Issue 49; Travel More, Less Like An Englishman

Words by Piers Little

Will you just all calm down, it is a holiday, a time to relax, to take a deep breath, to leave the kids in some group with total strangers at a nondescript resort.  All so you can eat a three course breakfast daily and start drinking cocktails the second your bum hits the sunlounger at 10am.  With this in mind, why do people travel like they just escaped a maximum security prison?

Issue 35; Appease the Nomadic Gene

We are by our own very human nature a nomadic race, we have by our own fruition made our lives very steady and still, like a moulded jelly with it’s little wobbles but always occupies the same space at the base.  Due to this inherent truth that we like to move around, travel has been in our lives for many years, growing in distance as technology allows us, with no care of the natural world which is another human trait and now this has come all so apparent.  The question I ask is should we become more nomadic but less travelled or more travelled?

Issue 33; Take Me Back To....Venice

A world apart from any city, the floating city, held together by old wooden struts and the will of the people.  Thought of as one of the most romantic cities in the world and swarmed by tourists every year, crowding through the tiny walkways or taking water buses and taxis around the maze of canals.  In 2017 I ventured to this city with a group, but I want to go back and just eat and drink and take it easy. Welcome back to Venice.

Issue 32; Take Me Back To.......Paris

We are all stuck, not just in our country or even our home towns but our houses.  I feel lucky just to head to the butchers on a Saturday afternoon, but this has made me miss the freedoms and places our world offers.  I began to note down places I want to visit, some for the first time, others again, not to reminisce over times gone by but to see and experience the things I didn’t the first time round or have never done.  And I am going to start with Paris as it holds a certain place in my heart.

Issue 25; The Old Man Coniston - SMWT Episode 6, Season 2

Saturday Mornings with Tom #oldmanconiston

From Saturday 9/11, a short video of when Grace and I climbed The Old Man in Coniston.  You can also check out my article on this here.

Issue 23; Climbed a Hill, Came Down a Mountain

written by @coombstw

This is not a story of struggle in life, the title as they say is literal.  You may have noticed that I have taken up the very English hobby of hiking, known in certain circles as rambling (not my circle though), and have been pulling my ever agreeing better half along so we have “us” time. This is how we ended on a soggy Sunday climbing a hill but coming down a mountain.

Issue 20; The Devils Kneading Trough

written by @coombstw

I have lived in Kent pretty much my entire life yet there is so much of it that I haven't seen so after @gracecmbs mentioning this place for the last three years I thought it was time we actually went there. So we packed up the hike gear into the car and headed out and in 25 minutes we had arrived.

Issue 20; Three Nights in Paris

written by @coombstw

Before anyone gets too excited, this is not anything to do with a sequel of the Paris Hilton porn scandal media hyped marketing campaign.  This is actually me talking about Paris, where @gracecmbs and I went for 3 nights. It was a trip of food, wine, heat, sore feet and rather shiny carbon.

Issue 18; Holiday Skirmish, Which Traveller are You?

Written by @coombstw

The shuffling of feet, the dragging sound vibrating through your mind, the drone noise of the moaning.  You may think I am talking of a zombie apocalypse, close, I am talking travel.

Issue 12; My Holiday Essentials

By T W Coombs esq.

As you read this you are probably waiting on your summer holiday to come around. You will have the boring things like sunscreen so you don't look like the classic Englishman abroad, swim shorts, a plug so you charge the bundles of tech we take with us and the kindle is loaded up with half the British library which you won’t read. You will also have your chinos, white t-shirts and espadrilles. But below are my must haves for this summer vacation.

Issue 8; Cracking weekend in Krakow

By T W Coombs

I struggled what to call this article to be honest, I like to keep it catchy but wasn’t sure if to go serious or a bit cheesy, obviously I went with a little rhyming cheese.  I think because the weekend was a mixture of cheesy fun and serious times which will come apparent later.  First, why Krakow?

Issue 7; Would the Doge be happy?

By T W Coombs esq.

If you are not up with your Italian history then I am writing about the oddest and most picture postcard city in the world, Venice.  With its waterways and alleyways, it's weaving streets, the maze of its bridges and the majestic stillness of a city with no cars.  It is a place like no other.

A last minute three night trip was booked with Grace and a small group of friends and family to Venice, so off we went and to my knowledge my first trip to Italy.  And what a place to start. 

Issue 6; Prague, One City, Two Landscapes

by T W Coombs

Three nights in Prague is about the right amount of time, the city is like many metropolitan landscapes, busy, shops, high buildings, and cars.  But Prague has two sides.

Issue 4; Sun, Sea and the Cosmo Count

By T W Coombs (photo credits to @gracecmbs)

At Dreams Resort and Spa in La Romana you have the choice of seven restaurants and 5 bars with three evening bars. So as you can imagine the heart and liver are about to take a mild kicking. But if you want to keep slightly healthier then there is a well equipped gym to burn off the overindulged night before. We never tried the gym but did look at it once.

Issue 4; The Honeymoon without the Wedding

By T W Coombs (Photo Credit to @gracecmbs)

Nine hours from the cold wintry wet weather of home finds me and my other half in the Caribbean and the Dominican Republic to fill our lives with sun, sand and mixology.

Issue 1; Messing About on The....Canal

By T W Coombs

The question is can you live in a tube with four people? I shall explain. Summer holidays in the UK don't usually involve much sunshine, cheap beer or having to change your money up into any currency.  But it can involve water sports, well, I say sports more of a boating jolly.  Was it a huge yacht with staff and taking control of the open seas I hear you cry? No, it wasn't it was a forty foot canal boat on the not so open Warwickshire canals, the Grand Union heading south to be precise.