The Pride of Britain Hotels AGM, held on Monday at The Goring hotel (David Morgan-Hewitt, Managing Director of The Goring, also being Chairman of Pride of Britain Hotels) brought a few unexpected surprises – risqué jokes from Peter Hancock, Chief Executive, over lunch and an amusing resumé of Morgan-Hewitt’s hotel career, culminating with a recent meal [...]
When did you last have the opportunity to run the 100m in one of the original Greek stadia dating back to 300 BC, your name being announced as you emerge, blinking and barefoot, from the dark of an ancient tunnel into the bright sunshine of the stadium, having just changed into a white tunic in the [...]
Guest blog by Heinrich Hall, a core tour leader for our client Peter Sommer Travels and resident of Athens, about the current Greek situation. Regarding the practicalities of travel in 2012, travellers should be encouraged to come to Greece if they are so inclined – the fact that the country’s situation may deter visitors is [...]
Guest blog by Oliver Broad, Chairman of AITO Specialist Travel Agents. Oliver recently travelled to the Portuguese island of Madeira to finalise plans for the AITO and AITO Agents combined overseas conference, being held on the island from 14-17 June 2012. During his trip, he was particularly fascinated by what local artists have done to doors in Madeira’s [...]
In a new social-media initiative, we have collated the digital results of a recent visit by Sue, Anthony and Mika to the Costa Alentejana, in the unexplored Portuguese region of Alentejo, using Storify. Storify is a clever new platform which allows users to spin narratives or plot timelines by curating tweets, Facebook updates and pictures, [...]
Guest blog by Chris Wright, Managing Director at GIC The Villa Collection and Sunvil: Summer 2012 brings with it the long anticipated Olympic Games. But even at the beginning of the bidding process, back at the start of the millennium when the country was more prosperous, the nation was divided as to whether the Games [...]
You know an office is a bit different when you’re greeted by two dachshunds standing on the MD’s desk. Kaisha and Jasmine – clearly loved by all – wander about freely, entirely oblivious to the energy and activity around them. It’s kind of how you imagine the trading floor of an investment bank, except here [...]
The school holidays are finally here, with children across the UK excitedly swapping classroom life for summer fun. All too often, though, they – and their parents – will be out and about, unaware of the dangers of ticks and the associated potential problem of Lyme disease. Whatever your summer plans, whether it’s heading away [...]
Flick through a magazine and you’ll always come across a competition or two. I have often wondered who actually enters them. Well, it turns out that an awful lot of people do. Enough people, that is, to fill a large postal sack to the brim – and almost crash my email every day over the [...]
At 4.30am on Sunday 22 May 2011, a group of 45 – journalists, travel agents and tour operator staff, together with a few Sunvil clients – gathered at Heathrow’s Terminal 1 to make history. For on this day, we were the lucky passengers on the first-ever flight to the new passenger terminal at Beja airport [...]