Destinations 2008 - Earls Court, London

It's been a cold few weeks since London's Destinations travel fair. By now I'm guessing that every visitor's 2008 holiday planning 2008 is well under way. Opening on a windy, rainy Thursday (31st Jan), the show was a timely tonic for the British winter. Battered umbrellas stashed and soggy coats were swapped for wines, cocktails, snacks and traditional dances courtesy of the assembled worldwide tourist boards. Trekking to Earls Court in this weather should have rewarded its visitors with infinite globetrotting inspiration.

Wanderlust's Travel Award ceremony took to the The World Entertainment Stage before lunch. With the likes of Singapore Airlines, Bradt Guides, Lonely Planet and the specialist tour operators hanging off Lyn Hughes’ every word, I think it's fair to say that the travel glossy put Destinations' official media sponsor in the 'too late to the pool' shaded sunlounger spot. While The Times punted its travel magazine's subscriptions from a stand modestly hidden alongside the Meet the Expert Theatres, Wanderlust monopolised centrally-located exhibition real estate. Their Travel Photographer Of The Year gallery space, basked in its usual popularity.

I've visited Destinations for the past few years and to be honest there weren't too many newbies infiltrating this somewhat staid face of the industry. There's Wanderlust; Bradt; Travellers Tales (the travel writing course providers); the Italian tourist board touting pasta; the Chilean tourist board, white wine. All doing wonderful jobs but not really pushing the imagination of the general public beyond the usual 'must-do this' of destinations. I haven't seen the Wonders Of The World or visited every continent, but I still want travel inspiration to open my eyes to something new. Perhaps travel blogs and online travel networks surpass exhibition stands.

Give me Gridskipper ; Boots ‘n’ All;
Itchy Feet Magazine and Vagablogging all in one room, so that I can see and talk to them... soon... please. Even if it has to be in Second Life!

This said, Sandwagon loved these things about Destinations, London 2008 ...

Taking a breather in the press lounge, listening in as Jonathan Scott - of Big Cat Diary fame - gave a live radio interview. And later in the day, watching him sort old-school slides for his Expert Speaker presentation.

David Shukman (BBC's Environment & Science Correspondent) and Justin Francis (responsibletravel.com) discussing the paradoxical notion of carbon-neutral travel.

Mark Davidson's presentation of his quality travel photography - an inspiring travel writer/photographer who also has celebral palsy and succeeds in this demanding field. He single-handedly renewed my faith in the Destinations fair and a travel media too often stifled and made scary by the old boys' network.

How Mike Unwin, author of Bradt's 100 Animals to See Before They Die (lucky barrrrrrstard of an author), convinced me that this was not as depressing a book commission to receive, research and write as it first seemed. The fact that the book's No 1 animal at risk of extinction - the Yangtze River Dolphin - actually became extinct in the time it took to publish a book is the saddest thing I've heard since working in publishing (the timeline from final page proof to printed book being just about two mths!). But then he would be fairly upbeat about the book, the researched having enabled him to see gorillas in their natural habitat ... I probably never will, nor my kids or theirs to come, or to come or to come.

What do you think of Destinations?

Never visited before? It moves to the Birmingham NEC on 29 Feb - 2 March.

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Sarajevo at No.3 in Top 10 travel articles

Boots'n'All is a well-used travel network of writers, travellers and bloggers. In their latest newsletter they name their top ten travel articles of January 2008. I'm chuffed to say that my Sarajevo piece made it to bronze medal position.

See the article (edited a little weirdly in parts by Boots'n'All) here Read more!

Polly Evans quirkily adventures, online

I met Polly Evans - a successful author of chick-travelling Lit - in Sarajevo, in the back of a people carrier en route to a gala dinner held by the Bosnia and Herzegovina tourist board. We were off to celebrate British Airways' new flight from Gatwick to the Bosnian capital and to learn more about this emerging eastern European destination.

Polly has now launched her own website and it's a good one to watch for inspiration as well as news of her recent travels.

No doubt she'll soon be adding posts soon on her latest book Mad Dogs and an Englishwoman, in which she shares trial and tribulations of driving sled dogs in Canada's Yukon Territory. Published by Bantam Books, £7.99 on Feb 11th.

See Polly Evans' website here Read more!

Mona Lisa Museum Pass turns 20

En Juin 2008, le Paris Museum Pass fêtera son 20e anniversaire ... it's no wonder that this particular tourist pass - first sold in 1988 - is still going strong.

Time spent queuing up for numerous galleries and musuems will take up valuable snogging/shopping/vin rouge swilling time during a city break in the French capital. So before parting with those euros for un sandwich au jambon, you're first purchase should be the Paris Musueum Pass.

Organising a suprise romantic weekender? Buy your passes in advance - click here - to have your beau falling into bed at the end of the day's sightseeing, amazed at your sauve city-savvy.

Good for 2, 4 or 6 days' culture-vulturing, the Pass will have you queue jumping and bypassing ticket booths at famous cultural must-visits ranging from the Louvre to the Château de Versailles.

Click for complete list

2-day pass costs 30euros
4-days 45euros
6-days 60euros

Paris Museum Pass Official website Read more!

Keep 'doing' Italy. Travel Weekly article

It's good to see that Travel Weekly are encouraging the travel trade to promote and sell Italy - and not just the obvious parts.


Click for Alternative City Breaks article Read more!

Italy - not for travel snobs

Yep, travel snobs will probably be closing this page….about ... right now… at the sight of the 'I' word. I'm glad. I’d rather send them through to this 'Cycle Iraq' article Click if you're too well travelled for Italy than try to convince them that The Boot will always deserve as high a position on the 'must visit' list as possible.

And Italy isn't just a 'must visit' destination. It's a visit, visit again and keep visiting until you’ve visited it all - and then go live there - destination. I've been indulging my Roman Catholic by inheritance-meets-food, fashion, art loving side in the homeland of the Pope, on average, about three times a year for the last eight years. And it all began on a slow day at a former workplace (Travelbag: Nov 00) when Colette booked cheap flights on a whim... Buzzair (swallowed up into Ryanair empire) to Milano Linate airport. (Linate airport is actually in Milan). These days Ryanair drops off at Milan-Bergamo; an hour-ish coach journey from the central Milan.

Me. Hooked? Yes - not to the degree of a surgeon who could afford to buy a retreat in Tuscany - but enough to have sat beneath the Leaning Tower of Pisa three times; walked the Duomo roof in Milan at least four times; watched Inter Milan and Juventus play; critiqued da Vinci's The Last Supper, Michelangelo's David and Sistine Chapel, Botticelli's Venus and enough works of art and architecture to fill the British Gallery five times over.

Then there’s Mussolini's train station in Florence and the square where he was hung (yep, in Milan); the night I drunkenly steered a passenger ferry across Lake Como, invited by the captain because we (three girls) were wearing England shirts with Beckham on our backs; walked the rooftop test track in Turin, the one from The Italian Job; climbed Mount Vesuvius and tiptoed around Pompeii’s ruins.

I'll go again this year I’m sure, and experience something completely different all over again. Travel snobs. You miss out. You are not missed.

(I hate this verb in relation to travel) ‘Do' Venice, Rome and Florence. Then go back again and again; Turin, Bologna, Genoa, Milan, Cinque Terre, Positano, Amalfi, Capri, Naples, Verona...

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Netvibes makes internet research no hassle

Once upon a time, after walking 60 miles, barefoot, t'nearest mill (aka commuting to an open-plan hanger office) my working day kicked off with 30mins, tops, immersed in Guardianunlimited's travel site...often I’d catch a piece on emerging destinations or stumble across Ryanair's latest flight path. Ooh, wasn't this systematic … me, a responsible editor, with the travel industry’s pulse pounding beneath my typing fingertips. Then, I just didn't know better.

In May-ish 2007 I logged into Netvibes. I worked it out (ok, so it's a repository for web feeds. Tabs per subject; live lists of headlines, per site, updating whenever web content updates. So, how do I add a feed that I want to view?) and went from ad hoc surfing - now and then striking gold - to being an utter know-it-all.

Pre-Netvibes, my view of online news was equivalent to looking across the Fenland horizon at a couple of trees, a tractor and a wind-beaten scarecrow - the occassional hawk gliding or hot-air balloon floating across the sky if timing was right. Post-Netvibes, I see from the top of the Empire States Building; high above, surveying a pulsing network of existence.

Headlines update alongside each other on one web page. It's invaluable for assessing the days/mths/year's travel trends, and comparing mainstream media against obscure networks or individuals’ blogs. My example ... I keep an eye on BBC News headlines alongside posts by a stranger who gave up the rat-race to live by the sea in Positano, Italy. Thanks to her, I've seen summer, autumn and Christmas on the Amalfi Coast, from my desk. Click for that blog: The Life I Chose

‘Thank you Netvibes’, for channelling constant streams of inspirational content to my hanger-office.

Add Sandwagon to Netvibes to see articles as they appear (see them without even looking). Sign in ,then copy my url and 'add content' to Netvibes by pasting it in.

Click for easy internet. Netvibes Read more!

Earth Pilgrim - a year in the life of Dartmoor

Aired Fri Jan 18/Sat 20th on BBC 2. Part of the Natural World series.

'A year in the life of' ...it's not a new concept for a natural history documentary and neither is the spirit of conservation that its narrator seeks to impress upon us. But this particular narrator's considered, softly annunciated descriptions and reflections - simultaneously peaceful yet powerfully engaging - takes wildlife documentary to a new level. Earth Pilgrim sends nature soaring: transcending to a spiritual level.

Satish Kumar aged 71, formerly a Jain monk, is a unique narrator whose words work in harmony with the incredible visual expressions of camaraman Warwick Sloss and producer Andrew Graham-Brown (of Emmy award winning AGB Films). Layered upon such oratory and cinematography are a rich body of references pulled from fields of human brilliance, such as poetry and science. And more .... all this is set against the backdrop of Satish Kumar's life story.

Satish, aged four, after watching his father die and despairing at the concept of death, needed answers. As he walks through Dartmoor's purple blooming heather, he speaks of how Jainism brought him to see death as a continuum of life, just as autumn comes full circle in springtime. He left his monastic life in Rajasthan where he had meditated upon life since the age of nine, to walk empty-handed from Gandhi’s grave in New Delhi to the tomb of John F. Kennedy in Washington DC. Having walked 8,000 miles in peaceful protest against the assassinations of both world leaders, we see him today celebrating nature as he walks through Dartmoor, an earth pilgrim.

Watch the kestrel sequence to see where I'm coming from on the complementary layers of this film. As a hovering kestrel fills the entire frame - tail fanned, splayed wings oscillating - Satish appreciates its very existence. He recalls kestrel numbers dwindling in the early sixties when he arrived in the UK and celebrates that through the spirit of conservation its numbered stabilised. The frame remains filled with glorious kestrel as Satish reads from Ted Hughes'poem The Hawk in the Rain,...'his wings hold all creation in weightless quite.'

The documentary's accompanying music might, at times, feel a step too far - perhaps heading into the realms of religious instruction or mind, body and spirit videos. But this said, via genuine sentiment and visual stimulation the importance of conservation is undoubtedly imparted to us viewers. As humans we must be modest and come to accept that we are just another part of Nature’s whole. Take Satish’s example,lean back against the truck of an oak tree and reconnect with the earth. Satish rounds off the film by reminding us that,'Earth is borrowed from the future of our children'.

Earth Pilgrim - a year on Dartmoor is a memorable and spiritual success.

Buy the Natural World series (when released) at the BBC Shop

Satish is editor of Resurgence Magazine Read more!

Work in a hanger of despair? F*ck It with Wanderlust JobShop

Just spent another soul-sapping day in an open plan hanger office devoid of humanity; trudged across a pitch black tarmaced carpark through puddles, too exhausted to head to the pub? Are you sitting there right now, surfing and pulling your hair into stressed/anxiety fuelled/ tedium- tired tendrals?

ummmm. Empathy resides here at SandWagon. Action, however, flits and flirts on the freedom breeze at Wanderlust magazine's website. Travel to their JobShop, wake up and have a seriously good think about why you're not going to F*ck It and apply for a job overseas...tonight.

Spontaneous F*cking It is one thing - blowing any savings you have on a plane ticket and a whim, or sticking them on the plastic with a vision of becoming a working nomad to pay it all back. But Wanderlust JobShop....this gives you watertight excuses for buggering off and reclaiming your time, your percentage of the world's fresh air; your sanity. If you've worked in a hanger of despair for even one pitiful week you're due your time in the F*ck It pre-flight lounge.

Two career options:

Intrepid Travel is now recruiting group leaders to join their teams in Europe, Russia and Indochina. If you think you have what it takes to be a fantastic Group Leader and want to share your love of travel then...
F*ck It. Click here to apply


Greenforce Expedition leader - Ecuador An amazing opportunity to lead groups of volunteers to Quito, Banos, the Amazon, Andaluz (coastal Ecuador) and work on Red Cross school projects. Other activities, projects and locations include Ice climbing, scuba diving, TEFL placements, Galapagos islands and more.
F*ck It. Click here to apply

Salary: visual, physical and mental stimulation. Location: the outside world.


Wanderlust Jobshop
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The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner

On August 23rd 1999 I was killing time in Paris, waiting for the 22.55 overnight train to Barcelona. We were inter-railing our summer holiday from university away - four weeks characterised by baguette eating in city parks and on beaches, red wine drinking in dorm rooms and endless days with nothing more pressing to do than appreciate the minutiae of our fellow Europeans' lives as they lived them out in the places that we killed time between sights, baguette picnics and train departures.

Determined to soak up every possible Parisian minute by the Seine and not waste them away on the platform, so we wandered along the Left Bank. Sharing out the wine, we watched dinner-dance bateaux cruising up river and down river, illuminated with tiny white fairy lights,. Gooey couples, gazing through the glass at us landlubbers. Us, gazing back. Then we stumbled upon two, three, even four impromptu dance floors. It remains one of my most joyful memories of European travels; sound systems playing jazz and swing music by the river, Parisian couples displaying spirit and romance.

In 1999 I wrote: ‘The Parisians know how to live: relaxing in parks, working at pavements tables of cute cafés and dancing to rigged up stereos at impromptu dance floors by the Seine. How to be happy the Parisian way - dance in the open air, free and easy. It brought tears to my eyes to see this gathering of people being so happy. The darkness, the Seine and the reflections of passing boats created this final experience of Paris. Expectations are high for the Catalans in Barcelona. What's their version of happiness?'

I kept this issue of happiness in mind on the whole journey and imagined the book I could write if I researched the recipes of happiness across the continent, tasting tit-bits of joy like tapas dishes washed down with dry fino.

But that book plan was in my mind nine years ago. I'm sure, in the time that has since passed, I could have - should have - written that book. But Eric Weiner has pipped me to the post. I'll be buying The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's search for the happiest places in the world to see if those Parisians get a mention.

The Geography of Bliss (hardback). Buy it at Amazon Read more!