You’re in HCMC (Sài Gòn) and the first thing you want to eat is probably a fragrant bowl of phở. Absolutely fair enough. But famous phở is just one soup noodle dish you can expect in Ho Chi Minh City – there are plenty more. When you get there, as alluring as endless bowls of the superlative phở are, leave time and stomach capacity to explore the complex world of HCMC's other soup noodle offerings...

If you’ve been keeping up you’ll note we recently delved into Seville, giving just a few reasons to love this luscious Andalusian city. Dripping with history, oozing charm and marinated in up-beat, tapas-fuelled vibes, it’s the kind of place that gets right under your skin, with a single visit barely scratching its alluring surface. Never mind the day trips! Here are a few more reasons to dream of visiting lovely old Seville…

Is it our imagination, or are All The Lucky Bastards travelling at the moment? No matter where we look on social media, our feeds are flooded with Tuscany this, the Greek Islands that and Maldives, regional France and Prague the other. Not that we’re jellie or anything. Nah, not us. Never…

Itching to get to Morocco? You’re not alone. According to the Trading Economics website, the Kingdom is expecting as many as 12 million tourist arrivals in 2024. Last year I was one of them, lured by the promise of ancient medinas, gorgeous architecture and gallons of mint tea, and with snippets of Paula Wolfert’s iconic food prose rattling around my head…

Barcelona gets all the buzz, but most Spain cliches actually belong to Andalusia, the country’s second largest comunidad autónoma (region). Bordering the expansive southern coast, the capital is Seville and it’s a seductive place, famous for flamboyant holy week processions, a gob smacking cathedral…

Itching to get to Morocco? You’re not alone. According to the Trading Economics website, the Kingdom is expecting as many as 12 million tourist arrivals in 2024. Last year I was one of them, lured by the promise of ancient medinas, gorgeous architecture and gallons of mint tea, and with snippets of Paula Wolfert’s iconic food prose rattling around my head…

Missing Singapore? Yeah, us too. For all its spit and polish, its Gardens by the Bay, its posh high teas and those eye-popping luxury chattels on Orchard Road, it’s to the humble hawker centres we high-tail when we’re there. So do the locals, despite all those shiny…

What do Spaniards love more than a tomato? Not much. Per www.statista.com, in 2021 tomatoes were Spain’s most eaten vegetable (OK, so technically they’re a fruit, but go with this). Spanish-grown tomatoes make up 35 percent of European tomato consumption, making them a vital export crop too…

With Christmas rolling around, you can bet your bottom dollar that every Spaniard is fixated on the exact same thing - ham. Actually, when don’t they think about it? Jamón (ham) is nothing short of a national obsession and once you’ve tasted Spanish ham, no other will do. Sorry, prosciutto…

If you’ve ever been to Venice, you’ll understand how it gets under your skin. Sure, the crowds and tourist traps are annoying but if anyone has an overall ‘meh’ response to Venezia, I’d challenge them to locate their pulse. Srsly. You need to be fully dead to not appreciate this gorgeous place. And if you read Part One, you’ll have seen the…

How much do we love George Town? Let us count the ways. Charming, a bit crusty around the edges and with a very human scale, the UNESCO-protected heart of Penang’s capital is a gem. It might not have the glossy nightlife, restaurants or Insta-opps of, say, Bali, but we couldn’t give a flying flip…

There are plenty of reasons to be drawn to Sichuan (pandas, that food, the local opera style, natural beauty and glimpses of Tibetan culture spring to mind), but honestly, you could ditch the sight-seeing completely, decamp to a teahouse, sit with the locals, break out the melon seed snacks and be totally happy…

Venice. You know you want to. Or do you really? The over-tourism. The queues. The heat. The mozzies. The expense. It’s all a bit off-putting. I found myself in Venice in June for the very first time and as a fan of shoulder and off seasons, it wouldn’t have been my pick of months to go. Tacking it onto the end of a work trip, it was what it was. And what it ended up being was actually pretty darned amazing…

We love pounding BKKs hot pavements for street food bargains and the city is heckin’ jammed with them. Sitting in grungier corners and inhaling pad thai with a side-serve of tuk tuk fumes is one of our City of Angels highlights. And we love the thrill of a chugging ferry ride to an obscure, river-side alley for some rumoured, X-factor hawker stall, then feeling incredibly proud when…