Author Profile: Carol & Nigel Jones-morris

We had said for a long period of time that to celebrate our 20 years together, visiting Japan would be perfect. With an anniversary at the beginning of April this would be the ideal time to visit in cherry blossom season. With some hiccups with our flights and some world politics affecting flight routes, our trip at times looked unlikely. Here we were though landing in Tokyo on a sunny late March afternoon to begin our...   view more

We have continued to work our way through our goal of visiting all 51 European countries which led to a post anniversary break to Georgia in April. Georgia was our 47th country and somewhere we had wanted to visit for some time; it just seemed quite difficult to get there from the...   view more

Erice is easily accessible from Trapani either via road, walking or by cableway. We decided on the cableway which was 9 euros each return. Erice is a hilltop town or commune located at the top of Mount Erice at around 750 metres above sea level and came recommended to us so with a reasonable cost of the return trip we decided to give it a go and are glad we...   view more

After experiencing the Catania traffic we decided to give Palermo driving a miss, and catch the train from Cefalu. The train took 50 minutes and was a very reasonable €6.80 pp each way. Seemed like a no brainer to avoid the chaotic traffic and parking issues and to spend a day in Palermo. Off we set on the 10.04 train from Cefalu arriving at...   view more

Taormina is a hilltop comune on the East coast of Sicily. It is visible from the peaks of Etna and a popular spot for tourists. This is due to its history, its perfectly preserved mediaeval streets and dramatic views of Etna. We had a recommendation to pay the village a visit and so found ourselves navigating the narrow, winding roads to see for...   view more

An unusual trip for us was visiting Athens in February. Not huge fans of the height of the summer experiences where it is uncomfortably hot and crowded, we went to the other extreme and went in February! Not sure quite what to expect weather wise we arrived for our week arriving to a surprisingly comfortable 18...   view more

A November weekend saw a trip to somewhere which is technically classed as part of Europe (or at least a small part of it is!) – Azerbaijan. The reason for our visit to the capital Baku was not only to add a tick to our list of visited european countries, but also because we were inspired by the BBC Series Race Across the...   view more

A day trip to Cairo was something we would never thought we would consider; however given it was an option from our Nile Cruise operator and we were keen to see those pyramids, here we were about to board a plane in Luxor for a 5am flight to Cairo. A little groggy but excited for our adventures we checked in, boarded our flight and away we were in the Egyptian...   view more

Waking up in Fort William we hoped for a lovely clear day so we would get an amazing view of Ben Nevis; alas it wasn’t to be. We headed to the Corpach Sea Locks after breakfast and check out. The locks are the starting point of the Caledonian Canal and the big attraction seems to be a shipwreck; this was a bit off the beaten track but recommended to us so we had a quick look given its close proximity to Fort...   view more

We had heard great things about Dubrovnik from friends who had visited including how beautiful it was and as it was just over the border from Montengro we headed there via bus from Budva which cost €20 and took 3½ hours. Upon arrival we were impressed at how picturesque it was, arriving on the road above old...   view more

We travelled by plane with Ryanair from Barcelona to Podgorica; allegedly Europe’s most boring capital city. We booked Airport Home Radinovic through Booking.Com, and got a lift from the airport to the property, situated in the countryside around 5km from the airport from the host for...   view more

We had researched the best way to visit Andorra and it seemed the best way was from Barcelona. A mere 3hr and 18 minutes and 191 km away to be precise. We debated visiting in wintertime, but summer was also supposed to be pretty spectacular and so with a bit of research we booked the 7.40am ALSA bus for €18 each from Barcelona Nord Station arriving into Andorra La Vella at...   view more

Have you heard of Nazare? We hadn’t but we both had seen a video on youtube of a surfer who won the 2018 Ride of the Year award there. A flick through our facebook feed showed the most spectacular waves and a guy just a dot in the sheer immenseness of the water but managing to negotiate it with amazing expertise...   view more

You don’t have to look too hard to find some culture in LA, there are around 30 art galleries and 16 museums to choose from so it is hard to know where to start. We aren’t particularly art buffs but with a city so abundent in art we had to visit at least a couple during our time here. We managed to visit two of them including probably the most...   view more

LA is not only famous for Hollywood and celebrities but also for its array of beaches along the coast. Having a month here has given us ample opportunity to visit some of the most popular beaches and whilst we haven’t actually swam at all, it’s not all about the...   view more

What would be the first thing to head for when spending a day in San Francisco? The bridge of course! We woke up and left a little later than scheduled due to the long drive the day before, but within the hour we were approaching one of the most famous structures in the...   view more

What’s the first place anyone thinks of to visit when they go to Los Angeles? Probably the first place we headed to – ‘THE’ sign. I had Googled the best spot to view the Hollywood sign from, and the answer it gave was Griffiths...   view more

You can’t fly directly to the Galápagos Islands but have a choice of 2 cities in Ecuador which will get you there on an internal flight, Guayaquil and Quito. Even if you choose Quito, your plane will still stop in Guayaquil on its way. We chose Guayaquil (pronounced wirekeel) for a couple of reasons; the first being that flights were slightly cheaper and the second because at the time of our visit there were reports of hospital overcrowding due to covid-19 and higher cases in...   view more

We ended up having 3 separate stays in San José, at the beginning, in the middle during Santa Semana, and at the end just before going to the airport for our next destination. It seems only right therefore that we include San Jose in our blog posts. We arrived with high hopes of seeing things we had never seen before. In that time we saw much of the capital, which included both highlights and...   view more

Our travel to Da Nang went as planned; the flights to Bangkok ran to schedule with a decent stopover in Beijing and our accommodation in Thailand was just the job for a nights rest before heading to Da Nang. Despite a slightly delayed departure for our flight, we arrived in Da Nang just before 7pm. It is a small airport and was pretty painless collecting our bags and getting through passport control, we told them we intended to stay for a week, and they gave us a visa for 10...   view more

Vilnius is the capital city of Lithuania and has a population of over ½ million people. It is known for its baroque architecture and cobbled streets. It is a bustling city with something for everyone from art, history, trendy bars and restaurants and street art. It wouldn’t be right to see so much of Lithuania without a trip to the...   view more

We found ourselves in Fethiye for a couple of days as the bus route back to Antalya seemed to stop here. As the bus journey was going to be 5/6 hours to Antalya and the fact we had no set schedule (which is taking a little getting used to!) we decided why not. It broke up the journey and it looked lovely. From speaking with others it appears to be well known for boat cruises and is a popular destination for English tourists. Always keen to check out another destination here we...   view more

Timisoara was a bit of a wildcard choice for us; we had never heard of it, it had cheap flights from Bucharest (£8) and was near the border of Serbia. We did do a little google and it looked a nice place so we thought why not! By population, Timisoara is currently the fourth biggest city in Romania, constantly jostling for second place behind Bucharest with Cluj-Napoca and...   view more

Driving through the border from Romania to Serbia was a strange experience; we were at the border for some time; handing our passports to the designated person on the minibus and waiting for the final verdict from the border guards. After approximately 45 minutes we were allowed through to Serbia. We made a short pitstop at a garage and bought a couple of drinks (having to pay by card as we had no Serbian dinar) and continued our journey to...   view more

How many countries are there in Europe? Google it if you have to. Some say 50, others 51. Why the difference? Kosovo. Some countries recognise it as an independent country, including the UK and the US, whilst others do...   view more

Sofia was our final and shortest stop; we had worked out our route and that we were able to fly back to the same airport we left from if we could make it to Sofia; our prior research showed that we could get a bus to Sofia for 15 euros each booked directly at the bus station. The journey was due to take around 5-6 hours depending on stops at the border. We arrived at the bus station and departed on time at...   view more

Unless you are extraordinarily lucky, having fun doesn’t just happen, you have to work at it. In Iceland that sometimes meant enduring cold and wet weather, getting up early with a full day’s schedule ahead of you, driving long distances, doing chores such as cooking and washing up, and every day packing up, putting up the tent and converting our van into our sleeping quarters. Every day. We had such an amazing time but it was time for some sun again and some...   view more