Wales Tourism and Visit Planning

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Wheelers stuck in the sand, Wheelers and dealers at the Senegalese border

Posted Sunday, February 18, 2007, 7:04 PM by Lonely Planet Days 10-15: The Wheelers make their way through Mauritania reaching the Senegalese border on the Plymouth to Banjul rally. Monday 12 to Saturday 17 February holiday wales

We've not really been out of touch right through Mauritania, but we never hung around long enough to work things out at local internet cafes (there were quite a few of them). At Dakhla, our final stop in Morocco (in what used to be the old colonial era Spanish Sahara) we met up with most of the other crews. Unhappily, the American team's big yellow school bus (we'd joked about hitching a ride with them if our trusty Mitsubishi broke down) is towed in and it appears the bus is dead. cottage holiday in wales

From Dakhla we crossed into Mauritania without problems and teamed up with three other cars (a beautiful little Renault 4 steered by two clockmakers, a gaudy yellow Nissan Sunny coupe and a militarily precise - the crew are both ex-RAF - Volvo station wagon) to cross the desert. In fact, you can take the new road from Nouadhibou to Nouakchott, but that's wimping out, we go for the real deal, across the sandy wastes and down the beach with incoming waves lapping at our wheels. caravan holiday in wales

It's a buzz although the first day I'm the champion at getting stuck in the sand. Fortunately I redeem myself on day two when I'm the champion at not getting stuck in the sand. I've mastered the Mitsu sand technique: run into deep sand flat out, with the poor little car's little 1.3 litre 18-year-old, 225, 000km engine running at maximum revs and with luck you sail out the other side. Towards the end of the beach we have to round a rocky promontory by actually driving into the sea and skittering out the other side of the rocks with everything still going. The Mitsu even manages that OK. camping holiday wales

An overnight pause in Nouakchott and then it's down to the Senegalese border, an experience which puts a bad taste in everybody's mouth. First we skip the Rosso border (hassles, bribe demands, delays) by driving 100km down a dirt road to a smaller border. Even there we have to go through nine different checkpoints in about 200m, emerging US$200 poorer having paid off (usually in bribes) customs officials, police officials, border officials and on and on both exiting Mauritania and arriving in Senegal. accommodation holiday wales

Fortunately we evade the police roadblocks between the border and our campsite at Zebrabar, nearly every other car is stopped and fined for various made-up offences. One car gets gonged for US$25 for not signalling as they pulled in when the police stopped them to check if they really had two reflective triangles on board. Most cars in Senegal don't have an indicator to their name, let alone a reflective triangle. holiday last minute wales

Paris gets an insider's look at Australian Outsiders

Posted Thursday, February 15, 2007, 10:45 PM by Lonely Planet At the Halle St-Pierre - 'the best gallery of its kind' in Paris's artistic Montmartre arrondisement is an Australian exhibition that you probably haven't heard about, of an art movement you may not be familiar with, but which warrants and rewards a closer inspection until 11 March 2007. Outsider Art, or Art Brut (Raw Art) generally applies to the artistic creations of people at the fringes of art production - the institutionalised, the sometimes-psychotic, the marginalised and the self-taught - those who usually receive scant attention from the artistic establishment. This exhibition is the most significant grouping of Australian Outsider Art in almost two decades. catering holiday self wales

The show started life at the Orange Regional Gallery in regional New South Wales and travelled straight to Paris, bypassing Sydney spaces such as the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Museum of Contemporary Art, probably because of the difficulty in getting Outsider Art acknowledged by mainstream art institutions. holiday wales walking

It's tempting to get caught up in the act of trying to capture what this art is with labels, but it's more important to experience it for yourself - you'll know it when you see it, as thousands of Parisians and visitors to the city have discovered when they venture off the more typical museum trail in this most art-loving European cultural capital. family holiday wales

According to Philip Hammial, one of the original curators of the ORG show, the difference between Art Brut and 'art therapy'' (which it is often confused with) is that with Art Brut, the artists 'aren't doped to the eyeballs, and therefore the Art Brut is more intense'. holiday riding wales

The artists include Janine Hilder, Claire Saint-Claire, Travis Mitchell, Anthony Hopkins, Anthony Mannix and Stavroula Feleggakis and works range from elaborately detailed illustrations on paper to Javier Lara-Gomez's dollhouse-like creations of buildings in a variety of materials. Of the 20 artists whose works are displayed at the show, six have had offers to show at other Parisian galleries. adventure holiday wales

Packed, protected and freighted without any funding from the Australia Council, the show is a testament to creative drive and artistic energy without interference. To get there, alight from metro station Anvers and walk straight up rue de Steinkerque to place St-Pierre. holiday park south wales

Saudi Arabia. The world's last great forbidden country. The toughest territory in the world for women to travel in... As I sat before my suitcase pondering my packing, my mind began to replay at random some of the things I had heard about this mysterious realm. A kingdom closed to outsiders. Penetrable in the past only to the bravest and the boldest such as Burton, Thesiger and Lawrence, who risked life and limb to travel there. cottage holiday wales

Could I bring my CDs, and DVDs And the books I had bought on the Kingdom - were they all banned For centuries the holy cities of Islam were forbidden to Christians on pain of death. Even today, the country's an emblem of everything inexplicable to the West: the Middle East, Islam, oil and terror... My jewellery - did I have any crosses I'd have to leave them behind. And where could I buy an abeyya Would I face arrest if I arrived uncovered and without holiday in wales

I sat back: it was impossible to imagine myself there. Impossible even to believe that I had in hand at last the notoriously elusive visa, so famously difficult to get. How had I got it anyway 'No chance', the ambassador's secretary had said with a smirk when I asked her to rate my chances. 'Not a hope in hell!' I had set foot inside the Saudi embassy so many times that the security guards now knew me and greeted me, grinning, as 'First Secretary'. I had sent legions of letters, had had dozens of meetings, and countless telephone conversations. Accompanying my application were work references, personal references, character references, even moral references. holiday wales

Then, early one cold winter's day, I decided it was time to change tack and to set in motion Plan D. Nearly four months had passed since first darkening the doorway of the embassy and I seemed no nearer my goal. Reaching for my address book, I sat down to send an email. cottage holiday in wales

Six and a half hours later, the telephone rang. It was the ambassador's secretary: 'We are ringing to inform you, Ms Frances, that your visa is now ready for collection.' Waasita. I had just learnt my first - and possibly most important - Saudi word and lesson. Contacts. Join the Discussion: 10 comments caravan holiday in wales

Push on through to the other side

Posted Monday, February 12, 2007, 3:06 PM by Lonely Planet camping holiday wales

Days 9 & 10: The Wheelers continue their push through to Mauritania on the Plymouth to Banjul rally. Saturday-Sunday 10-11 February

Our first vehicle malfunction in Agadir, a puncture fixed for 10 dirham, about US$1.50. Then it's two long days down the bleak desert coast, overnighting in Laâyoune and finally arriving in Dakhla. In between we've seen lots of sand, lots of camels, quite a few other Plymouth-Banjul competitors and an amazing number of French campervans, all of them white and congregating in groups. Everybody is supposed to arrive in Dakhla by tomorrow night and get ready for the push into Mauritania tomorrow. accommodation holiday wales

Track progress and view a map of the route here

. holiday last minute wales

Docos and omlettes Days 7 & 8: The Atlas Mountains provide a head-spinning pit stop for the Wheelers. Thursday-Friday 8-9 February

Thursday was a rest day in Marrakesh, we spent part of the day with a German TV crew making a documentary about the hippy trail era of the 1960s and '70s. catering holiday self wales

On Friday we drove through the Atlas Mountains on a spectacularly winding road through Taroudant and down to Agadir on the coast. At a roadside cafe at 2100 metres we met other Plymouth-Banjul teams who had stopped for excellent saffron-flavoured omelettes, a Berber speciality. holiday wales walking

Track progress and view a map of the route here

. family holiday wales

Staying at a riad, if you can find one

Posted Thursday, February 08, 2007, 4:01 PM by Lonely Planet Day 6: The Wheelers finally arrive in Africa. Wednesday 7 February From Rabat we cruised along a modern toll road autoroute via Casablanca to Marrakech for the first two thirds of the trip, the final 150km on a rather older road. In Marrakech we dived into the medina to stay at Riad Edward. Converting traditional old Moroccan courtyard houses known as riads into hotels is a current trend and this one is a fine example of the type. The problem with riads is finding them, the medina is amazingly convoluted and the riads are usually completely anonymous, from the outside. holiday riding wales

Labels: Plymouth to Banjul Challenge 2007 Join the Discussion: 2 comments adventure holiday wales

Time to kill (a customs official) Day 5: Delays are part of the game in any overland rally - the Wheelers kill some time. Tuesday 6 February

Europe to Africa by ferry may only take 45 minutes, but you then kill two hours waiting for the Moroccan customs to get around to performing five minutes of paperwork. Finally we roll out of the dock compound, pull dirhams out of an ATM and spend ' 0-worth buying 10-days' car insurance. Then it's out onto the autoroute and south to Rabat, with a steady procession of oncoming drivers flashing their headlights to warn of a quite amazing number of radar speed traps. holiday park south wales

Eyeing off the opposition in Spain

Posted Tuesday, February 06, 2007, 9:46 PM by Lonely Planet Days 3 & 4: The Wheelers waylaid by a wayward ATM on the Plymouth to Banjul rally. Sunday-Monday 4-5 February Who are these people turning up for a pre-dawn breakfast at our hotel in Vitoria The two German-speaking punk-looking guys turn out to be bus drivers for the Leipzig Opera. Our intention to leave 'early' doesn't work that well (I waste a quarter of an hour looking for a working ATM), although we still get away by 8.30am. And then we drive-drive-drive via Madrid, Granada and Malaga to arrive at Tarifa, just beyond Gibraltar and 1077km from our morning starting point. We've sat most of the day with the speedo needle at a steady 120kph, which left us in the slow lane with everything else whistling past us. cottage holiday wales

Lots of cars, some of them worse looking than ours, some of them much better, are already assembled and the entrants are already sinking cold cervezas. I like the French blue Renault 4 and the bright yellow American school bus. The next day we spend shopping and meeting our fellow travellers. Africa is a stone's throw away across the Straits of Gibraltar and a ferry company rep comes round to the hotel at 6pm to sell tickets. holiday in wales

Flying and climate change

It's a funny time to be travel-mad in the UK. On one-hand, we've never had it so good. More budget airlines, flying further and cheaper than ever before; speedier rail links to the continent opening later this year and most of us have 132 lovely days to do with as we please. That's leave, weekends and bank holidays. holiday wales

So why are so many people apologising for travelling, cutting down on flights and coughing up sting taxes levied on flying at short notice with barely a whimper of complaint The answer is that flying itself continues to be under the spotlight from environmental groups and a media grappling with the explosion of concern about climate change. What were once nice white vapour trails in a deep blue sky are now harbingers of accelerated global warming, with carbon-belching jet engines accounting for 5.5% (and climbing) total carbon emissions with no fix in sight. cottage holiday in wales

Not that this is stopping the majority of people flying - growth predictions remain strong. But the government had fired the first shot in a war that is sure to see travel get more expensive by doubling air passenger duty putting £5 on the price of a short-haul ticket and up to £40 on a longer trip. Not enough, say environmentalists. Too much, shout the airlines, pointing out that the tax is doing nothing to ease the effects of air travel and in some cases getting staff dressed up as bowler-hatted tax collectors to claw back the revenue from travellers who booked before the tax rise came into effect. caravan holiday in wales

If you're like me, this gives great pause for thought. I love travel and I'm a passionate believer in the benefits it brings, both to host communities and to individuals who get out and experience the world. I feel this outweighs the potential harmful impact of my journey - especially as I offset my travels and seek alternatives where necessary. But this is one issue that isn't going away, and that's going to give us all pause for thought in the near future. What do you think about this one camping holiday wales

Tom Hall

, Lonely Planet London Labels: Europe, Politics, Sustainable and responsible tourism Join the Discussion: 5 comments accommodation holiday wales

Banjul still seems a long way away...

Posted Monday, February 05, 2007, 10:15 PM by Lonely Planet Day 2: Tony and Maureen Wheeler make their way to Vitoria in Spain - Banjul still seems a long way away. holiday last minute wales

Saturday 3 February

Eventually drag ourselves out of bed (it's dark outside), grab some breakfast, jump in the 'trusty' Mitsubishi and head south. For the whole day. By which time we've covered 700km and crossed the border into Spain. At which time the usual travel mysteries kick in. Why do our route notes (downloaded from the RAC UK website) not seem to match up with reality And when we finally cruise into Vitoria, after dark, why is there not a single hotel anywhere to be found catering holiday self wales

We circle around, trying to find the city centre, trying to find anything, nearly get sideswiped by a local making a beeline for a vacant parking spot, nearly having a head-on with another local when we turn into a one way street only to find it's two way, and then suddenly chance upon a hotel with a car park. And a bar. And a very reasonably priced restaurant, where a bottle of very nice red is thrown in with dinner at no extra cost. What's not to like holiday wales walking

Flat tyres, but up-beat Wheelers

Posted Sunday, February 04, 2007, 5:25 PM by Lonely Planet Day 1: Tony and Maureen Wheeler get their Mitsu on the road for the Plymouth to Banjul rally. Friday 2 February Our 'trusty' (I'm going to keep saying that) Mitsubishi sat by a wall in the Dorset village. I'd handed over the £350 (yes, we'd paid more than the target £100), it was ours. The trouble was we couldn't see it in the dark, but we get in, I turn the key, it starts, so we drive away. The next morning, in daylight, it looks OK, apart from the flat tyre. But even if there had been air in the spare it would have done us no good if we'd had a puncture, there was no jack. family holiday wales

Next day we drive back to London and circle around various car places to find a jack and a few other vital necessities. Friday 2 February we leave central London and head south, passing so many African hairdressers, African restaurants and African phone card shops it scarcely seems necessary to drive to Africa. At Folkestone we drive on to the Eurotunnel train, no time wasted, we get on standby on the first train going, and 35 minutes later drive away in Calais. holiday riding wales

By 6pm we are 400km from London and it's dark, drizzling with rain and the wipers don't seem to work. Make it to Alençon for the night where we stay in what feels like a cheap rural American motel (costs €44) and 'enjoy' a meal that proves even the French can do dull food when they put their minds to it. adventure holiday wales

La Palma: Preservation versus Prosperity Sarah Andrews

considers golf courses in the Canary Islands... Uke is not what you could call soft-spoken. As he leads a dozen hikers huffing and puffing along the 19-kilometre Ruta de los Volcanes (Volcano Route), he entertains us with a seamless stream of commentary about the Canary island of La Palma. "These pine trees can survive lava flows, " he tells us. "The island's last eruption was in 1971... lush vegetation earned La Palma the nickname 'the pretty island'..." But what Uke seems most interested in are the big changes coming to this small Spanish island. holiday park south wales

We should enjoy La Palma while we can, he warns. It is still relatively untouched by mass tourism, but if local politicians have their way, huge new hotel complexes could replace the banana plantations that currently drive 80 percent of the local economy. cottage holiday wales

Mass tourism would strain the island's fragile water supply and increase prices, sending even more people to other islands or the mainland for jobs. And it would alter the natural beauty that is La Palma's main attraction; in fact, part of the trail we're hiking on would be covered by one of five proposed golf courses (there are currently no golf courses on the island's 1800 square kilometres). holiday in wales

The conflict on La Palma is the problem facing many rural areas: preservation versus prosperity . The one thing everyone agrees on is encouraging development while protecting natural resources. But how holiday wales

In any case, the island is bracing for change. The airport will triple its capacity to more than 3 million by 2010. New hotels are being built as I type. And politicians and islanders alike are debating a far-reaching tourism development plan that would allow the construction of ports, golf courses and hotel complexes, some in supposedly protected natural areas. Green groups, like Ecologistas en Acción, say the plan would "irreversibly alter the values and beauty that makes La Palma a unique tourist destination." Asemblea Ecologista is collecting signatures against the plan. Both groups claim mass tourism only benefits land speculators and hotel chains. cottage holiday in wales

But politicians say development will bring new jobs and higher incomes. Islanders are divided. Some, like Manuel Lorenzo, president of the Canary Banana Growers' Association, thinks the tourism growth "is good for the island and can exist alongside banana crops." Only time will tell. caravan holiday in wales

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Have cat, will travel

Posted Thursday, March 29, 2007, 11:27 PM by Lonely Planet Baxter Jackson, one of the winners of the recent Bluelist competition, has a cat of pure breed travel pedigree. Hanuman - aka Mr Chickencat - has been to places backpackers only dream of... accommodation holiday wales

Mr Chickencat has trekked in Nepal, travelled all over southern India, kicked it in California, and even been to Mount Sinai and Siwa with Baxter and fiancé Kristina Kunz. But now, Baxter has left Hanuman at home to accompany fellow winners - Lisa Burns, Dov Quint and Sylvia Dubery - along with Lonely Planet authors Alex Leviton and Paul Clammer, in a tour of duty in Marrakesh. Read their blog posts here from Monday as they cut their teeth in the world of travel research and writing. holiday last minute wales

Labels: Bluelist Winners 2007 Join the Discussion: 1 comments catering holiday self wales

Jaunted's unfamiliarity with English spelling conventions not entirely surprising

We were delighted today to see that not only is Jaunted.com lambasting 'Micael' [sic] Kohn's recent article on dangerous travel, but that the page was peppered with ads for our current Bluelist competition. Thanks for the publicity, guys! holiday wales walking

Labels: Travelsnitch Join the Discussion: 0 comments family holiday wales

Travel Magic on the Chao Phraya

Posted Tuesday, March 27, 2007, 9:45 PM by Lonely Planet Dan Eldridge is currently in Thailand researching for the South East Asia on a Shoestring guidebook. He reports in from Bangkok... It's late in the afternoon on a boiling hot day in Bangkok. I'm riding aboard one of the city's ubiquitous ferry taxis, and floating south along the massive Chao Phraya River. But even with the cool bursts of wind and the occasional droplets of water that spray through the boat's open window, my body is still coated with sweat. holiday riding wales

I'm a travel journalist, and a few months back, Lonely Planet offered me an assignment: I was to spend six weeks exploring Thailand for an update of LP's Southeast Asia on a Shoestring. Sounds like a dream job, doesn't it But right now, as I'm heading towards the centre of town to investigate yet another series of guesthouses, restaurants and cafés, I don't feel like I'm in a dream at all. Thanks to the bulk of my ever-present messenger bag, which is weighted down with guidebooks, my spine feels like its been literally twisted out of shape. And my feet, which have pounded through endless kilometres over the past 72 hours, are throbbing. If this is a dream, I think to myself, it must be the beginning of a nightmare. Right now, there's only one thing I'm absolutely certain of: I haven't worked this hard in months. adventure holiday wales

But overseas travel, I've found, has a funny way of changing your attitude without so much as a moment's notice. And I suppose that's why it didn't surprise me when I found myself in a sudden conversation with Lulu, a German tourist who was riding the ferry. As we floated further south and exchanged the normal backpacker pleasantries, Lulu told me that she too was having a bad day. She was missing her husband, whose last email from home had made her cry. She was lonely. And so without giving it so much as a second thought, we decided to pass the evening together. holiday park south wales

First, we drank smoothies on the outdoor terrace of the Oriental Hotel, and while the sun dropped behind the river, we got to know each other in record time. Later, we were driven to the middle of nowhere by a crooked tuk-tuk driver. We wandered through the night market at Patpong, and climbed a staircase to one of the district's infamous go-go bars. It was a classic Bangkok night and when my head hit the pillow hours later I was laughing out loud, and completely in awe of my luck. Because as it turns out, I've apparently got myself a dream job after all. cottage holiday wales

Labels: Asia and Pacific holiday in wales

Phood in Phnom Penh

For many, the words 'cuisine' and 'Phnom Penh' suggest little more than marijuana-topped 'happy' pizza and deep-fried tarantulas. However in recent years, Cambodia's capital has undergone a quiet culinary revolution that is making dodgy street food and drug-laced entrées go the way of the Khmer Rouge. The Phnom Penh of today is home to some 870 restaurants that range in cuisine from regional Cambodian to upscale French, as well as more obscure cooking styles such as Russian and North Korean. There's a restaurant to fit every budget, and as many places are run by expats and talented locals alike, the flavours are spot-on authentic. holiday wales

Scallops sautéed with Cambodian peppercorns, Malis Restaurant, Phnom Penh.

To experience the local cuisine, a good place to start is Malis (136 Street 41, 023 221 022), a chic open-air Cambodian restaurant that wouldn't be out of place in L.A. or London. Try one of the restaurant's numerous sour soups, a staple of Khmer cooking, and you'll see that Cambodian food is much more than 'Thai without the spice', and boasts an impressive repertoire of subtle flavours based on indigenous herbs. cottage holiday in wales

For something a bit homier, try Sweet Café (21B Street 294, 012 999 119), where Khmer staples mingle with Chinese-influenced dishes, and everything is full-flavoured. Boat Noodle (8B Street 294, 012 774 287) boasts an eclectic Thai-Cambodian menu, and the Psar O Russei's dark but delicious food court is probably the largest conglomeration of Khmer food in the world. caravan holiday in wales

And the revolution doesn't stop at Khmer food; Phnom Penh's colonial past is evident in the numerous French and other European restaurants that dot the city. A good food day in Phnom Penh could involve a hearty 'full English' at The Rising Sun (20 Street 178, 012 710 131), a light petit dejeuner at Comme a la Maison (13 Street 57, 023 360 801), and a raucous tapas dinner (complete with Spanish wines) at Pacharan (389E1 Sisowath Quay, 023 224 394). camping holiday wales

For pre-trip dining reconnaissance there's no better source of info than Phnomenon, the only blog dedicated to food and drink in Cambodia, where thankfully, there's hardly an arachnid nor a 'happy entrée in sight. accommodation holiday wales

Were the long days and drawn-out journeys beginning to take their toll Was I imagining the cars behind us, and vaguely familiar faces At first Abdullah denied it, but one day confessed: we were followed wherever we went. holiday last minute wales

Abdullah's natural Saudi taciturnity (and perhaps intrinsic fear of the authorities) prevented him from telling me exactly who they were, though I suspected it was the Ministry of the Interior (those in charge of the Kingdom's internal security). catering holiday self wales

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