El Hierro
The AI view of the Canary Islands
It took me five minutes to write the destination descriptions below. That’s because I didn’t write them, ChatGPT did. This is the AI view of the Canary Islands. […]
travel. writing
Spain
Writing about the real Tenerife
It’s sixteen years since we set up our first website to share what we were discovering about the real Tenerife. The website was an afterthought, designed to accompany a driving guide to some of our […]
Food & drink
Travel writing & restaurant reviews
Do travel writers get free meals in restaurants? The short answer to that is yes, of course they do otherwise nobody but the very well-off could ever afford to be travel writers. […]
Food & drink
Local food isn’t always fabulous
Other country’s dishes, irrespective of what they involve, are invariably presented in travel articles as though they’re all exceptionally tasty just because they are authentic. […]
Bute
A Comment on Travel Articles
A couple of examples over the last week highlighted some of the problems travel writing faces in a world where anyone who’s connected to the internet can pass themselves off as an expert. […]
Europe
A sweet and sour taste of Lisbon & travel writing
In the last couple of days I’ve read two articles about Lisbon, and watched an episode of the Netflix show Somebody Feed Phil set in Portugal’s classy capital. In two of the three, the information was presented as being by provided by Lisbon experts … […]
Europe
Ten things Tenerife taught us about living and working abroad
This is how the discussion went: “Let’s give up everything an move to Totnes.” “Why not go the whole nine yards and move abroad… somewhere like Sri Lanka.” And then we ended up in the destination at the end of many discerning travellers’ noses – Tenerife. […]
Food & drink
Food, travel and the enablers of mediocrity
We’re watching a cheesy Netflix series called Instant Hotel in which Australian couples who rent out their homes compete for the title of being owner of the best ‘instant hotel’. I’m a great believer in […]
Travel Talk
The deception in travel writing
When you swim in the overcrowded waters of travel writing/blogging on a daily basis, you soon develop the ability to spot the tripwires which have authors, who haven’t visited destinations they write about, falling flat on their faces. […]
Food & drink
Michelin recommended restaurants in the Canary Islands
Whilst the focus of this is ostensibly about Michelin restaurants in the Canary Islands it isn’t just about Michelin recommendations, or exclusively about the Canary Islands for that matter. […]
Travel Photography
Slow travel, fast photography
Although we’re creating Slow Travel experiences, the photography element isn’t slow and often lies in the hands of Lady Luck. […]
Travel Photography
Don’t blame the writer when the wrong photo is used in a travel article
Where publications strive to ensure quality when it comes the body of a travel article, they often pay little attention to accompanying photographs, making the mistake of treating images as though they aren’t important. […]
Travel Talk
The So-Called Destination Expert
Many of us feel equally qualified to wear the mantel of ‘expert’ but wouldn’t dream of bestowing such a pretentious title upon ourselves… […]
Tenerife
The Pros and Cons of Life in the Sun
After months of deliberation and weighing up the pros and cons, we finally opted to move to a fixed location, or in trendy travel writer speak, to be destination specific, and to the most unlikely destination we could possibly have chosen. […]
Travel Talk
Why travel blogging can provoke negativity
Sometimes when I read posts and comments about travel bloggers being nice to each other all of the time I get a vision of one of those Nirvana worlds on Star Trek… […]