Travel Tips

"It's not so grim up north after all!", Birmingham, West Midlands, England

"Birmingham - or 'Brum' to the locals ('Brummies')

My early memories of Birmingham are of an ugly concrete mess - however a recent business trip and my latest visit have totally turned those notions on their heads!

Although still possessed of much of its ugly past in the form of an unsightly concrete ring of busy roads and 'circuses' and many 60's and 70's office blocks, Birmingham now has plenty of attractive and eyecatching new developments such as the famous new Bullring shopping centre...

Now is a time to visit Britain's 'second city'..."

Gateway "Town to the Beacons", Brecon, Powys, Wales

"As a gateway to the Brecon Beacons National Park, the market town of Brecon is a perfect jumping off point for visiting this beautiful region of Wales.

It has a beautiful heart of mainly Georgian buildings with many nice cafes and restaurants lining its narrow streets overlooked by a small castle that has been converted into a hotel with excellent views of the Beacons.

Brecon also hosts a world famous Jazz Festival in August which attracts some of the best jazz musicians in the world and thousands of visitors which has been going from strength to strength for over two decades."

"Gateway to the Gower", Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales

"Abertawe in Welsh, or the mouth of the River Tawe.

Home to Dylan Thomas, Wales' most famous poet and notorious drinker!

This will be a somewhere biased page as currently my only pics are of the suburb of Oystermouth along the Mumbles.

Although quite a gritty and industrial city (Swansea's Tawe Valley used to be the most polluted place on Earth during the 18th and 19th centuries due to its huge copper and zinc smelting factories!) with its historic centre having been flattened by the Luftwaffe during WWII, it has a stunning coastline with a promenade of several miles in length arcing around the bay towards the Mumbles.

Past the Mumbles begins the Gower Peninsula with its beautiful sheltered bays and fine sandy beaches.

As Swansea city straddles the Gower, I will be adding all my Gower tips to the Swansea page as there is no Gower page on VT, though most of those tips will probably end up in the 'Off the Beaten Track' section."

"Blaenavon - UNESCO World Heritage Site", Blaenavon, Gwent, Wales

"On the edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park, this was one of the first major centres of the Industrial Revolution in Wales, Blaenavon first came to prominence as a place of Ironworking before this was later expanded to coal mining at the Big Pit.

Blaenavon is now listed as a World Heritage Site for its contribution as one of the cradles of the Industrial Revolution - culturally speaking UNESCO has now put it on a par to say, the Taj Mahal!"

"Border Town of England and Wales", Chepstow, Gwent, Wales

"Chepstow is an attractive little town at a strategic location on the River Wye on the border of Wales and England, and as such was fortified by the Normans only three years after they conquered Britain.

The name Chepstow is Old English for 'Marketplace', and indeed it does hold a large market at the racecourse every Sunday. Its Welsh name of Cas-Gwent means literally the port of Gwent.

One of the best features of this charming town is its impressive and historically very interesting castle standing guard dramatically on limestone cliffs towering above the Wye."

"Marcher Lands of the Welsh Borders", Gwent, Wales

"I expect this page will end up as a sort of clearing house for all the odds and ends one attraction towns and villages in this fascinating border area of Wales...

It is a beautiful part of the country, bounded to the north by the Brecon Beacons National Park, to the east by the sublimely beautiful Wye River Valley and to the south by the Severn River estuary.

Studded with castles, it is home to many famous Welsh towns including Caerphilly, Chepstow, Caerleon, Monmouth and Abergavenny to name a few."

"Abergavenny - Gateway to the Brecon Beacons", Pembrokeshire, Wales

"This attractive market town is the south eastern gateway to the Brecon Beacons National park, with an information centre for the National Park. It is also just down the hill from the Blaeavon UNESCO World Heritage site.

It is set attractively at the confluence of two river valleys surrounded by rich green hills overlooking it, including the popular Blorenge and Sugar Loaf Hills.

Abergavenny makes a great base for exploring the surrounding areas as well as being famous for good food and wine with many local producers nearby even including a vineyard. The main event in the calendar of the town is the Annual Food Festival which is in its 7th year and going from strength to strength with over 28,000 visitors last year!"

"Icelandic Circumnavigation", Iceland

""It's 1372 kms to circumnavigate Iceland, we've got a full tank of gas, 6 days to do it in, it's late afternoon and we're wearing sunglasses."

After two days in Reykjavik we picked up a monster 4WD with a clear mission in mind - going all the way around Iceland, during as it transpires one of the worst cold snaps in the country for years!

2088kms later and what an adventure!

Iceland: That beautiful far off island of fire and ice - a place I have always wanted to visit and what an experience it was!"