Testimonials

Caribbean out of season? It's out of this world! Fewer people, cheaper flights and hotels. Our hotel was the first to be built in St James on the west coast of Barbados back in the Forties, next door to the winter estate of Sir Edward Cunard of Steamship Company fame.

The most audacious city in the world… Dubai’s swift transformation from desert town to giant holiday idyll leaves former ITN reporter Andrea Catherwood awestruck. 

A roaring success: Whether dining by an elephant's waterhole or sleeping in a luxury tent, South Africa's Marakele National Park is the ultimate place to see animals at every turn.

As Prince Charles was scowling at the goosestepping soldiers of the People's Liberation Army at midnight on June 30, 1997, I was a mile up the road hanging out of the first-floor window of Hong Kong's infamous Club 97. 

Gaudi to sandy in just one step: Andrea Catherwood marvels at Barcelona's double delights of great architecture and a brilliant beach ... and finally stays at Hotel Arts.

Luxury hotels worldwide like to notch up a Hollywood A-lister or two in their visitors' book and many can claim the odd actor or footballer has graced their junior suites - but they'd all do well to avoid a name dropping contest with the big beast of the French Riviera, the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc.

Yes mum, that's a beautiful fairytale castle... now PLEASE take us to Space Mountain: Disney World has it all - speed, terror and a Mickey Mouse cocktail.

After that engagement ring, that wedding dress and that demi-chignon (hair do, guys), the Seychelles has won the golden ticket of becoming 'that' honeymoon destination. A smattering of tiny islands arching through the Indian Ocean between Madagascar and Sri Lanka (and rather close to Somalia, though they don't mention that in the brochure) has now taken up its place in the glare of publicity surrounding all things William and Kate.

The craic is back: The boom years are over and Dublin has recaptured its friendly charm. The roar of the Celtic tiger scared off more than a few visitors from making a return trip to Dublin during Ireland's years of soaring pros­perity. 

Andrea Catherwood finds that even young children can enjoy the slopes in stylish Austria. Raise the subject of taking young children skiing and you'll find two distinct camps. First, the 'earlier the better brigade' who favour borrowing Barbie's crash helmet and strapping a snowboard to the Moses basket. Then there's the 'I'd rather invest with Madoff' lot who think taking kids to such an alien environment is such a hassle, so expensive and so filled with danger that it's sheer madness

...but for how much longer. 

Secretly, I've wanted to be a marine biologist in the Ionian sea since I saw For Your Eyes Only, aged 11. I dreamt of being a scuba diving scientist – Bond girl, white-hot in a bikini yet surprisingly useful with a crossbow, although obviously without my parents being eradicated by a megalomaniac bent on world domination.