Adam Richman's ultimate Italy food guide: From 'tag bol' to chocolate fountains
Swapping New York for Italy, Adam Richman embarks on a city-hopping adventure in search of the country’s best-loved dishes.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. If you weren’t hungry before listening to Adam Richman describe food, you certainly will be after. The presenter of Man v Food, Adam Richman Eats Britain and Adam Richman Eats Football has worked in New York kitchens since he was 13, so the Brooklyn native knows his stuff. For his new series, though, he’s munching his way across 10 Italian cities – and letting RT in on his very best bites from the trip… ROME - Porchetta sandwiches at Er Buchetto “Er Buchetto opened its doors in 1890. The name literally means ‘little hole’, and it’s an itty-bitty restaurant that’s known for serving porchetta sandwiches. Porchetta is pork, and here it’s a deboned suckling pig stuffed with rosemary, spices and olive oil, cooked for three to four hours. It has crispy skin and it’s super juicy inside and they serve it cold on traditional Roman bread, though some people get it with cheese or other condiments. “The owner, Alessandro Fioravanti, is the fifth generation of the family running it; his son is now representing the sixth generation. Get there early though: there’s normally a line out the door and they can sell out by the afternoon.” Browse our holidays to Italy here FLORENCE - Bistecca alla Fiorentina and Brunello at FrancescoVini “I really try to do my homework, but that does not mean I can’t be wrong – there have been times when a chef has corrected me, like at FrancescoVini. The wine cellar there is in the remnants of the fifth largest amphitheatre in the Roman Empire, and I was talking to the owner, Fabio La Brusco, about Super Tuscans [red wines from Tuscany]. He said, ‘That’s what we make for Americans. If you’re having Bistecca alla Fiorentina [a steak dish], you’re having a Brunello.’ View oEmbed on the source website “Afterwards he apologised to me and said, ‘I know you just spoke about this whole thing, we can cut it,’ and I said, ‘We are not cutting it.’ The showrunner of Man v Food taught me that the worst thing any host can do is play cool, like, ‘I got this, I know this.’ How can I know Florence better than a Florentine?” Request a brochure and get inspiration for your next holiday BOLOGNA - Tortellini en brodo at Ristorante Biagi “There’s no spag bol in Bologna – the real thing is technically tag bol, because it’s tagliatelle bolognese. But in Bologna, you have to have tortellini en brodo. It’s tortellini with, usually, pork, mortadella, prosciutto, Parmigiano Reggiano and some spices – salt, pepper, nutmeg – in a clear broth. At Ristorante Biagi, it’s one nonna [Italian for grandma] who comes in and makes around 5,000 tortellini a day, all by hand. There’s no machine. “I thought I was going to be eating big, bold, bright tomato sauces and mozzarella on everything, but that’s just what you get in America. Dishes in Italy look deceptively simple. Some of them, like the one in front of me, are beige, yet eating it felt like getting a back rub or a hug from your grandma. It is truly delightful.” VENICE - Bigoli in salsa at Osteria al Cicheto “Bigoli in salsa has hardly any ingredients: rough pasta – which itself is just two ingredients – with Chioggia onions, olive oil, a clove of garlic, salted anchovies, maybe some wine. It’s a peasant pasta: it’s called cucina povera, the cuisine of the poor. It has produced mine, the crew’s and the world’s favourite recipes. The rationale was that peasants in Venice only had an onion, a bag of flour and some salted fish and that’s it. It’s unbelievably moreish.” FLORENCE - Lampredotto at Da Nerbone “Lampredotto is the fourth stomach of a cow. It’s where the rennet enzymes come from to curdle milk into cheese. It’s a very traditional Tuscan dish, and Da Nerbone is a stand that opened in 1872. It’s now run by Fabio Giolli, who made me the lampredotto sandwich. And it was spectacular, with the flavours of his two sauces, salsa verde and a chilli/pepper one, with the bread soaked in the cooking broth. “All morning, I was making these eye-rolling jokes, like, ‘Wow, I have to start my day with a stomach sandwich.’ I was grossed out by it without trying it. And yes, I am acutely aware of just how disrespectful I was being. Poor people ate it out of necessity, but it’s endured because it’s so good. It was one of the best bites of the whole show.” Sign up to our mailing list to receive more content like this from Radio Times Travel, Shop and Money - click here AND FOR DESSERT… ROME - Ice cream at Gelateria Come il Latte “They have these chocolate fountains that are always running, and their cones are made fresh. They fill the cone with chocolate first, then put your gelato in. After, they hit it again with the chocolate and threw this little cookie in. It was such a joy and I regressed to being a little boy again.” Adam Richman Eats Italy airs Monday at 9pm and 9:30pm on Food Network. Check out more of our Travel coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Inside Tom Read Wilson's Grand Tour as Celebs Go Dating star continues his magnificent journey
From learning how to kiss the hand of a countess, to taking a dip in a chilly Alpine lake.
Byron, Wilde, Casanova and now Tom Read Wilson. The Grand Tour was the “gap year” of the 17th to 19th centuries; a chance for young aristocrats to complete their cultural and social education in the great capitals of Europe. In his travelogue, which airs on 5, Read Wilson (Celebs Go Dating’s witty receptionist and runner-up in this year’s I’m a Celebrity) traces their tracks – and gets into a few of their scrapes. PARIS Kissing lessons from a countess “Picking up some continental etiquette was an important part of the Grand Tour, and I’m hopeless with that stuff, so I got lessons from an actual countess. She was a descendant of one of Marie Antoinette’s courtiers and had this gorgeous cuckoo clock of an apartment in the heart of Paris that smelled of tuberose, like a magical bubble. She taught me how to kiss her hand properly, then how to eat mille-feuille. I was totally inept: I think I must have been a chicken in a former life, because my elbows kept popping up and she didn’t approve. Even harder, she insisted I eat this exquisite pastry without making the sort of joyous, gustatory ‘Mmmm!’ that came naturally.” Request a brochure and get inspiration for your next holiday LAKE ANNECY Alps the easy way “In the 18th century, there were only two ways to navigate the Alps – go round them on a boat or over them by foot. Young aristocratic gentlemen, of course, wanted to make the minimum effort, so they had themselves carried over the mountains in sedan chairs. Naturally, I got four strapping hunkatrons to carry me, too. I was in awe at their triceps and all the vascularity of their arms. They were straining every sinew – even though I’d skipped breakfast to be as light as possible – so I kept saying, ‘Don’t be a hero, put me down!’ But they wouldn’t. “It was an extraordinary feat because it was so precipitous, but my personal achievement was taking a dip in Lake Annecy, because it was only 9°C. I swam out to a buoy – yes, that’s b-u-o-y – and it was quite a long stretch, but the TV director wanted me to do it again for the camera, and then again because they’d just found a beautiful spot on the pier. So I did it three times, then went to the loo and thought, ‘I’m going to inspect myself, because it feels very curious downstairs.’ And it was like a used teabag! There was nothing there, and it didn’t come back for a whole day…” VENICE Costumes and courtesans “My hotel in Venice was where many of those original old Grand Tourists stayed, and it was right next to the city’s main courtesan hotspot. In those days the sex workers were trained to be wonderful companions at the opera or art gallery, hugely knowledgeable about music and painting, so all those tussles under the eiderdown were considered quite educational. I was rather crestfallen I didn’t have time for any of that myself – hard when you’re in the most romantic setting in the world. “I did get to visit a costumier, though, who provides outfits not only for Venice’s famous Carnival, but for the opera houses, too. There was damask, brocade, the most incredible fabrics and colours and silks. And the tailors were amazing: just from clocking me, they knew my exact measurements – right down to the teabag!” Sign up to our mailing list to receive more content like this from Radio Times Travel, Shop and Money - click here ROME High-pressure serenading “One of my favourite experiences of the trip was in Rome. The tradition in the 18th century was for serenades, with people looking down from balconies, bewitched by their paramour who would be brandishing a guitar – and it still goes on. So I met these enchanting serenaders, and an hour later we were up at the Belvedere, singing together – in Italian – and I was as fretful as a porcupine because I hadn’t sung for a very long time. I was acutely aware that it could go wrong and I would make this romantic scene very, very unromantic and end up getting chased away by a disgruntled lover. Honestly, I was terrified.” FLORENCE Re-creating Eddie Redmayne’s bust “Seeing Botticelli’s Birth of Venus in the Uffizi Gallery was wonderful. From looking at prints of the painting, I’d never appreciated the gold in her hair; the magical fog around it; the foam on the waves to represent the myth that [Venus’s Greek counterpart] Aphrodite was born after Uranus was castrated and his bits were thrown into the sea, fizzing and foaming to create the goddess. “Then I met a sculptor whose family have been sculptors in Florence for 200 years. He actually had a commission from Eddie Redmayne, and I have a stonking crush on Eddie Redmayne, so I tried very hard to copy the bust he was making, but mine was appalling. Did I bring my Eddie home with me? No, the best thing for that was for the clay to be recycled – because it was certainly not a work of art.” Tom Read Wilson's Magnificent Journey continues Fridays at 8pm on 5. Check out more of our Travel coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Exploring Zambia, the star of BBC One's Kingdom
Drama, action, comedy – African wildlife has it all. So, how can you get exclusive access to the stars of Kingdom?
The elephant in the room here is an actual elephant in the room. I’ve popped back to my safari camp suite for a post-lunch nap, you see, and found a 900-stone pachyderm in my sitting area. (The Albida Suite has open walls and it turns out Nelly and friends like to wander in to drink from its plunge pool.) This is one of the perks of doing a safari in Zambia rather than more touristed destinations such as Kenya or South Africa – and is possibly why David Attenborough and the crew of Kingdom chose Zambia for its epic four-year shoot. The natural history blockbuster, which follows four animal families over almost half a decade, was shot in Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park, and that’s where I began my own, sadly rather briefer, safari. Nkwali Camp, which I’d booked through experts Robin Pope Safaris (robinpopesafaris.net), gazes aristocratically down over a hippo-filled river, its collection of breezy wood-and-thatch cottages seemingly playing hide-and-seek with each other in a forest of ebony trees. Browse this safari holiday from Newmarket Holidays & experience your own trip to Africa Game drives are undertaken in 4WDs with a couple of rows of seats fixed high on the vehicle’s back end – so everyone gets a great view, and in a further crucial contrast with the sometimes cattle-truck experience of a safari in such honeypot destinations as Kenya’s Maasai Mara or South Africa’s Kruger, it soon becomes apparent that we have the animals more or less to ourselves. When, within minutes of the beginning of my first drive, we come across a small herd of zebras, I wait for what I previously thought was the inevitable chug-chug-chug of a dozen other vehicles joining us – and it never comes. “Exclusivity” is a much-bandied word in luxury travel, but here it’s more than a mere snobbish refusal to holiday with Ordinary Folk. Without a ravening pack of Land Cruisers waiting to descend every time an animal is spotted, you feel as if you’re really interacting with the landscape and the animals, rather than just watching them in an enormous zoo. Baboons eye you up curiously, their sprogs monkeying excitedly about for the cameras, thrilled to have such an appreciative audience; giraffes turn haughtily to face you, winking their doe eyes; skittish impalas bounce off as soon as they scent you, far enough down the food chain they think everything looks threatening; elephants stand four-square and purposeful in the middle of the dirt road, flaring their ears and trumpeting, daring you to try and drive round them – then mock-charging when you do, apparently well pleased with the alarmed squeals of a few timorous humans. View oEmbed on the source website Even more intimate are the walking safaris. In the company of an armed guard and an expert tracker, I followed a trail of footprints and faeces into the bush. With no engine noise, I was able to hear the buzz of the common bee-eater bird (back home I can’t tell one feathered friend from another, but out here they’re colour-coded – the bee-eater, bright fire-engine red; the lilac-breasted roller, opalescent peacock-feather violet). And with no petrol smell, I was able to catch the sweet honeysuckle savour of the wild rose tree, its flowers white with a yellow centre, like fried eggs wearing fragrance. Less appealing, but just as memorable, was the skin of a dead elephant. The bones had been gnawed by jackals and hyenas, but vultures circled above the hide. Looking on were marabou storks, earning their “undertaker bird” nickname, with wings like grey Dickensian morning coats, and baleful expressions that sit well with their taste for carrion. Request a brochure and get inspiration for your next holiday Elephants have an entourage while alive, too, it turns out – a phalanx of white egrets follows them around like the wake behind a speedboat, feasting on the insects disturbed by their five-ton footsteps. But the most avid members of the jumbo fan club are human, of course. Back at Nkwali that evening, plates of buttery rice and delicately-seasoned tilapia cooked in banana leaf were abandoned mid-mouthful when three elephants strolled past the dining room to take advantage of the camp’s waterhole. The youngest, unable to stand in the deep water, doggy-paddled endearingly through the lake and into the hearts (and camera memory cards) of everyone watching. In the Lower Zambezi National Park, I stayed at Chongwe River Camp, where I added lions, leopards and crocodiles to my I-spied list – the latter heart-racingly close as I canoed past them just yards from the grove of winter thorn trees that conceals the camp. It’s the winter thorns’ seedpods (as well as my plunge pool) that lure elephants into our quarters. So when nobody is looking, I gather a few of the pods and scatter them round the Albida Suite’s sitting room. Unlike Attenborough and pals, I haven’t got four years to hang around waiting for that perfect shot… Sign up to our mailing list to receive more content like this from Radio Times Travel, Shop and Money Kingdom begins at 6:20pm on Sunday 9th November on BBC One and iPlayer. Check out more of our Travel coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
As seen on Apple TV's The Last Frontier: Discover Alaska the luxurious way
Want to explore wild Alaska without the fear of frostbite? A cosseting cruise offers hot tubs and fine dining alongside spectacular scenery.
“This is Alaska,” says local lawman Frank Remnick (Jason Clarke) to his CIA counterpart as they consider the difficulties of rounding up 18 convicts on the loose across the state’s frozen wastes in Apple TV’s The Last Frontier. Daunting, sure, but “This is Alaska, too,” I think to myself as I accept some champagne and nibble a Princess Love Boat Dream – a “heart-shaped dessert with layers of chocolate-raspberry mousse and vanilla-raspberry cream on a shortbread cookie base” – on board the Grand Princess, where I’m experiencing Alaska in rather more comfort than Remnick or his 18 unwelcome guests. Request a brochure and get inspiration for your next holiday While The Last Frontier’s frostbitten felons check in (and, in some cases, promptly check out) when their prisoner transport plane crash[1]lands in the middle of a snowy forest, my Air Canada jet glides safely into Vancouver. There I spend a few very pleasant days among its excellent food markets, parks and beaches before boarding Grand Princess for my Voyage of the Glaciers cruise, which will wind its delightfully unhurried way north to Anchorage. Three ‘port days’ give me a flavour of the Last Frontier (also Alaska’s official state nickname); two ‘scenic cruising’ days provide spectacular views of glaciers and icebergs without my even having to leave the (extreme) comfort of my hot tub; and the itinerary’s single ‘sea day’ allows me to savour the ship’s spas, bars and even ‘Movies under the Stars’, where I happily goggle a Harry Potter on the open top deck’s huge screen, hunkered under a blanket with cookies. Slightly more adventurous are the 150-odd excursions available through Grand Princess (similar ones can be booked independently, of course). Options range from mild to wild, but each one drops you deeper into the landscape or lifestyle of Alaska than the ship alone ever could. Each port day, helicopters whisk passengers up to other-worldly icefields where huskies howl; floatplanes trace fjords and emerald inlets so narrow you swear the wings will brush the spruce. Whale-watching boats skim out from Juneau and return heavy with stories of humpbacks and orcas. In Skagway, the White Pass and Yukon Route Railway coils through the mountains, each bend offering another “surely not!” vista. Me, I watch bears effortlessly pawing salmon from the stream outside Ketchikan; canoe to the sublimely silent toe of the Davidson Glacier; and watch whale tails hang in the air, like my held breath, as the great creatures submerge mere metres from my observation boat in the waters off Juneau. Sign up to our mailing list to receive more content like this from Radio Times Travel, Shop and Money The ports themselves are an odd mix of touristy tat shops and true frontier township. Shops peddling novelty reindeer-fur bikinis and moose-logo baseball caps sit between Gold Rush-era saloons and brothels – some preserved as little museums, others still serving (the saloons only). Seaplanes bounce from the water with the cheerful impatience of dragonflies, yachts nose against tugs, fishing skippers swear at cruise ships performing three-point turns with the circumference of small cities. And from each city, walking trails take me out among glassy lakes, see-forever views and pine forests smelling of resin and cool earth. Still, the trip’s best days are spent adrift: those ‘scenic cruising’ days are showstopping. Glacier Bay is a theatre of ice. From the deck I watch an ever-changing carousel of cathedral-sized ice sculptures glide by like god-sized ghosts. The silence is immense: no roads, no chatter, just the occasional crack of calving ice, followed by a roar as a tower-block-sized slab collapses into the bay. Eagles circle overhead, seals lounge on floes, and suddenly you realise 2,500 passengers are standing shoulder to shoulder in reverent quiet, all hearing the same stillness. College Fjord, meanwhile, is subtler but no less affecting. The glaciers here were named by a Harvard-and-Yale-led survey expedition, which is why today you can gaze at Princeton Glacier while sipping your artisan gin and tonic, or watch Harvard’s icefall while enjoying a hand-cut beef filet tartare with plancha sear and fried quail egg. The water is calm as slate, the air sharp as cut glass, and the glaciers that carved this craggy landscape drape themselves down the valleys in frozen ribbons. If you’re planning a trip abroad, read our financial expert's advice on what to consider before going on holiday It’s an almost brutal beauty, and it’s strange to think how easily – how cossetingly, even – it’s available. This, after all, is Alaska. The Last Frontier airs new episodes Fridays on Apple TV. Check out more of our Travel coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Only Murders in the Building season 5: NYC filming locations to visit
Planning a city break in the Big Apple? Here are some must-see gems to pack into a long weekend.
Cole Porter may have made a song and dance about Paris in the spring time, but I’ve always had a thing for New York in autumn. What’s not to love, with the oaks turning bronze in Madison Square Park, and the Japanese zelkova trees deepening to purple along the upper reaches of Broadway. There’s an added reason to be in a New York state of mind this September. Hit comedy Only Murders in the Building (OMITB) returns to Disney+ for a fifth season. As before, it stars Steve Martin, Selena Gomez and Martin Short as friends who live in a palatial apartment block, the Arconia. In each series, a grisly murder takes place in the property, which the three – keen sleuths who even begin their own crime podcast – set out to solve. Visually the drama is life-affirming, a love letter to the city’s rich, bohemian, art-loving Upper West Side, where so much drama unfolds that the best verdict I’ve read by a reviewer of the series is that it feels as if “Nora Ephron had made a murder mystery.” Mood-wise, it’s quintessentially Ephron (creator of screen romances When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle, known for its saccharine denouement atop the Empire State); Woody Allen, too, come to think of it (see 1977’s Annie Hall, with Diane Keaton), only with corpses. The plot line may be fanciful, involving, in this series: “a dangerous web of secrets connecting powerful billionaires, old-school mobsters, and the mysterious residents of the Arconia,” but OMITB is a beautiful salute to the megawatt screen magnetism of Manhattan, bathed in autumnal light, with locations you could build your own long-weekend NYC itinerary around. I love almost everything about New York, having been lured back repeatedly by its rollicking nightlife and laid-back neighbourhood food scenes in the East, West and Greenwich villages. There’s the thrill of on-and-off-Broadway theatre and the photo-appeal of the seasonal farmers’ markets in squares and parks, piled high with fruit and veg in traffic-light colours. Best of all I love its architecture: that inimitable after-dark cityscape of diamond lights and charcoal-black skyscrapers; and Manhattan’s trademark turn-of-the-20th-century neoclassical edifices with their pediments and columns, recalling the buildings of the Ringstrasse boulevard in Vienna – on steroids. There’s no need to be an architect anorak to enjoy all this masonry, but seeing it is crucial to the NY experience. Simply wander and gape, from Harlem down to the Lower East Side. For full OMITB appreciation, you’ll want to stay on the Upper West Side, so check in locally, at Hotel Belleclaire, a slab of Secessionist whimsy cut with Art Nouveau, where Broadway meets W77th Street. Alternatively, there’s The Lucerne, a regal brownstone a block or two away or, for special-occasion indulgence, the Mandarin Oriental on Columbus Circle , towering over the copper foliage of Central Park. Now step out into the Upper West Side and explore. For starters there’s the fictional Arconia building, home of the OMITB protagonists. A real property called the Belnord, it has hogged a whole block at the corner of W86th Street and Broadway since 1909, with its grand fountain visible through golden gates. You can’t go in, but you can admire the muscular might of its Italian Renaissance Revival walls and windows: 14 storeys of elegant limestone, brick and heavy cornice-overhang. Close by, at 129 W81st Street, fans of Seinfeld can pay homage at the facade of Jerry’s fictional apartment (sets in LA were used for the interiors). Ditto the frontage of Will Truman’s pad from sitcom Will & Grace: crane your neck, point and shoot at 155 Riverside Drive. Among other famous Upper West Side buildings is the American Museum of Natural History, which is essential viewing for October half term holidaying families: there’s even a Night at the Museum self-guided tour linking the real exhibits behind the characters featured in the celebrated movies. Spot the blue whale dangling on high, and the Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton. Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Opera and New York Philharmonic have their home at the nearby Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts. Cubic, avant-garde and airy, its facilities make up a spectacular display of mid-century modernism: a must-see for devotees of architects Philip Johnson and Eero Saarinen. Autumnal highlights include a performance by Andrea Bocelli. While in the neighbourhood you might take time to honour the memory of John Lennon, who was murdered 45 years ago this December outside the Dakota building, where he shared an apartment with Yoko Ono. Strawberry Fields, a memorial area of plants, pathway and stones, including a mosaic in tribute, lies just across the way in Central Park. While a sombre place to wander and remember, it was devised to be a living landscape that changes over time. Sit awhile then head on into the New York dusk where, with extraordinary energy, life goes on. Sign up to our mailing list to receive more content like this from Radio Times Travel, Shop and Money - click here Only Murders in the Building season 5 is airing now on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in the UK, with new episodes released weekly. Seasons 1-4 are available to stream on Disney Plus – sign up to Disney Plus from £4.99 a month or £89.90 a year now. Check out more of our Travel coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Whitstable Pearl offers a taste of the Kent coast – and the real star is the location
Inspired by the Kent-set crime drama Whitstable Pearl, our writer takes you to the real Whitstable – a working harbour town where salty breezes, shingle beaches and freshly shucked oysters are the stars of the show.
Kerry Godliman pioneered it, but I’m naming it. Whitstable Pearl is “seafood noir” – and if it hasn’t yet inspired a whole copycat TV genre (which it probably will), it has certainly inspired a few visits to its real-world milieu. The crime show, set on the Kent coast, is currently into its third series of salty, sinister murders and lingering glances across the shingle, with Godliman as the seafood-slinging sleuth. But the true star is the location: real-life Whitstable has all the bobbing oyster yawls, creaking hulls and fresh-fish-fuelled charm of the show, but without simmering suspense between mussels and main course. Browse our tours of the UK and Ireland here Truth be told, you don’t need a murder mystery to find intrigue in Whitstable. A short hop from London – under 80 minutes by train – it’s long on seaside appeal. The harbour is still working, the high street still hosts actual marine supplies stores among the Breton-top-toting boutiques, and there’s still the sense that locals would be here with or without the influx of weekenders and the occasional TV camera crew. Start, as Godliman’s Pearl Nolan herself might, with a wander along Harbour Street. It’s a pick ’n’ mix of vintage stores, artist-run galleries and those irresistibly browsable little shops where everything seems to smell of driftwood and lavender. A few steps farther is the Harbour Market, where oysters are shucked to order for just £2.50 each, and you can pick up nautical knick-knacks. It’s either delightfully authentic or one puff of wind away from twee, depending on your mood and how many Whitstable Brewery Oyster Stouts you’ve had from the open-air bar next to the oyster-shuckers… The beach itself is no golden-sanded sprawl; instead, it’s a salt-tang shinglescape, fringed with candy-coloured beach huts and shaped by centuries of North Sea breezes. It’s a beach for dog-walkers and daydreamers, not for sandcastles or sunbathing, though when I visited last month the water was warm enough for a brief paddle. Meanwhile, the sunsets are Turner-esque – all pink slashes and purple spillages over the sea – and they make a fitting backdrop to a pint at the Old Neptune, a pub so close to the tide it seems to be considering a life as a houseboat. When it comes to food, there are few wrong turns, but a definite right one is Pearson’s Arms (pearsonsarmswhitstable.co.uk). Tucked off the seafront, it fuses pub comfort with a wink of polish. Downstairs, it’s all low-beamed ceilings and comfy armchairs by the fire, but head upstairs to eat and things get more refined: from oysters to Kentish apple and blackberry caramel. It’s the sort of meal you imagine Pearl herself would settle into after another long day of coastal criminality – although she’d probably have the whitebait. (She might also be tempted by local institutions Wheelers and the Whitstable Oyster Company, both book-ahead-busy for good reason.) As for somewhere to stay, the Duke of Cumberland (dukeofcumberland hotel.co.uk) nails that Goldilocks balance: neither too posh nor too pubby, but just right. Each chic and unique room above the historic inn is comfortable in a way that feels cosy rather than showroomy, and you can hear the hum of the town winding down below, a lullaby of clinking pint glasses and distant gulls. The breakfasts wouldn’t disappoint Pearl either: local sausages, black pudding cooked to crisped perfection, eggs any way you like, and coffee that decidedly doesn’t taste like it’s been siphoned through a lifeboat. After that, you’re all set up for a day’s top-quality pottering. There are side streets to duck down; cycle paths snaking all the way to Seasalter; a small, sweet “castle”; a lose-yourself-for-20-minutes local museum with a mock-up of a Victorian oyster yawl and more maritime trivia than you ever thought you’d enjoy; and even a must-visit Wetherspoon, the Peter Cushing (he was local), inside a gloriously un-redone old cinema. Much of this stuff, naturally, has found its way into Whitstable Pearl – the show uses its setting not just as background but as texture, layering the stories with local grit. Sign up to our mailing list to receive more content like this from Radio Times Travel, Shop and Money - click here And even if you don’t consciously chase the filming locations, you’ll still spot them. That pastel-fronted fisherman’s cottage? Pearl’s. The alleyway between the deli and the wine shop? Definitely the scene of at least one suspicious exchange. The real joy here, though, is stripping the fiction from the reality. The show’s dark, brooding atmosphere? Fiction. The buttery, golden-hour light and easy-breezy loveliness of a perfect seaside weekend? Very much reality. Request a brochure and get inspiration for your next holiday Whitstable Pearl airs Fridays at 9pm on U&Drama. Check out more of our Travel coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Jason Momoa's Chief of War pulls back the curtain on the 'real' Hawaii
If you want to get a taste of authentic island life away from the tourist hotspots, head this way…
As new Apple TV+ drama Chief of War was conceived by Jason Momoa to shed some light on the indigenous experience of Hawaiian tribes, and tells the little-known story of the bloody campaign to unite their warring kingdoms, I felt some sense of responsibility to echo this in my trip – albeit with some high-thread-count bedding. The first rule was to avoid Honolulu, surrounding island Oahu, and ‘The Big Island’ (Hawaii itself)… because thar be Taco Bells. The second rule was to try and glean some sense of an authentic experience whilst enjoying that comfort blanket of luxury. Tourism images often show a version of Hawaii filtered through social media, while Chief of War offers something different: a dramatic retelling of actual events through Native eyes, set against Hawaii’s own landscapes. A complete novice to Hawaii – which is quite common among Brits due to the length of the journey – I elect to spend some time in Lāna‘i, and Kauaʻi. The former, one of the least visited, is also the smallest: no traffic lights, one school for all ages, and just 30 miles of paved road. The latter is more a locals’ island: rainforest, strip malls, beach culture... and home to celebrities who no longer need to have LA on their doorstep. Request a brochure and get inspiration for your next holiday An 11-hour flight from New York under my belt (yes, we are talking about 20 hours total from the UK here), I lollop through Honolulu Airport to be met by a valet, who escorts me to my 12-person plane for the half-hour flight to Lāna‘i. Would it be this seamless if I weren’t staying at the Four Seasons (fourseasons.com) resort? Well, yes, this is a locals’ plane too – the choppy waves so loved by the global surfing community make inter-island boats quite the challenge. Four Seasons now makes up the majority of employment on Lāna‘i, which was once a pineapple plantation. In their two locations – the sprawling resort down at the beach, and adults-only Sensei located at an old lodge house in the ‘city’ – a genuine effort has been made to give you local flavour. That’s not only with the indigenous art and architectural touches in the resort, but classes which include lei-making, ukulele lessons and cultural tours. I take their 4x4 Holoholo Island trip, where I’m told by my guide that Lāna‘i is most likely named after Kauluāʻau, a Mauian prince banished here because of his wild pranks at his father’s court. Lāna‘i was said to be haunted by ghosts and goblins that Kauluāʻau chased away, bringing peace and order to the island – and it must have worked, as I spot neither. (There were plenty of stray cats, but the Lānaʻi Cat Sanctuary is working hard to rectify this. On visiting, you can sit amongst their furry residents as they crawl all over you.) Unlike the lush, drenched island to follow, Lānaʻi is sparse and alien, with its open plains and windswept rocky landscape. The scarcity of breadfruit trees, indigenous to all the other islands, is wrapped up in the Kauluāʻau legend – he ripped them all up, apparently. The Lānaʻi Cultural Centre, well worth a visit, tells the story of pre-Western contact, up to eras of ranching, plantation and tourism. It’s the lynchpin of authenticity on an island striving successfully to stay in touch with its roots (unless it’s the roots of breadfruit trees). View Green Video on the source website Over on Kauaʻi, known for its distinct dialect of the Hawaiian language, I pick up my rental, and immediately notice how much more tropical, and domestic, ‘The Garden Isle’ is. There are traffic lights, for one, but then supermarkets, restaurants, fuel stations... It’s lived-in. I arrive at beautiful The Cliffs at Princeville (cliffsatprinceville.com), overlooking Kauaʻi’s North Shore, wary that it doesn’t have air conditioning, but with the pleasant trade winds, this is never a problem. In fact, they pride themselves on their sustainability, committed to protecting the fragile local environment, including abundant cockerels who provide the entire island’s daily alarm clock. I’m a short drive outside Hanalei with its surf shacks, family-run restaurants such as Tahiti Nui and Bar Acuda, and from where you can catch a shuttle to the lush Hāʻena State Park. The town throngs with local life, right down to its picture-postcard beach, where I meet surf and shark photographer Mike Coots. He’s also a shark conservationist, with the twist in his backstory being Mike had his leg bitten off by a tiger shark. Two decades later, he found himself working on Discovery’s Shark Week, and, in a satisfying cyclical note, spending time with one of the hosts, Jason Momoa. Sign up to our mailing list to receive more content like this from Radio Times Travel, Shop and Money - click here Chief of War is an opportunity for visitors who want to better understand the islands, allowing them to engage differently. Of course, once it’s time for me brave the long flight home again, I suddenly want to see the ‘biggies’ I’ve missed: volcano park, Waikiki beach, Pearl Harbor... But the level of understanding of true island life gained on this trip is something that simply couldn’t be found on the main islands. You can fly to Hawaii with Virgin Atlantic and Delta, via Los Angeles. Chief of War starring Jason Momoa arrives on Apple TV+ on Friday 1 August – sign up to Apple TV+ now. Check out more of our Travel coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Where to see the world's wildest animals from Apple TV+'s The Wild Ones
Seeing animals in their natural environment doesn’t mean you have to compromise on comfort...
If you usually take an ex-Royal Marines sniper with you on holiday, you can stop reading now. For you, it will be enough simply to watch The Wild Ones (which starts on Apple TV+ next week) and copy the exploits of its presenters – wildlife cameramen Declan Burley and Vianet Djenguet, plus the former Royal Marines Commando who’s keeping them safe, Aldo Kane. From the deserts of Mongolia to the frigid oceans off Canada, the trio visit unpromising and inhospitable environments in search of tigers, whales, leopards and more, returning with the most amazing footage. But if you’re more “mild one” than Wild One, there are easy-breezy versions of each of their six trips – even as effortless as easing yourself onto a cruise ship… SO YOU WANT TO SEE... Tigers THE WILD ONES WAY Find the Malayan tiger (one of the world’s most endangered) in the rainforests of Malaysia. THE MILD ONES WAY Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan is one of the best places on Earth to see wild tigers (tourism.rajasthan.gov.in). Just a few hours’ drive from Jaipur – and its maharajas’-palaces-turned-luxury-hotels – this former royal hunting ground is now a protected sanctuary, where Bengal tigers prowl amid lakes, ruins and banyan forests. Guided jeep safaris run daily, but the best time to visit is between October and March, when the weather’s cooler and animals cluster near shrinking waterholes. Request a brochure and get inspiration for your next holiday SO YOU WANT TO SEE... Bears THE WILD ONES WAY Use thermal night imagery to track the Gobi bear across the Mongolian desert. THE MILD ONES WAY Alaska might sound even more extreme than Mongolia – except, of course, that it’s easily done by cruise ship (try princess.com). Almost all Alaska itineraries (by boat or car) include a stop in Ketchikan, from where you can take a short seaplane or coach ride to nearby spots such as Anan Creek or Neets Bay, where brown and black bears gather in summer to feast on salmon. Elevated viewing platforms mean you’ll get eye-level bear action from a safe, comfy perch – and possibly even a chair. July and August are peak season, when the rivers run red with spawning salmon and the bears turn up like clockwork. SO YOU WANT TO SEE... Leopards THE WILD ONES WAY Scour the Armenian highlands for one of the ten (ten!) remaining Persian leopards in the country. THE MILD ONES WAY Sri Lanka’s Yala National Park (yalasrilanka.lk) has one of the highest densities of leopard in the world, and the park’s open grasslands make it relatively easy to spot the elusive cats, with sightings most common in the dry season (July to September). Guided jeep safaris depart from nearby lodges, and you might also see crocodiles, sloth bears and some of the 300 elephants that call it home. The coastal town of Tissamaharama makes a convenient and comfortable base, with cold beer and hot curries waiting post-safari. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/06/28shutterstock2482269941-133b1c1.jpg" width="6368" height="3575" alt="Sri Lankan leopard, Panthera pardus kotiya, big spotted cat lying on the tree in the nature habitat, Yala national park, Sri Lanka.; Shutterstock ID 2482269941; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -" title="Sri,Lankan,Leopard,,Panthera,Pardus,Kotiya,,Big,Spotted,Cat,Lying" /> SO YOU WANT TO SEE... Rhinos THE WILD ONES WAY Brave the active Anak Krakatau volcano and frequent tsunami zone of Ujung Kulon National Park, where the world’s last few Javan rhinoceros roam. THE MILD ONES WAY The greater one-horned rhino is almost identical to the Javan variety, so no one perusing your holiday snaps will even know you weren’t out there in the jungle with Kane and the boys. That means you can head instead for Nepal’s Chitwan National Park (chitwannationalpark.gov.np). Stay in a comfortable lodge in the village of Sauraha, and take guided jeep safaris or canoe rides through the park’s riverine forests and grasslands. Want just a little more “wild”? Try an elephant-back safari… Sign up to our mailing list to receive more content like this from Radio Times Travel, Shop and Money - click here SO YOU WANT TO SEE... Whales THE WILD ONES WAY In the ice-cold Labrador Sea, the Wild Ones TV crew came within a whisker of being capsized by the tail fluke of a North Atlantic right whale. THE MILD ONES WAY Cetacean spottings are better when you know they’re going to finish with a wallow in a gorgeous geothermic infinity pool. Fly into Akureyri, on Iceland’s north coast between April and October (northiceland.is), and sightings of humpbacks, minkes and even blue whales in nearby Eyjafjordur are so common that tour companies offer “whale guarantee” policies. Boats depart daily from the harbour, and trips last around three hours – with insulated suits provided, thankfully. Bonus points: puffins, dolphins and spectacular fjord scenery are often part of the package. SO YOU WANT TO SEE... Gorillas THE WILD ONES WAY The Western lowland gorilla is said to have the strength of eight Olympic weightlifters – so naturally the guys go toe-to-toe with one in Gabon. THE MILD ONES WAY Rainforest hikes in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park (visitrwanda.com) may not be exactly a stroll in the, er, park, but they’re well organised, led by a ranger, and take no more than a few hours. Permits are limited (and a little pricey), so you’ll need to book (and budget!) in advance; but the experience – spending a full hour just metres from a wild gorilla family as they play, bicker, laze and watch you watching them – is once-in-a-lifetime stuff. Afterwards, you can soothe yourself in some extremely fancy hotels (try oneandonlyresorts.com). <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/06/28shutterstock2394160037-600236f.jpg" width="4877" height="3251" alt="Eastern Gorilla - Gorilla beringei critically endangered largest living primate, lowland gorillas or Grauer's gorillas (graueri) in the green rainforest, adults and child feeding and playing; Shutterstock ID 2394160037; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -" title="Eastern,Gorilla,-,Gorilla,Beringei,Critically,Endangered,Largest,Living,Primate," /> The Wild Ones is available to watch from Friday 11th July on Apple TV+ – sign up to Apple TV+ now. Check out more of our Travel coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Walking The Salt Path like Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs
You don't need to walk all of the South West Coast Path to appreciate its wonders.
Join one travel writer’s gloriously half-hearted homage to The Salt Path – the extraordinary true story of Raynor Winn and her husband Moth’s 630-mile trek along the South West Coast Path, now a major film starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs. In contrast, this luxury-loving imposter tackles just 40 miles (some by bus), fuelled by hot tubs, fish and chips, and samphire-scented hand cream. From cliff-hugging trails and Cornish pasties to barefoot beach walks and indulgent dinners, it’s a long-weekend escape that proves you don’t have to rough it to feel the magic of the coast. I’m a cheat. A charlatan. A fraud. Raynor Winn and her husband Moth – played by Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs in new film The Salt Path – walked the full 630-mile length of the South West Coast Path, flimsy eBay tent on back, after Moth was diagnosed with terminal brain disease and they were made homeless. Request a brochure and get inspiration for your next holiday I, on the other lavishly moisturised hand, am doing about 40 miles – several of them by bus – over four days, based at a luxury hotel (hence the grapefruit-and-samphire-scented mitts). Dishonesty never tasted so good, though, I reflect as I demolish my first ill-earned cardboard carton of fish and chips… or so necessary. It took Raynor and Moth two summers to complete the Path, between 2013 and 2014, and the official recommendation (southwestcoastpath.org.uk) is to allow 52 days. I’ve only got a long weekend, so have lasered in on a section in Cornwall that bulges like a badly stuffed backpack with clifftop drama, sheep-nibbled meadows, irresistibly paddle-able beaches… and great public transport links for if/when I need to bale out of a walk and head back to the Watergate Bay Hotel (watergatebay.co.uk) for a sole-soothing spell in the sunset-view hot-tub and a Huckaback IPA. In fact, it’s an effort to get off public transport. The train from London (gwr.com) arcs within splashing distance of the sea in places, with Panavision views through those widescreen windows, like a Coast Path walk for couch-potatoes , and I’m tempted to stay on to the end of the line. Instead, a ten-minute taxi from Newquay gets me to Watergate Bay, where the eponymous hotel sits about six feet from the sand. The Coast Path is even closer – if it ran any nearer to my gorgeous New England-styled room, walkers would be able to wash their feet in my rolltop bath – so there’s no excuse not to get a couple of miles under my belt. The stretch just north of here is a peach: infinite Atlantic views to the left, gently curving wildflower-strewn hills to the right. And the Path leads me to Mawgan Porth, where I pair that chippy dinner with a pint of Sharp’s from the pub next door and a picnic table on the beach opposite. Another 40 (now fully fuelled) minutes get me to Bedruthan Steps, a National Trust beauty spot where jagged sandstone stacks scattered offshore are said to be a giant’s stepping stones, but look more like he’s spat out a pack of half-chewed Mountain Bites or whatever it is giants snack on. I watch a sunset rich enough to scarlet not just the sky but the ocean too, then taxi back to base to see its long afterglow haunt the horizon for another half-hour. The next day I head south out of the hotel, a little hesitant because the Path passes through Newquay in that direction, and my memories of the place are largely of stag-dos (and indeed don’ts). With the weather on my side, though, I find I can bypass the town altogether by simply whipping off my walking shoes and barefooting it across the vast beaches here, each one the delicious colour and buttersoft consistency of Cornish fudge. My feet get damp and sandy, but dry off in minutes under a hot May sun, so I shortcut along the beaches of Porth, Tolcarne, Towan, Fistral and Crantock, too – rushing now to make it across Gannel Estuary at low tide, or it’ll be more than my feet that gets wet. Sign up to our mailing list to receive more content like this from Radio Times Travel, Shop and Money - click here I stop there for a vegan pasty “so good it will turn you vegan!”, says the lady who sells it to me (and it really might have been, if the sausage roll I got alongside it wasn’t even better). View Green Video on the source website Ending up at Holywell Bay – clearly recognisable from the film, as is Fistral – I stop, swim and get the bus back to the hotel and its fantastic Zacry’s restaurant, where the monkfish tail was as good as the views out to sea. I need an early night because tomorrow is a 20-miler to Padstow. Morning finds me on a track that heaves and plunges along cliffs speckled with thrift and sea campion, swooping past lighthouses, lifeboat stations, kestrel-heavy headlands and secret coves of improbable aquamarine. The Path hugs the cliff edge – and occasionally my soul – all the way into Padstow, where I hit Rick Stein’s Fish & Chips (rickstein.com/steins-fish-and-chips). This time I order a meal so big it comes in a pizza-sized box (it’s called the “Catch & Compare”, which perhaps suggests it’s meant for two…) but so downright delicious I happily eat it all myself. Life feels so good there on the old harbour wall, I can see why someone would want to do the full 630 miles. But next morning my calves are having none of that. Instead I spend a morning on (actually, mostly off) a surfboard, hired from Wavehunters, just ten mercifully short steps from the hotel (wavehunters.co.uk). I’ll catch up with Raynor and Moth Winn another day. Take a look at our UK & Ireland escapes - book your next holiday here The Salt Path is out now in cinemas on Friday 30th May 2025. Check out more of our Travel coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
5 travel spots where you can discover the dinosaurs of the past
Want to walk with Earth's ancient inhabitants in real life? Here’s how to discover your own inner palaeontologist.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. If the new Walking with Dinosaurs has got your inner child – or actual child – roaring with excitement again, we’ve got some brontosaurus-sized news for you. The scarily well-rendered CGI brutes on screen are more lifelike than in their last outing, 26 years ago, but still nothing beats the real thing – walking where T rex once stomped, or staring into the fossilised face of a triceratops or two. And it’s surprisingly easy to do: here are five prehistoric holiday hotspots for which the word “roarsome” was (nearly) invented... Dinosaur Provincial Park – Alberta, Canada Alberta’s Badlands look like someone let a T rex loose on a giant chocolate cake: all jagged ridges and sticky, swirled mudstone. This Unesco World Heritage Site (albertaparks. ca/dinosaur) has coughed up more than 50 dinosaur species – even casual hikers can trip over fossils. The park offers guided fossil safaris, where palaeontologists let you dig up 75-million-year-old bones. You can’t keep them, but you’ll leave with the kind of smug dinner-party anecdote no one can top. (“Oh, you went to the Maldives again? I found a hadrosaur femur.”) Base yourself in nearby Drumheller, home of the excellent Royal Tyrrell Museum (tyrrellmuseum.com), where the exhibits look like Hollywood sets but come with scientific credentials. Request a brochure and get inspiration for your next holiday Lark Quarry – Queensland, Australia When the new Jurassic World film hits cinemas in July, it will be hard-pushed to offer more drama than Lark Quarry – home to the world’s only recorded dinosaur stampede. Here in the Queensland outback, one day about 95 million years ago, 150 tiny two-legged dinos were ambushed by a predator – and panicked, leaving behind over 3,000 footprints in the mud. That mud hardened, time passed and now it’s like standing on an ancient film still. The on-site interpretive centre (dinosaurtrackways.com.au) is brilliantly informative, but it’s the footprints themselves – caught mid-sprint, mid-squabble – that bring the moment alive. It’s a kinetic, chaotic little scene frozen forever, like Pompeii with claws. Getting there takes effort (fly to Longreach or Winton, then brace yourself for serious road-tripping), but that’s time travel for you… Dinosaur National Monument – Utah/Colorado, USA Straddling the Utah-Colorado border like an argentinosaurus, Dinosaur National Monument is practically a greatest hits album of prehistoric life (nps.gov/dino). This national park’s star attraction is Quarry Exhibit Hall, where you can see more than 1,500 dinosaur bones still embedded in the cliff face: stegosaurus, allosaurus, diplodocus – the Jurassic gang’s all here. But this is only the epicentre of the area’s ancient action: cruise down Route 191 and you’ll pass Utah’s Prehistoric Museum, Jurassic National Monument and slightly less serious Moab Giants (where lifesize model dinos grimace unconvincingly at visitors) before arriving at Moab itself, sandwiched between Canyonlands and Arches National Parks. The jaw-loosening geology at these two would be worth the trip alone, but here the remains are so plentiful they don’t even get fenced off from the public – you can walk right up and step literally in the footprints of dinosaurs. Solnhofen – Bavaria, Germany Solnhofen might not be a household name, but it should be – because it’s where archaeopteryx, the world’s most famous almost-bird, was discovered. This delicate, foot-long feathered fossil bridged the gap between dinosaurs and modern birds, and it’s still turning palaeontological heads over 150 years later. View oEmbed on the source website The local limestone is absurdly good at preserving things, capturing not just bones but feathers, fish and soft tissue with photographic clarity. The Jura Museum down the road in Eichstätt (https://snsb. de/en/jura-museum-eichstaett/) and Munich’s natural history collections have the best displays, but some nearby quarries let you do your own digging. Fair warning: you’re more likely to find a fossil fish than a flying dinosaur – but stranger things have evidently happened in Solnhofen. Base yourself in Eichstätt, too: it’s a lovely old town with a strange and splendidly named old castle – Willibaldsburg – in the middle. The Bendricks – Barry, South Wales Proof that you don’t have to cross continents to find dino magic, Bendricks Bay (beside Barry, near Cardiff) is a low-key legend. Here, at low tide, you can walk among hundreds of Triassic era dinosaur footprints – some of the best preserved in the UK. There’s something brilliantly British about the whole thing: modest signage, a car park that’s half mud, and no entry fee in sight. But follow the shoreline footpath and you’ll soon spot the three-toed prints, just sitting there on the flat rock like they were made last week. Even better? You’re only five minutes from a decent chip shop and a beachside pub (not to mention the Barry Island seafront immortalised in Gavin & Stacey). It’s like you’ve gone back 220 million years, but with scampi fries and a nice pint of Brains bitter. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Walking with Dinosaurs begins on Sunday 25th May at 6:25pm on BBC One and iPlayer. Check out more of our Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Great Wall of China steals the show in Race Across the World
The contestants on Race Across the World are seeing some impressive sights on their travels – but will anything beat the Great Wall of China?
I first saw the Great Wall of China years ago, on a boiling blue April Sunday at the tail end of a work trip. I’ll always remember the three-hour drive north from Beijing, still bleary from the craft beers of the night before. We had been up late at a tavern called Great Leap Brewing, among the drinkers crammed out front, chatting and swilling in the muggy street heat. Perhaps that explained the mirage-like aspect of my first glimpse. After an age, with the road traversing monotonous tan plains across which giant pylons strode with menace, the landscape segued. The view grew steep and craggy, the way narrower. Through the windows came the perfume of chestnut, cypress and pine. Sprays of white jujube flowers coated the inclines. Casually, the looping road revealed lightning glimpses of coiled, crenellated wall hundreds of feet above, silhouetted on the sky, before we hairpinned and the forest closed in again. Sign up to our mailing list to receive more content like this from Radio Times Travel, Shop and Money - click here We came to a car park and boarded a bubble-car transit lift, that floated almost vertically over dark woods for a while before disgorging us at the summit. And there it was, zigzagging off to the horizon: Jinshanling, widely considered to be the Wall’s most beautiful stretch of all. It was a pinch-me moment: the Great Wall of China was never something I felt I would ever really see. Sure, it was always crystal clear in the mind from drawings in childhood books, yet somehow it was mythic, too, like Atlantis or the Lighthouse of Alexandria. The contestants of Race Across the World must have felt something similar, setting off from a section called Huanghuacheng, to cross China into Nepal then hurry to southernmost India and the finish line. No matter who wins, they will surely all agree that the first bit was the best. The Great Wall of China is quite dizzying to contemplate: a barrier against Mongol raiders, with piecemeal origins in BC times, knitted into a whole over centuries. The autocratic Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) was most crucial to its evolution, reinforcing and finessing it with curly-eaved watchtowers, beacons, cannons and lookout platforms into the vision we see now. The Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, around an hour’s drive from the city, offers stunning views There’s no arguing with the beauty of Huanghuacheng. The cold, clear waters of Jintang Lake merge in spring with hills of yellow huanghua flowers to form an impressive backdrop. Opportunities to witness it at sunrise, or illuminated by night, create indelible memories for millions of visitors. But at a comfy 90-minute remove from Beijing, for wild and unreconstructed romance it doesn’t fully compare with far-flung Jinshanling, which I witnessed that hot spring day. There are plenty of other parts to head for, depending on your stamina and time. The most visited stretch, usually by package travellers on whistle-stop tours of China, is Badaling. It was the first section to open to tourists, in 1957, and has seen luminaries from Nehru and Nixon to Queen Elizabeth II and Nelson Mandela pop up for a quick photo opportunity. But proximity (there’s even a half-hour high-speed train link from Beijing) alas means crowds – something to bear in mind if misty isolation is the theme of your Instagram posts more than selfie sticks and bobbing heads. Should Badaling sound too touristy, and Jinshanling too intrepid, I suggest a happy medium: Mutianyu, which remains pin-sharp in my memory from a visit five or so years ago, just before the world closed down. It was late in the year – October, almost November. In Beijing the days were crisp and the skies were clear, and I vividly remember the pagoda trees with their copper foliage leaning over the streets on the walk to the Forbidden City. Mutianyu was the perfect half-morning’s drive from the capital, although our departure coincided with a sudden chill as the sun retreated and clouds rolled in. The road there took us through blank grey towns and rolling orchard valleys with people selling squash and pumpkins at makeshift stalls. There were pyramids of produce and displays of a popular snack, mountain-hawthorn fruit glazed with hardened sugar syrup and threaded onto skewers like skeins of mini toffee apples. Request a holiday brochure from one of our partners At the base of the gondola lift to the Wall, a branch of Burger King was doing a roaring trade. Yet moments later we were far above the everyday proceedings, deposited beside the snake-belly stone walkway of the Wall, bucking away over the green hills, west and east, until it faded into the mists. There was time for a short walk before returning to the car, to Beijing and then on to the airport. But progress was tricky along the steep and slippery, almost boulder-like stones underfoot, which unnerved me. Not so the elderly Chinese tourists, however, who rustled by in blue plastic ponchos in case of rain showers. They appeared to me to be as sure-footed as mountain goats – perhaps there’s something in the DNA of a people whose agile ancestors patrolled a remote, unforgiving, astonishing feat of engineering and architecture that has captivated the world for centuries. Race Across the World continues on Wednesday 30th April at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer. Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Tour de Fred: Following Fred Sirieix's trail through Northern Ireland and Donegal
Follow Fred Sirieix's tracks around the north of Ireland – taking in wild seascapes, walks with alpacas and a pint of Guinness.
I look at my companion’s skin and contemplate, accidentally aloud, how warm it would keep me. “We’ll soon be selling beanie hats made out of it,” nods John, our guide. In my defence, I should perhaps point out that it is very windy indeed here on Ireland’s Atlantic coast – and that the companion whose hide I’m eyeing up is an alpaca, like a llama but with softer, more wool-like fleece. John keeps 50 of the sweet-natured beasts on a ruggedly beautiful patch of emerald upland called the Knockamany Bens, leading guests on hour-long walks with them (wildalpacaway.com). On mine, I rubber-neck furiously, torn between the photogenic furballs themselves and the breath-robbing views – the honey-coloured beach of Five Fingers Strand one-way, dramatic cliffs the other. We’re on the Inishowen Peninsula, the northernmost sliver of Donegal, where a quirk of cartography means Northern Ireland shares an east-west border with the South. Request a holiday brochure from one of our partners I’m following in the footsteps and tyre-tracks of Fred Sirieix, whose Tour de Fred: Northern Ireland reaches its finale here (and can be viewed on ITVX). The five-part series sees the broadcaster and former maître d’ cycle round from Dublin to Londonderry before crossing back into the Irish Republic for a taste of Inishowen. It’s a trip that’s really easy to replicate, even if you’ve no intention of straddling a saddle. Sirieix arrives in Dublin by ferry (irishferries.com), which has a certain romance, but there are cheap flights in and out of Dublin, Derry and Belfast. Hiring a car will open up some of the most dangerously scenic drives in Europe, but for safety’s sake bring a co-driver to share with, because it’s impossible to keep your eyes on the gorgeous road around, say, the Causeway Coast or rolling uppy-downy country roads of Antrim. Accommodation takes in everything from wee ma-&-da B&Bs to grand country-house estates; mealtimes will leave you satisfyingly stuffed whether it’s local livestock (I’ve never eaten better steak than at Belfast’s MeatLocker; michaeldeane.co.uk/meatlocker) or seafood. Grab fish and chips from either of the excellent chippies in Bushmills and eat them among the seaside ruins of Dunluce Castle. View oEmbed on the source website The produce in these parts is so good, in fact, that even a kitchen clown like me can’t mess it up. At Wild & Fired BBQ School (lo-slo.co.uk), I’m taught to “cook dirty” by laying my meat directly on the coals – and though I don’t pull it off with quite the Gallic élan Sirieix manages, the results are a revelation. Wild & Fired sits prettily beside Lough Foyle among the elegantly rambling gardens of Brook Hall (brookhall.co.uk), and Sirieix visits each in the final episode. Like him, I get both a botany and a history lesson on the guided tour, but the various walking tours available in Derry itself are a reminder that here, historic events aren’t confined to previous centuries. The murals, the walls, the flags, the bullet holes, the Peace Bridge – even the tongue-in-cheek ten-feet-high tribute to Channel 4’s Derry Girls painted on a gable-end in the city centre – they’re all powerfully visible evidence of just how recently the Troubles racked this city, and how far it’s come since. Beyond the bustle (and great live music scenes) of Derry and Belfast, though, the peace and quiet is palpable. Sirieix cycles the Mourne Mountains and Strangford Lough, out on the eastern edge of Northern Ireland, but you don’t need his steely thighs to enjoy them. The Mournes are walkable by even the normally footpath-phobic – true, their heights are dramatically imposing, but their lower slopes are gorse-jewelled, sheep-speckled, gently inclining curves, criss-crossed by easy tracks (walkthemournes.com). Up the road at Strangford, meanwhile, I find tranquillity where I least expect it: stand-up paddleboards turn out to be easier than they look (Strangfordloughactivitycentre.com), and I’m soon alone on the still, clear waters with only seals for company, the big-eyed beauties lounging on some Lough-edge rocks. Eventually, however, I succumb to the bike – albeit a cheat’s version. Borrowing an eBike (grassroutes.ie) and the vast brain of my guide Peter (discoverireland.ie/donegal/the-great-inishowen-derry-tour-experience), I spend my last day rolling through a landscape from a location manager’s fantasies. Tumbledown family farms, tinkling streams, contented-looking cattle, ancient Celtic crosses, stern Catholic churches, high wild peat bogs – and, most memorable of all, the call-me-home smoke-smell of peat turves burned for fuel in those farmhouses’ fireplaces. There’s only one way for this day, and this trip, to end. Earlier, I’d seen the future of booze at the chic, boutique, celebrity-endorsed Muff Liquor Company (the distillery takes its name from its home village of Muff; themuffliquorcompany.com). But at McGowan’s Bar, in the tiny Culineen village of Redcastle, it’s like I’ve stepped into the 19th century, and I’m warmly enveloped in the locals’ chat the minute I walk in the door. My pint of Guinness comes with a whiskey chaser, a shamrock drawn in the creamy head on top, and a good dollop of gossip. It may be a craic-worn cliché, but clichés never tasted so good. Sign up for our offers email and get entered in our monthly prize draw at radiotimes.com/prizedraw Tour de Fred: Northern Ireland is available to stream on ITVX. Check out more of our Travel coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Chef Jeremy Pang knows all the best places to find the authentic flavours of Hong Kong.
Feeding chicken’s feet and so-called thousand-year-old eggs to famous people might sound more like a bushtucker trial on I’m a Celebrity... than a travelogue-cum-cookery show, but they’re all on the menu in Jeremy Pang’s Hong Kong Kitchen, new on ITVX this week. The six-part series features Pang taking his guests – from TV presenter Mel Giedroyc to chef Simon Rimmer – on a foodie adventure amid the flavour-saturated streets of Hong Kong. Pang – familiar to viewers from appearances on Ready Steady Cook, Saturday Kitchen and his own show, Jeremy Pang’s Asian Kitchen – hails from three generations of Chinese chefs, so he certainly knows his way round a wok. So, where does he eat in Hong Kong himself, and how can visitors ensure that their trip is truly delicious? Sign up to our mailing list to receive more content like this from Radio Times Travel, Shop and Money - click here Touch down and tuck in “Flights into Hong Kong usually land quite early in the morning, so I drop my luggage off with the hotel concierge then go straight to a roast meats place until my room is ready. You can just Google 'roast meats central Hong Kong' and they’ll all be pretty good, because it’s a real HK thing and there’s a great deal of competition. “The way to order is to pick two meats, which will come on a massive bed of rice with a little sliver of vegetables. I usually add half a salted duck egg, then take the little bits of that to put into my rice to season it. “When I arrived for our recent filming trip, I went straight to a place on Queen Victoria Street called Lung Kee, which is brilliant.” ... Or try some fast food “If you want to ease yourself in to Hong Kong food, the fast-food joints you find in the shopping centres are really good – chains like Maxim’s or Fairwood. They have big picture menus up on the wall, so you can see what you’re getting, and you just give the number of what you want to order. “You’ll be well fed for a fiver, and it’s good, freshly made food: roast duck, barbecued roast pork, crispy pork, poached soy-sauce chicken with a bit of ginger and spring onion oil… “That’s a little less intimidating for the first-timer than going straight for dim sum. I took Mel Giedroyc to a really old-school dim sum place for the show, and while I had my back turned to pick some more dishes, she took the chicken’s feet I’d given her and calmly passed them over to our driver friend. It was a funny moment, so I hope it made the edit!” Pavement kitchens “There are only a few dai pai dongs left. The term literally means 'big licensed street stand', and they’re outdoor wok kitchens – the stalls aren’t on wheels any more, but you can imagine how they once looked. It will be just one or two chefs cooking, out on the street, with these massive burners and the kind of heat that will singe your eyebrows. What’s amazing is the speed they cook: a stir fry that we might do at home in five or six minutes, they’ll cook in 45 seconds. The skill is incredible. “Hong Kong kitchens are very vertical, as there’s not much space, so everything is stacked. There will be basketfuls of veg stacked by the prep chefs, to which, when you order, the wok chef will add the protein – dishing up black pepper beef and potatoes, or flash-fried chilli and garlic clams, or ginger and spring onion crab or salted egg prawns. There’s a great open-air stall called Oi Man Sang in the Sham Shui Po neighbourhood, where maybe 500 or 600 people each day are fed by two wok chefs and two prep chefs!” Request a holiday brochure from one of our partners Spam with that? “You should try a cha chaan teng, or tea house lounge. They started in the 1950s, and were what Hong Kong people saw as Western cuisine, so they serve really random things like instant noodles with spam and a fried egg on top. It might not be what you think of as Hong Kong food, but it absolutely is. There’s one called Tsui Wah that has recently reopened, over four or five storeys, and it’s open 24 hours. “Want something even odder? At Yung Kee restaurant we fed [food critic and MasterChef judge] Grace Dent a 'thousand-year-old egg', also known as a 'century egg'. They’re actually only about 30 days old, but preserved in ash until the white turns translucent and the yolk gets bluey-green. I like them, but the colour puts people off, and Grace’s face said it all…” Don't forget the chow mein “A lot of the Chinese comfort food that we know in the UK originated from Hong Kong. Sweet and sour, black bean beef, chow mein… they would all have come from Hong Kong and that region around it. So don’t feel bad about going to Hong Kong and ordering a nice, familiar sweet and sour. In fact, you should – because that will probably be the best sweet and sour you’ve ever eaten…” Jeremy Pang's Hong Kong Kitchen arrives on ITVX on Saturday 22nd March. His accompanying book Hong Kong Kitchen: Classic Recipes for Baos, Noodles, Street Food and More... is available now. Check out more of our Travel coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Why Jersey still steals the show in the new Bergerac starring Damien Molony
The new U&Drama show could reboot the island as a holiday hotspot.
Hard to say who was the bigger star of Bergerac back in the 1980s: John Nettles, who played the series’ namesake maverick detective; or Jersey, the show-stealing island on which he did his detecting. Sign up to our mailing list to receive more content like this from Radio Times Travel, Shop and Money - click here It was a counterintuitive phenomenon. A crime epidemic so rampant, on an island only nine miles by five, should have elicited a Foreign Office no-go warning. But instead Bergerac enticed visitors to Jersey in droves. The original drama, which ran on BBC1 from 1981 to 1991, beamed the largest Channel Isle into millions of living rooms, rendering skullduggery at its most alluring. Viewers were willing to overlook a spot of murder because the beaches looked so golden, the lifestyle so glamorous, the cars – Jim’s burgundy Triumph Roadster! Charlie Hungerford’s white Rolls-Royce! – so very snazzy. In a recent interview, Nettles distilled the show’s appeal: “At the end of the day, Bergerac was all about pictures. It was about beautiful islands and unlikely villains beating each other up on cliff tops in bright sunshine.” This month, the detective and his Roadster are back, with Jim played by Irish actor Damien Molony, previously seen in Being Human, Ripper Street and The Split. And it means Jersey is back in the spotlight, too. Just as Bergerac has changed during the intervening 34 years – the reboot is darker and grittier – so too has Jersey. Visit Jersey - Bergerac's Island with Just Go! Holidays You can still pay for your luscious Jersey Dairy ice creams with one pound notes (this is the only place in the British Isles where they’re still legal tender), but the rise of cheap flights to more exotic climes has put a dent in the tourist industry, and finance is the biggest business here now. However, the island hasn’t lost any of its good looks. Indeed, the creation of a National Park in 2011, which encompasses 12 per cent of Jersey’s landmass, including most of its coast, means those good looks have never enjoyed greater protection. And if some holidaymakers are choosing to head elsewhere, all the better. That leaves the island’s array of sandy, surfy, snorkel-friendly, craggy and bluff-backed beaches far less busy. You can find space on wide sweeps such as St Brelade’s, a star player in the original Bergerac. Or lose the crowds at cliff-tucked Bouley Bay, where scenes were shot for the new series – and where it’s practically illegal not to buy a crab sandwich from Mad Mary’s beach café. Capital St Helier features large in the reboot. This former fishing village turned seat-of-government turned 21st-century finance hub has a pleasing buzz, and is full of independents: shops hiring out e-bikes, jewellers selling handcrafted pieces, cool cafés brewing coffee from fresh-roasted beans. The historic hub is Royal Square, where the Court House, States House and Library flank the site of the French defeat at the Battle of Jersey in 1781. In the 16th century, this square was the main marketplace; the current Central Market, a few streets north, was opened in 1882. Around 40 stalls trade under its great glazed roof and handsome Victorian ironwork these days, selling everything from French cheeses to Jersey cow placemats – and providing a backdrop for new Bergerac shenanigans, which were recently filmed here. Request a holiday brochure from one of our partners There is significant history, spanning millennia, to be unearthed all across the island. Take the Neolithic passage grave of La Hougue Bie: dating from around 4,000 BC, it’s one of the ten oldest buildings in the world, its precise purpose the island’s greatest unsolved mystery. Meanwhile, Mont Orgueil Castle has been looming over gorgeous Gorey Bay since the 13th century. A tricksy maze of twisty passages, hidden rooms and spiralling staircases, with a total of almost 200 steps, leads to the battlements – any invaders who made it in surely stood little chance of finding their way out again. Maybe its cunning and secrecy are why the castle made frequent appearances in the original Bergerac? Recovering alcoholic Jim wouldn’t have spent much time at the Hamptonne Country Life Museum, a 15th-century farm evoking Jersey’s cider-making past – the tipple was once the island’s biggest export. And he would certainly have avoided La Mare Estate. Not only has cider production been revived there, but a sustainable vineyard – on the same latitude as Champagne – now produces quality wines. Jersey’s most immediate and striking historical remnants, though, are the leftovers from the Second World War, when the island was occupied by German troops. The Channel Islands were the most heavily fortified section of Hitler’s far-reaching “Atlantic Wall” leaving an excess of strongpoints, batteries and bunkers still scattered around. With the island marking the 80th anniversary of its liberation in 2025, it’s a poignant time to descend into the War Tunnels or take a bunker tour. This combination of liberation celebrations and a TV return, means that little Jersey is having a big year. Sign up to our mailing list to receive more content like this from Radio Times Travel, Shop and Money - click here Bergerac airs Thursdays at 9pm on U&Drama and is available on streaming service U. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The White Lotus locations: Where to stay, eat and explore in Thailand
Want to re-create the high life as seen in the latest season of The White Lotus? Here's how to visit Thailand either in luxury – or as a "mere mortal".
Settle into your sofas (or sun-loungers) because hit HBO drama The White Lotus is back for season 3, with director and creator Mike White offering us what he calls a “supersized” version of the show, one that’s “longer, bigger and crazier”. And this time, the backdrop is the beaches, Buddhist temples and bars of Thailand. If you haven’t seen any of it yet, do set aside some time to binge. Watching the 0.01 per cent as they holiday at one of the world’s most luxurious resorts, The White Lotus, is compulsive viewing. And although it’s entirely fictional, White has clearly taken some inspiration from the high-maintenance real-life guests he’s seen on scouting expeditions to Four Seasons resorts (the luxury hotel brand’s resorts have been used as locations for all three seasons). Keen to live the Lotus life, with fewer dead bodies and more bang for your buck? Filming for season 3 was stretched out over many months, taking in three main parts of the country. Choose one or try them all... Request a holiday brochure from one of our partners KOH SAMUI for glam hotels and splash-out meals The White Lotus way: Koh Samui is a small island in the Gulf of Thailand that’s packed with luxury hotels, one being the Four Seasons Koh Samui (fourseasons.com), a sprawling resort tumbling down the hillside of a former coconut plantation. It’s the most luxurious location yet – with prices starting at £1,000 a night. For that you get a seriously plush villa, each with its own private pool (plus monkey statues perched on the side, naturally), and a breakfast that’s not just the best in Thailand but quite possibly in the world. It’s the long, palm-dotted pool area and beach bar, CoCoRum, that take centre stage in hotel scenes, along with the peachy-sky panoramic sunset views at Koh Thai Kitchen. You don’t have to be a guest to eat there, so do splash out on one of the best meals on the island. The “mere mortal” way: Knock off a nought from that price tag for a stay at Tembo Beach Resort (tembo-samui.com), a boutique hotel and beach club with a seafront setting that’s arguably prettier than the Four Seasons. It’s a great spot for a day visit – with cocktails and snacks delivered to your lounger – while simple white-washed rooms with splashes of turquoise feel luxe enough without the need to spend a fortune. And if you’re keen to get up-close to elephants (but without riding them, which isn’t encouraged) try Samui Elephant Haven (samuielephanthaven.org), which takes in rescued pachyderms. View Green Video on the source website BANGKOK for city lights and canal tours The White Lotus way: The crew – and hotel teams – have been tight-lipped about exact filming locations, with lots of speculation around the Bangkok scenes. Turns out that White swerved the Four Seasons in favour of another predictably posh hotel, the Mandarin Oriental (mandarinoriental.com), right on the banks of the Chao Phraya river. Elsewhere in the city, we see shots of the giant, 20-storey-high golden Buddha statue of Wat Paknam Phasi Charoen temple, located on an island surrounded by the city’s centuries-old khlongs, or canals. The “mere mortal” way: Various long-tail boat tours rattle along the khlongs but they go so fast that you’ll barely catch a glimpse of the Buddha before it’s a dot in the distance. Slow the pace instead with a solar boat tour: you’ll see far more of the city, with a chilled-out captain showing you his top spots. As for your hotel, 137 Pillars (137pillarshotels.com) – with its rooftop infinity pool – is a steal, and surrounded by the cool speakeasy bars of Thonglor. Request a holiday brochure from one of our partners PHUKET for beaches, bars and local nights out The White Lotus way: It’s the largest island in Thailand, with epic sunsets to the south and tumbling waves along the west coast. It’s apparently this, along with those sublime, sandy beaches and huge spa that drew White to Anantara Mai Khao (anantara.com) as a filming spot. Vast villas are dotted across the resort, surrounded by lagoons, lily pads and resident monitor lizards living the good life. Muay Thai – the Thai version of kickboxing, and a huge part of the country’s culture – features this season, and Phuket is the spot for it, with dozens of open-air training rings lining the roads. The “mere mortal” way: You may be keen to give Muay Thai a go yourself – it’s not as intimidating as it sounds, and is very much the equivalent of heading to the gym for an aerobics class (in fact it’s a common workout for holidaymakers here). But matches are also a big social event, so if you’d prefer to sit back and spectate then listen out for announcements about live fights (they’ll blare out on speakers attached to a roving 4X4). Once there, you can guzzle cheap Chang beers and £1 Pad Thai noodle feasts while watching a couple of martial artists battling it out with standing sweeps and strikes. And if you’re craving a beachy hotel without the eye-watering Anantara price point, then it’s worth heading a little further north to the Phang Nga region, staying at the Aleenta Resort (aleenta.com). You’ll get more for your money, plus a blissfully empty beach (save for a few friendly dogs). Sign up to our mailing list to receive more content like this from Radio Times Travel, Shop and Money - click here The White Lotus season 3 is airing now on Sky Atlantic and NOW. Check out more of our Travel coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. 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How Hugh Dennis tricked David Baddiel into a 500km bike ride
David Baddiel explains why he agreed to cross France on two wheels with Hugh Dennis in More4's Two Men on a Bike – he got to go electric...
You’re doing an epic bike trip, David? Why? It’s a good question. Hugh Dennis is a very old friend of mine. For about two years he’s been trying to get me to go on this cycle ride in France with him, and I’ve been saying “Yeah, yeah, sure.” Then suddenly he announces it’s getting commissioned as a TV show, and I wake up and ask, “Sorry, how long is the journey?” He says, “Oh, just 500km,” and I say, “No.” Then I ask if I can do it on my electric bike… So you cheated… I was, basically, on a moped. My e-bike has a “turbo” button, and if you use that, you’re expending no effort at all – you’re essentially on a two-wheeled Tesla. Hugh’s incredibly fit, and has actually ridden the open stage of the Tour de France, so if I’d used a normal bike, it would have been just him talking and me panting. Which would be a shame, because the show is partly about us having a lovely chat, and friendship, and men finding a way to talk to each other. It’s funny but also affectionate, and not horribly blokey. Request a holiday brochure from one of our partners Weren’t you and Hugh deadly rivals in your respective comedy duos, though? There definitely was some tension across the divide on The Mary Whitehouse Experience [the '90s BBC comedy show that paired Baddiel with Rob Newman, and Dennis with Steve Punt], but that was because of Rob always wanting the show to be just the Newman and Baddiel show. After a while it did get tense, because Rob was not an easy person, but I always got on really well with Hugh. It’s like Celebrity Double-Act Wife Swap! That’s a good idea for a show. Who’s my dream comedy partner? Well, Eric Morecambe is the funniest man who’s ever lived, but I’d be putting myself very much in the straight-man role there. Bob Mortimer would be great, and he’s already done one “wife swap”, switching from Vic Reeves to Paul Whitehouse. Or maybe “The One Ronnie” – me and Ronnie Corbett would be fun. We’d look like a shortish version of the Proclaimers. Would you take Ronnie cycling in France? Did this show convert you? I wasn’t a big Francophile – I always preferred Spain or Italy – but now I think I was wrong. The part we were cycling [largely the route of the Canal des Deux Mers, between Arcachon on the Atlantic and Sète on the Mediterranean] is so beautiful. The food’s lovely, the small towns are amazing, and it’s very zen, because the canal creates this sense of endlessly flowing water. It’s wonderful to cycle along it, and probably the same – times ten – if you’re on a boat. The only bad bit was that cycling really does make your bum hurt, and I was wanting to soak myself in a bath or bidet at the end of the day, but the hotels only had showers. And I can’t do a headstand. Next time I’ll take a bucket in which to bathe my aching undercarriage. Sign up to our mailing list to receive more content like this from Radio Times Travel, Shop and Money - click here Two Men on a Bike airs Mondays at 9pm on More4. Check out more of our Travel coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
How to experience Costa Rica – without running from Bear Grylls
There's no need to rough it like Bear Grylls – Costa Rica's riches are there for all to enjoy.
No one needs to drink their own urine at the Four Seasons Resort Peninsula Papagayo. You might think that goes without saying in a hotel where rooms cost £5,000 per night, but it may nonetheless be reassuring to those who’ve been watching Celebrity Bear Hunt on Netflix. In the show, adventurer and ex-SAS man Bear Grylls has set up camp in the jungles of Costa Rica, where he teaches an assortment of A-to-C-listers survival skills – including, yes, the important role your pee can play in keeping you alive – before trying to hunt them down in the wilderness. Holly Willoughby – at a safe distance and dressed down by the usual, glamorous standards of Dancing on Ice – is his co-presenter. Request a holiday brochure from one of our partners Even with all Grylls’s tripwires and man-traps, however, Costa Rica’s tropical rainforest looks resplendent on-screen, and it’s eminently accessible to those of us who prefer piña coladas to, well, what’s being served at Bear’s bar. The Four Seasons – which, incidentally, is where Grylls stayed during time off from filming (fourseasons.com/costarica) – is just one of many accommodation options in Guanacaste, the coastal province where the show was shot. On my last visit, I took the more affordable route, basing myself just 15 miles up the coast, at the Riu Palace Costa Rica, where you can get seven nights all-inclusive, including flights and transfers, for £1,839 (tui.co.uk). It was a few days until I could be prised off the lounger; the beaches here, along Costa Rica’s Pacific coast, are softly sanded, scalloped coves, the colour of the inside of a Milky Way bar. If you’re fortunate and patient enough, you can watch sea turtles flopping ashore at night to lay their eggs. Alternatively, you can watch surfers doing their thing in the waves – or join them, since board hire and some seriously laid-back tuition can be had at little boho seaside villages, such as Tamarindo, for the price of a couple of beers. Beyond the beaches, around 30 per cent of the country is protected in national parks or wildlife reserves, so you needn’t go far for a taste of the jungle. Just up the road from the Riu Palace, I found Diamante Eco Adventure Park (diamanteecoadventurepark.com) – nothing to trouble Grylls or the more robust participants (Boris Becker, Mel B...), but with its mile-long zip-wires and rugged tracks, possibly enough for some of their less robust camp-mates (Shirley Ballas, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen). Request a holiday brochure from one of our partners As much as I enjoyed my horse riding and kayaking there, I wanted something a bit wilder. Through the TUI reps at the hotel, I organised a hike in Tenorio Volcano National Park (visitcostarica.com), including a trip to the tantalisingly blue pool at the foot of the Rio Celeste waterfall, a walk amongst the highest boughs of the cloud forest at Monteverde and white water rafting on the River Tenorio – where the howler monkeys laughed openly at me from their bank-side grandstand in the ceiba trees as I was pinged out of the raft for the fourth or fifth time. At Monteverde the highlight wasn’t – as you might expect – the place’s famous ‘sky bridges’ (skyadventures.travel), wobbly footbridges suspended at treetop-height across deep green gorges, but the initially more boring-sounding nature walk. Our guide, José, seemed to be able to summon animal sightings like a sorcerer, pointing out such exotically named critters as the tink frog, cat-eyed snake and blue morpho. The latter is a butterfly, even more iridescently azure than that Rio Celeste waterfall pool – enchanting as it flitted around using the woods, but actually magical later in the park’s butterfly house when one landed on my finger, like I was a passing Disney princess. There we could also watch butterflies emerging from their chrysalises and flapping their wings, uncertainly, for the very first time (as if to say ‘Whoa! What the hell are these?!’) before taking their tentative and wobbly maiden flight. The pretty, but a bit useless star of the show, though, is the adorable sloth, so dopey it sometimes mistakes its own arm for a branch and consequently falls out of the tree when it tries to cling on. They are not hard to find in Costa Rica; the legendarily lazy little tree-dweller sleeps up to 18 hours a day, and moves as slowly as molasses when awake anyway. But to glimpse one far away in the forest’s canopy layer is to miss half the fun. In Monteverde’s sloth enclosure, I’m treated to the kind of close-up a Planet Earth cameraman might win a BAFTA for, and I watch transfixed as a particularly active sloth (the jungle’s very own Grylls, perhaps) stirs, wakes, yawns, stretches, resettles itself… and dozes off again. They might not actually be lazy, says José, but merely have a drug problem. The leaves of their favourite tree have a high THC or cannabis-like content, he explains. Suddenly the beatific half-smiles etched permanently on their little pink snouts makes sense – but by this time I’m wearing one myself. And no narcotics were required – Costa Rica, it turns out, provides a wholly natural high. <a href="https://www.agepartnership.co.uk/mcx/equity-release/do:landing/mc0:InboundReferral/mc1:RadioTimes_Email/mc2:BrochureRequest_B/?utm_source=radiotimesmoney&utm_medium=solus&utm_campaign=week0825" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.agepartnership.co.uk/mcx/equity-release/do:landing/mc0:InboundReferral/mc1:RadioTimes_Email/mc2:BrochureRequest_B/?utm_source=radiotimesmoney&utm_medium=solus&utm_campaign=week0825"> Celebrity Bear Hunt is available to watch on Netflix now. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Check out more of our Travel coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Griff Rhys Jones goes across the outback by rail on a great Australian adventure
The broadcaster is entranced by the vast emptiness of Australia, which you can really only appreciate by train.
I first got the Oz train bug when I was in Adelaide, 15 years ago. I had, of course, flown to that southernmost city – but I then discovered there was a railway called “the Ghan” that crossed through the middle of the continent, trundling through the Red Desert (the one that roasted early explorers like ants in a frying pan) to tropical Darwin. Goodness, I longed to go; but, ironically, another route got me first, equally bizarre and enticing. This was the Indian Pacific – east to west, 4,352km, three nights, from Sydney to Perth, across a huge swathe of nothing. It is even called “nothing”: the “Nullarbor” Plain means “no trees” in Latin. Not just no trees, though; not much of anything else, either, for half the trip. Request a holiday brochure from one of our partners I was going home from Sydney and wanted to take a nonstop flight back to Britain, which you can only do from Perth, in Western Australia. I realised I could take this train to get there. And, as I rattled off through Sydney’s Blue Mountains, I discovered I was about to see the real Australia. “But you can’t go anywhere except up to the dining car and back, mate,” people said. That is the point. You enter a limbo. You are going nowhere, while going somewhere. Socialise a bit if you want, but you’re in the rolling stock sensory deprivation tank. And “outside” becomes the thing. I remember I sat gawping at the Nullarbor Plain for hours on end. Yes, no trees but plenty of blue-tinged, low scrub. It never alters. Flat, unchanging and mesmerising. After an hour, I went back to my book. “Oh look,” said my wife Jo, “an emu!” “What?!” I threw down the reading. I stared intently, much more intently this time, for another three hours. Nothing. Null. Just that scrub. Not a tweet of emu. No wallaby. None of the huge wild camel population. No sheep even. No birds and certainly no trees. If you take to the air, you don’t get a dose of the gritty certainty of this hopelessly vast and empty place. But rattle through by train and you understand why the most urbanised nation on Earth was made by the dust and light of its hinterland, out there, outside the window, out “back”. The train would occasionally stop and toss boxes of booze and packaging at a single man standing by a battered truck. At one point we took on water. I could see a house by the trackside, on its own, in the middle of a desert, yet it was surrounded by a wall containing a quarter of an acre, or less. Did that allow a bit of cultivation free of pests? But why take such a small amount? Go on, have a lot, why don’t you? Have a read of our latest travel brochure & plan your next trip We visited one “farm” that was a million acres. The railway station where we paused was 70km from the shearing sheds, but still on the farm’s land. The wool no longer went by train; it went by truck, and the sheep were herded to shearing by helicopter and trail bike. The train used to be the vital, irreplaceable link that made these places possible at all. It pulled special shop-trucks. It took kids away to boarding school in faraway Sydney. It brought soldiers back from the war. It let settlers find gold and get it out from Kalgoorlie. (They still do.) Other trains, up in the north-west, don’t have any people on them at all. Robot rail systems shift billions of dollars’ worth of iron to China. But the grand routes across and up and down the oldest landmass in the world are now there for tourism. Being Australian, the service is relaxed, chummy and big-hearted. You know, when I got to the end of that first trip, I was offered the chance to explore the whole Australian network for TV and I didn’t hesitate to take it. I did the entire Indian Pacific route again. I did the east coast, up past the massive banana plantations and out into Queensland cattle country. I left from Darwin and rattled down to Alice Springs, which is green, and Coober Pedy, which is red. I roped crocodiles, fell out of rafts, joined a mass of tourists for the silly gazing at a rock, which they sillily reached by jumbo jet. I drove along dried-up rivers and tried to interview an Aboriginal water-divining guide, while a mass of flies sucked at the water in our eyes. I found Australia and I would do it all again. Luckily, we made a record of the entire system. You can watch it on More4. But if you want to understand how the outback really is, my advice is go, and let the train take the “strine”. For more information, see journeybeyondrail.com.au Click here to sign up to our Radio Times Travel, Money and Shop emails to receive more like this Griff's Great Australian Rail Trip begins Wednesday 12th February at 9pm on More4. Check out more of our Travel coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Posso entrare? Exploring Naples with Trudie Styler
Posso Entrare? An Ode to Naples is available now on Disney+.
Say it sotto voce, but Trudie Styler – who’s just made a feature-length documentary about Naples – had only visited the city once before starting work on the film. Worse, she and her husband Sting spend every summer at their place in Tuscany, just five hours’ drive away. So... Why on earth did you make a film about Naples? Well, I’m not a stranger to Italy: I did three movies back to back in Rome in the 80s, I gave birth to a child in Pisa in 1990, Sting and I bought a beautiful but run-down home in Tuscany and created a vineyard and a winery we go to twice a year, and I run a business from there. But, like a lot of people, I had only ever passed through Naples briefly – people go on their way to the Amalfi Coast, for instance – and I was incredibly curious to discover it, because what we all do with cities that have question marks over them is minimise them. In the case of Naples, we say, “Oh, it’s too dirty and too dangerous,” but that’s not really good enough, because it’s actually an incredibly complex city, with a rich, 3,000-year history of 12 conquests and Spanish, Byzantine and Bourbon DNA there, which the Neapolitans are very proud of. Have a read of our latest travel brochure & plan your next trip That phrase in the title, posso entrare? What’s that about? It means “May I enter?” and it’s because everything began, really, by me knocking on shutters and asking if I could come in. Many of the street-level homes in Naples – bassi – have no windows, just shutters, so you can see right in and glimpse all the activities going on in the home. So I’d tap on the shutters, ask to come in, and be greeted by the lady of the house with open arms and coffee, and she’d sit at the table with her kids and tell me her story or her travails. Neapolitans love to engage in conversation; they’ve all got something to say. In fact, there’s a famous old song there that goes “Naples is a theatre”. The city does have a reputation for being dangerous, though. Can visitors feel safe? This idea that there are stray bullets flying everywhere is absolutely not the case. I’m not saying there is no more Camorra [the Neapolitan mafia]; they’ve been around for 600 years and are still there. But tourists in the historic area will just find the streets full of people and kids having the best time. In the little alleys – vicoli – people are coming and going all the time. It’s sort of like the street I grew up on, in the Midlands, where everybody was in and out of everybody else’s house all the time, and everyone was called auntie or uncle even though they weren’t. So I certainly didn’t feel afraid in Naples. So we just have to say, “We’re with Auntie Trudie” and the bad guys will leave us alone? Try it! But really, you’ll find Neapolitans very friendly. If you are a bit lost in the vicoli, they’ll not only give you directions, they’ll actually escort you there themselves. They’re all about community and they’re infinitely kind-hearted – you’ll have seen images of buckets being roped up and down to older people in apartments with no elevator, so neighbours will yell out to find what they need from the market. And we filmed a sequence at Bar Nilo, in the historic area – it’s one of many cafés in Naples where they have the tradition of caffè sospeso, “suspended coffee”. You buy two coffees, have one yourself and the other is left in credit for someone who comes later but can’t afford one. It’s a lovely place. I recommend it to anyone visiting the city. Request a holiday brochure from one of our partners Where else should visitors go? We shot a sequence at night in the historic area, and it was wonderful: on summer nights, everybody is out and about. The mayor has closed the Lungomare [seafront promenade] to traffic, so there are hundreds of people in the street, taking una passeggiata [the classic Italian see-and-be-seen evening stroll]. You’ve got views of Vesuvius, you’ve got the Castel dell’Ovo, the huge 2,000-year-old castle... it’s a very different, very lovely experience on those long summer nights. You haven’t mentioned food... Well, you have to go along the Lungomare, cross the road to the Castel dell’Ovo, have a look around, then go down a few steps and you’ll see six or seven restaurants, all as good as each other, with the freshest seafood and pasta your heart could desire. I usually have either spaghetti alle vongole [clams] or spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino [garlic, olive oil and chilli peppers] – so either very seafoody or very garlicky. I bet Sting prefers it when you have the seafood! I don’t think so... Posso Entrare? An Ode to Naples is available now on Disney+. You can sign up to Disney Plus from £4.99 a month now. Check out more of our Travel coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Taking a cue from Mark Wahlberg's Flight Risk: An Alaskan expedition
While it’s tense onboard the plane in Flight Risk, the surrounding Alaskan landscape is simply serene.
I was nervous enough even without Mark Wahlberg trying to kill me. In his new film, Flight Risk, the actor plays the pilot of a tiny light aircraft plying the routes above Alaska’s icy, mountainous wilderness; and I was about to board an identical six-seat Cessna for the 30-minute hop over the snowy state’s towering Wrangell Mountains. In the movie, it’s no spoiler to say passenger safety is not Walhberg’s first priority – he’s carrying a criminal about to testify against his mobster boss – so I’m a little unnerved to find my pilot, Oren, could be his twin brother: identically handsome, laconic, baseball-capped and casual as the small plane is buffeted by winds whipping off the glaciers and fogs as thick as the forests on their lower slopes. A few mid-flight lurches aside, I survive unscathed and am free to continue my road- (and air- and ship-) trip around the southern, more accessible reaches of Alaska. I’d started in Anchorage, after taking a cruise up from Vancouver, then headed east out on Alaska Highway 1. That may sound like a six-lane super-highway, but it dwindles into a looping strip of narrow blacktop that unspools between milky-blue glacial lakes, glimmering-white peaks and Christmas-tree-green forests. The settlements it links are tiny, frontier towns – at Butte, for instance, there are pretty much just two businesses: the Git N’ Go liquor store and Mountain Taxidermy (this is huntin’ country). Request a holiday brochure from one of our partners I shoot a bear myself, in fact, but only get its bottom – I’m just not quick enough with my camera phone. So the grizzly ambles off into the forest, and I amble off to bed at Alaska Glacier Lodge (akglacierlodge.com). It’s a “heli-lodge”, which means its log cabins come with nine choppers sitting on the lawn out front. On my visit, the weather’s too bad for their usual heli-hiking, heli-fishing or flightseeing trips (and this is in August! Welcome to the Alaskan summer!), so I roll back out onto Highway 1 and east towards Chitina, where I’m meeting Oren from Wrangell Mountain Air (wrangellmountainair.com) – half-fearing, half-hoping that the little bush plane won’t be able to fly, either. The population of Chitina is 71, so I wasn’t expecting Heathrow, but I’m still surprised that the “airport” is just a gravel strip marked out with traffic cones. I park my hire car next to Oren’s plane, chuck my bag in the back and the propeller starts. From 5,000 feet in the air, I can see for half a million years: there’s still a vast glacier covering much of the Wrangells, but the valleys and mountains carved out in the last Ice Age or two are easy to discern from up here. As we descend, I can make out the looming remains of Kennecott, a long-abandoned copper mine – and my home for the next couple of nights. Once a thriving community, it shut down when the minerals ran out and is now a ghost town. Kennicott Glacier Lodge (kennicottlodge.com) is a peaceful base for hiking, rafting, ice-climbing, glacier-walking and exploring the mining complex itself, but I can only stay two nights. To make my week-long route a loop rather than driving back the way I came, I need to catch a government ferry across Prince William Sound – and its boats only sail once or twice a week (dot.alaska.gov/amhs). Have a read of our latest travel brochure & plan your next trip Anyway, it would be a crime to rush the drive from Chitina down to the ferry port at Valdez. Parts of it are stretches of dramatically empty open highway; other parts wind between high-sided canyons punctuated by icemelt waterfalls. Valdez itself is worth a day or two, as well: I kayak among calved-off chunks of glacier and eat an orca’s allowance of fresh local fish, before eventually boarding the MV Aurora for the six-hour crossing to Whittier. On a “good day”, you can see humpbacks, killer whales and porpoises from the deck… but this isn’t a good day. Thick fog means all I see is a panning shot of endless green pines – but I dock at Whittier utterly relaxed. I’m not ready, then, for the bright lights of Anchorage (an hour’s drive up the fjord of Turnagain Arm), so I stop for two nights at Girdwood’s Alyeska Resort (alyeskaresort.com). The next day, it’s into Anchorage – and straight out again on an A330 home. I almost wish it was Wahlberg’s Cessna. Flight Risk lands in UK cinemas on 25th January. Check out more of our Travel coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Amanda and Alan swap Italy for Spain in their boldest renovation yet
Amanda Holden and Alan Carr are swapping Aperol for sangria as they renovate a “big but do-able” house in Andalucìa.
After two series renovating rundown old properties in Sicily and Tuscany, you two have decided to switch to Spain. Why, was it something the Italians said? AMANDA No, we’d just drunk them dry! Basically, they ran out of Aperol so we had to leave. ALAN Some people might use the word “deported”… But no, Spain is a genius move, as it’s still the show people love to watch – where Amanda and me do up an old pile in the sunshine and sell it on, with the proceeds going to Comic Relief and Children in Need – but different, because there’s no pasta this time. AMANDA So different! The house is in an Andalusìan village called Moclín, and we had no idea about the Moroccan influence down there, as well as the whale-watching, the skiing, the waterfalls, the Sierra Nevada mountains, Granada… I feel like not enough people go to Granada for the weekend. Everyone b****rs off to Madrid or whatever, but Granada is just beautiful, and the tapas bars are amazing. ALAN We fell in love with the place on the first day of filming, didn’t we? We got off the plane and drove straight to an orange grove, and by six o’clock that evening we were up ladders picking oranges. You have to stuff them down your top, so I looked like Dolly Parton or Cupid Stunt [a spoof character from the late Kenny Everett’s TV show]. Request a holiday brochure from one of our partners The property you’re renovating looks like quite the challenge. In the first episode, Amanda, you describe it as “Big, but do-able. Like Alan.” ALAN Oh, that stayed in the cut, did it? AMANDA It’s a compliment! But yes, we upped the ante for this series: it’s a much bigger building and we decided to turn it into a B&B and sell it as a business. So, when Casa Al-Amanda takes its first guests, who is making the beds and who is making the bacon and eggs? ALAN Amanda’s got form in the B&B business, as her family used to run one, and she was the chambermaid. She’s really happy folding up linen and plumping up cushions. I’d be more front of house, like Basil Fawlty, doing all the “ Hello, bonjour” stuff. AMANDA Or maybe “Hola!”. You’re more Manuel than Basil… Have a read of our latest travel brochure & plan your next trip Which makes you Sybil, Amanda… AMANDA [Passable Prunella Scales voice] Ooh, I know! ALAN We didn’t bicker too much, though; we were on the same page about most things. There was just one room we were both quite passionate about, and neither of us would budge. And let’s just say that one person got in there quicker with their ideas while maybe someone else was having their lunch… AMANDA Well, maybe let’s also talk about the time somebody nicked somebody else’s idea… Easy now. How did the two of you spend your time off? AMANDA Alan was looking for a house there to buy himself, as a little side project. Because there’s so much to see and do out there: in Moclín, you’re not far from the coast or the mountains; you’re about 30 minutes from Granada, and from the airport. Seville’s a few hours away, you can go down and get the ferry to Morocco, and there are these lovely little whitewashed villages. And the beaches are amazing. They’re so massive and empty, it’s like the Moon. We went to one, Tarifa, that’s the best beach I’ve ever been on. ALAN There were a few karaoke nights out in Malaga, too – Wuthering Heights or Stayin’ Alive for me; Don’t Cry for Me Argentina for Amanda. But even in Malaga, which gets slagged off as having too many Brits, we found some lovely quiet nooks. There was this little family-run place on the beach where you pay for the food by how many plates you eat, and he’s had to put in a concrete floor because people kept hiding the plates under the sand! That was a real hidden gem. So, would you go back? Perhaps holiday there together? ALAN We do holiday together! Last year we shared a villa on Corfu. AMANDA You can see it on Instagram. We met up with [Britain’s Got Talent 2024 winner] Sydnie Christmas, and we went “donutting” on the water, but Alan couldn’t fit in his donut. That video’s had 17 million hits! ALAN I broke the internet… and the donut. AMANDA But we have been back to Moclín already, actually – to film next year’s Christmas special of the show. And we liked it so much, we took our families: my husband and kids and parents came out. In fact, my mum and dad went out on a bender there with Alan’s mum and dad. It was gorgeous – and also just a real relief to see that everything we had put up in the house was still up! Take a look at our holidays to Spain and follow in the footsteps of Amanda & Alan yourself! Amanda and Alan’s Spanish Job Friday 8.00pm BBC1
Branching out: The UK’s most enchanting treehouse retreats
Sleeping among the branches in a treehouse is utterly enchanting — and doesn’t mean skimping on comfort.
Note to (s)elf: I must, despite obvious similarities, resist comparing Sandi Toksvig to a woodland sprite. The trouble is, she’s so very pixie-ish. The half-pint height, the chuckling good humour, the eyes-wide enthusiasm for all things forested – once you’ve seen her Great British Woodland Restoration, it’s impossible to ignore the sylph/Sandi parallels. Which is why, when I recently took my kids to stay at one of the country’s newest and loveliest treehouse hideaways, they saw gnomes and goblins and will-o’-the-wisps every time the dusk breeze moved a frond glimpsed from the corner of their eyes, and I kept catching an imagined glimpse of Toksvig. Elves aside, it’s impossible not to fall at least a little under the enchantment of the woods when you spend the night among its branches. Toksvig’s new series certainly catches some of the magic of the UK’s trunkscape, but even for those who have not seen it, the idea of a treehouse stay remains redolent with memories of childhood escape, illicit adventure and cosy charm. Request a holiday brochure from one of our partners And TreeDwellers (treedwellers.co.uk) doesn’t disappoint in any of those aspects. Set in a lovely copse of tall Scots pines in the middle of the Cotswolds, it consists of seven individual one- or two-bedroom retreats. Inside they’re all eco-feel, wood-and-pale-palette soft furnishings, with luxurious bathrooms and cute mini-kitchens. From the outside they’re more sci-fi habitation pod than kitschy Hansel and Gretel log cabins, with curving walls and wide-screen windows that look like spaceship cockpits. In short, they would be a blast to stay in wherever they were – but put them three metres up in the treetops, and they’re magical. In the early morning mists, the site feels like a primordial land that time forgot; as evening creeps and spreads from beneath the branches of the trees, and soft lights beckon you home to your treehouse after a long walk, it’s all more Lord of the Rings. And you will want to walk: TreeDwellers sits on the edge of Cornbury deer park and within 20 minutes’ march of a couple of classic Cotswold inns in exquisite thatch-heavy hamlets. For the non-walkers, and those with accessibility needs, one of the treehouses is placed cleverly above a dell so that you sleep at branches-level without the need for stairs – which means the place truly works for ages nine to 99. And if you’re nowhere near the Cotswolds? Try one of these instead… LIVING ROOM, POWYS Round windows, rope bridges, handmade lanterns and wood-burning stoves to heat your treehouse and its springwater shower because there’s no electricity – if hobbits had architects, this is what they’d come up with. Set amid a 280-acre sheep farm near Machynlleth, these six whimsical treehouses are only reachable via a woodland walk, spiral staircase and those wonderfully wobbly rope bridges. Inside, expect a haven of bone oak, western red cedar – and utter peace. (living-room.co) THE TREEHOUSES AT LANRICK, PERTHSHIRE If “Treecreeper” sounds like a horror film, relax. The five treehouses here are all named after woodland bird species – so if you don’t fancy Treecreeper, there’s always Nuthatch, Pipit, Willow Warbler or Flycatcher. All are huge, with proper kitchens and living rooms, plus decks, outside showers and super-king-size beds – and all share the peace of their location, within dreamy earshot of the River Teith, in 1,500 acres of forest. Within easy reach of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Loch Lomond, Lanrick is right at the start of the Highlands. (lanricktreehouses.co.uk) RAMSIDE HALL, COUNTY DURHAM There’s nothing very wildernessy about the treehouses at Ramside Hall: they overlook the 18th hole at a hotel, golf club and spa on the edge of Durham. On the other hand, guests get to experience a level of luxury and a sophistication of decor you would expect from a Manhattan apartment rather than a forest bothy. Sexy black leather Chesterfields, chic granite bathrooms, Scandi-look stoves and furs and pale woods – if you’re not prepared to compromise your urban aesthetic sensibilities just because you’re 20 feet in the air, this is definitely the place for you. (ramsidehallhotel.co.uk/treehouses) Request a holiday brochure from one of our partners WOLF WOOD, DEVON What, you’re telling us your childhood treehouse didn’t have a sauna in it? Well, at last you can put that right: the four treehouses at Wolf Wood are as high-end as they are high up, and come with various permutations of sunken hot tubs, waterfall rainshowers, rolltop baths and, yes, saunas. Not even the fancy facilities can distract from the views through the floor-to-ceiling folding French doors, though: you’re in 12 tranquil acres of native woodland between Dartmoor and the North Cornwall coast. (wolfwoodtreehouses.co.uk) WEST LEXHAM, NORFOLK If you want your wilderness with a slice of wellness on the side, West Lexham is the place for you. A “wellness retreat centre” near King’s Lynn that just happens to have half a dozen treehouses alongside its wooden cabins and bell tents, the place is a hippy heaven, with everything from Zen Belly Retreats to Chanting Stork Yoga on offer (don’t ask us). Set in 22 acres of land, the accommodations, some of which are big enough to sleep six, are pretty boho, too, with some crazy colour schemes, and there’s also a communal bathing house. (westlexham.org)
A travel guide to 'The Road Trip’s' Gran Canaria
Follow the cast of new TV drama The Road Trip, and find your own adventure on Gran Canaria.
There’s so much sunshine in the new six-part Paramount+ drama The Road Trip, you can almost soak up the vitamin D through the screen. Based on the bestselling novel by Beth O’Leary, it follows Addie (Emma Appleton), a spirited 20-something who’s spent two years living on her sister Deb’s couch after a romantic break-up. Now she’s taking a ferry from Bristol and driving through Spain in her campervan to get to a wedding at which her ex, Dylan (Laurie Davidson), will also make an appearance. But even before she’s cleared the border, a car accident forces her to allow Dylan – and his mate Marcus – along for the ride, together with her sister and a fellow wedding guest, Rodney. The drama flip-flops between two timelines – the tumultuous road trip through Spain, and the early days of Addie and Dylan’s relationship that, coincidentally, begins as a holiday romance in Málaga – and it’s set against a backdrop of mountainous terrain, coastal drives and quaint pastel-coloured villages. It’s the perfect sunny summer holiday, served up on a television-sized platter. Request a holiday brochure from one of our partners Following in Addie’s flip-flop prints – on Gran Canaria, where the show was shot – I arrive at the resort town of Maspalomas, and savour those famously reliable rays of Canary Island sunshine on my skin. I’m staying at Seaside Palm Beach (hotel-palm-beach.com), a five-star resort on the coast, where pristine white umbrellas shade sun-kissed retirees sipping cocktails and completing crosswords. I dive into the turquoise blue pool and swim to the island in the middle; looking out, green-topped palm trees and clear blue skies are the only things I can see. In the evening, I stroll through the “Little Venice of the Canaries”, Puerto de Mogán. It’s a picturesque marina and the sunset burnishes its beauty, reflecting the yachts in the glittering water. The harbour front is alive with vibrant restaurants and the delicious scent of meat grilled over charcoal. The surrounding streets are lined with white houses and their brightly coloured doors and windowpanes; trellises are bejewelled with pink and purple flowers. The location exudes romance – Addie and Dylan first meet at a charming local restaurant – and it’s easy to see why Gran Canaria, with its bustling, delicious night scene, has been chosen as the backdrop for their love story. It’s a short drive from here to Restaurante 360, which boasts fine dining and a panoramic view of a lit-up Maspalomas (bohemia-grancanaria.com/es/restaurante-y-cocktail-bar). The place has an elegant ambience, with refined décor, but it’s the food that takes centre stage. The tasting menu has five main dishes, followed by dessert – all paired with wine sourced from the Canaries. The crispy octopus croquettes, wrapped in a salty serrano ham and coated in a rich piquillo sauce, are delightfully crunchy, while the lamb shank terrine is so soft it flakes under the slightest pressure from my fork. The next morning, I leave Maspalomas behind and enter The Road Trip territory, driv[1]ing through winding roads that curve through mountainous peaks. The landscape, like that in the series, is arid, the desert-like terrain a stark contrast to the bright-blue sky. I stop at a viewpoint, Mirador Astronómico de la Degollada de las Yeguas (you’ll be able to spot it in the show), that overlooks a rocky valley scorched by a dirt road zigzagging through it. As I drive higher up, the terrain shifts, giving way to rolling hills that feel almost alpine. I get out of the car and enjoy the tranquillity as the clouds drift over the mountain range. Next stop on my tour is the village of Agüimes, where I get to watch, briefly, a scene from The Road Trip being filmed in a portion of the village that has been cordoned off. It’s a scene close to the climax of the drama, and the sleepy surroundings contrast with the heightening tension between Addie and Dylan. A brilliant white church looms majestically – and filming is briefly interrupted as its bells ring out. The final leg of my journey is to the capital of Gran Canaria, Las Palmas, where cast and crew were put up during the shoot. (Its cobbled streets and sandy-coloured buildings also feature in the series.) I’m particularly moved by the Catedral Metropolitana de Santa Ana de Canarias, which stands majestically at the head of a square. It has an elegant, unfussy façade – but as I venture closer, I see the intricate design of the stained-glass windows and how the light plays with their rich colours. People-watching in the square is equally enjoyable: an old couple sit hand in hand on a bench, deep in conversation, youngsters mill about laughing and flirting, tourists take pictures. For dinner, I eat local at Casa Montesdeoca (restaurantecasamontesdeoca.com), with fairy lights on its bare stone walls and tables set among trees growing in its courtyard. The next day, I say goodbye to the unflinching sunshine and leave for the UK. No more three-hour lunches with crisp white wine, but at least I can watch The Road Trip for a fix of vitamin sea. Request a holiday brochure from one of our partners
Vienna as seen in The Empress: tradition, elegance, and modern flair
The elegance of The Empress’s Austria is everywhere today.
Once at the centre of Europe, both culturally and politically, Vienna has never strayed from its reputation as a sophisticated, traditional city of neoclassical or baroque buildings, heavy food and old-school class on every gilded corner. Indeed, ostensibly, that’s why I’m here: to experience the Vienna of Empress Sisi – the Austrian Princess Diana, the tragic Queen of Hearts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and of course the subject of hit Netflix drama The Empress, back with a much-anticipated second season. Season one of the German-language series would have pulled you in with the cake-decoration aesthetic of the city, the finery of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at its peak, with the frivolities that went along with it… and it’s all still there in the modern metropolis, albeit with more hot-dog stands, less international clout, and a clean and efficient metro system. The museums, galleries and grand hotels scream out for a nosey. The famous finery, craftsmanship and price tags can be located at such long-established nooks as footwear manufacturer Scheer, silversmiths Jarosinski & Vaugoin and piano-maker Bösendorfer. But you already know this version of the city – in fact, so many people know this side of it that the queue to visit the Sisi Museum in the Imperial Palace can be up to an hour long. Request a holiday brochure from one of our partners Fortunately, among the schnitzel, strudel, concertos, whirls and wieners, there is an incredibly buzzy, modern, sophisticated, citizen-friendly metropolis out there. This modern luxury is summed up in my accommodation, Hotel Amauris (theamauris.com). Opposite the State Opera – built in the neoclassical as opposed to baroque style – it houses forward-looking Restaurant Glasswing, which uses ingredients from local producers. The hotel decor nods to the sumptuous past while being airy and contemporary. Another excellent example of the modern lying just beneath the surface is Pramerl and the Wolf. Appearing as a traditional Viennese gasthaus (pub) from the outside, the façade belies a contemporary, small-cover Michelin-star restaurant, with imaginative twists on classics, sensational flavours and equally impressive wine pairings. If you’re of a more literal mind, then just below the city surface is the Krypt Bar (krypt.bar), where a narrow stairway opens out onto a vaulted cellar – allegedly with a history as a “semi-legal” jazz club (semi-legal jazz being my favourite genre) – that now houses a stylish-but-lively bar. The Empress does a good job of reminding us of the geopolitical clout the Austro-Hungarian Empire had until the First World War; and a stroll through Prater park, once the exclusive hunting ground of the royals, tells a similar story. It was given over to the public in 1766, accommodating one of the world’s oldest amusement parks, with its famous Ferris wheel. This manicured, old Europe gives way to Campus WU, not just part of Vienna University but an extension of the public space for the 21st century. It’s popular with visitors, but has also received accolades from the juries of international architecture competitions, thanks to its kooky, uplifting modern designs and environmental qualities – well worth a saunter on a sunny Sunday morning. It is, of course, important to embrace the traditional as well as the modern… by which I mean I was looking for an excuse to have some cake. The Café Landtmann (landtmann.at), which opened the same year as the World’s Fair happened, is a popular meeting place for actors, politicians, officials and journalists. I order a sliver of Vienna’s famous Sachertorte – a heavy chocolate cake – and coffee, assuring myself that I am the modern element in this wholly traditional establishment. I settle in to watch the comings and goings from the national theatre, immaculate public park and town hall over the road. Request a holiday brochure from one of our partners It’s a view that frames the Viennese mindset: well-presented, melding old and new, and embracing of its people. Yes, it’s a city fit for royalty, but its inclusivity and modernity mean that everyone can come to the ball. For more details visit vienna.info
Gary Barlow’s South African wine adventure: a tour of vines, views, and fine dining
Gary Barlow is back on tour — but not with Take That. He’s indulging his passion for wine on a trip to South Africa’s finest vineyards.
Introducing his new TV series, Gary Barlow announces: “I’m ambitious with a pair of undies, apparently.” He’s talking about his holiday wardrobe, it turns out (“My wife reckons I underpack”), but in fact the Take That frontman has ambitions in all sorts of directions. Not content with having singer, songwriter, record producer and OBE on his CV, Barlow is now also a “wine entrepreneur” and has sold the equivalent of ten million glasses of the stuff since he started his label in 2021. He was a natural choice, then, to guide viewers around the wineries (and eateries) of one of the world’s leading producers, in the ITV series Gary Barlow’s Wine Tour: South Africa (now available to watch on catch-up service ITVX). But you don’t need any great expertise – or an OBE – to enjoy a plonk-powered trip round the Rainbow Nation. Wine country starts in Constantia, which is just the other side of Table Mountain from Cape Town (a no-jetlag direct flight from London). Heading the other way, but still just a 40-minute drive (on the left!) up the N1 or N2 motorways, are the big-hitters of Stellenbosch and Franschhoek, with other, more under-the-radar regions dotted prettily around the country, too. The views are as good as the booze: bottle-green vineyarded hills roll away into the distance in all directions, punctuated by cute Cape Dutch villages, with the dramatic Hottentots Holland Mountains in the background. For foodies, there are seafood feasts and plentiful farm-to-table outfits, and the Winelands are easily combinable with a safari, or the forest-fringed, beach-bordered whale playground of the Garden Route. Here are four of our favourite wine regions for you to sample… Request a holiday brochure from one of our partners CONSTANTIA SERVE WITH… A SLICE OF HISTORY This is the oldest wine-making region in South Africa – its Vin de Constance was Napoleon’s daily comfort when he was exiled to St Helena – and it’s particularly famous for its sweet wines. A 30-minute drive south from Cape Town, it’s highly day-trippable for those who want only a taste of the Winelands. And for those who want to sample the wares without worrying about legal limits there are plenty of sightseeing buses that cover the route. If you decide to linger, there are lovely places to stay: Steenberg (steenbergfarm.com), for instance, was the Cape’s first farm (in 1682), but now offers the full golf-spa-great restaurant-lovely hotel deal alongside its sauvignon blanc, which is some of the country’s very best. Why not try Newmarket Holidays Safari to South Africa? FRANSCHHOEK SERVE WITH… FINE DINING Peckish? Franschhoek is the foodie capital round these parts (and you’ll eat extremely well anywhere in the Winelands, so that’s quite a compliment). Chefs, cheese-makers and chocolatiers flock here, and the town’s villagey main street is thronged with fantastic restaurants at low prices. The wines to try here include Method Cap Classique – sparkling stuff with a flavour that’s richer than actual champagne, and a price tag that’s considerably smaller. La Motte (la-motte.com) is a big draw, and deservedly so, but some complain that the wineries are a bit twee (there are a lot of rosebushes around). If you prefer something a bit funkier, Black Elephant Vintners runs tastings that pair wine and rock music (bevintners.co.za). And if you need to sleep off your hangover Franschhoek Country House & Villas hotel (fch.co.za) is a gorgeous place to stay. HEMEL-EN-AARDE, OVERBERG SERVE WITH… SEA AIR Who says you can’t have a winery by the beach? An hour and a half south-east of Cape Town, you can stay in surfy Hermanus and, from June to October, watch southern right whales calving in Walker Bay. Then, once you’ve pottered yourself up a nice thirst, tuck into the chardonnays, sauvignon blancs, pinot noirs and bargain sparkling wines from the vineyards behind. Hamilton Russell Vineyards (hamiltonrussellvineyards.com) is all old-school elegance with some classic chardonnays and pinots; La Vierge is newer, cooler, has a great restaurant and offers some less common varietals (lavierge.co.za). The Marine Hotel has high-end rooms overlooking the ocean (themarinehotel.co.za). Explore more of our holidays to Africa here STELLENBOSCH SERVE WITH… A BIT OF BUZZ It’s all relative, isn’t it? Anywhere else, Stellenbosch would be described as “sleepy”, but compared with laidback Winelands, this small city (complete with university) is a throbbing metropolis. That means you don’t even have to leave town to sample the good stuff: on Dorp Street, antique shops alternate with bars and cafés stocked with produce from the 130-odd local wineries. It’s worth venturing out, however: not only are the swankiest estates found round here, but also the grandest wines. Delaire Graff combines both, with its vast gardens, sculpture-stuffed hotel, restaurant and spa alongside silky syrahs and zingy chardonnays (delaire.co.za). Try one of the many multi-vineyard tours that are available around Stellenbosch via anything from horseback to hiking to tuk-tuk.
Croatian delights - The Day of the Jackal
Croatia is no stranger to the emerging trend of “set-jetting”. (See what they did there?) Both Dubrovnik and Split, in the south of the country, are inundated with Game of Thrones fans, all trekking down those steps looking to re-create their favourite scene. The north, however – its regions sitting roughly on the same latitudes as Venice or Bologna, across the Adriatic – has remained relatively unexplored… Until now. But Eddie Redmayne and his cast-mates descended on those northern provinces last autumn in order to film the big-budget TV version of The Day of the Jackal. The original novel, though mainly based in London and Paris, galloped across Europe, following the exploits of an assassin for hire. As it’s brought up to date for Sky Atlantic, we’ll see most of the Croatian scenes in the later episodes. But it’s immediately obvious why this country is so appealing to location scouts: sure, there are the tax incentives, which means productions as diverse as Doctor Who, James Bond, Succession and the aforementioned Game of Thrones have been drawn here – but it’s the stunning, unusual and diverse landscapes that keep them returning. I start with a couple of nights in the capital, Zagreb, its architecturally striking airport posing as an Andalusian terminal in The Day of the Jackal. Zagreb feels like a quieter Berlin – northern European architecture, riddled with history on every corner – still on the long road of healing from a war of independence that only ended in 1995. I base myself in the Sheraton (marriott.com), a hotel that serves as a useful metaphor for the city: grand architecture, incredibly welcoming and still undergoing renovations. The place has a real bar and café culture, with the Michelin-recommended Pod Zidom Bistro (podzidom.hr) signalling its trajectory: local, seasonal, innovative and friendly. The unlikely cultural highlight is the Museum of Broken Relationships (brokenships.com) – dedicated to failed love. Its exhibits include personal objects left over from former lovers, accompanied by brief descriptions, and at first it’s amusing, then altogether more moving I purchase a souvenir rubber that reads “Bad Memories Eraser”. Into the rest of the northern country, it’s a two-hour drive to the Adriatic coast, and Opatija. It was in a picturesque caravan park (rivijera-opatija.hr) where many scenes for the new drama were filmed, and it overlooks a turquoise sea, craggy tumbledown cliffs, and clusters of pastel-coloured buildings with a hint of the Wes Anderson about them. The town itself dates back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire; the elites summered and swam in the crystal-clear waters here. To view all holidays to Croatia Today, institutions such as the Hotel Imperial (liburnia.hr) retain this grandeur, and the pretty town remains geared around tourists, with several excellent seafood offerings. Try the restaurant Plavi Podrum, with its harbour views, in neighbouring Volosko; the seaside fine dining of Tavern Zijavica; or the elevated, dramatic sea views of Restoran Bevanda. It’s in Bevanda that I’m first introduced to Croatian wine. It’s not that widely available – because they selfishly drink it all before it leaves the country – but a wine region tour around this beguiling country would be worth a trip on its own. (“I tasted it while I was there,” Redmayne told Radio Times, “and it was exquisite.”) Down the road in the city of Rijeka – another filming location – I spend time in a city that was awarded the title of European Capital of Culture in the fateful year of 2020. Still, this buzzy metropolis has a flourishing arts scene and a patchwork, charming quirkiness derived from its port-town roots and variety of rulers: the Austro-Hungarians, the kingdom of Yugoslavia, the communists of Tito’s rule… an ideal balance of glamour and grit. Split, Zadar and Secrets of the North Yacht Cruise for 7 nights Along clear highways and twisting coastal roads, revealing painting-worthy vistas at almost every turn, I drive towards the port of Lika Senj to catch a car ferry over to Pag, a key location in the series. Out on the Dalmatian Archipelago, I dock on a moon-like landscape, the setting sun turning the bleached rock shades of mauve. “The beauty of Pag… it was like you’re on the moon, it was otherworldly,” says Redmayne. The island has a reputation for excellent roast lamb; for Paski sir, a salty sheep’s cheese; and for open-air clubbing (don’t do all three at once). But it was for the sweeping, rocky hills, secluded blue-sea coves and dramatic plains that Jackal elected to film here. It’s also one of the sunniest places on the Adriatic, with 2,500 hours a year – quite useful if you need to keep warm while on the run from MI6. If you’re able to hand over your real passport, however, the Hotel Pagus (hotel-pagus.hr), with its sunset views of the Adriatic, will do very nicely. In writing about northern Croatia (and Croatian wine), it feels like I’m spilling a closely guarded secret, but over-tourism in the southern cities means that it’s high time to shine a spotlight (or searchlight?) on this epic, charming, friendly and beautiful region. It’s just ironic that it’s taken a show so centred around the clandestine to do it. For more information, go to croatia.hr Request a holiday brochure from one of our partners
When I tell the concierge at my Lima hotel that I’m heading to Iquitos in a few days, she replies, “I’ve never been. Too much green.” I’ve never heard the Amazon rainforest described so succinctly before, but she’s right: there is a lot of green. I’m here to get to know the homeland of a certain polite bear – our hero returns to his home country for his latest movie, Paddington in Peru. But before I get to “Darkest” Peru (supposedly so called because, in some spots of the rainforest, only two per cent of sunlight makes it to the ground), there’s the country’s capital, Lima. Request a FREE travel brochure here from Radio Times Travel I’m bookending the actual jungle with the concrete one – a sort of urban comfort blanket where I don’t have to worry as much about mosquitos. And since Lima is fast becoming a serious foodie centre – with several Michelin-recommended restaurants, not to mention the street food and coffee – I take a tour. Friendly cafés run on local coffee beans, thriving local markets stock the bounty of the rainforest and the ocean, and we finish at a street food vendor who helps us prepare our own causa – a sort of sandwich made with potato instead of bread, filled with chicken and avocado. The cuisine here goes way beyond marmalade sandwiches. Next day, it’s back to the airport en route to Iquitos, one of the most remote cities on the planet – and all that green. River tributaries snake through the forest on their way to join the mighty Amazon. In this new, third Paddington film, the Brown family charter a riverboat to navigate the jungle, and it’s an idea I’ve run with. Our coach trundles for two hours through dense forest, down one of the only roads in this region, finally arriving at our boarding jetty. At its end is the Marañón river, an Amazon tributary, where our riverboat, the Zafiro, awaits. This is the Amazon Riverboat Adventure (gadventures.com) – six nights drifting down the river basin back to Iquitos. Skiffs will take us into the depths of the jungle to those sunshine-deprived forest floors, where blazing sun can turn to deluge in a matter of seconds. Our days are mapped out according to the weather gods. Plans are delayed, abandoned or adapted according to whether the heavens are open or closed. While on the boat, we learn about local wildlife, see the national dish, ceviche, being made by the on-board chef, or sit on the deck with a beer and watch the rainforest slip by on mirror-like waters. Request a FREE travel brochure here from Radio Times Travel The majority of our time is spent away from the Zafiro, however, either on a skiff or getting in and among nature. Often, the motors cut out as we glide towards dense greenery, our guides having spotted a creature. In one instance, our bow bumps into a nondescript bank, a vague silhouette of a woolly monkey in the mid-distance. Suddenly, the troop is upon us, a mother with a baby clinging to her back boldly making her way down from the rubber tree, and onto our skiff. Further into the forest, we spot a nest of surprisingly cute baby tarantulas and our eyes quickly flick up to a sloth hanging nonchalantly above us. We swim in the lagoons , and tuktuk around the bumpy rainforest town of Nauta. We release baby yellow-spotted turtles – their eggs rescued from poachers – into the wild. We row canoes past freshwater pink dolphins, all the time shepherded by our knowledgeable and enthusiastic guides – indigenous to the rainforest – who are first up and last to bed. With all the life happening around me, the tranquillity is astounding. In fact, I have never slept better, though this may have something to do with the antihistamines for mosquito bites, and the absence of wi-fi. Regardless, this place never stops being a revelation. Returning to Lima, I give myself a few days before the 13-hour flight home (latamairlines.com) to inform my inner-balance that I’m no longer on a boat. From Hilton Miraflores (hilton.com) – its rooftop infinity pool pointed directly at Lima’s spectacular sunset – I see crowds milling around an open-air mall on the seafront. Heading there for a sundowner, I encounter a statue just by the entrance, of a duffle-coated-bear on a plinth, raising his floppy hat as a greeting. Maybe it wasn’t in the rainforest, but I have finally found my Peruvian bear. The inscription reads, “Please look after this bear”, and it seems only fair. After all, Peru has looked after me very well indeed.
Why Vermont called Beetlejuice back for more
The Green Mountain State is famously friendly, so what drew Tim Burton to film his comedy horror sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice in the land of Ben & Jerry?
As one travels up the east of the USA, it’s safe to say that things become more liberal as you go. From the humid conservatism of Florida, via the political swamp of Washington DC, through the anything-goes (as long as you can afford it) of New York, and the liberal academia of leafy Massachusetts… until you reach Vermont, where both conformity, and the country itself, are almost on their way out. Perhaps that’s why Tim Burton – hardly a name synonymous with fitting in – chose to return here instead of opting for a sound stage in order to film the exterior scenes of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the long-awaited sequel to, well, Beetlejuice. It was in Vermont, just outside the small town of East Corinth, that the original was filmed, too – including the cartoon-like gothic house erected on a hill especially for the movie. The original film has such a cult following that during shooting for the sequel, Vermont police were investigating two thefts: one of a large lamppost topped with a distinctive pumpkin decoration, and the other an abstract art piece taken from the vicinity of a cemetery. I have come here to understand what attracted the director to the state, and why it gives its visitors a wholly alternative take on Americana. Request a FREE travel brochure here from Radio Times Travel After a five-hour drive from Boston, through increasingly green, hilly vistas, I arrive at the state's largest city, Burlington. This isn’t the American city of your imagination, all skyscrapers, steaming manholes and traffic chaos. Instead, especially in the heat of a lazy summer day, it has the air of somewhere like Stratford-upon-Avon or York. Perched on the edge of Lake Champlain, it’s a township built for quality of life, with the outdoors, gastronomy, and culture all given a serious crack of the whip. Most importantly though, this is a state known for its breweries. I happen to be in town on the weekend of the Vermont Brewers Festival. I savour an appropriately sensible number of samples as a spectacular sunset embraces the lakeside location. A wander down the historic Church Street Marketplace the following morning sees me stumble across a long queue – my first clue to the Burlington Bagel Bakery, whose sesame seed and cream cheese bagels become a fixture of the next few mornings. In an attempt to blow away the cobwebs, I join Captain Tom Peterson for a scenic lake cruise (cruiselakechamplain.com), as we take in flora, fauna, flotsam and jetsam of the idyllic lake from the deck of his 36-foot cabin cruiser. I finish my day in the Pizzeria Verita Italian restaurant, (pizzeriaverita.com) followed by a nightcap at The Wallflower Collective – a buzzy NYC-esque hipster bar with prices to match. On to Montpelier. Still recovering from flash floods, this is anytown America with a twist. It appears to be inhabited by those who have sought the alternative life – artists and free thinkers. The restaurants, cafes and an excellent record shop lend themselves to this clientele, where a high standard of fare comes garnished with a dash of hippiedom, and something almost equalling Canadian-level friendliness (we are, after all, an hour from the border). No visit to Vermont would be complete without two things: an outdoor sport and some very specific ice cream. After a 30-mile drive up some winding mountain roads – and back down the other side – I jump into a kayak. Four miles, a scenic river paddle, and 18 mosquito bites later, it’s time to replenish those calories at what is probably the closest real life can get you to Willy Wonka’s factory. Waterbury is where Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield decided to give the ice cream business a whirl, and a tour of their factory tells their story (benjerry.com). The company’s USP encapsulates the Vermont outlook: community-minded, idealistic but with a sense of fun and anti-establishment spirit. Did you know Radio Times has a shop? Explore great deals now, plus 10% off for RT Magazine subscribers!* I end my visit in East Corinth, the sky moody and the humidity all-consuming. Very Tim Burton. The town is a single road, but still, that eerie shade of American Gothic hangs over it. The general store offers the two staples – deli and ammunition – and the hill still gives off an ominous air. The atmosphere is so loaded that I’m almost scared to say Beetlejuice three times, lest he burst out of the ground and ruin this lush, green, and kooky world that’s often overlooked in favour of the neighbouring states. In fact, I could spend an eternity here…
Inside the world's most extraordinary hotels with Monica Galetti
As the name suggests, the locations visited by hosts Monica Galetti and Rob Rinder in BBC2’s Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby are anything but ordinary. From a remote, mountainous lodge in Bhutan, to a resort built into a quarry in Shanghai and one deep in the Malaysian rainforest, they have checked in — and mucked in, helping staff with their jobs — at unique hotels around the globe. As this series comes to a close, Galetti — also known to viewers from MasterChef: The Professionals, and to diners as one of London’s leading chefs — reveals the most unusual jobs she’s turned her hand to, what she’s learned along the way and what frustrates her most about travelling. Request a FREE travel brochure here from Radio Times Travel Which was your favourite hotel in this series? They’re all so different! In Shanghai [at the Intercontinental Shanghai Wonderland], we were in the bottom of a quarry where you can’t see the sky. It’s almost like waking up in a cave. In Bhutan [at Gangtey Lodge], we were up in the mountains below a monastery: you open the curtains, and there’s nothing but a valley and mountains – beautiful. But my favourite thing of all was when I took the guests up in a hot air balloon in Turkey [at Argos in Cappadocia]. I’ve never been in a hot air balloon before, and it was gob-smackingly beautiful; I couldn’t stop grinning! That part of Turkey looks like a biblical land – you’re out there and there’s no one else, no other noises, you’re just drifting and seeing the beauty of the world. It was very special. You take on lots of tasks on the show — which are the most memorable? We do the craziest jobs! In Malaysia [at the Datai Langkawi], the hotel was built in a rainforest, and in the lobby, they have a massive lily pond that’s full of frogs. Someone’s got to clean it, so I got in and I was collecting all the frogspawn – and then I went to set them free in the rainforest. It needs to be done because if there are too many frogs in a pond, it invites snakes in. I was in hysterics because I was trying not to fall over – it was so dense and full of mud. You’d get stuck if you tried to move too quickly. I felt like the Michelin man! I love getting to do things like that though. There are only so many beds you can make. Plan your next getaway with Riviera Travel Which travel experiences are on your bucket list? One thing that has escaped me is the Northern Lights. I’ve been to Sweden, Norway, everywhere, and I’ve never had a great experience. Every time, people will say: “Did you see them last night? They were amazing!”. I’m like: “Are you kidding? No one said anything!”. I’ve missed every big display wherever we’ve been. What do you think makes a good — or a bad — hotel? I would never go back after rude service at a hotel or restaurant. A good food offering is crucial, too – it can be the simplest of ingredients, but for me great food is so important. Also, if something’s wrong in the hotel, it’s about how quickly they fix it. And the lobby really shows what the rest of the hotel is going to be like: the welcome, the check-in, how friendly they are. You’re not expecting a hug, but a smile goes a long way – especially for the weary traveller. Did you know Radio Times has a shop? Explore great deals now, plus 10% off for RT Magazine subscribers!* Any particular bugbears? So many! Why can’t the plugs be closer to the bed? And why do light switches have to be so complicated? Sometimes they’re so modern, you have to hold the button, scroll and double-tap it before it switches off. Or there are so many lights that you spend the night trying to figure out how to turn them all off – and you’re thinking “I just want to get to sleep!” Were there any behind-the-scenes surprises this series? In Malaysia, I spent a day with them recycling their food waste. They sorted everything out: oyster shells go to a place to get ground down or used for walls and buildings; any protein gets picked out and sent to the dog shelter to feed the dogs; all the rice dishes are picked up by a farmer who gives them to his chickens. There’s tons of food waste and they do something with it. I love that, it’s really admirable. That’s what sustainable tourism is. Plan your next getaway with Riviera Travel How did you get along with the hotel staff when you were working alongside them? You really bond with people. In Shanghai, we were welcomed into the team and when we left, all the managers came down to say goodbye. The next thing you knew, we were doing karaoke and singing that Whitney Houston song, I Will Always Love You. We had a great time – the singing was not so great but the camaraderie of the team was there, and that’s what matters. I love travelling and experiencing these hotels, but these magical moments are very special. Did you know Radio Times has a shop? Explore great deals now, plus 10% off for RT Magazine subscribers!* *For 10% discount t&cs visit radiotimes.com/subs1
Napoleon: the Director's Cut Available to stream now on Apple TV+
Paris can be a bit of a museum. Romantic, sure, but without the youthful energy, vibrancy and buzz of other world cities. Thankfully, history is the reason I’m here this time – on the trail of Napoleon, recently portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix in Ridley Scott’s epic biopic, the director’s cut of which is now available to stream on Apple TV+. It’s my intention to lean into the rich historical culture that the City of Light shows off so well, and discover the Paris of one of the most infamous military strategists and “short man syndrome” sufferers in history. The French emperor had quite a hand in the Paris we know today – many of its landmarks and boulevards have his finger-prints on them. And even if they don’t, the torrent of money brought into the French capital as a result of his campaigns still runs through the veins of the city. Request a FREE travel brochure here from Radio Times Travel Take Gare du Nord, for example, where my Eurostar (eurostar.com) arrives after a seamless submarinal trip. The famous terminus is a result of Napoleon III, Bonaparte’s nephew, campaigning for greater infrastructure, and the French railways themselves owe a debt to Boney, too. In 1814, engineer Pierre Michel Moisson-Desroches proposed building seven national railways from Paris in order to travel “short distances within the Empire”. The emperor assented, and France got a half-decent rail network. My accommodation, 25-hours Hotel Paris Terminus Nord (25hours-hotels.com), is just next door, and festooned with decorous touches and Parisian joie de vivre (or whatever the French version is). But now into the city… For a greater insight into Bonaparte’s influence on Paris, I take a two-hour walking tour (parisology.net/rise-of-napoleon-paris-walk). Our guide, Thierry – talking with his hands as much as his mouth, bien sûr – takes my small group to where Napoleon married the love of his life, Josephine, at 3 rue d’Antin, followed by his favourite dinner spot, and then where he saved the French Revolution and became a national hero. He later married his second wife, Marie Louise of Austria, in the Louvre (sadly no longer available as a wedding venue). Full of historical facts and anecdotes, Thierry also talks of Bonaparte’s vision as a head of state and his modernisation of France. Request a FREE travel brochure here from Radio Times Travel IMAGE: BELLES VUES From the top: the pyramid at the Louvre; Château de Fontainebleau; and dining at Le Grand Véfour Speaking of the Louvre, it was originally known as the Musée Central des Arts de la République, before a certain someone renamed it Musée Napoléon. A more concise name, for sure, and characteristically narcissistic, but Napoleon’s ambition to make the Louvre a universal museum borrows as much from the drive to enlighten his people, as from his ambition to make Paris the new Rome. When he conquered Italy in 1797, he raided its artwork to bring back to France, including Veronese’s Wedding Feast at Cana. In order to transport the massive painting home, he had it sliced in half. You can still see the line where it was put back together: philistinism maybe, but much easier on the baggage allowance. There are plenty of Napoleonic sights of the periphery of the city. There’s the Château de Fontainebleau, 45 minutes south of Paris, where there’s a perfectly preserved throne room and many Bonaparte artefacts. To the west, there’s Château de Malmaison, his former country home, and Château Rambouillet, where he stayed before being exiled to St Helena. And then of course there’s Versailles, which Napoleon adapted to his own grand tastes after divorcing Josephine (quite the bachelor pad). You could easily pass a beautiful couple of days among the refined culture and lush greenery of these country piles. Request a FREE travel brochure here from Radio Times Travel Back in central Paris though, and my crowning glory is when I indulge my stomach on Napoleon’s behalf. I give it my all at Café Procope (procope.com), where one can dine on classic French cuisine, with not only the ghost of Napoleon, but also those of Voltaire, Balzac and Victor Hugo (imagine the drinks bill). Then I do it all over again amid the opulent splendour of Le Grand Véfour (grand-vefour.com), in surroundings that really put a peasant like me in his place, though the food was anything but revolting. Paris’s Napoleonic sights are as plentiful as they are beautiful, from Les Invalides, which houses his tomb and a fascinating military museum, to the Arc de Triomphe. One could spend a good week here just on Napoleonic spots; so make sure, much like the man himself, that you have an excellent strategy for your manoeuvres – lest you, too, finally face your Waterloo.