Travel experts versus 'real' travellers

Travel 'experts', whether they are travel writers, guidebook authors, travel bloggers, tour guides, travel agents, hoteliers etc, are also 'real' travellers in my mind. Yet publishers and travel sites are frequently pitting the two against each other. Sure, the travel experts sometimes get special treatment and they can rarely shut themselves off from the act of reviewing, even when they're on holidays, but the fact is that they do take holidays and do travel like 'normal' people too. I book my flights and hotels online. I have to negotiate local transport like you do. I eat as many bad meals as I do good ones, and I also get allocated my share of crappy hotel rooms too. Yet increasingly the opinions of the experts - the people who stay in hundreds of hotel rooms a year, catch scores of flights, and talk to thousands of other travel experts and travellers - that is, the people who make it their business to accumulate vast travel experience and knowledge and develop skills at discernment - seem to be increasingly undervalued and overlooked in favor of the opinions of 'real' people. One example is the hotel reviews in Budget Travel (a magazine I love, by the way), such as this one which states that "Online reviews generally praise the hotel as an affordable gem with a fun, unique theme" and "Reader Dawn recommends Franklin Feel the Sound, where she stayed in June 2009. She writes that the Franklin exceeded her expectations and was excellent value". Frankly, unless I know who these online reviewers were and have more information about them and Dawn, I don't care what they think. I want to know how much hotel experience they've had, how many hotels in Rome they've checked into and inspected, and how many hotels they've stayed at fullstop, so I can then determine what their idea of "affordable" or "unique" is, and how different their expectations may be to that of other travellers. You see, travel experts know these things. What do you think?

Behind-the-scenes in a Michelin-starred chef's kitchen and the kindness of chefs

Being able to spend a night in the restaurant kitchen of a Michelin-starred chef - in this case that of Pierre Gagnaire at Reflets, Dubai - is one of the delights of our job. It wasn't our first time - which was Bacchus at Read's, Mallorca, where we dined at the Chef's Table and Terry did a Master Chef experience with Felix Eschrich - but our night at Reflets was probably one of our most enlightening and educative experiences in a restaurant kitchen. And Terry and I have both spent a lot of time in kitchens. I worked in Sydney cafes to put myself through uni and during high school for pocket money, while Terry did a stint working weekend nights in the kitchen of a friend's Surry Hills bistro to keep himself out of trouble when I went to South America to do my masters. But these were no fine dining restaurants! It would be inconceivable to think that a chef in a Michelin-starred fine-diner would retrieve a salad he'd dropped intentionally on a dirty floor, plopping it back in a bowl to be served to an impatient customer as one drug-crazed cook did in the kitchen of a popular Balmain cafe I onced worked at. What I also find inconceivable, after these Michelin-starred kitchen experiences, are the abusive Ramsay-like tirades of the kind we see on Hell's Kitchen. Because the atmosphere we witnessed in both kitchens was one of calm. No yelling. No screaming. No chaos. Very little confusion. Over the course of 3.5 hours of service at Reflets, we only heard the head chef shout "Allez! Allez!" a couple of times and witnessed a few minor moments from the sous chef, irritated with the energetic expediter who could occasionally be a little too eager to send unfinished plates out. In stark contrast, the chefs were cool and composed, the kitchen quiet. There was still a buzz, a real energy about the place, but it was a positive one. Throughout the night, when not checking plates, watching his team or talking to diners, a patient Pierre Gagnaire took time to explain, answer questions, and even ask us about our work and travels. He brought us delicious morsels of food that we savoured - some foie gras here, lobster ice-cream there - while Head Chef Olivier Biles brought us bottles of water and periodically asked if we were okay. Servers ducked out of range of Terry's camera and apologised for getting in our way, when we were the ones clearly in their's. What struck us is how extraordinarily professional, how kind, and how hospitable chefs of this calibre can be. It's their generosity in such stressful conditions that is most remarkable. But then it really shouldn't be surprising because when we talk to chefs about why they do what they do, mostly they say they do it to give pleasure. And how very pleasing the experience was. I'll let you know when the story's out.

Pictured? That's me chatting to Pierre Gagnaire.

In print and online

It's been a busy period for Terry and I, as you've gathered from the dearth of blog posts these last months. And we've got a lot of work being published to prove it, from a small 'Up Next' piece on Abu Dhabi in the September edition of National Geographic Traveler to half a dozen eco-experiences I wrote about in Rough Guide's Clean Breaks book. I saw our first edition Travellers Northern Italy guidebook for the first time in a bookshop in Dubai the other day too and got exhausted just looking at it - that was a tough trip. Although I know you don't believe me. We've always written for in-flight magazines, but we've been doing a lot more writing for them these past few months. If you're wondering why, it's because it's fun, the editors are lovely, easy to work with and respond to emails, it's nice to submit a story and see it in print a month or two later, and they pay on time. In September's Storytelling issue of Gulf Air's in-flight magazine Gulf Life, we have features on Abu Shady, Syria's last hakawati or professional storyteller and a review on the Sheraton Aleppo; while in the October issue, we have articles on Syrian sculptor Mustafa Ali; a new Damascus jazz duo comprised of opera star Rasha Razk and pianist Ghazwan Zerkli; and funky Zen bar in Damascus with its fabulous views. All feature Terry's gorgeous photos of course, as does a story on Doha Tribeca Film Festival director - he shot the stunning portrait of Amanda Palmer in the lobby of Doha's W hotel. We've got a bunch of stories in this month's issue of Jazeera's in-flight J Mag too, and in MPI's One Plus magazine a profile on Emirati Ali Al Saloom who is changing the way visitors to Abu Dhabi experience the UAE.

Envying a donkey his pace - the frenetic tempo of travel writing, part 2

So how, as travel writers, do we get ourselves into the situation I described in the last post? And is it possible to be a travel writer and avoid this frenzied pace of life? To answer the second question first, I don't think it is possible if you want to make more than a decent living out of this profession. To answer the first, the way we work now is that we go on a trip with a number of commissions up our sleeves, and then while we're on the ground we follow up more leads for stories and pitch new ideas to editors from that destination. But that doesn't mean that other requests for stories stop coming in. As wonderful as they are, most of the time they're not even related to the destination we're in, which of course complicates things. While we're on the road, an editor might email and ask "Where are you at the moment?" which usually means he/she has a hotel they want reviewed or lead they'd like us to pursue. We'd be crazy to say no. At the same time, the longer we stay in a place and the more people we meet, the more story ideas we develop. Although we worked on a dozen stories in Damascus this trip, I left with twice as many ideas that I'd love to pursue next time. Do we prefer working this way, on multiple commissions, to focusing on a guidebook and a story or two? Absolutely. For one, it pays a hell of a lot more for less work. Secondly, we're meeting way more people doing stories than we did on books because we're no longer pounding the pavements all day every day putting dots on maps and checking transport timetables. But more on that another time. One of the downsides to this frantic pace is that it leaves little time for blogging. But blogging doesn't pay the bills. And for now, I kind of like it that way. I'll tell you why another time. Now, I have a story (or three) to write.

Envying a donkey his pace - the frenetic tempo of travel writing, part 1

Our recent trip around the Middle East (see this post) wasn't meant to be that kind of trip. There was no guidebook to write. No insane photography commission for Terry to undertake. Just lots of stories and hotel reviews to research and a couple of meetings about a book we're developing. However, somehow a trip that was meant to be fairly straightforward and one we'd hoped would trundle along at a slower pace than normal - a donkey's pace was what I desired - turned into the usual frenzied adventure where we find ourselves running from one appointment to another, and working long days that extend well into the night, every day and night. And now we're frantically writing up those stories and Terry's editing and prepping images for the stories (hence the lack of time for blogging), at the same time as we're pitching more stories, doing more reviews, going on photo shoots, and prepping for the next trip - every day and night, well into the night. So how as travel writers do we get ourselves into this situation? And is it possible to avoid this frenzied life?

Desk update from Abu Dhabi: month #45 on the road but whose counting?

We're back in the UAE and after a couple of days in Dubai (pictured*), we're chained to desks once again in Abu Dhabi - not our desks, but our friends', at their colossal home in the new part of the capital, off the island. The closest thing to a 'home' for us still being in storage in Dubai. A 'desk update' in publishing-speak suggests a guidebook update by phone and email. It's what publishers commission authors or in-house staff to do when they're not inclined to spend the money to send writers on the road. From what we're hearing, it's happening increasingly of late. But we won't have that. Aside from the fact that we still don't have a 'home' to speak of - this week marks our 45th month living out of our suitcases! - travelling is why we do what we do. Why on earth a travel writer would want to write something from a desk without having been to a place we'll never know. We've well and truly researched the stories and reviews we're currently writing up, having spent the last six weeks on the road travelling around Syria, Qatar and Kuwait. But we're paying for it now. We're tired. Chronically tired. My feet are wrecked. We've both been fighting off the flu for a couple of weeks although poor Terry has finally lost his battle. As we write, we're talking to publishers and potential sponsors about future projects - in Thailand, Syria, and the Arabian Peninsula - and in the interim we're considering trips to Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, Iran, and possibly Kathmandu. We're also contemplating an opportunity that could keep us on the road even longer if it comes off, but more on that in the near future... for now, deadlines await. So what have you been up to and where are you going next?

* the pic is of the view from our room at Jumeirah Emirates Towers where we stayed recently; Terry had photographed the hotel and we'd done site inspections so many times over the years, but never checked in. Now we've stayed, we know why it consistently wins awards for being Dubai's best business hotel. While the rooms are a bit dated in terms of their style, they're impressively appointed, the lobby has always been one of the city's buzziest, and the towers and adjoining Boulevard are home to some of my favorite restaurants and bars, including Vu's, Noodle House and The Agency.

Postcript: blogging and Blogspot in Syria

Another postscript to my posts of a couple of weeks ago on blogging and Blogspot in Syria (see my last post and the postscript before it): after uploading the posts below, I received loads of emails and tweets from around the world, from Syrians asking everything from why I couldn't go to an internet cafe where it's often possible to access Blogspot (sorry, we were working 16-hour days so the only time I had to email was early morning or late at night at our hotels) to foreign and local censorship/IT experts wanting me to provide them with a list of every hotel we stayed at and the hotel's proxy info (apologies again, but one of the things we were doing in Syria was reviewing hotels, so we were moving hotels every second day, and I had enough to do as it was). Based on my recent experience ('recent', because I've never had time to blog on previous trips to Syria), my advice to you is if you're planning to travel to Syria and blog regularly, do your research first but research widely: there are plenty of experts eager to share their opinions (indeed, some rather aggressively) and there is a lot of contradictory advice around (even among the self-proclaimed "experts") about blogging and Blogspot in Syria, from people both outside and within Syria. I found that rarely did opinions align and every expert was able to cite a wealth of research on the subject. Once again, I apologise for not having time to test out your theories and suggestions, but I'm a travel writer who also blogs, rather than a travel blogger who also publishes - and that's likely to stay that way until someone pays me as much to blog as I earn writing. The paid work - which one charming "expert" referred to as "travel fluff" (rest assured, I took her as seriously as she took me) has to take priority, I'm afraid. So, back to work... or writing nonsense?

Blogging and Blogspot in Syria

A number of people have contacted me via the comments to my post below and on Twitter in response to my appeal for advice after my blog was momentarily blocked in Syria. Shukran jazeelan to everyone for their tips - much appreciated! Unfortunately (or fortunately), I'm a busy travel writer with a lot to do here in Syria at the moment - boutique hotels to review, restaurants to try out, artists and musicians to interview - and blogging is not high on my list of priorities at the moment sadly, so I don't have time to test out all your suggestions now. In addition to my lack of time, the intermittent and excruciatingly slow internet access at a lot of the hotels we're staying at means I simply can't get on the net when it's convenient nor wait for photos to upload at the usual size I post them. And I don't have time to keep running back to the Four Seasons, which must have the fastest internet access in town. Quite a few people have written to me about blogspot being banned here and forwarded links supporting this (sorry, but I don't have time to respond to everyone), however, just for your info, I can access a large number of blogspot blogs that I usually read from other parts of the world from Syria (and I was able to access them on previous trips here too), including many listed on my own blogroll, and Syrian-based blogspot blogs that I don't normally read but have discovered on this trip. People are asking me what ISPs I am using and am I using proxies. As I am reviewing hotels, I am moving hotels every couple of days so I'm using whatever ISP the hotel is using and whether the hotel has a proxy or not, I'm sorry but I don't have time to investigate, and would rather be talking to a singer such as the wonderful Rasha Rizk than an IT guy. Hoping you understand.

Access momentarily denied

My harmless little blog Cool Travel Guide has been blocked in Syria for a whole 24 hours - I was confronted with the dreaded "Access Denied" sign when I tried to update it yesterday. But, there's been a miracle, or someone came to their senses, and now I can access it. I realize my mistake - my Syrian advisors tell me it's because I used the 'I' word, which I'm not about to use again, so guess all you like. So, how did it get unblocked? Did the censors actually read the content and realise I was a 'friend' of Syria's? Just a travel writer who writes about places she loves and stays clear of politics? Or was it that the Minister for Information and her staff, who were staying at the same hotel as us last night, overheard my loud complaints to the general manager this morning? Either way, I can post for the moment, but if you don't hear from me again, you'll know why. Come and follow me on Twitter instead.

Post-script: this post and my tweets on Twitter generated scores of responses via email and Twitter about blogging in Syria. Most were friendly messages from Syrian bloggers, IT experts and officials, with tips on how to get around proxies, using Blogger/Blogspot and other blogging software in Syria, and advice on what's acceptable and what's not regarding blog content. I'm sorry I didn't have time to follow everyone's suggestions - it was an incredibly busy trip with little time for blogging unfortunately - but a huge thanks to everyone who got in touch.

Aleppo's labyrinthine souqs

Aleppo's labyrinthine medieval souq - or rather souqs within a souq - has long been one of our favorites in the Middle East, mainly because it has remained relatively untouched by tourism up until recent years - especially compared to Istanbul's Grand Bazzar and Cairo's Khan el Khalili. It's a place where locals shop for anything from women's underwear to camel meat, as much as backpackers haggle for hookah pipes and harem pants. Great buys include olive soap (buy the soap the locals buy, not the soap packaged for tourists), Syria's famous silk brocades and other textiles, and gutras (men's checked headscarves). These days you'll also find stores and stalls with their eyes on the growing tourist market selling jewellery, carpets, and brass and copperware, and spruikers on corners hustling for sales. But we prefer wandering the back-alleys, where the locals shop for their cheap plastic shoes, spangly fabrics, and children's clothes, offering a far more authentic experience.

Aleppo and our room with a view

Aleppo is Syria's most atmospheric city after Damascus and it's our next favorite destination after the capital, the highlights for us being the medieval souq, the labyrinthine old quarters dotted around the inner-city, and the complex cuisine, arguably the most interesting in the Middle East. The new town with its stylish cafes - currently full of hip young Syrian expat kids home for the summer holidays - is pretty appealing too. We're here to do hotel reviews and a feature on Aleppo's oldest restaurant dynasty, as well as gather content for other stories, so we've been at the Aleppo Sheraton for a few days. While it can't compare in terms of atmosphere to Aleppo's myriad boutique hotels in restored old houses, the hotel's location, slapbang in the centre of Aleppo, mid-way between Al Jdeida and the souqs, is unbeatable. As is the comfort and space of our room, the big desk, and internet access - things that become more important to a writer and photographer on deadline than sleeping under an Ottoman-era ceiling, I'm afraid. Oh, and the views, pictured, are pretty special too.

Abu Shady, the last of Syria's traditional storytellers still tells his tales

One of our many reasons for coming to Syria this time was to interview Abu Shady, the last of the hakawati, or traditional storytellers. We last interviewed him almost two and half years ago when we were here to update our Lonely Planet Syria and Lebanon guidebook - that's the 'current' edition every Western traveller is clutching in their hands here now. (We're not using it ourselves - nor are we using any other guidebook - there's no need obviously after so many trips here, but it's interesting to see how many people have a guidebook *and* a guide - very different to last time when there were far more independent travellers around. Why people need help ordering a meal, I'll never know, but it's something I'm going to ponder in another post.) When we last spoke to Abu Shady he was conscious of his age, depressed that numbers of people attending his performances at Al Nawfara cafe in Damascus' Old City were dwindling, his biggest competition being cinema, TV and the internet, and was grooming his son to take over after he died. Ironically, now his nightly performances are packed (people even phone to book tables) and storytelling is more popular than ever (in line with a resurgence of interest by Syrians in everything old), yet he no longer wants his son to take over. Why? Because the pay is lousy. I guess there's a point artists reach when they're no longer prepared to go hungry (or allow their family to go hungry) for their art. I'll pop up the link to our story soon.

Damascus is Buzzing

The atmosphere in Damascus is electric now, and the streets of the Old City more alive than we've seen them before - and we've been regular visitors since 1998. Summer traditionally sees Syrian expats from around the world returning home to spend time with their families while Damascus has long attracted Gulf Arab tourists escaping the sweltering summer temperatures of the Arabian Peninsula - while it's warm here now (low to mid 30s Celcius), the Gulf is scorching (average mid 40s Celcius), so Syria is a cool escape in comparison. But we're seeing travellers from all over the globe getting lost in the Old City's labyrinthine streets at the moment, including Europeans, Australians and Americans. By the look of their travelling gear - harem pants and hippy attire dominate backpacker wardrobes here - they were expecting a cheap destination. But Damascus now boasts an array of beautiful boutique hotels, an ever-growing number of fine restaurants, a handful of hip bars and stylish cafes, a lively arts and cultural scene, and an increasingly chic shopping area in the new city. We're reporting on all of these for magazines over the next week or two, so I'll try and share a few of our discoveries with you as we go.

Pictured? That's Naranj, a relatively 'new' restaurant by Damascene standards, which was very good - the buzzy atmosphere indicative of that found in the whole city at the moment. Although Naranj is not the best, and don't listen to anyone who tells you otherwise - that's a title reserved for Al Halabi at The Four Seasons Hotel, and I'll tell you why in detail very soon.

Goodbye Dubai

We spent our last night in the UAE in Dubai - stuck in a traffic jam, checking into our fully booked hotel, shopping for last minute necessities at busy Dubai Mall - packed with shoppers laden with shopping bags as late as midnight - and strolling the waterfront overlooking the new Burj Dubai, where tables at the outdoor restaurants and cafes were crammed with families, despite the 45 degree heat. It was the same old Dubai - not the 'ghost town' I'd be reading about in the media while we were in Australia. Ironically, summer has historically been the time of year when Dubai is usually a ghost town, when locals and expats who can leave the country for a couple of months evacuate for cooler climates for their summer vacation.

Pictured: the enormous aquarium at Dubai Mall.

Travel with us on Twitter

I might not get much time to blog over the next six weeks as we have a tight travel schedule, bouncing around the Middle East researching stories and doing hotel and restaurant reviews. So why not come and follow me on Twitter @laradunston?

One of the stories I've been commissioned to write is about how Twitter has been embraced in the MidEast and how it's being used. Twitter users are meeting socially at tweet-ups across the region, getting involved in charity work through Twestivals, and using Twitter for social change. If you're a Twitter user based in the UAE, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait or Qatar, or anywhere else around the Middle East, please email me or leave a comment here - I'd love to get in touch with you.

The photo pictured is the workspace of British writer-poet Robert Graves in his former home, now a museum, at Deia on Mallorca. It's the kind of space I'd love to write at. If I didn't live out of my suitcase, that is, and actually had a home in which to write... But who's going to feel sorry for a travel writer, right?

Trip Base travel awards

The nice people at Trip Base recently gave me a little award - well, I was a finalist in their Best Travel Guides category - and I was so busy I didn't even have time to thank them properly (although I did as I was told and put the badge up). So, a big heartfelt thank you, Trip Base - or shukran jazeelan as we say here in the MidEast. If you want to see which other blogs won awards, you can see the full list here and here, and if you want to know more about Trip Base, check out their site.

The picture? That's Mallorca again, and the view from our room at the Maricel hotel.

Where to next?

Well, we're off again. And yet it seems like we'd only just arrived. After five taxing days of sleeping and eating in Barcelona, and before that seven grueling weeks working on a book in Mallorca, the last 12 semi-sedentary days in the UAE have sped by. It's been busy. We had a few days of restaurant reviews, interviews and photo shoots, then time in catching up on loads of writing and planning our next trip from our friend's colossal Abu Dhabi villa, rightly dubbed 'Falcon's Crest'. Picture this: a monumental Arabian villa, sweeping staircase, 20+ rooms, five bathrooms, one of which is nicknamed Hef's (it's all black!), and a gold falcon over the driveway gate.

But, sadly it's all over already and today we're headed back to Dubai to our other 'home away from home', Al Manzil, so we don't miss our early flight to Damascus in the morning. We're trying Jazeera Airways for the first time, and over the next six weeks we'll be testing out a number of low-cost Gulf airlines as we bounce around the region a bit researching stories for in-flights and travel magazines: Syria 2 weeks, Qatar 9 days, Kuwait 5 days, Lebanon 5 days, Jordan 4 days, then back to the UAE again. That's a lot of countries in a short space of time for us with not a lot of time in each place - normally we like to take things a lot more slowly. But it's work, not play: we're doing some feature stories, profiles, and a bunch of hotel and restaurant reviews, as well as having meetings for a couple of book projects we're developing. No, not guidebooks! And for the first time in some years this will be the first trip where we're working on magazine stories only - no guidebooks, thankfully. The last few have really taken their toll... but who's going to listen to a travel writer complain, huh?

More on Mallorca... another day

My scheduled posts on Mallorca didn't go up as hoped, so I'm going to save my best boutique hotels and best restaurant lists for another day, as I have some packing to do... I will post them over the next week or so, though, I promise. Especially as I've heard that UK travellers are now scrambling to get away from the dismal weather, and naturally, many are heading to Spain. For now, I'll leave you with a final pic that might entice you away...

Mallorca’s most appealling beaches, part 2

And here are some more of Mallorca's most stunning beaches (my favorites anyway), where you can soak up some sun, work on that tan, and have a wade in the calm sea; continued from part 1 (below):

* CALA TORTA – a beach beloved by locals and expats and popular with travellers on driving holidays, Cala Torta is reached by a winding road through a national park; turn-off just out of Artà on the road to Capdepera. Although the road was recently sealed, there’s still a very rocky, dirt section near the end. There’s a small beach bar and lifesavers, but no toilets, so watch where you step when walking over the sand dunes!

* CALA MONDRAGO – in the south near Santanyi, these two adjoining sandy coves boast perhaps the clearest water of any of Mallorca’s beaches; while the first one gets crowded, the second cove is quieter.

* CALA D'OR - you'll find one of Mallorca's prettiest beaches, with aquamarine water that looks especially lovely in the late afternoon, just in front of the hotel of the same name. Surrounded by low cliffs and white Ibiza-style houses belonging to affluent Spaniards from Barcelona and Madrid, aside from hotel guests, it's pretty much local-owners and wealthy holiday-makers. This is a beach that's worth checking into the hotel for.

* CALA SANT VICENÇ – several coves surrounded by rocky sandstone cliffs where the local teens like to lay their towels on the rocky ledges, flirt, and dive from the rocks. Far from unspoilt though, and the characterless town is comprised of little more than hotels and holiday houses. Don’t stay here, do a day trip instead.

* PORTO CRISTO – this fine beach has one of the loveliest settings, in a bay embraced by low cliffs, and on a day when the sea is sparkling diamonds, and kids are diving off the swimming pontoons, it can seem like one of the most stunning beaches in the world. This is a touristy town, though, with the road running along the beach lined with takeaway food places, generic restaurants, and souvenir shops. There are far worse places to spend a holiday on Mallorca though.

What have I left out? What are your favourite Mallorcan beaches?

Mallorca’s most appealling beaches, part 1

Mallorca became one of Europe’s most popular summer destinations for a reason. There’s no denying the island boasts stunning beaches. Unless you have a boat, though, it’s impossible to escape the crowds; don’t believe anybody who tells you any different. Even beaches proclaimed by locals as Mallorca’s most off-the-beaten-track were crowded when we recently went to investigate. Don’t even think about Magaluf, Palma Nova or Cala Millor, these are the spots to lay your towel – or rent a sun-bed!

* ES TRENC – for many sun-worshippers, this is Mallorca’s most sublime stretch of sand. Popular with naturists, this long, skinny beach is certainly a beauty, with pristine, aquamarine water and snowy sand. Reached by dirt roads and tracks through small sand dunes, it may not be the easiest beach to get to, but it still gets crowded.

* TRAMUNTANA MOUNTAINS – while you’ll need a boat to get to the best swimming spots on the spectacular coast skirting the majestic Tramuntana mountain range, there are some alluring beaches that can be reached by skinny tortuous roads, including Cala de Sa Calobra and the slightly more accessible, Cala de Deià. While it's not an easy drive to reach them (especially Sa Calobra), and it’s mindboggling how buses get here, they get very busy and it’s a long hot walk from the car park in summer.

* PORTO COLOM – several tiny crescent-shaped sandy beaches on an attractive bay; they’re miniscule but picturesque, backed by pine trees, with casual beach cafés overlooking the water. A marina and fishing town with cute fishing sheds beneath colourful houses, and good restaurants and bars, Porto Colom is one of the most alluring and laidback of Mallorca’s holiday towns. It's incredibly popular with Germans and Scandinavians who rent houses or dock their yachts at the marina for a while; most signs and menus are in German.

See part 2 for more beaches... pictured? Let me know if you can guess. This one was hugely popular but difficult to locate, and it's in my least favorite part of Mallorca I have to say.

Musings on Mallorca: part 3

Of course experiencing local culture is not high on every traveller's list of priorities - as we were often reminded in Mallorca. Some people simply want to lie in the sun and read a book, others just want to have fun with friends, and they don't care where they do it. But when I write, I write with a different audience in mind - one for whom experiencing local culture, language, history, art, and cuisine and so on are just as important than lying by a pool. Unfortunately, Mallorca has for too long focused its sights on promoting sun and sand - or bucket and spade - tourism. And through its efforts to make the holiday experience for sunworshippers cheap and easy, the island has lost much of its culture and destroyed some of its coastline in the process. I'm talking about the wall-to-wall high-rise hotels, the once-pretty coves now backed by ugly concrete apartment blocks, the menus in four languages and featuring beef stroganof and fish and chips, and an abundance of tacky souvenir shops, Irish bars, British pubs, betting shops, and lap-dancing clubs. This is what I don't like about Mallorca. Mass tourism in its ugliest form. And sadly, it can be a challenge to escape it. It's not a handful of towns that have given over to package tourists, as is the case in Cyprus, but a whole stretch of coastline west of Palma, another in the north, and dozens of other spots in the east and south. And don't think Mallorcans are happy about this. Most we met are not - especially the younger generation - but they seem powerless to do anything about it and admit they've lost control. Why? Because much of the development is foreign-owned. Mallorca makes a great case study for how not to develop tourism. But on a positive note, it's also a brilliant candidate for an experiment in sustainable tourism and how to turn a destination around.

Musings on Mallorca: part 2

So what did we not enjoy about Mallorca? Well, Mallorca is not for everyone. Sure, that could be said about a lot of places, but there are some destinations that few people dislike: Paris, Italy, Thailand for instance. And perhaps it's just that - despite the stunning landscapes, fascinating people, beautiful hotels and fabulous restaurants - Mallorca is not for me. Would I go there again? To work, absolutely. I'd happily go back and talk to the island's talented chefs or write about its burgeoning wine industry. Off-season though. Would I go there on holidays? No, most probably not. And for us, that's one of the criteria we use to judge a destination. If it's the kind of place where I think "I'd prefer to be lying on that beach than writing about it" or a place I make a mental note to return to one day, then I place it fairly high on my list of great destinations. But it's more complex than that. There are other things I disliked about Mallorca. Mainly, that Mallorca did not feel like Spain. Nor did it feel Catalan. Juxtaposed with Barcelona, where we spent five days after Mallorca, that was even more apparent. Barcelona is a cosmopolitan, multicultural city, immensely popular with tourists, with a reasonable-sized expat population - yet it's still retained its unique Catalan identity and essential Spanish-ness. Mallorca, sadly, has lost a lot of the characteristics that make it Mallorcan. They are still there, of course - the language, cuisine, arts and crafts, traditional customs, etc - they're just very hard to find. We located them of course - because that's what travel writers do - but I continually wondered how tourists there for a week fared. Mallorca is a place where you most definitely need to use a quality guidebook, follow some good local blogs, have a local guide, or quickly make local friends, if you want to experience the 'real' Mallorca - or as the Mallorquins like to say, 'the other Mallorca'. Unfortunately, for most tourists visiting the island, the closest they'll get to Mallorcan culture are artificial experiences (as fun as they can be) like La Granja, pictured.

Musings on Mallorca: part 1

We've finished our work on Mallorca - Terry shooting photos for three books, and me updating a travel guidebook. It was nearly seven weeks in total, and by the end of it Terry felt like a contestant on Survivor, desperate to get off the island. Did we not enjoy Mallorca? We did - absolutely - to a certain extent. We met some incredible people, both Mallorquins and expats, from chefs and sommeliers to hotel owners and bartenders. The people were definitely the highlight of our stay. We also checked in to some stunning hotels, ate some extraordinary food, and drank some superb Mallorcan wine. After that, it was the landscapes that took my breath away - the spectacular coastline with sheer craggy cliffs that dramatically drop down to the sea, crystal clear aquamarine water lapping white sand beaches, sailing boats bobbing in the sea off-shore, and the typically-Mediterranean scenery that I have always been besotted with: mountains thick with pine, cypress and cork-oak trees; terrace hillsides covered with vineyards, olive groves and citrus orchards; countryside fragrant with wild lavender, myrtle and thyme; and old villages that tumble down hillsides, dominated by monumental churches and charming cafe-filled squares, with cobblestone lanes lined with sandstone houses. And in Mallorca there was an added bonus - the ramshackle windmills scattered across the whole island. But...?

Pictured is Pollenca, one of my favorite Mallorcan towns in the north.

Snapshots from Mallorca: silly inflatables

As we travelled around Mallorca over the last (gulp) six weeks (a long time to spend on the one island), we spent a lot of time visiting Mallorca's beaches - although sadly not spreading our towels out on them. Rather, Terry was photographing them, and I was checking them out for an update of a guidebook - so every visit was a hit and run. I admit that I may well be out of touch when it comes to inflatable beach toys, but I was astonished to see the variety of blow-up beds, lounges, tubes and toys, some especially whacky, like this double tube being carried by these guys in the picture. I wondered if floating about on this thing together was something they found to be lots of fun (they looked a bit too old to me), or whether a silly inflatable was simply a cool beach accessory. Nothing quite says 'summer holiday' like carrying one of these under your arm as you traipse along the sand.

Snapshots from Mallorca: deckchairs and roundabouts

As we've spent a long time living in the Gulf we've seen a lot of kooky round- abouts. Al Ain in the UAE probably wins the prize for kitschiest with its giant coffee pots but Mallorca follows pretty close behind with some of the most surprising roundabouts around. One I like features a traditional stone wall and wooden fence of the kind you typically find leading to fincas in the countryside here, but the most bizarre one must be this roundabout boasting a big deckchair at Can Picafort, a busy resort town on the northeast coast where tourists moved around on family-sized pedal-vehicles on the main road and they have eateries named Pizzeria Hamburg and Taverna Bavaria. Apt? Had any experience with kitschy roundabouts? Where is the most bizarre one you've seen? Or simply the most memorable?

Snapshots from Mallorca: surprising signs

I love shooting signs on our travels. They reveal so much about a place, its culture, norms, codes of conduct and acceptable behaviour - all of which can often be in conflict, or at least very stark contrast to those of tourists visiting the place. Many churches (and mosques) throughout the world require modest dress codes of visitors. In Italy, the signs outside churches prohibit you from entering in shorts, short skirts and revealing tops. In Mallorca, the typical tourist's street 'attire' warrants this sign. If you saw people walking around the street, you'd completely understand. At Palma airport, minutes after a young male British traveller arrived and collected his luggage from the baggage carousel, he was already pulling off his t-shirt.

Postcard from Mallorca: savouring sunsets

Can you ever get enough sunsets? I can't. And it seems people in Mallorca can't either. We spent a couple of nights at Port de Soller (from where we could see the sun setting over the sea from our terrace at the Hotel Esplendido), and observed the nightly sunset-watching ritual. Locals and tourists alike take up their positions at cafe tables and benches along the promenade, or perch on the rocks on the seafront with the fishermen to take in the scene in silence. The moment the sun sinks beneath the horizon there's applause all around. We also enjoyed a wonderful sunset from our balcony at Ca's Xorc with a glass of cava in hand. As the sun sank over the mountains, creating silhouettes of the palm trees and olive groves, the whole sky turned pink, before the big ball of fire disappeared into the sea. Sigh.

Bleeding Espresso giveaways - and it's not coffee! It's our Travellers Calabria guide!

As you'd know if you follow me on Twitter, Calabrian-based blogger Michelle Fabio over at Bleeding Espresso has been running an interview with me this week about writing our Calabria guidebook, travel writing, travelling, the writing process, and our lives as travel writers. She's also running a contest to give away 5 copies of our Traveller's Calabria book. All you have to do is post a comment on her blog at the end of the Q&A and at the end of the week (tomorrow), she'll pick the 5 winners and give them a book each. So, what are you waiting for? Get over there! Here's part 1 of the Q&A, part 2, part 3, and part 4, and you can read part 5 tomorrow - last day, so don't miss out!

Pictured? The beach at Scilla - in Calabria of course.

In print and online

Check out some of our latest work In print and online, including a review of Pierre Gagnaire's extravagant restaurant Reflet at the InterContinental Dubai Festival City in the latest issue of Gulf Air's in-flight magazine Gulf Life. You can read the online version of the review here and you can also take a look at our first review of Reflet on Fodor's Hot List if you missed it last year. In the same issue of Gulf Life you'll also find some photos that Terry took of Chef Mohammed Hellal at Damascus' Four Seasons hotel. We also interviewed the Chef two years ago while we were there updating the Syria section of Lonely Planet's Syria and Lebanon guide (we had written the Lebanon section and front matter for the 2004 edition). If you're heading down under to Perth (pictured) in the near future, rip out Walk This Way: Perth and test out my walking tour around Western Australia's capital which features in this month's issue of Connect, the Business Traveler magazine of Carlson-Wagonlit; you can print up the online version here. If you ever get a chance to do it, let me know what you think.

Postcard from Mallorca: some enchanting gardens

Manor houses transformed into magical museums, remote hilltop monasteries boasting breathtaking views, and verdant botanic gardens providing relief from the sun have all captivated me far more on this trip than any beach resort. And yet I have to admit that I am one of those people who occasionally likes to spend a week soaking up the sun on a stunning stretch of sand somewhere, and who has secretly been dreaming of a holiday doing nothing but reading books by a hotel swimming pool. Probably because these are the very things I no longer have time to do, despite spending some 300 nights on average a year in hotel rooms. Yet most of Mallorca's beaches are too crowded for my taste and their surroundings are often marred by ugly hotel developments. A place that I found especially enchanting was the lush Jardines de Alfabia near Soller. While the gardens themselves are lovely, with their leafy walkways, tinkling fountains and tranquil ponds, it was the splendid residence that they're tangled around that once belonged to the Moorish viceroy of Mallorca, that I found even more compelling. Sumptuously decorated with rich brocaded furnishings and colossal works of art on the walls, it was one of those places that took you back in time for a while when the world was a very different place. Take a peek inside here and let me know what you think.

Postcard from Mallorca: the alluring interior

We've been on the road again in Mallorca, so much so that I can now say we have well and truly crisscrossed this island - by car, foot and bike. There aren't too many cities, towns, resorts and villages we haven't visited over the last five weeks and they include a lot we wished we'd never been and don't ever need to return again, as well as some we would have liked more time exploring and would happily revisit one day. But while Mallorca is a magnet for beachlovers (most of those 11 million tourists visiting each year and the almost-20% of the population of expats are here for the sun, sea and sand) we've found the interior far more alluring. Some of the beaches are certainly attractive - especially the snug horseshoe coves with aquamarine waters protected by craggy cliffs - but unfortunately unsightly hotels have been allowed to develop around many of the best stretches of sand, spoiling their natural beauty. By contrast, the rural areas remain as they have for decades - if not centuries. Stone farmhouses and sprawling fincas with ramshackle windmills dot the landscape, their gardens luxuriant with wild cacti, oleander, bougainvillea and palm trees. Often surrounded by olive groves, citrus orchards, and golden fields dotted with haystacks, they're a delight to drive or cycle through, and even better to expore on foot - although not during summer. In Mallorca, you can give me one of these bucolic landscapes to explore over a crowded beach to lie on any day.

Postcard from Mallorca: our Palma apartment

When my co-writer and photo- grapher husband Terry and I aren't on the road doing research, and therefore don't need to move hotels every night or two, we prefer to try a few hotels in a city and then spend the rest of the time in an apartment. If we're working on a city guidebook for big cities such as Buenos Aires or Amsterdam or Milan, then we might spend a couple of months or more holed up in a place, pounding the pavements most days, writing in the afternoons and evenings, then heading out at night to try restaurants and bars. Our aim during these stints is to live like locals and get to know the locals as much as we can so we can find those hidden gems only locals and expats know about. Mallorca has been no different, except, because the island is small, we've spent just a couple of weeks in the city of Palma, and the rest of the time on the road, driving around the island. We spent two weeks in this sprawling, rustic-chic apartment in a renovated historic building in the old city owned by a lovely man (a former fashion designer) who has as much character and charm as the atmospheric accommodation he rents out. I found the place on Owners Direct, an excellent site which (along with vrbo.com) I've used all over the world and absolutely love because there's no middle man. You can check them both out here. Is renting apartments something you do when travelling? And how often would you rent and why?

Postcard from Mallorca: Palma's Old City

We've been renting an apartment in Palma's old town for the past two weeks - although we're about to head on the road again around Mallorca for five days of pick-ups of photos Terry couldn't get the first trip round due to cloudy weather. I love the streets of Palma's old city (pictured), especially at night, and I must admit I'm going to miss them, even though we've only had a short time here. While the old town lacks the buzz of other parts of Palma - there are very few restaurants in this area of the city, and just a few cafes and bars a couple of blocks away, it's the tranquility and moodiness of this part of the city that's so appealling.

Postcard from Mallorca: Valldemossa & Deia

Mallorca boasts some alluring mountain- top villages and towns that seem to tumble down the hillsides, such as Deia and Valldemossa (pictured). They have charming stone buildings, churches on the main square, and old men lingering at their favorite cafes. Valldemossa has the added attraction of a former Carthusian monastery that's famously known as the place where lovers Chopin and George Sand holed up for a few months, which Sand wrote about in incredible detail in her book "Winter in Majorca". You can visit their suite of 'cells' with gorgeous garden terraces and spectacular valley views. Deia has also been a favourite with writers and artists, and there you can visit the former home of poet Robert Graves, now a museum. It's also a very handsome place with equally stunning vistas from its windows. Surprisingly, the desks where Graves chose to write don't take advantage of them. The towns are undeniably touristy though, so there's no escaping the tacky souvenirs, tour groups and menus in four languages, but they're still enchanting and worth a visit all the same. The best way to avoid the crowds of course is to stay overnight when the tour groups have gone home and the moonlit streets are more tranquil.

Postcard from Mallorca: Reads Hotel

If you've been following me on Twitter you would have read my comments about some of the stunning boutique hotels we've stayed at, including Son Brull, Reads, La Residencia, Esplendido, Portixol and Maricel among others. Generally, we've been very impressed and what has set these Mallorca hotels apart from the rest has been their stylish decor and attention to detail, luxurious amenities (including beautiful toiletries in most), superb restaurants, enormous swimming pools and spas, an array of facilities (Read's for instance has a bike room with over a dozen state-of-the-art bikes, from mountain bikes to road bikes, and all the gear that guests can borrow), hands-on managers, and attentive staff.

We still have some time left on Mallorca, and more hotels to test out, so I'll wait until the end of the trip to give you a full rundown of the island's best, with more detailed reviews. In the meantime, here's a pic of our Arabian Nights-inspired suite at Reads, which features Moroccan furnishings and carpets the owners picked up on a trip there. One of the things I loved about Reads was the individually decorated rooms (no two are the same) and the idiosyncratic character of the property - the result of an eclectic decor that has developed over the years as the owners have gathered intriguing objects. While the building is grand, the decor is elegant and occasionally whimsical, and wandering about the rooms is as much fun as exploring a fascinating museum. More on Reads and Mallorca's other wonderful properties soon.

Postcard from Mallorca: Portocristo

As we've been on the road in Mallorca working - Terry has had a massive photo shoot and I've been updating a book - with long, busy days and no time for anything else but work, I haven't had time to blog. However, a reader has asked that I post some photos instead. So here goes, a series of pretty pictures from Mallorca (mine of course, not Terry's), that I'll call 'postcards' accompanied by shorter posts than I usually write...

There's no denying that PORTOCRISTO on the east coast of Mallorca is incredibly touristy, however, I couldn't resist including a pic of the place because the bay is so beautiful, surrounded by low cliffs, with floating pontoons you can drive from, and the sandy beach looked striking with the umbrellas lined up in rows. It was a scorching hot day as you can detect from the shadows on the sand. Unfortunately, due to Terry's tight shooting schedule and the fact I didn't have any sights, hotels or restaurants to check for my book, we spent a whole half an hour here...

Twittering from Mallorca

We're on the road in Mallorca, Spain, right now. I'm updating a guidebook and Terry is shooting images for several guidebooks. Unfortunately we're way too busy to post to our blogs. But I am twittering, so come and drop by at twitter.com/laradunston and say hi. Terry (who has finally caught the twitter bug) is also tweeting at twitter.com/terencecarter. I have lots that I want to share with you, from our favorite beauty spots around Mallorca to my mixed feelings on the island's development (is this Europe's most globalised place?) to Mallorca's best boutique hotels and the challenges we've faced finding "authentic" (yes, I know it's a loaded term) Mallorcan eateries. But, frustratingly, I just don't have time at the moment. Okay, I will share something: we've stayed in some truly stunning boutique hotel properties. And they have been so very good that I now think Mallorca's chic accommodation comprises some of the world's best sleeps. I'll tell you why in a future post, but in the meantime... my favourites (not necessarily in this order): Son Brull, Reads, Esplendido, La Residencia, Portixol, Maricel, and Ca Xorc. Check them out. Oh, the picture? That's the view from our room at Esplendido at Port de Soller. Sublime, isn't it?

Our Italy books hit the shelves!

I almost forgot to tell you... as my regular Cool Travel Guide readers know, we spent a lot of time in Italy last year researching and photographing first editions of new travel guidebooks, starting with a month in Calabria, then a month in Milan, followed by more than a month in the Italian Lakes region and Northern Italy. Our Calabria book written for the Thomas Cook Travellers series hit the shelves in late April (see this post), and our Northern Italy book for the same series will be released in a couple of weeks (you can buy it here). While we're proud of all of our Italian books - Terry shot beautiful photos for them and we put a lot of work into researching and writing them, a book that we're especially proud of (it took even more blood, sweat and tears during particularly challenging circumstances), is our book released last month on the Italian Lakes, including Milan and Po Valley Towns, which we wrote for Footprint's new Italia series. Do have a flick through them when you're next in a bookshop. And don't hesitate to let me know if you ever need tips on travel in Italy.