we put the kids
Travel — appointments in London were in very
short supply, with a wait of several weeks.
mornings visiting archaeological sites
close at hand, gorgeous Patara beach,
I get that. Then I remembered that I in a summer camp, and at the end I tried For expert guides Andrew McManus, via thetimes.co.uk the inland mountain plateau region and
needed milk for the morning. A waiter to give a member of staff $20. She looked to your favourite nearby towns such as Kas. Afternoons
scurried off for what I assumed would be appalled and declined it. Was I ashamed? destinations, plus VIP PASS involved snorkelling in the bay, where
a freebie, until they handed me a bill for A bit, but mostly relieved. At least I could the latest travel I am sure that the prime minister and multicoloured fish shoals are guaranteed
$5. For milk. Then I was handed another afford another coffee. And I’d avoided an news and the best his wife had a wonderful time in Slovenia and a passing turtle is a distinct
screen suggesting a tip. encounter with another Angry Simon. trips and deals to (“Keeping up with the Johnsons”, last possibility. Once visited, always hooked.
So, a couple of things. First, why pay book now, see our week). We visited the country last year Sarah Richards, Dorset
them anything? Well, you try to look Has tipping culture gone too far? dedicated travel to renew memories, having spent our
someone in the eye when they’re holding Send us your thoughts by emailing website the honeymoon in this beautiful area 58 Does anyone remember Kalkan from
a machine that requires effort to actively [email protected] times.co.uk/travel years ago, although this time we resisted the 1980s (without the development),
 The Sunday Times August 21, 2022 3

COVER PHOTOGRAPH: SEBASTIAN WASEK/ALAMY; VW PICS/GETTY IMAGES

POSTCARD FROM...
NAIROBI
As the city reels from political protests, Darlene Adaji
says that, despite everything, people are still smiling

C
lashes will always occur in a their worlds stopped when tourism was
country where there are more paused and they had no food or water.
than 40 tribes, and the recent I’ll never complain about my own
presidential contest between experience of the pandemic.
William Ruto and Raila Odinga Most tourists don’t realise that their
gave people an excuse to let their anger trips support so many livelihoods. The
out. Those who are unhappy with the government provided no financial
result are burning tyres, breaking into support during the pandemic, so people
houses and vandalising shops in had to rely on savings or start up small
impoverished areas such as Kibera and businesses, such as food kiosks or
Mathare, both 30 minutes’ drive offering motorbike-taxi services. Now
outside central Nairobi. But, mostly, that travel is back there’s optimism
there is a feeling of peace and hope that the most popular areas — the
that better times are ahead. Masai Mara for safaris and Malindi
The general sentiment is that for beach breaks — will fill up next
after the pandemic, it’s time to year. For now, tourist numbers
move on. We don’t want the are less than 50 per cent of what
unrest — or expense — that a vote they were before the pandemic.
recount would bring; we want to Despite everything, Kenyans
focus on rebuilding the country. are still smiling. They’ll tell you
The pandemic led to a huge rise in about the times they had no food,
mental-health issues, as many people but joke about it, and the conversation
struggled to cope with job losses and will end in laughter. I think this attitude
relationship breakdowns. Mental health will help us through the economic crisis.
isn’t acknowledged or addressed by the The biggest price jumps we’ve seen have
Kenyan government; if someone is been for commodities — the price of loo
struggling psychologically, most people paper, cooking oil and cornflour has
tend to say that they have gone mad. A few doubled since June. Cornflour is the
of the big companies here did start to give staple ingredient for our main dish, ugali,
counselling sessions to staff, but where It’s easy to which is a kind of doughy porridge.
this wasn’t available many turned to Kenyans tend to have big families too —
alcohol. I have an uncle who now drinks
see Covid as about five kids is normal — so there are
every day to function, but in his village being the many mouths to feed. The cost of public
they just say, “Oh, he loves to drink.” transport has also risen dramatically.
It’s easy to see Covid as being the worst
worst thing One good thing that has come out of
thing that has happened to us, but it has that has the pause on tourism is that our wildlife
brought lots of good too. I’m a tour guide has thrived. It boomed during the
and my work stopped for nearly two and
happened, pandemic, and in Lake Nakuru National
a half years. That gave me the time to do but it has Park, where I lead game drives, numbers
when it was just an overnight stop for the areas”, last week). The guides, Louis and something I’ve always dreamt of: reaching of cheetahs, leopards and rhinos have
yachties? A time when Morton the goose Wendy, are giants in their field and the summits of Mount Kilimanjaro and
brought massively increased. Lockdown kept
patrolled the harbour with much honking. learning from them in such a fantastic Mount Kenya. I also got to spend lots of good too everyone indoors and, happily, that
Also, the pristine corniche drive from environment was an honour. It’s well time with my 13-year-old daughter, Mya, included the poachers too. There were
Kalkan to Kas. worth checking out. as she grew into a young woman. As for baby animals everywhere when we got
Grant Armstrong, via thetimes.co.uk Adam Birchall, via thetimes.co.uk online learning and helping with her back to the trails, and it was really easy
schoolwork, that was trickier; there were to spot them, as they had reclaimed
PICTURE PERFECT Ah, Finse — happy days. I first went some days I had to teach myself first. roads that are usually taken up by
Every week I intend to thank you for there more than 30 years ago, on a There were other girls I wish I could vehicles — it was just another thing for
the beautiful illustration on the city breaks holiday in February, skiing from hut to also have helped during this time. I’m an us to smile and joke about.
page. The picture always epitomises the hut over the Hardangervidda. I never anti-female-genital-mutilation (FGM)
architecture and mood of the city. Thank was a good skier and that proved it — ambassador and support a community in Darlene Adaji is a guide with Intrepid
you, Clare Collins, for the illustration of had the weather not been mainly a the Masai Mara. We rescue girls as young Nairobi’s skyline Travel and lives in Nairobi. She supports the
Stockholm (“The Big Weekend”, last blizzard I would probably have been as nine from FGM and help locals with and, above, a Tepesua Community-Based Organization,
week). Unfortunately travel is now a thing sent home. My second trip was in May little or no income, and not being able to cheetah with which empowers women and promotes
of the past for us, as time has taken its the same year and completely different do this was really hard. It killed me to hear her cubs in the education and community development
toll, so it is a matter of being reminded of — we were skiing in bright sunshine. their stories of life during the pandemic — Masai Mara (tepesuacbo.org). She spoke to Lucy Perrin
happy times through your Travel section. Elvira Cheeseman, via thetimes.co.uk
Judith Milnes, Nottinghamshire
VICKI JAURON/GETTY IMAGES

APE RECORDER
Not only is Stockholm totally unique, A reader mentioned the possibility of
interesting and beautiful, the daylight virtual reality replacing travel experiences
in midsummer must do something to (“Your Views”, last week). On a trip In
brain chemistry, as there is a vibrant, Sumatra I left my base at 3am and walked
fun yet slightly eerie atmosphere that through jungle to a possible orang-utan
differentiates it from any other city I sighting area. After dawn I observed a
have visited. I absolutely loved it. female and two young from a metre away.
Formaggio, via thetimes.co.uk Not only was I able to see, hear and smell
the group, I was aware that they were also
The Vasa Museum is awesome, and looking at, hearing and smelling me. This
don’t miss the Ostermalms Saluhall, could never be replicated using VR.
a superb food market just a short walk Vicky Macnair, Devon
from Birger Jarlsgatan.
Stoobs, via thetimes.co.uk Share your experiences, opinions and
tips with us by emailing travel@sunday-
FAR NORTHERN EXPOSURE times.co.uk, tweeting @TimesTravel
The Shackleton polar training in or commenting on one of our stories
Norway is a great experience (“Access all at thetimes.co.uk
 The Sunday Times August 21, 2022 5

Travel Cruise
Ambience’s principal theatre for a

MAX WILLCOCK/BNPS; PAWEL GAUL/GETTY IMAGES

shortened My Fair Lady.
Other musicals were available, of
course, and one of them was The Lion
King. When the Brazilian conductor of
the ship’s choir, playing Simba, advanced

GOING
on all fours to the edge of a promontory
and sang the lines, “There’s more to see
than can ever be seen; More to do than
can ever be done,” it was the first time in
my life that I’ve been able to strongly
identify with a lion — because love them

SOLO
or loathe them, a cruise has plenty of
strings to its bow.
For a start there’s the simple magic of
living on something that has a rudder.
Then there’s the blessed disengagement
from the “real world” that a cruise
facilitates, especially if you turn down
the ship’s internet package; the array of
optional diversions, such as ice carving,
oil painting and lectures on marine
biology; the endless opportunity to natter
with people from all walks of life; the
miscellaneous pleasures that a cruise will
routinely throw up, like the sight, on
drawing one’s curtains in the morning,
of an enchanting Swedish summerhouse
or a rotten Danish castle that used to be
owned by Hamlet.
And on top of all those strings are the
ports of call. When in port passengers
could either join one of the organised
excursions (for a supplement) or head
into town and explore under their own
steam. I tended to do the latter, because
for me one of the virtues of travel is long
spells of clueless ambulation.
In Helsinki I dipped a toe into Finnish
sauna culture by spending a happy hour
shifting between sweaty captivity and icy
Baltic immersion. In Copenhagen I
Ambience and, doggy-paddled at a public swimming spot
On his first voyage, single thirtysomething Ben Aitken sets sail below, Ben.
Bottom, Helsinki
before learning about the notoriously
high-spending and war-mongering life
of Christian IV of Denmark. In Tallinn I
alongside experienced cruisers — will this millenial be all at sea? opted for bear-meat dumplings on the
picturesque main square. And in Visby

O
ver the course of a two-week unpacking, I headed down to the ship’s somehow looking like George Best at I chose to familiarise myself with the
Baltic cruise with the new main dining room for a five-course dinner 40; Sarah from Nottingham, an unruly Swedish practice of fika, which
British line Ambassador, I in an outfit diametrically opposed to a ex-teacher who wouldn’t reveal her involves stopping what you’re doing
took more things than I had tuxedo (it involved shorts and a T-shirt). age but mentioned that she had several times a day to drink coffee
in the previous 30 years: I took a seat at a table occupied by seven once voted for Churchill; and and eat something sweet.
classes in line dancing and Welsh; a blow fellow singletons. Although it was a motley Alasdair, a former bank manager Can cruising be fun for a
to my ego when I joined the ship’s choir crew, I was the youngest by some margin. from the Highlands whose stated younger person travelling alone?
and was told that I was off the scale by On that first evening I was painfully mission in life is to extract value As sure as eggs is eggs, it can.
some margin. I took in every inch of the self-conscious and tongue-tied, but over for money. Indeed, I reckon you’d have to be
vessel’s 70,000 tons; I took part in three roughly 67 courses (baked Alaska and After dinner a group of us uniquely difficult to please not to
karaoke competitions, on each occasion spotted dick not the least of them) the would often repair to one of the enjoy one — because even if you
sending much of the audience to sleep eight of us became, if not mates, then several lounges on board, for a flute had zero interest in ports or people
with my version of Nessun dorma. something not far off. There was Derek of something uplifting accompanied or panoramas or pastimes such as
Other things I took were strolls around from Somerset, 86 years young but by a violinist, before heading to the painting or pétanque, you could just set
the top deck, where I took a good look at up camp in the engine room and read
the sea, the stars and the woody islands of royal biographies back to back, emerging
the Swedish archipelago. I took a shining exclusively at dinner time for your filet
to shuffleboard and a liking to the aft of 3 MORE CRUISES PERFECT FOR TRAVELLING SOLO mignon, when you’d have to break
deck 10, from where you could prospect your enjoyable silence to let the
for porpoises and whales; and a chance MEDITERRANEAN WITH NCL Norwegian fjords visits Bergen, waiter know which sauce you
on the Abba museum in Stockholm. Seven of Norwegian Cruise Line’s ships Geiranger and Stavanger (from would like.
I took it on the chin that we wouldn’t have studio cabins that share a lounge Sandnes). Were there moments during the
call at St Petersburg, and took a leaf out of where the ship’s entertainment team Details Seven nights’ holiday when I felt something less
the book of 90-year-old Leslie, who told host a singles’ meet-up every night. all-inclusive from £2,912pp in than shipshape? When I felt a bit
me that the secret to a successful cruise The 4,100-passenger Norwegian Epic a single balcony cabin, including at sea? Absolutely there were. But
was a nap after breakfast. sails from Barcelona all summer, calling speciality dining, wi-fi, tips, two that’s just being human — as things
It would be wrong to suggest that my at ports including Livorno, Rome, shore excursions and car to the stand, even when you travel alone,
inaugural cruise was entirely smooth Naples, Cagliari, Mallorca and Ibiza. port, departing on July 30 from you still have to go with yourself.
sailing. Despite having travelled with my Details Nine nights’ all-inclusive on London Tilbury (travel.saga.co.uk) Am I a cruise convert? I’ll certainly
elders before (and written a book called Norwegian Epic costs from £1,249pp for be keeping my eyes peeled for bargains,
The Gran Tour about it), and having sole occupancy of a studio, including FESTIVE SPAIN WITH FRED OLSEN that’s for sure. I wouldn’t mind having
survived Covid lockdowns all but tethered speciality dining, wi-fi and credit Fred Olsen attracts a large following of a look at the Norwegian fjords, for a start,
to an unfamiliar 85-year-old (see The towards shore excursions, departing solo travellers with singles’ gatherings, and Ambassador’s seven-day cruise
Marmalade Diaries), I arrived at Tilbury on July 30 (ncl.com). Fly to Barcelona mixed dining and activities such as around the British Isles looks right up
Town station, 20 miles east of central helping the Orca conservation charity my cup of tea. The line is even offering a
London, unhelpfully apprehensive. NORWEGIAN FJORDS WITH SAGA to conduct surveys. Get into the For me, world cruise in 2024, and if between now
I was on edge because cruise ships Saga’s Spirit of Discovery has 109 Christmas spirit on this cruise to Vigo one of the and then I inherit a small fortune from an
aren’t the conventional home from home solo cabins, all with private balconies. and La Coruña, as well as Gijon and unforeseen aunt, I’ll be on board in a
for single blokes in their thirties. Walking The atmosphere on board the over-50s Getxo, for Bilbao and the Guggenheim. virtues of heartbeat.
the mile or so from station to cruise line is as inclusive as cruising gets. Details Eight nights’ full board on travel is
terminal, where Ambassador’s refitted Single travellers can request a shared Borealis from £1,099pp for a single Ben Aitken was a guest of Ambassador
flagship vessel Ambience was purring table for meals and a buddy for cabin, departing on December 14 from long spells Cruise Line. Sixteen nights’ full board on
impressively, my nerves were still reeling. excursions, and there’s a party and a Liverpool (fredolsencruises.com) of clueless the Hidden Nordic Treasures itinerary,
After clambering aboard and spending lunch for singles. This cruise to the Sue Bryant departing on May 16 from London Tilbury,
ten minutes approximating someone ambulation from £989pp (ambassadorcruiseline.com)
6 August 21, 2022 The Sunday Times

Travel Road trip

T
here are seven
million books in
Trinity College At 1,600 miles, Ireland’s Wild
Library in Dublin.
In the Long Room Atlantic Way is one epic drive.
alone more than 200,000
volumes. As a tourist you will Better to savour a smaller slice at
never have time to read even
one of these books. You can
only wonder what secrets and
revelations lie between their
covers, and that’s exactly what
CALL OF your leisure, Chris Haslam finds

THE WILD
it’s like to drive Ireland’s Wild
Atlantic Way: a road on which
every fork and crossroads,
every dead-end detour hides
its own stories.
One of the longest coastal
routes on earth follows the
shore for 1,600 miles from
Co Cork to Donegal. They say
you can drive it in a fortnight,
and, in the past, I’ve done it
in six days. But such haste is
nothing to be proud of unless
your aim is to miss the point
completely, so this time
I took the advice of Eamonn
Gallagher, whom I met
enjoying an early Guinness in
the Crane Bar in Galway.
“The road is like a birthday
cake,” he said. “Eat it all at
once and you’ll be sick, but
enjoy a wee slice and you’ll
always be hungry for more.”
The next morning my dog
and I drove west along the
north shore of Galway Bay to
Connemara: a wet and empty
 The Sunday Times August 21, 2022 7

MAKE YOUR

RICHARD WAYMAN, IMAGEBROKER, DIARMID WEIR/ALAMY

Five Finger Strand WAY Looking
out over
Maghera beach,
Co Donegal, left;
Co
a Connemara
Donegal
pony, below left;
Rusty Mackerel boats at Rosroe
Pier, right

Wild Nephin
National Park
Co Mayo
Westport
Renvyle House
Connemara Co
Galway
Galway
20 miles

land of rock and lough and umbrella. He was going Connemara was beautiful, home of the chieftain Donal
wind-bent blackthorn. I tuned shopping in Clifden, and was said Johnson, but life was O’Flaherty, husband of the
in to the local radio station dressed for Benidorm. tough. “Outsiders are buying pirate queen Granuaile, or
and the car filled with the “The sunshine will be up all the properties as second Grace O’Malley. The house
mysteries and the music of the deadly in a while,” he insisted, homes, so rents have then passed to the Blakes,
Gaeltacht, where Gaeilge (the and by the time I reached rocketed,” he said. “Three who considered themselves
Irish language) is spoken. Mannin Bay, his prophecy had years ago I was paying €450 descended from a Knight of
Sunbeams punched come true. The sea was glassy [£380] a month. Now it’s the Round Table, then to the
through rain-dark clouds blue as I joined the guide €1,200 [£1,010], and you need statesman and poet Oliver
to spotlight whitewashed Calliam Johnson for a kayak three jobs just to get by.” As St John Gogarty, who
bungalows, Connemara trip around Knock Head, the locals are forced out, the entertained WB Yeats here.
ponies in heroic poses and the dog alert like Ishmael on my culture is weakening, but Despite that history it’s an
leaden glint of the summits of prow. We paddled past a chain outsiders wouldn’t be buying unpretentious spot serving
the Benna Beola. In the middle of white-sand beaches, over if locals weren’t selling. fabulous mussels, and still
of a rain-lashed wilderness I swaying kelp forests into Salt I spent the night at Renvyle popular with writerly types.
stopped for a hitchhiker clad Lough, where, to the dog’s House, a seaside hotel worthy I met an Irish journalist and an
in short shorts and a vest, his dismay, we were immediately of an entire shelf in Trinity American poet here but, due
thumb out from under an surrounded by seals. College Library. It was once Continued on page 8 →
8 August 21, 2022 The Sunday Times

Travel Road trip

→ Continued from page 7 Strand; and the glittering trees, the sky
to the whiskey, have forgotten heights of Croagh Patrick, grows darker
their names. where Ireland’s patron saint and you can
Mornings are moments of fasted for 40 days. He wasn’t see the
hope and regret on the Wild the only one: in 1847, when Atlantic
Atlantic Way: the former for the scale of the Great Hunger exploding on
what lies ahead and the latter was becoming clear, the parish Clare Island,
for the unknowns left behind. priest of Kilgeever, at the foot five miles
I started with a wrong turn on of the holy mountain, wrote distant.
Killary Fjord but kept driving of “a population of 12,000 It was on this
for the sake of it until I came to persons, hitherto solely coast that the
a dead end at Rosroe Pier. A depending on the potato, now Spanish Armada
plaque on the wall of a pebble- without one ray of earthly foundered, with 24 ships lost
dashed bungalow with UPVC hope [and suffering from] in the stormy September of
windows announced: “Ludwig famine, fever and dysentery”. 1588. Many drowned, or
Wittgenstein lived and worked Beyond Westport, the road survived only to be hanged by
here April-October 1948”. A follows the northern shore of the British, but others
local called Tom Mulkerrins Clew Bay, where 141 emerald escaped. “To the mixture of
was asked to keep an eye on islets are a playground for Spanish blood in [the locals’]
the philosopher, who lived pleasure boats. That all veins we may attribute the
almost entirely on tinned changes at Dumhach Bheag. glossy hair, dark eyes and
food. Mulkerrins suggested Suddenly, the sheep look bright complexions which give
this was an unhealthy diet. tougher. There are no more to their countenances a degree
Wittgenstein didn’t care. of beauty superior to their less
“Most people live too long contaminated northern
anyway,” he replied. neighbours,” wrote Henry
Across the fjord lies Co Blake in 1825. He wouldn’t
Mayo. You may think you’re get away with that today.
well travelled. You may have The N59 leads north through
sailed the 76 seas and you may Wild Nephin National Park:
feel there are few wonders left 37,000 acres of blanket bog
unseen on this earth. Then In a rain-lashed and mica slate mountain. The
you and the dog hike up the tarmac and telegraph wires are
2,671ft Maol Reidh and behold wilderness humanity’s tightropes through
the ridiculous beauty of I stopped for this wilderness, and you
Ireland’s Atlantic coast. Left to understand how the thoughts
right, under cloudless skies: a hitchhiker of travellers might slide
the islands of Inishbofin and clad in shorts towards the supernatural —
Inishturk; the sands of Uggool, especially when a Satanic ram
Silver Strand and White and a vest blocks a bridge, demanding
 The Sunday Times August 21, 2022 9

caves; or Tranarossan Bay on

CHRIS HILL/TOURISM IRELAND; RICHARD WAYMAN/ALAMY; GARETH MCCORMACK

the Rosguill peninsula; or
spectacular Boyeeghter Bay
next door, which only this year
gained public access; and the
wild jumble of grassy rock,
sand and crystal-clear water
that stretches from Tullyillion
through Cloughglass and
Kincasslagh to Mullaghderg.
I ended the trip where it
felt right, watching the dog
barking at clouds while 6ft surf
smashed on the empty sands
of Five Finger Strand. I got
chatting to a fisherman casting
for sea bass, telling him I felt as
if I’d had my cake and eaten it
on the Wild Atlantic Way.
Tranarossan Bay, your soul in return for safe call the slean. Michael made advertise it and don’t sell it “They say Donegal is
left; grey seals passage. the cuts while his father in shops. Ireland’s poorest county,
are a common I crossed into Donegal — the Labhras laid the breeze block- But they can sell jumpers. but in many ways — culturally,
sight along the most beautiful county of them sized sods out to dry. This I’m not really the retail type scenically and in terms of its
Wild Atlantic all — and spent the night at the high-carbon peat is Ireland’s but at Rossan Knitwear’s generosity — it’s the richest,”
Way, inset; the Rusty Mackerel, where an old traditional fuel, but factory shop (find it next to the he said, so I asked him for
Rusty Mackerel, man told me how a witch environmentalists want the megalithic tomb at Malainn a fish. He said he didn’t have
Co Donegal, called Bridget Devenney centuries-old practice banned. Mhoir), I dropped £125 on one to spare. Turned out he
above; kayakers conjured a storm in Bruckless “How do you think they three sweaters hand-knitted was from Dublin.
take a break in Bay that drowned 130 expect us to keep warm, by the McNelis sisters. West
Mannin Bay, fishermen in a single night in then?” asked Labhras. “Will of here is Malainn Bhig and Chris Haslam was a guest of
above right February 1813. “They say she they pipe in the gas? Or send another Silver Strand: a Tourism Ireland (tourism
did it because no one would coal lorries?” He relit his theatre of south-facing sand at ireland.com) and Irish Ferries,
give her a fish,” he said. “So roll-up and nodded at the the tip of the Slieve League which offers return crossings
if you want a fish, just ask. treeless slopes. “Or tell us peninsula, where a mountain from Holyhead to Dublin from
No one from Donegal wants to chop wood?” three times higher than Clare’s £238 (irishferries.com). Renvyle
another disaster.” For the time being, Labhras Cliffs of Moher falls nearly House has B&B doubles from
Next morning I spent an and his son are reprieved: the 2,000ft into hungry seas. £186 (renvyle.com); the Rusty
hour with a father and son, government has ruled that Then there’s Maghera beach: Mackerel has room-only
digging turf from a bog with they can continue cutting green cliffs, aquamarine water doubles from £85
the long-handled spade they peat as long as they don’t and a dozen or more deep (therustymackerel.com)
10 August 21, 2022 The Sunday Times

Travel Europe

London

Gyermekvasut
A FIRST-CLASS
As Interrail turns 50 — and with its
A
board the new
Munich Vienna
Nightjet sleeper
Paris
Lake Balaton passes now covering 33 European train from Paris
to Vienna, my
Salzburg
Budapest countries — Tristan Rutherford three young
sons enjoy hot showers.
Zagreb
Pula
whisks his wife and three children Afterwards, my wife
Kathryn and I snuggle
100 miles
on a cross-continental train journey them into our private
cabin’s trio of fold-down
bunks. I press the waiter
button, summoning a
complimentary mini bottle
of sparkling wine while
filling in breakfast order
forms. The next morning,
five trays — laden with
bircher muesli, liver pâté,
salami and more — arrive
as we gaze at Munich and
Salzburg through the dawn.
It wasn’t like this 25 years
ago. Back then, my
locomotive adventures
around Europe entailed
nights in stations and a
Staropramen-soaked train
pass. This year, Interrail
is celebrating its 50th
anniversary with a magical
app that inspires go-anywhere
rail journeys across a record
33 European countries.
Better still, under-12s go free.
Our plan is simple: start
in London, sample a sleeper
train, some high-speed
international trips and rural
chuggers, before
disembarking on a
Croatian beach. The
damage? A five-day,
first-class pass for our
family of five (used
within a 30-day
period) costs £630.
And even though
sleeper services and
some high-speed
trains still require an
additional paid-for
reservation, it’s still
cheaper than all of
us flying.
The adventure begins
with a Eurostar journey
to Paris; us first-class
interrailers are automatically The Nightjet train, main;
upgraded to standard premier, the Rutherfords enjoyed life
where leather recliners on board, above, and spent
surround foldaway tables. Our time in Paris, right; the
six-year-old twins, Aurelio and Zagreb funicular, far right
Lupo, devour a lunch of
Suffolk chicken with couscous, Haussmann boulevards
while Russo, their four-year- overlooking graffiti-covered
old sibling, assembles an climbing frames. At the
Uno tower. On arrival, we covered Marché Saint-Quentin
immediately descend on the food market, we purchase our
City of Light having already sleeper-train dinner — a
completed passport control portion of tagine, two pongy
back in St Pancras. cheeses and 18 maki sushi
Our plan is to undertake rolls — before departing. That’s
one must-try activity per city. the nature of interrailing: it
In Paris, that means eating allows for a tantalising
oysters. In the newly buzzy snapshot of a city and leaves
Gare du Nord quartier, we you hungry for more.
descend on hole-in-the-wall At Vienna Hauptbahnhof
shack Pleine Mer. It’s just over the next morning, we put our
£8 for a dozen oysters (Rue de “child-enfranchisement plan”
Chabrol 22). into action. The twins must
The kids’ eyes bulge during carry their own backpacks,
our four hours in the French leaving Kathryn and I with
capital. Vaping Parisians whizz only a small wheelie between
by on electric scooters past us; we also put the kids in
butchers’ windows full of pink charge of navigation to the
cows’ tongues and handsome hotel using my phone. Just five
 The Sunday Times August 21, 2022 11

FAMILY ADVENTURE

HARALD EISENBERGER; KATHRYN TOMASETTI; ALEXANDER SPATARI/GETTY IMAGES; GUNTER KIRSCH/ALAMY

golden age. The art deco
landmark was constructed in
1925, catering for counts and
debutantes hopping off the
Orient Express. We arrive in
perfect time to book a
babysitter and a table for two
tired parents at the on-site
restaurant Zinfandel’s, where
we later devour snails in
chanterelle cream and a
mound of steak tartare (mains
from £15; zinfandels.hr).
Later we ascend to Zagreb’s
medieval centre, paying 50p
each for its funicular. Fun
sights up here include the
original Museum of Broken
Relationships, whose
exhibits include an axe used
cathartically by a jilted woman
to decimate her ex-lover’s
furniture (£6, children free;
brokenships.com).
Wealthy and liberal,
socialist-era Zagreb wowed
Eastern Bloc visitors. Recalling
that, the city’s museum tribute
to the 1980s — a lifesize
diorama of a working-class
Croatian apartment — is a
history lesson in Formica,
one where mod cons include
double tape decks, an
Amstrad computer and (less
family-friendly) monochrome
erotica (£4, children £3;
zagreb80.com). Back then,
most Croatian families could
afford a coastal summer house
and a Yugo car. They averaged
two kids too; now the birth
rate is under 1.5, making
our three terrors a novelty
in themselves.
Our final trains rattle
through pine-swathed
mountains to Pula on Croatia’s
That’s the nature heart-shaped Istria peninsula.
of interrailing: it The shores here, such as
nearby Ciklonska Plaza, are
allows for a what the children have been
tantalising most looking forward to after
ten days on rails. But on seeing
snapshot of a city the sea, they are most riveted
and leaves you by the Croatian teenagers
tombstoning (cliff-jumping)
hungry for more into the crystalline waters.
“Can you do that, Dad?” Russo
asks. If you rewind a few
decades, I reply.
The whistle has nearly
blown on our European
minutes later, we’ve checked chest. But Aurelio’s only those horses to the front line. We’re en route to happy words, “This is an journey. Will we return home
into Mooons, which opened comment is: “Is she dead?” Direct trains run from Gyermekvasut, a seven-mile action holiday, not a relaxing using Interrail’s discount on a
late last year with a rooftop We drag them back to our Vienna to the old empire train line that snakes across one.” He can say that again. ferry to Italy? Will we boldly
restaurant and skyline views. Mooons bedroom, where hubs of Prague, Krakow and western Budapest’s hills. Later, when we flank Lake push on east, utilising the
The Belvedere Palace is on giant windows overlook Bratislava. On our EuroCity Cheeringly, its signalling, Balaton, things go slightly reinstated service from
the same street (£12, children Vienna. At sunset our boys service to Budapest, we ticketing, announcing and downhill. Popular with Croatia to Istanbul? Alas, with
free; belvedere.at). It was the watch one of Europe’s great occupy a private cabin with six conducting are performed domestic Hungarian all three kids imminently due
summer party pad of the cities blush vivid purple with reclining chairs, and watch as entirely by children aged 10-14. holidaymakers, this inland sea in school, we fly home into
Habsburgs, the Austro- mint cupolas and red spires. oceans of purple wildflowers They also greet trains with a is ringed by vineyards, boat- Luton. The boozy, boisterous
Hungarian Empire’s divine “It looks like a video,” reckons and fields of green leeks slip by stern salute at the seven hire shops and beach bars. atmosphere we encounter
family. First we speed-eat Lupo. Praise indeed. sedately over two and a half station stops, and many go “Can we get off, Dad?” Uh-uh, there might have thrilled me
wiener schnitzels and some The next day in the city’s hours. I can’t help feeling that on to become drivers. Our £8 I reply. “I’m hot, Dad.” “Have a 25 years back; now, I just
sachertorte in the café here public transport museum, only a masochist would fly family ticket allows us happy shower in Zagreb later,” I say. fancy an early night.
(mains from £10; don.at). Remise, our kids enjoy vintage between the two cities. pauses for short hikes, picnics At this point my wife gives me
At a neighbouring table, two trams, double-decker buses Courtesy of the twins again, and chairlifts to viewpoints a look and reminds me that Tristan Rutherford was a
newlyweds sip Aperol spritzes. and push-all-the-buttons we walk from Budapest’s Keleti (gyermekvasut.hu). interrailing is supposed to guest of Interrail (interrail.eu),
Those were the days. U-Bahn trains (£7, children station to the IntercityHotel in Five days in, though, I have involve hop-on, hop-off fun. Mooons (B&B doubles
I herd my family to see the free; wienerlinien.at). A two minutes. Also opened last to admit to feeling exhausted Five minutes later, we alight at from £97; mooons.com),
palace’s outstanding art timeline explains how steam year, this is the city’s first hotel during our six-hour journey to Balatonszemes for ice creams IntercityHotel Budapest
collection. Gustav Klimt’s stood in for horse-drawn to be powered entirely by Zagreb, the Croatian capital. and a paddle. (B&B doubles from £82;
gilded painting The Kiss, trams during the First World renewables, with a vast lobby Despite this being the trip’s That evening we check in hrewards.com) and Esplanade
depicting a couple embracing, War, while female conductors decorated with upcycled longest ride, however, our to Zagreb’s Esplanade Hotel, Zagreb Hotel (B&B doubles
awes like an opened treasure replaced men who followed lamps and jungly plants. brood are loving it. In Russo’s built to host rail tourism’s from £165; esplanade.hr)
12 August 21, 2022 The Sunday Times

Travel City breaks

THE BIG WEEKEND

ILLUSTRATION BY JULIAN OSBALDSTONE

O
dd to think of Madrid as a
new discovery. Yet the seat of
Spanish royalty can seem a
bit provincial, unknowable
and, critically, beachless Chamberí
when compared with, say, Barcelona. So, Viva Madrid
it’s exciting that innovative restaurants Salamanca
Plaza Mayor
and opulent hotels keep raising the Mandarin
capital’s profile, and drawing attention to Posada Oriental Ritz
its Enlightenment-era architecture, Del Dragón
abundance of parkland, convivial tapas Corral de
culture and plazas that serve as hivelike Los Austrias
la Morería
public spaces. Each neighbourhood offers Lavapiés
the weekender its own distinctive angle Malacatín El Rastro
of attack, from Salamanca’s boulevards of 1 mile
boutiques to late-night Senegalese drums
in the medieval backstreets of Lavapiés.
tasting menus, or “canvases”. The result
WHAT TO DO is the priciest meal in Spain, but Muñoz’s
Get your bearings wandering the showmanship and polyglottic culinary
historical core of Madrid de los Austrias, fluency make for a pretty unequivocal
though it’s just as easy to lose them. experience (£308; diverxo.com).
Between Plaza Mayor and the Royal
Palace there are ateliers that have Viva Madrid
survived for generations. Stop to watch Diego Cabrera, Madrid’s reigning king of
Felipe Conde craft classical guitars at the cocktails, recently took over this gorgeous
workshop founded by his grandfather, wood-and-tile tavern from 1856. The
whose customers included Bob Dylan and menu recreates tapas classics such as
Leonard Cohen (condehermanos.com). croquettes and pepito sandwiches to
El Rastro flea market has practically pair with superbly mixed drinks (tapas
defined La Latina, the city’s oldest barrio, from £7; vivamadrid1856.com).
for 300 years. Sunday is the big day for
street vendors, but Saturday is better for Malacatín
browsing the bazaar-like clusters of There is no dish more local than cocido
antiques dealers. Food and music turn madrileño — a stew served in three
nearby market halls La Cebada courses of chickpeas, cabbage and meats
(mercadodelacebada.com) and San in noodle broth — and this restaurant has
Fernando (mercadodesanfernando.es) specialised in it since 1895. The fourth-
into block parties on both afternoons. generation owner, Jose Rodríguez, claims
Built as a pleasure garden for a summer that only two diners have completed the
palace that no longer exists, Retiro Park full meal (cocido £18pp; malacatin.com).
also gets crowded on weekends, as strolls
around its boating lake and landmark WHERE TO STAY
statue of Lucifer have become a matter of La Posada Del Dragón
civic pride and social custom. But there’s This traditional traveller’s inn is one of
always a quiet corner to retreat to along the last of its kind by the old city gate, on
its shaded back lanes of hedgerows. what is now Madrid’s busiest row of tapas
The golden triangle of Madrid’s big bars. Though refurbished with artfully
three museums — the Prado (£13; museo designed guest rooms, it retains a classic
delprado.es), Reina Sofia (£11; museoreina tenement-style structure around an open
sofia.es) and Thyssen-Bornemisza (£12; courtyard with a decent restaurant (B&B
museothyssen.org) — involve too much doubles from £68; posadadeldragon.com)
art for one weekend, so focus on one
must-see masterpiece; perhaps Bosch’s 7 Islas Hotel
The Garden of Earthly Delights (Prado), Tucked behind the Gran Via, this
Picasso’s Guernica (Reina Sofia) or boutique hotel punches way above its
Hopper’s Hotel Room (Thyssen). View at price point with an exhibition space, a
about 2pm, in the relative hush allowed bar stocked by the craft distiller Narciso

MADRID
by long Spanish lunches. Bermejo, a kitchen run by the rising star
In this all-night kind of town, two Xabi Guitart and furniture from the
institutions stand out in the moonlight: design studio Kikekeller. Its three attic
Corral de la Morería is a hallowed shrine penthouses open to an expansive deck
to live flamenco (from £44 for show and a (B&B doubles from £101; 7islashotel.com).
drink; corraldelamoreria.com); Toni 2 is
a piano bar where every Madrileño of Mandarin Oriental Ritz
drinking age stops by for a singalong
between midnight and dawn (£9 entry
Visit the city that keeps on giving, says Stephen Phelan The recently restored Ritz serves as a
portal to a world of belle époque finery:
includes a drink; toni2.es). champagne, oysters, afternoon tea, a
WHERE TO EAT AND DRINK Monchis and the Eight (mains from pool framed by marble and chandeliers.
THE COOLEST NEIGHBOURHOOD Sacha £14; galeriacanalejas.com). The portrait-filled cocktail bar could be
Chamberí was relatively low key until A side street opens onto a hidden garden an extension of the Prado museum next
a scattering of new ventures opened terrace that may be Madrid’s loveliest La Venencia door, while masterchef Quique Dacosta
between the neighbourhood tapas bars place to eat, though the cluttered interior This sherry-only tavern has served makes all the food (B&B doubles from
and beer halls along Calle Ponzano, of this bistro has its own charm. The nothing but six types of cask £549; mandarinoriental.com).
reviving the street as a dynamic strip of owner, Sacha, cooks Basque and Galician Jerez since the early 1930s.
hospitality. The Spanglish verb classics to the standards of his parents, Within its sepia miasma of IF YOU ONLY DO ONE THING
“Ponzaning” was duly coined for the who opened the place 50 years ago smoke stains and bottle Food and music Watch sunset from the Temple of Debod,
practice of trawling from hyper-stylised (mains from £17; restaurantesacha.com). dust, winningly surly staff turn La Cebada an ancient chapel transplanted from
gastrobars such as Sala de Despiece write your tab in chalk on Egypt to a hilltop near the city centre.
(saladedespiece.com) to cervecerías like Galería Canalejas the wood bar, banging out and San Fernando
El Doble (cerveceriaeldoble2.eatbu.com). This gourmet food hall occupies the plates of wonderful chorizo into block parties
That nocturnal energy spills into Mercado basement of lavishly conjoined and and manchego by way of
at weekends
T Travel
Vallehermoso (mercadovallehermoso.es) repurposed bank buildings that house tapas (tapas from £3). For dozens more guides to your
and the café terraces around Plaza the new Four Seasons hotel. Some of favourite city-break destinations,
Olavide, while daytime retail has Madrid’s best chefs operate between DiverXO and those you’re still to discover,
absorbed modish design stores including the restored 19th-century glasswork The triple-Michelin-starred avant-gardist see our dedicated Times Travel
R de Room (rderoom.es) alongside and vault doors, including the Spanish- Dabiz Muñoz is trying to conjure the best website thetimes.co.uk/travel
galleries and bookshops. Japanese fusion maestro Julián Mármol at restaurant in the world from 12-course
14 August 21, 2022 The Sunday Times

Travel Australia
e may mile-long Grampians Peaks

JULIAN KINGMA; EMILY WEAVING; PAUL GOSNEY

Nina Caplan embarks
W have been Trail, which finally opened

HIK
banned after several years in the
from making. A gourmet odyssey is
on a culinary odyssey Australia
for years, but nobody told the
hardly the ideal preparation
for a 13-day hike, but visiting
Melbourne “hospo” industry Australia without getting out
of Melbourne’s new (as the locals call it) to down
tools: new restaurants and
into the incredible landscape
makes no sense either.

restaurants and bars — and bars have been popping up

almost daily. On my first visit
Fortunately, for fair-
weather walkers like me with
since 2019, I was keen to try as a fondness for luxury, there
works up an appetite on many of them as time and
physiology would allow. And,
are top hotels along the route,
including the Royal Mail in
because nonstop eating comes Dunkeld, which has the
the Grampians Peaks Trail with one tiny drawback, I
thought I’d tackle the new 100-
biggest private cellar of
burgundy and bordeaux in
the southern hemisphere
(room-only doubles from
£128; royalmail.com.au).
With their help, I thought as
I tramped the Melbourne
lane-ways on my way to my
first bar, this would be my
kind of outback adventure.
The Caretaker’s Cottage is
a cute bluestone house
among Melbourne’s shiny
skyscrapers, built in 1914 to
serve the church next door.
Its founders bill it as a pub,
but where I come from, pubs
don’t have a trio of top
bartenders pimping liqueurs.
Another welcome change: at
last, central Melbourne has
an indigenous restaurant.
Big Esso opened last year in
Federation Square. The name
means “the biggest thank you”
in Torres Strait Creole; chef
Nornie Bero belongs to the
Komet tribe and grew up on
Mer, one of the islands. Her
restaurant is a cheery
hotchpotch of tables backlit
by the indigenous artist Aretha
Brown’s monochrome mural.
This is the place to try
pepperberry-fried crocodile sprouted abruptly out of a
or coconut and chilli-cured tawny landscape that shelters
kingfish (mains from £13; old wine cellars and older gold
mabumabu.com.au). mines: I’d reached the
Five minutes’ walk away Grampians.
there’s also Gimlet by Andrew Mount William Station at
McConnell, the quiet hero of Willaura is a newly refurbished
Melbourne’s food scene, with 19th-century homestead in
wood and brass fixtures and 7,500 acres that has belonged
Aussie wine pairings by to Will Abbott’s family for four
Anthony Pieri so good that generations (B&B doubles
the couple at the next table from £240 for two nights;
interrupted their anniversary mountwilliamstation.com).
dinner to ask what we were The kitchen was modern but
drinking (mains from £25; everything else looked as it
gimlet.melbourne). I’ve never once would have — if earlier
found anyone who doesn’t inhabitants had had
love McConnell’s food — the electricity, white goods and
lobster roll at Supernormal is internet access. Beyond the
legendary — and while Gimlet windows, rolling grassland
is more European in style, the led to the bluestone stables;
flair is the same. Local duck inside, salons and dining
breast is pepped up with blood rooms decked in glowing
plum; spanner crab is sauced jarrah, an indigenous wood.
with a tarragon pesto. Even the From here, it was 45
signature cocktail was the best minutes to Halls Gap, where
gimlet I’ve ever tasted. anyone walking the trail
My sleek high-rise hotel, without a guide is encouraged
Next, in the new 80 Collins to stop at the Brambuk
Street complex, offered a National Park and Cultural
breakfast omelette with chilli Centre for maps and advice.
salsa that could have lasted me The trail is remote, with
through lunch, if that weren’t a patchy mobile reception and
waste of an eating opportunity stretches scrambling over
(room-only doubles from £175; sandstone rocks or ascending
nexthotelmelbourne.com). steep trails; I’d recommend
There are plenty of things a guide: among the best is
to do other than eat too — walk Braeden Hyland, of Grampians
along the Yarra River, head Peaks Walking Company. Not
south to St Kilda beach. only can he tell you how the
Instead, I jumped in the car yellow-footed rock wallaby
and followed sun-dappled was saved from extinction, he
roads northwest for three recognises the mournful call of
hours, until mountains a yellow-tailed black cockatoo,
 The Sunday Times August 21, 2022 15

KE, EAT,
REPEAT Brambuk National
Park and Cultural
The Centre
You’ll only Grampians
Stawell Airport
avoid seeing
Mount William
kangaroos Station Melbourne
or wallabies Dunkeld
by walking Arboretum
with your
eyes shut 50 miles

knowing too that, for kangaroos and wallabies by £145; royalmail.com.au). I £28; victorchurchill.com).
indigenous people, it is an walking with your eyes shut. visited the conservation area, And I bagged a high stool at
indication of coming rain. If you’re less keen on serious where the hotel shields many Farmer’s Daughters, where
The walking is glorious. hiking, there’s Dunkeld marsupials from extinction: everything — the ham, the
I tramped through tea trees Arboretum, where kangaroos a rufous bettong (or rat- wine — comes from farms in
and pine gums up to the watch you without fear before kangaroo) nibbled on corn; a Gippsland, 180 miles east of
Pinnacle, 2,000ft above sea leaping unhurriedly into the mouse-like fat-tailed dunnart the city (set menu £73;
level, looking out over layers brush. It is a short, flat stroll munched a ball of beef mince farmersdaughters.com.au).
of forest beneath vast blue from the Royal Mail Hotel; and crushed black beetle; and Everywhere, service was
skies. There were wildflowers there’s also a mile loop that in another enclosure, the efficient but relaxed. At hip
and waterfalls with wonderful passes a 400-year-old gum beautiful polka-dotted fur of Aru, dishes combining Aussie
names: the trail threads tree, undulating along the an eastern quoll glimmered produce (kangaroo jerky,
behind the sheet of white ground like a giant snake. from under a log. warrigal greens) and fragrant
water that is Bridal Veil Falls It’s easy to work up an Those who prefer can seasoning (kampot pepper,
and along Silent Street, a path appetite. In the tasting menus avoid walking altogether. furikake) were so beautifully
cut through the rock to form a served in the restaurant facing At Stawell Airport — a grand presented it was almost a
narrow gorge, and up steep Mount Sturgeon, Royal Mail name for a hut and a car park shame to eat them (mains
stairs from the dramatically head chef Robin Wickens is — Justin Neofitou of from £22; aru.net.au).
striated rock of Grand Canyon. proud of using only local Grampians Helicopters When I finally put down
You’ll only avoid seeing produce (seven-course menu checked our seatbelts and my fork and made plans to get
headphones, then took us up to the airport, I just hoped
Dunkeld over the flats, the blue-grey I wouldn’t exceed my own
3 MORE SHORT TRIPS FROM AUSTRALIAN CITIES Arboretum, in
the Grampians,
mountains rearing in the near
distance. This is a spectacular
baggage allowance after such
an adventure in Aussie grub.
TAKE FLIGHT NEAR PERTH COMMUNE WITH KOALAS GET ARTY NEAR HOBART main; Anthony landscape whether you
From Western Australia’s capital, NEAR ADELAIDE Tasmania’s Mona Museum of Old Pieri, the choose to fly the trail or land Nina Caplan was a guest of
rent a car and drive three hours The beautiful Adelaide Hills, with and New Art is a privately funded sommelier at beside a vineyard — say, Best’s Tourism Australia
to Margaret River along the their wineries and parks, are just institution arranged over three Gimlet, and a Wines Great Western, for a (australia.com) and Visit
coast. Once ensconced in this 20 minutes’ drive from the city. underground levels, 15 minutes’ cocktail at tasting and platter. Victoria (visitvictoria.com).
pretty wine region, alternate Stay at Sequoia Lodge, a new drive up the Derwent River Farmer’s Back in the city, my second A Grampians Peaks Luxury
beach walks beside the Indian luxury hilltop hotel overlooking from the centre of Hobart. The Daughters, hotel was more fabulous than Package at the Royal Mail
Ocean with wanders through the Piccadilly Valley, with hot best way to enjoy the eclectic top left; the bar the first: the W Melbourne has Hotel, including a day touring
the leafy town, and take a springs and the Mount Lofty collection, which ranges at Victor a mirror above the pool and an the southern part of the trail
helicopter tour to the three Botanic Garden next door. The from ancient antiquities to Churchill, underground bar, Curious, with a private guide, two
wineries (with a stop at one for hotel can arrange a private contemporary works, is to stay above; a dish where cocktails come nights’ B&B in a mountain-view
lunch) and a scenic flight along wildlife experience at Cleland in the complex’s luxury Pavilions, at Royal Mail wreathed in whorls of dry ice room, one dinner for two at
the coast. Wildlife Park where you can feed also home to a café, winery Hotel and one (room-only doubles from Parker Street Project and
Details Two nights’ B&B at the kangaroos and cuddle a koala. and sauna. of its mountain- £205; marriott.co.uk). After another at Wickens, costs
Cape Lodge Hotel from £875 Details B&B doubles from £900, Details B&B doubles at Mona view rooms, hiking in the outback I felt from £1,150 for two (royalmail.
(capelodge.com.au). Helicopter including some activities Pavilions from £455, including above right justified going back to dinner com.au). Flights with
wine tour £425 extra, including (sequoialodge.com.au). Wildlife priority access to the museum research, seeking out the Grampians Helicopters cost
two winery tastings, lunch and a experience for two £520 extra. and wine and beer tastings marble bar behind artisan from £130pp for twenty
coastal flight. Fly to Perth Fly to Adelaide (mona.net.au). Fly to Hobart butcher Victor Churchill for minutes (grampianshelicopters.
oysters and steak (mains from com.au). Fly to Melbourne
 16 August 21, 2022 The Sunday Times

Travel
EDINBURGH CASTLE gorse and across the Royal the ascent are rewarded with a riverside residence is best even wonkier than that. It’s
In the battle for castle Mile. Visit after the Fringe, peek inside Merlin’s Cave (with known for its cameos in the “held up” by a statue of the
supremacy, this Scottish when hotel rates dip. a subsequent descent; check films. Little ones can have 4th Marquess of Bute, who
stalwart lands a blow against Details Adults from £18 tide times), a selfie alongside broomstick training in saved the castle from
the Tower of London thanks (edinburghcastle.scot) an 8ft statue of an Excalibur- the outer bailey for ruin in the early

TOP to its crown jewels, which are

even older than those of
England and Wales. They join
St Margaret’s Chapel (the
TINTAGEL CASTLE,
CORNWALL
With crashing waves, ruinous
wielding King Arthur and a
walk across the symbolic
bridge — the 40mm gap at its
centre marks the transition
no extra fee (big
kids won’t be
refused on
quieter days).
1900s (head
to the Great
Hall for ghost
stories). The
oldest building in Edinburgh) slopes and the crumbled between past and present. Details site is having
and the medieval bombard arches through which King Details Adults from £17 Adults from a £5 million
Mons Meg as the castle’s must- Arthur and Merlin reportedly (english-heritage.org.uk) £20 (alnwick makeover,
see attractions. Brace yourself once ducked, you can’t knock castle.com) but you
come 1pm, when another Tintagel for drama.This WINDSOR CASTLE, can still visit
cannon’s blast shudders mythical spot requires some BERKSHIRE WARWICK the resident
through Castle Rock’s flowery legwork, but those who make Fancy a glimpse into the CASTLE dragons and go
childhood of a queen? One of There’s almost too alfresco beside its

CASTLES IN THE UK FOR A DAY TRIP the royal family’s quaintest

toys resides at Windsor Castle.
After being ushered along a
separate queue, you’ll enter
much going on at
Warwick Castle, but that helps
to make it the perfect day trip
for families. For parents there
enchanting lake.
Details Adults from £10
(cadw.gov.wales)
IAN DAGNALL/ALAMY

a darkened room where Queen is a history lesson told via the HIGHCLERE CASTLE,
Mary’s 1924 doll’s house is might of clashing swords at HAMPSHIRE
spotlit in magnificent detail Wars of the Roses Live! — a Highclere is one of the world’s
(it has working lifts for the jousting battle that runs until most recognised stately
miniature chambermaids; September 4. Children can homes, since becoming the
children, meanwhile, will have hitch a ride on the zip line at on-screen home of the
to keep their hands off). Later, a mega-playground dedicated Crawley family in Downton
swing by St George’s Chapel to to all things Zog, everyone’s Abbey. Alongside the perfectly
spy Henry VIII’s tomb and the favourite dragon, and a trip manicured gardens and
spot where the Duke and back to the castle’s darkest afternoon tea, a fascinating
Duchess of Sussex got hitched. times in the Castle Dungeon. Egyptian exhibit becomes all
Details Adults from £27 Details Adults from £24 the more clear when you
(rct.uk) (warwick-castle.com) realise that it was the fifth Earl
of Carnarvon who, with
ALNWICK CASTLE, CAERPHILLY CASTLE Howard Carter, unearthed
NORTHUMBERLAND Thought Pisa was the only Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922.
You don’t have to love Harry leaning tower worth your Details Adults from £21
Potter to enjoy Alnwick Castle, while? Caerphilly’s equivalent, (highclerecastle.co.uk)
Alnwick Castle in Northumberland and, inset above right, Knight School at Warwick Castle but it helps. This 14th-century at 10 degrees to the vertical, is Hannah Ralph
Overseas Travel
 The Sunday Times August 21, 2022 21

Travel Middle East

FRANCISCO NOGUEIRA; CATHY ADAMS

It’s got that fairy-lights-
in-the-palms, feet-in-the-
sand feel about it

holing up in cloud-skimming Dubai hotels

near the big-ticket downtown attractions,
checking into a quiet pool villa just steps
from the beach takes some recalibrating.
What this urbanite writer also
appreciates about the new Anantara is
that it’s easy (ish, as long as the wind
doesn’t pick up) to swap beach for built-
up. I’ve been visiting this city at least once
a year for about a decade, and I’m always
chasing the new Dubai — which is why the
second half of our trip centres on the
downtown neighbourhood.
It’s here you’ll find ME Dubai, which
was the architect Zaha Hadid’s last project
before her death. It opened in 2021, and
has all of Hadid’s signature curves: the
sinks are teardrops, the black lacquered
cabinets have hidden handles and even
the toilet flushes are a nested oval shape.
The lobby-slash-atrium has more tiers
than my bikini body; and the Mexican
restaurant Deseo, which spills out onto
the pool deck, is never quiet.
Five years ago, it would have been
inconceivable to find somewhere to stay
that you’d label hip in this money-flushed

DUBAI’S ISLAND FLING city, but Dubai has opened two of them
in short succession. The second example
of the genre is the nearby 25hours hotel,
the first outpost of the German brand
outside Europe. The lobby is a study in
The resolutely urban emirate now has a quiet side. Cathy Adams reports what happens when hipsters design
hotels, with woven egg chairs and
on the luxury outcrops hoping to tempt visitors away from the Maldives gramophones in the reception area and
a playful ceiling mural. The lifts have
twinkly dioramas of Dubai scenes while

T
wo miles off Dubai’s coast are Beach that is particularly spectacular On the beach in rooms have similar contemporary twists
260 islands organised in the at night; the restaurants are superb — “South America”, on local culture. My toddler son
shape of the world. Of course Indian Qamar is the highlight; and the at Anantara’s immediately bonds with an electric blue-
there are — it’s Dubai. This is villas are spacious and airy, adjectives World Islands and-pink camel left on the bed. Naturally,
the city that created the Palm you’d never usually attach to anything Dubai Resort, there’s an industrial-looking rooftop bar
(twice) and the tallest building in the in Dubai. It’s got that fairy-lights-in-the- above; Cathy with a view over the Museum of the
world (the 828m-tall Burj Khalifa) in a palms, feet-in-the-sand feel about it — with her family, Future. We’re not out of Dubai just yet.
place with just sand for foundations. It even if the sand is dredged grit. right; a room at So, what else is new? Metro stations
would be weird were there not an atlas The bad news is that it takes 20 ME Dubai, below I remember being called one thing have
of sandbanks poured offshore. stomach-churning minutes to reach this now adopted the names of their
The “world islands” project was spit of land by boat, and it doesn’t run corporate sponsors. There’s also the
conceived two decades ago by the when it’s windy. (A causeway has aforementioned Museum of the Future,
emirate’s ruler, Sheikh been obliquely mentioned, but which looks like a wonky doughnut
Mohammed, during the would involve another huge covered in Arabic calligraphy, housing
city’s boom phase. It engineering project — not exhibitions and theatre by “visionary
sounds very un-Dubai that Dubai is afraid of designers”. There’s Ain Dubai, the
to say, but since then, that.) To access the world’s tallest observation wheel; the
this man-made World Islands more far-flung of Aura Skypool, a 200m-high infinity pool
constellation has the islands, central that snatched the record for the world’s
DUBAI
largely stood wind- Europe for example, highest from Singapore Marina Bay
whipped and silty, Palm involves a boat Sands; and the shell of Expo 2020, which
with a handful of Jumeirah 25hours journey of Columbus is set to be a new “urban experience”
nebulous plans for ME Dubai proportions. While called District 2020, mixing residential
development. emptying a pre- and commercial space.
But build it with deep Sonara Camp prandial gin and tonic Millions of tonnes of sand may get
30 miles
enough pockets in this on the windy north side of poured onto Dubai’s shores each year, but
razzle-dazzle emirate and 10 miles Anantara’s island one night, some parts of the emirate are almost the
they will come. And come they I squint to see some construction same as they were when Bedouins dived
have — 7.1 million international visitors work somewhere towards Europe, or for pearls. Our last night is spent in the
during the first half of 2022 to be precise — perhaps Africa. It takes some practice to desert at luxe Sonara Camp. The brief is
which is one reason why I’m checking locate yourself correctly, and I also need sundowners, camel rides and a gorgeous
into the Anantara World Islands Dubai a few days to finesse “I’m on the South dinner — and as the sun dips below the
Resort, a collection of 70 thatched villas America bit of the world in Dubai”, which horizon, as it has done for millions for
and the first hotel to open on this much- still sounds like nonsense. years, only this time with a thousand
hyped island chain. After three enjoyable days of splashing smartphones aimed at it, I wonder what
The Thai hotel group had long been around in our swim-up pool, shooing Dubai will look like next time I visit.
eyeing this new slice of beachfront. The away the cooing peacocks (an opening gift
pitch is Maldives-lite, to diversify the from Sheikh Mohammed, naturally) so we Cathy Adams was a guest of Dubai Tourism
emirate’s hotel offering and tempt visitors can sleep, and darting between the beach (visitdubai.com); Anantara World Islands
away from the high-rises for a few days; and the breezy beachfront restaurant Dubai Resort, which has B&B doubles from
and the banana-shaped “South America” Luna, I’m still not entirely convinced £339 (anantara.com); ME Dubai, which has
island, being the closest to the mainland, the hotel will have much luck in pulling B&B doubles from £283 (melia.com);
seemed the perfect opportunity. people away from the Maldives. What 25hours, which has room-only doubles
There’s plenty to like about this game- I do appreciate, though, is an entirely from £147 (25hours-hotels.com); and
changing resort hotel. There’s a fantastic new hospitality offering in this most Sonara Camp, which starts from £156 for
view overlooking glimmering Jumeirah neophiliac of cities: after many years of adults (nara.ae). Fly to Dubai
24 August 21, 2022 The Sunday Times

Travel Go now
Details Half-board older Welsh Gatehouse by

IVAN IVANKOVIC/GETTY IMAGES

SUMMER’S doubles from £156
(secretescapes.com)
the Severn estuary. At the
opposite end of Wales, the
porticoed Edwardian villa

BEST LATE ITALY AFTER THE RUSH

Italian summer holidays
traditionally start to wind
down after the craziness of
Hafod Cae Maen is a
youngster by comparison,
but if you can gather up to
eight guests you can enjoy

DEALS the Ferragosto public holiday

on August 15, but while local
thoughts might be turning
back to schools and
workplaces, there are plenty
10 per cent off short breaks
here, on a hill above the
village of Portmeirion, of
The Prisoner fame.
Details Four nights’
of late-summer possibilities self-catering from £720
Looking to bag a bargain? Snap for visitors. Wexas offers a
range of discounts for
(sawdays.co.uk)

AROUND ORKNEY
up one of these discounted bookings made by August 31
(on stays up to the end of the Brought down in price by
year) for Italian locales as £118 for its September 6
breaks in Europe and the UK Take a boat trip from Gruz, in Dubrovnik, to the Elaphitis
diverse as the rustic-chic
Baglioni Masseria Muzza in
departure, Intrepid’s five-day
tour of Orkney gives a
Puglia, on the heel of the wonderful overview
CROATIA’S SEASIDE ICON between the cruise-ship Mediterranean island, the wants to bet on an Indian peninsula, to the classically of the penultimate part of the
Taking advantage of longer- arrivals, and to hop over to the legendary home of Aphrodite, summer? With many bookings beautiful Grand Hotel British Isles as you head north.
stay discounts of up to 20 per Elaphiti Islands, which dot the goddess of love. Discounts via Secret Escapes you can Imperiale, right on the Between one of the tallest sea
cent at the Valamar Lacroma the view beyond the terraces. of about 25 per cent are cancel up to eight days before shores of Lake Como. stacks in the country, the
Dubrovnik Hotel, Jet2holidays’ Details Seven nights’ B&B available at various resorts, your scheduled check-in with Details Four nights’ B&B at 5,000-year-old settlement
packages to this member of from £950pp, including including the five-star Hotel a full refund. Website Grand Hotel Imperiale from of Skara Brae and the Italian
its Luxe Collection are great flights (jet2holidays.com) Elysium in Paphos, which is members can find savings of £785pp, including flights Chapel, crafted out of Nissen
value when compared with poised tantalisingly between up to 30 per cent at Mill End (wexas.com) huts in the 1940s by prisoners
the resort’s neighbours. DIVINE TIMES IN CYPRUS the sea and the Unesco-listed Hotel, a country house on a of war, the islands constantly
Situated on a prized spot on Among Tui’s late summer Tombs of the Kings. bend in the River Teign, in the UK STAYS WITH HISTORY surprise — and there’s always
the Adriatic coast of Croatia, deals, some of the biggest Details Seven nights’ B&B northeast part of Dartmoor, Sawday’s has availability after a pub music session or whisky
the hotel spreads out on the savings can be found on the from £1,037pp, including Devon. Apart from the the bank holiday weekend in tasting to end the day.
wooded Lapad peninsula, just coasts of Egypt and Cyprus. flights (tui.co.uk) national park’s attractions, a host of historical UK Details Four nights’
three miles northwest of the If you are likely to find the the hotel is near-neighbours properties, including the B&B from £1,062pp
dazzling walled city in heat on the Red Sea too much, RIVERSIDE DARTMOOR with Castle Drogo, the last Tudor-era Gatehouse at (intrepidtravel.com). Fly
Dubrovnik. A week’s stay temperatures are a touch After two heatwaves in as castle to be built in England, Upton Cressett Hall in or take a train to Inverness
allows more time to sightsee kinder on the eastern many months in the UK, who more than a century ago. Shropshire, and the even Rory Goulding
26 August 21, 2022 The Sunday Times

Travel

MY HOLS

MARCO BOTTIGELLI, ANDREW BENGE/GETTY IMAGES

PROFESSOR
GREEN
The rapper had a harrowing
first experience of flying in the
US, but loves the Amalfi Coast
I grew up in Hackney,
northeast London, in a
three-bed flat with my
grandmother and great-
grandmother. Holidays weren’t a thing
for us, but a bus used to come into the
estate once a summer and take us to The town of Amalfi, on the Italian coast, where Professor Green likes to meet the locals and hopes to spend his retirement
Clacton or Southend, on the Essex coast.
I used to do a lot of Rollerblading and One summer I went to Ibiza 13 times. spent three months there without getting got an ice bath set to 0.2C, and I never feel
when I was 14 I went on a skating holiday There’s always work attached to my to know the place. I have been back to the as good as I do on the other side of that.
with a friend to Camp Woodward in travels — I’m quite bad at taking holidays country since and loved it — the colours, I want our son, Slimane, to travel in a
Pennsylvania. I’d never been on a plane because I feel guilty if I’m not doing smells, souks, people on donkeys. We way that I didn’t when I was young. He’s
before, and when we took our onward something. I went to a bar in San Antonio always stay with a friend of Karima who in Morocco now. We went to the Peligoni
flight from Dallas the weather was and there was fake tan and glitter all over has a place near the souk in Marrakesh Club resort in Zakynthos, Greece, when
horrendous. I can’t remember feeling the gaff; I hate glitter — people hug you with views of the Atlas Mountains. he was 16 months old and decided to use
scared, but looking back it must and leave half their face on your My favourite place is the Amalfi Coast. the childcare there. It was the hardest
have been petrifying; we could see shoulder. The bar was rammed; You’d think it would be stuffy because thing ever handing him over for the first
lightning and the turbulence was some of the states you see over people with lots of money go there, but time — we just took the opportunity to
bumping us out of our seats. Once there — but don’t get me wrong, you just have to stick to the places where talk to each other, which was needed a
we’d flown through the storm we I’ve been one of them. the locals go. The best meal I’ve had was year after becoming parents. Nobody
weren’t able to land, so we had My worst travel experience in a spit-and-sawdust restaurant there tells you how difficult parenting can be
to fly back through it to Dallas was in South Africa around with a nonna working in it — it was such and it was really nice
and take a bus instead. 2008. We were in Somerset a good ragu. I probably won’t be able to rebalancing our lives.
Later, when I was touring West, about 45 minutes’ drive afford it, but I can imagine retiring there. Then we caught Covid
and taking planes every week, southeast of Cape Town, and I did a TV show in the Dolomites in on the plane back — I
I developed a fear of flying. I got the most explosive Italy called Freeze the Fear with Wim Hof, tested positive for 17 days.
I probably deserved it, diarrhoea — we all did. and we had to swim under the ice on the
because my DJ was always I spent lockdown in lakes. The British tenor Alfie Boe went Interview by Georgia Stephens
scared on planes and I used Morocco as my partner, first and said it was like swimming in a
to wind him up. Then I Karima, is part Moroccan. It giant diamond. I was excited — despite Professor Green, real name Stephen
started to wonder why he was bittersweet, because we being scared, I was looking forward to Manderson, 38, is a rapper and
was nervous, and think about were in Tangier and a state of seeing the diamond — but when I got mental-health activist. He recently
how it’s essentially a tin can emergency was declared — under all I saw was dead leaves and muck started the Unlikely Dad’s Club on
and magic that it can stay in the we couldn’t use the beach and because the sun had gone in. Even so, I do Instagram (@theunlikelydadsclub). He lives
air. It has subsided since then. mostly weren’t allowed out, so I cold-water therapy every day now — I’ve in south London with Karima and Slimane

So now here we are by which include a private beach

COMPETITION WHERE WAS I? the side of a river — with two and a thalassotherapy centre,
Ring, ring! It’s Friend’s phone. possible spellings — after see capovaticanoresort.it.
“Who’s calling?” I ask. which the valley is named. The prize includes one
WIN A “No one,” he tells me.
“It’s an alarm. Knowing you,
It runs past the second
venue’s western edge, and
dinner for two at each hotel
(excluding drinks), as well as

LUXURY I thought we’d be running

late. So I set one to keep
I am searching for the site
of a ford, once crossed by
two return flights to Lamezia,
to a total value of £400, and

FOUR-NIGHT track of time. We’ve got two

hours until the concert.”
He has a point. At my
a Roman road. It gave its
name to this district.
But Friend is growing
transfers in Italy.
It must be taken between
September 22 and
BREAK IN insistence, we’ve been here
all day — starting with a
desperate. “You don’t want
to see this show at all!” he
November 6, 2022, or April 1
and May 31, 2023, subject
ITALY AT VILLA swim. It wasn’t in one of the
waterways that flow along
wails.
“I do! I do! I do!” I insist.
to availability and excluding
public holidays.

PAOLA AND this valley. We were in a

building, paying homage to
So we abandon the search
and head to the concert,
HOW TO ENTER
CAPOVATICANO its architect (now deceased).
We followed that with
a tour of a second venue,
440m southeast of the
second venue. It stars
Friend’s favourite boyhood
Only one entry per person,
at thesundaytimes.co.uk/
RESORT IN barely 250m west-southwest
of the first. It had to be a
band, even if its members
aren’t actually there.
THE PRIZE a natural balcony overlooking
wherewasi by Wednesday.
Normal Times Newspapers
CALABRIA morning visit — today it’s
hosting a 2pm fixture.
We arrive just in time. But
only because, for the final The winner and guest will
Tropea’s historical seascape,
as well as its own citrus
rules apply. No correspondence
will be entered into.
After that, how could I 100m, we break into a sprint. stay for two nights at the groves and vegetable
resist U-turning back Sean Newsom five-star Villa Paola in Tropea gardens, which supply its
towards the station? It stands and two at the four-star restaurant, De’ Minimi. For LAST WEEK’S PRIZE
on the edge of a mall and I Capovaticano Resort details see villapaolatropea.it. The answers are Merthyr
had shopping to do. Friend, THE QUESTIONS Thalasso Spa, B&B at both. The Capovaticano Resort, Mawr Warren Nature
however, complained. 1 What was the architect’s Originally a Franciscan a wellness destination, Reserve and Kenfig Castle.
“Money, money, money,” he name? convent, Villa Paola was stands on the beach, gazing Paul Stephens of Cornwall
groaned. “How much more 2 What are the two spellings refurbished by the architect across the Tyrrhenian Sea. wins a week’s holiday for two
are we going to spend?” of the river’s name? Bruno Huber and occupies For more on its facilities, in Sicily with Villatravellers.