If I tell a hotel I'm a travel writer, I can't get out of there without spending a few hours looking at every single room!

I've always found that the best travelers are the very same people who are intensely interested in the history and culture of their own home city.

Dubai,I think is a big bore - a city deliberately built to appeal to tourism, and only built for that purpose, and not possessing a valid culture or history of its own.

In general, my advice is to seek out people and new ideas when you travel.

Luckily you cannot get to the Golden Triangle in a bus. You can only access it on your own two feet!

I find, on my own travels, that the most depressing form of culture shock is experienced when you go into a country that is under the thumb of a dictator.

I regard Paris as a feast for the eyes, the senses and brain. It is a phenomenal city.