SallyM's VirtualTourist Home Page

My first trip abroad was back in 1984, when I finally persuaded my parents to be a bit more adventurous with the family holiday than going to East Anglia again. My user photo shows me on this first adventure across the Channel.

Until recently my travels have mainly been in Europe (I have visited most countries except for the Baltic and Scandinavia) and North Africa, apart from a trip to Pakistan for a friend's wedding, but in 2007 I took a trip along the Silk Road from China to Uzbekistan, via Kyrgyzstan and I have just returned from Venezuela.

I have also been exploring parts of the UK that I had not visited before, including Edinburgh, Newcastle, Cardiff, Belfast, Swansea, Cambridge, Liverpool and Halesworth. There are lots of places that are not thought of as tourist destinations as such, where there are still things worth seeing. Even Wolverhampton has its points.

My favourite country for a holiday is Italy, but my best ever trip was a tour of Albania.

I travel for two reasons:

1. Travelling to see as much of a new part of the world as I can; or

2. Going somewhere on a holiday to relax. I prefer pottering around or doing a tea-shop or cafe crawl to lying on a beach.

I love Italy because it is a great place for combining the two. You can stay somewhere like Taormina or Sorrento, which are excellent pottering places, and combine it with sightseeing in Syracuse or Pompeii.

My top pottering places are currently:

1. Taormina, Sicily
2. Hay-on-Wye, Wales
3. Rhodes Town, Island of Rhodes (see my new travelogue).
4. Bourton-on-the Water, England
5. Sorrento, Italy
6. Whitby, England
7. Bratislava, Slovakia

I'm not actually good traveller. I don't mean that I suffer from travel sickness, but I hate the preparation and packing, and the hassle at the airport. I usually arrive at my destination swearing that I will never venture more than 30 miles from home ever again. A good meal usually sorts this out when I arrive at my destination, and I thoroughly enjoy myself.

Returning home, I usually find I am exhausted and unable to function properly for a day or two, irrespective of the length of the journey.

So far this year we have been to the Orinoco Delta in Venezuela and Tobermory on the Isle of Mull.

Our longer term travel plans include Bulgaria, Siberia, New Zealand and Japan. There is a theme to these travels, but only those who were children in the UK in the early 1970s are likely to be able to work it out!