Trip reports
Trip report: MOROCCO – Fiona’s family adventures
26 July - Fly to Marrakech “Delicious hot North African desert wind envelops us as we step off the aircraft in Marrakech. It is 7.00pm and 35 degrees C! I’ve brought my husband and our two young sons for their first visit to Morocco. The plan is to have a couple of nights in Marrakech and then escape the heat by heading for the mountains and then the coast. As we make our way down a narrow dusty alley deep in the old souq, I can see the family wondering where I am taking them and...
Trip report: UZBEKISTAN – Fiona steps back in time
“It’s good to be back. I’m standing at the foot of the awe-inspiring Sher Dor Madrassah in the bejewelled city of Samarkand. This crossroad city lies at the heart of the legendary Silk Route – the ancient trade route for silk and spices which stretched from Shanghai to Rome. The phrase was coined in the 19th century by the German explorer and geographer Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen, to describe the ‘silk roads’ linking China, India, and the Mediterranean...
Client report: INDIA – Charles and Elizabeth Godfrey's impressions of India
Tuesday 25 January - Agra Just arrived in Agra. Love the view from the Oberoi Amarvilas! Currently exercising stomach muscles sitting up! Wednesday 26 January - Agra to Ranthambhore Having just spent one and a half hours in the back of a Toyota van on some of India's back roads, my admiration for the driver in avoiding all manner of fauna and flora throwing itself under our wheels is unfathomable. If the unthinkable does happen and the victim is two-legged, then freedom from prosecution...
Trip report: OMAN – Fiona visits the Musandam Peninsula
"In December 2010 I made a brief visit to the fabulous Six Senses Zighy Bay Hotel. Nestling in a glorious sparkling bay on Oman’s Musandam Peninsula, it is an easy 90-minute drive from Dubai airport. Leaving the glittering city high rises behind and passing wild camels dotted around Devon-red sandunes on a route which cuts through the mountains, you cross the most casual of checkpoints. With a flash of my passport we wound up into the mountains again, at last coming across an imposing...
Client report: CENTRAL ASIA – Mr and Mrs Aylott’s Silk Route journey
In Summer 2010 our intrepid clients Rob and Jane Aylott took the journey of a lifetime along the Silk Route, starting in Azerbaijan, crossing the Caspian by ferry and travelling through Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, the Uighur Autonomous Region of Western China and Kazakhstan. They journeyed by local ferry, drove through deserts and over windswept mountain passes, crossed borders and even avoided a state of emergency during the troubles in Southern Kyrgyzstan. “A...
Client report: OMAN – Mr and Mrs George Goulding and family
“We did enjoy Oman. Scenically stunning, with the desert, the incredibly dramatic mountains of massive geological plates, the blue sky and sea, and every now and then the deep green of date palms and other trees in the wadis. And of course the architecture — with stark old forts, and fortified towns of mud brick houses blending into the rocks, with even the more modern architecture respectful of the traditional style. The food was much more than passable (which was all...
Client report: MONGOLIA – Gretta Robertson’s travels with Bernice Jopling
“In my imagination, the steppes of Outer Mongolia were miles and miles of flat, scrubby land with no relief. Not a bit of it! The pitted tarmac road from Ulaanbaatar became a dirt track and we bore off to the left towards brown, rolling hills. The ger (yurt) camp comprised 10-12 gers, a loo and shower room down some steps. The following day we rose in a freezing ger, log stove dead, a white-out blizzard with drifts piled up against the door, foot long icicles hanging off the loo block...
Trip report: SPAIN – Richard Taylor-Young’s two days in Seville
“A dark, rather forbidding doorway opened to reveal the bright and sunny interior of the Hotel Corral de Rey in a street of the same name. It is a real gem, a small, boutique hotel offering great comfort and style — we had our breakfast on the roof terrace beside the plunge pool in the sunshine, rather than in the elegant dining room downstairs. It is attractively decorated and furnished throughout with a wealth of fine paintings. We saw a lot of Seville in two days, all on...
Trip report: SOUTH AMERICA - Fiona's travels in Bolivia
“The patchwork of fields in various shades of yellow, green and brown, rolling hills dotted with tall thin trees and tiny picturesque homesteads were more reminiscent of Tuscany, I thought to myself, than the dramatic highlands of Potosi. Only the stout, trilby-topped figures in colourful shawls with thick black plaits down their backs, herding their sheep on the roadside, gave me any clue that this was actually Bolivia.” “I was excited to be here. Whilst the development...
Trip report: INDIA - Richard Taylor-Young's Assam diary
“Wildlife, wilderness and the spirit of exploration were the main features of our Brahmaputra cruise — it was an absolute delight, with attentive and welcoming hosts, excellent food and conversation with our fellow passengers, dramatic scenery and fascinating shore excursions. The pace of life in Assam, a lesser known part of North-East India, is slower than elsewhere and there was barely a tourist to be seen!” We flew into Dibrugarh from Delhi to be met by Babu Das, one...
Trip report: SYRIA - Fiona visits Syria
“I have cheap and nasty”. “Oh, No!” he said, smacking his forehead and actually blushing. I mean “cheap and nice”. “So sorry — my English — I have just learnt”. "This friendly and amusing exchange with a shawl seller in the museum souks of Aleppo was typical of my recent visit to Syria. I was there by invitation of the Ministry for Tourism who are anxious to put right the West’s perception of visiting the Middle East and to...
Trip report: SOUTH AMERICA - Fiona’s journey through Chile
" The cool turquoise waters of the infinity pool danced and sparkled in the sunlight — a rather incongruous sight considering I had just arrived in the world’s most arid desert. The Atacama is an extraordinary region of thermal activity; endless horizons and snow-topped volcanoes stretching over 1,000km from the Peruvian border. I was lucky to be staying at the newly-opened Tierra Atacama, a series of sublime low mud-walled rooms with outside showers, natural slate floors,...
Client report: BHUTAN – Ian Stubbs makes a memorable return
“After three years I was returning, via Nepal, to the Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon. I had a holiday organised for six months earlier but my father passed away and all kinds of plans had to be moved around. I must have driven Fiona mad with all that needed doing. Everything was put on hold but then I came up with an idea which gave a purpose to my travels… The flight into Paro airport in Bhutan is one of the most spectacular in the world as you fly along the Himalaya mountain...
Client report: INDIA - Julia Loxton and Diana Fisher ride in Rajasthan
“My sister Di and I had been discussing another trip to India for some time, and we had decided that we wanted to go to Rajasthan and to combine this with a horse riding safari as we are both keen riders. After many phone calls to Fiona at Far Frontiers Travel, she sorted out an itinerary for us which combined all the elements we wanted. We flew to Delhi and spent a couple of days there visiting wonderful sights, including the old town, Qutb Minar, Purana Quila and the Lodhi Gardens...
Trip report: INDOCHINA - Fiona in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia
September 2007 "More than one hundred saffron-robed monks, strolling serenely down the road in the early dawn silently taking alms from the local people, will be an enduring memory of my magical visit to Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. With its magnificent gold leaf and mosaic temples, elegant French colonial buildings, busy night markets and gentle pace, my days in Laos were filled with a colourful cross-section of life. Everywhere you are met by the friendly Lao greeting...
Trip report: SOUTH AMERICA - Fiona explores Argentina
" As we drove up into the rolling green hills of the Sierras Chicas, the sandy track, flanked by pampas grass, dipped and rose, crossing tumbling streams until we reached Los Potreros. Its shady lawn gave way to an L-shaped whitewashed homestead and an inviting verandah where three snoozing labradors set the scene for the relaxed atmosphere of the days to come. Los Potreros is special. It is owned and run by the Begg family, fourth-generation Anglo Argentines, who have created a magical way...
Client report: JORDAN - Peter Wrangham's ten days in the Ancient Kingdom
25 February 2004. "We left the hotel at 7.30am for Petra. The entrance gate is a kilometre from the start of the Siq. The Siq is a gully of about 400 metres through rugged stratified rock and the sides rise on both sides to as high as 100 metres and vary in width from about three metres to seven metres. At peak times of the year with horse drawn carriages (which Philip, our guide, called chariots), donkeys carrying the overweight and so many people, I can imagine the crowd becomes quite...
