The extraordinary Canadian Rockies

Getting out of Calgary in a rental car, after a nine-hour flight from London, is no mean feat. Everything is slightly... gonzo. Have we been on this road too long? Was that our turn-off? But eventually we are spewed out onto a quiet highway with rolling countryside on either side, in no way giving a hint as to the drama of the scenery that's to come.

The first time I've seen peanut butter in a little packet 

First stop, because it's only a two-hour drive from the airport, is Banff. People love Banff. Everyone we spoke to there had moved from somewhere else and had come for a week or two and never left. I wish I could have liked it more, but it's mostly a main street lined with hotels and souvenir shops. You can also buy outdoor gear, and there is a movie theater and supermarket, so there are hints of real life going on but, wih its cutsey façades, it looks very much like Disney had a hand in building it.

There are also scads of tourists promenading up and down that main street. A lot of these, I couldn't help noticing, were Asian and, to a man, woman and child, were all wearing box fresh North Face, Superdry and Helly Hansen from head to toe. In fact, there were so many, that they were part of the ambient scene, along with the signs announcing pizza, coffee and ice cream outside the shops.

What's amazing about Banff, though, is that once you're there, you're already in the National Park and it's surrounded by incredibly high mountains you can see from everywhere. You need to buy a pass to drive in and, if you're staying more than a day, it seems you get sold the year-long one (have just remembered we left ours in our rental car - dang...) which costs Canadian $134. It also means wildlife sightings are on the cards and on our very first night we spied three elk grazing outside our bedroom window. So exciting. Thrilling, even, that these wild animals are just roaming around town.


Best things to do in Banff:
1. Take the gondola to the top of Sulphur Mountain. Great views, lovely restaurant and, if you're feeling energetic, you can do the walkway over to the another nearby peak.
2. Eat dinner at the Silver Dragon Chinese restaurant. Best Chinese food I've had since I don't know when.

Looking for the missing canoer

3. Visit Lake Minnewanka. Don't laugh. Yes, I know the name is similar to something naughty, but it turns out 'minne' or sometimes spelled 'minni' is an indigenous people's word for water. Not sure what the wanka part means. Take the boat trip out into the lake. We had a fantastic commentary and learned why we wouldn't be seeing wolves (they're far too fast and clever), why fire can be good for an environment (allowing a more diverse forest to grow where, say, a dense carpet of pine trees was before) and also a sad tale about a young man who'd gone out the week before in a canoe by himself and hadn't been seen since. His canoe was found a few days later.

Enough of Banff for now. Off to Jasper, which means driving the Glacier Parkway. What a treat. So many glaciers, so many beautiful views. We were there in October and it snowed as we drove along, which gives you an idea of how early winter comes here. The images of the intensely wild landscape stay with you for a long time afterwards, as does the solitude as there were few other cars along this stretch.

Elk

Jasper is much more of a true town, with a diner-type restaurant in the center for breakfast, a supermarket, plenty of tat shops, but none of the Disney-fication of Banff. We were very lucky and got to stay at the Fairmont hotel here, a vast complex of cabins, main building, spa and pool, all set around a very pretty lake. Our cabin reminded me of the house in the Dick Van Dyke Show. Sort of retro, lots of wood panelling... Anyway, we looked right out on the lake and could easily have just moved in.

Top things to do in Jasper:
1. Take Estelle's food tour. You'll be taken to four restaurants and eat a dish with a drink (alcoholic unless you ask for otherwise) at each one and you'll also be given a potted history lesson on Jasper, learn about its quirks and come away feeling full, entertained and enlightened. Let her know when you book if you're a vegetarian, coeliac or have an allergy.

 2. Drive out to Maligne Road and just keep going. Crucially, go early in the day and drive slowly. This is where we saw two separate moose families and another animal we haven't been able to identify. It most resembled a fox, but not with the coloring of any fox I've ever seen or can find on the internet. Black tail, reddish body, black and yellow face. Just trotting along beside the road. No picture.
3. Go up the Jasper SkyTram. Amazing views of the mountains stretching off to the horizon, a nice café with a million-dollar vista and a gift shop at the top. Also walking possibilities if you're inclined.

Next stop Lake Louise and the Fairmont hotel there, where we had been happily upgraded to a lake-view room. It's around this point that I stop having enough superlatives to describe how beautiful and astonishing the landscape here is. The color of the water – like a super-blue, which I discovered is the result of glaciers grinding the surrounding rocks and then the rock 'flour' that's produced is washed down by snow and rain and suspended in the water, reflecting the light – is like nothing else I've seen anywhere. The temperature of these lakes is so bitterly cold though, that even in high summer you can't swim in them and very little lives in them.

Lake Louise

Top things to do in Lake Louise
1. Whatever time of year it is, take the gondola at the ski resort up to the top. As well as yet another nice café, there's a funny little stuffed-animal room and more of those incredible mountain views.

Emerald Lake

2. Drive to nearby Emerald Lake and take the 5.3km walk around the perimeter. You'll mostly be on your own, unlike at Lake Louise itself, and every so often there's a little information sign, explaining what you're looking at in the landscape. Reward yourself with hot chocolate at the cafe when you've completed the circuit.
3. Gaze at the lake!


On our way back to Banff and, ultimately, Calgary and our flight back to London, we stopped off at the Glacier Experience by the Athabasca Glacier. We were hoping to get one of the buses that take you right on to the glacier, but they were cancelled due to the high winds. We did do the other part of the 'experience', which is to go on the Sky Walk, a seemingly simple walkway built out over the valley. However, it's an unnerving experience because the floor is glass and it's a loooong way down... Not for the faint-hearted.

Athabasca Glacier

Dubrovnik light

The title of this entry could be read as a double entendre. That’s because I didn’t ‘do’ Dubrovnik – I took no tours, went into no museums or exhibitions. What I did do though, was fall in love with this wonderfully restored gem of a town and stayed in the most gorgeous hotel. In fact, when it was time to go home, it was a bit like leaving home. I got all homesick and sad about it. 

I also want to mention the actual light: it’s bright and clear, and bounces off the sea and makes the whole place sunshiny happy. 

The stay was the five-star Hotel Bellevue, part of the Adriatic Luxury Hotels group, who own some of the most luxurious, top-end stays in Croatia, so they know what they’re doing when it comes to comfort and spoiling their guests. The Bellevue is a complete reinvention of the Communist-era hotel previously on this cliff-hugging spot. Every room and suite looks down on the private beach and out to sea, and comes with a terrace where it’s incredibly easy to while away the time just watching boats go past and birds swoop around. 

Of course, you can’t stay in your room the whole time, even if it’s so nice it almost seems a shame to leave it. There’s a great restaurant terrace downstairs, where they’re just waiting to feed you, as well as a bar, where they’d very much like to serve you a cocktail or two, plus a spa offering relaxing treatments… But really, best of all is that beach and the lounger-side service, should you want it.

You’re about a 10-15 minute walk, depending on your speed, from King’s Landing – sorry, I mean the old town of Dubrovnik. It’s mostly downhill, with some great viewpoints and fabulous old stone-built mansions in the Venetian style to ooh and ahh at as you pass. “I’ll have this one. No, that one. No, wait, the one over there,” you may well find yourself thinking. The thing is, any of them would be a treat.

Once in the old town, a couple of things to keep in mind: it will be crowded and it will be crowded. There is now a law limiting the number of cruise ships that can dock in the bay at any given time, in an effort to keep the hoardes down, but it’s still extremely full. Not so you can’t walk, but you will never find yourself either alone or with less than about 50 or so people about. You can still appreciate the beauty of the place and, what was quite remarkable, is how there is no looming ‘new’ town anywhere in sight, which makes it extra special.

Here is what we did do there: walked straight down the main street, looking left and right, through various covered bits and then out to the harbour. Here you will not have to look to be presented with at least half a dozen stalls selling trips to the local islands. Don’t wait: just hop on the next one going. The islands are beautiful, but so is the journey to them. The trip we took gave us about 20-30 minutes on three of them and a couple of hours on the final fourth, which was just right and meant there was time to swim, sunbathe, get a drink and meander back onto the boat. All the trips also serve lunch, which is a bit of salad and your choice of either fish or chicken. I can’t speak for the chicken, but the fish was perfectly fine and there’s much fun to be had throwing bits of fish skin or heads to the waiting seagulls, who catch it midair.

The final thing to say about this visit is that I left my phone and therefore my camera at home. Yes, by mistake. And so for the entire two-night stay I only managed to take one photo, from our balcony down to the beach, when I borrowed someone’s phone. 

Ibiza without clubbing

San Antoni

The one cocktail I had

What? Really? Not even once? Not even if Eats Everything, a DJ you meet on the flight over who’s playing Amnesia, offers to put you on the guestlist? Nope. Maybe I would have fallen in love with the whole scene. Maybe I would even now be stocking up on glowsticks and planning my next trip to the White Isle. 

Up north

But it just doesn’t appeal. The whole rave scene came at the wrong time for me to jump on its bandwagon, but that’s OK. I genuinely don’t feel as if I’ve missed out. So why, you might be asking, go to Ibiza? Isn’t the whole point of the place to get off your face and dance to EDM with thousands of other people all night long, before sleeping it off to the pop beats being broadcast across the surface of the slightly too-chilly hotel pool the next day?

Well, I’d been told that, away from the clubbing hotspots of San Antoni, Ibiza Town and Platja d’en Bossa, there was a whole other Ibiza. One that was beautiful and worth visiting. “Go north!” everyone said before we went. “Go to Formentera!”

So that’s what we did. 

What did I learn? That – unless you actually leave the island – you’re never really very far from thumping dance music. Sure, there is some beautiful countryside in the interior and some very pretty views out to sea along the coast, and there are positive things about the place, but mostly it really is geared up for the 20-something party crowd. Or, flipside, the slightly older well-monied holidaymaker. Still, if you’re keen on going and don’t want to hit the clubs – or maybe you can combine your all-nighters with a bit of exploring – here’s what we did that I’d recommend…

Formentera

Formentera

The smallest of the Balearic Islands and a charming ferry ride from either Ibiza Town or San Antoni away, makes it a perfect day trip destination. In fact, I liked Formentera so much that I would go back there and just skip Ibiza altogether. It’s probably what Ibiza was before the Brits hit and brought the clubs. Sandy roads meandering through herb-scented, scrubby countryside; pretty, unspoiled beaches; sleepy towns… The thing to do here is hire scooters, little 50cc-ers with no gears, so it’s just stop and go. Tootle off and see where you get to, because wherever you end up will be perfectly nice. The sea was always glass clear, the beaches never too busy and that scented air – pretty amazing. The only downside was having to leave. 

Etxeko

Etxeko at Bless Hotel

This was a gastronomic blow-out. One of those places where they say it’s an eight-course tasting menu, but by the time you’ve had the amuse-bouche and the palate cleanser and the petit fours, you end up eating for a very long time and, even though it never looks like much food arriving at any one time, by the end of the evening your stomach is bursting out over the top of whatever waistband you were shortsighted enough to put on a few hours ago. 

Everything came looking like a picture, nay, a masterpiece, full of pretty colours and arrangements on the plates. At the next table two Real Madrid players and their WAGs were seated, all looking gorgeous and glamorous, and we felt like we were somewhere. Not cheap (€100 a head), but what you might call a destination dining experience.

Finca La Plaza

Finca 
La Plaza

It’s not the food that will draw you here, but the setting. Tucked away in a pretty courtyard behind the main square of Santa Gertrudis, which is pretty much slap-bang in the middle of the island. 

It’s such a charming setting and, if you come for dinner, candlelight gradually takes over from sunlight as you chow down on some surprising combinations. Ravioli with burrata, creamed courgette, mint and tomato wasn’t my favourite dish of the week (sorry!), but the side of mashed potatoes were amazing. So smooth and light. I could have eaten just them and the starter of grilled artichoke and been very happy.

The Giri's garden

The Giri Café

This one is further north, in Sant Joan, a sleepy little town you could easily drive through almost without noticing. However, there’s plenty of free parking and it’s worth stopping for lunch. This is another one where eating in the garden is what makes it. Yes, there are plenty of veggie and vegan options; yes, it has a seasonal menu and the food is nice. But it’s sitting next to the growing tomatoes you might be eating in the next 10 minutes, looking out over fields towards the hills while you bite into your falafel burger that will have you lingering here, mulling over whether to order that avocado cheesecake.

Beachouse

Publicity stunt for David Guetta

OK, I know I said we didn’t go to any clubs, but I’m not sure a proper grown-up, daytime-focused beach club counts. The music here wasn’t blaring, but discreetly in the background; the vibe was very chilled, with a few families who’d brought their grandmothers and toddlers along (but not so many that it felt like a kindergarten) and, best of all, we had the best meal of the week here. A whole seabass between two that was moist, flavourful and hard to stop eating. Also olive-oil sautéed potato and courgette slices. There was a starter (quinoa somethings) and desserts, but I was too full by then to eat any more. After that, we practically crawled out to the daybeds and collapsed to read cheap paperbacks and do a little people watching, the best of which was a parade of gorgeous young things promoting a David Guetta night (nope, not even tempted).

Las Salinas

Yes, the salt. There is something about a salt mountain that’s just so… I don’t know how to put the feeling into words. You just want to gaze at it and get all the feels. Really. So, yes, do buy some Sal de Ibiza while you’re here – you’ll find it sold in just about every shop you go into, even if it’s a clothing store – but also, go to the salt works, which have been producing the white crystals since, oh, about 800BC. You can drive right in between the salt flats and up to the hill (I know, I said mountain, but I exaggerated). The area just south of the airport (does the engine exhaust drop on the stuff?) has now been declared a national park and is definitely worth going to look at. Assuming, that is, you like looking at pools of incredibly salty water evaporating in the sun. Which, apparently, I do.

Salinas

Three days in Prague at Christmas

Ah, Christmas in Prague. Sounds delightful, doesn't it? The markets, the lights, maybe an icing of snow to make it all picture perfect and fewer crowds due to it being a family holiday...

Stop! Now imagine the sound of screeching brakes or maybe a record needle coming off vinyl in a scratchy, fast way. That first imagining wasn't all off-beam, but the idea that we might be the only crazy folks just mad enough to go city-sightseeing in possibly Europe's most photogenic capital at Christmas? Unh-unh. In fact, I'm pretty sure half of Asia was there with us, but never mind, it was still fantastic.

With just three days you'll be busy, but you can still hit the highlights and, as it's such an easy place to get around (its public transport has been rated the best on the continent), you won't spend any time getting lost.

Of course, for a good visitor experience, you'll want to allow for wandering time. You know, those hours when you walk out of your hotel with only a vague idea of where you might like to end up and just see where your feet take you. You'll see so many beautiful Art Nouveau buildings and interesting details, that after a while you'll probably stop saying, "Look at that one!", because really, they're almost all incredible.
 
Much of the city was built at the beginning of the 20th century, when architectural decoration was the name of the game, so for building buffs like me, there's plenty to catch your eye and just enjoy. But where to go when you're ready to see stuff?

Of course, you'll go to Charles Bridge – everyone does – but it doesn't have to be your first stop. In fact, we ended up on Svatopluk Čech Bridge, which is wonderfully decorated with suns on top of lampposts and angel statues at all four corners. Truthfully, this was my favourite Prague bridge for all its wonderful details and – bonus – it's not crowded. In fact, there's hardly anyone on it at all.
You'll also go to Old Town Square. We couldn't seem to get away from it – whenever we turned a corner, it seemed we were heading back toward it. Which is fine. It's a lovely place and filled at Christmas with the biggest of the twinkly markets, selling Gluhwein (mulled wine), decorations, sausages, woolley novelty hats, trdelník (aka tunnel cake), thick socks and, helpfully, providing a viewing platform so you can take those all-important selfies with the church behind you. It's also where you'll find the Astronomical Clock, which was deemed so beautiful and perfect that its maker had his eyes gouged out so he couldn't make another. 

The best thing we did was get to grips with the trams, which isn't hard to do, especially if you've got Google maps on your phone. Put in where you're going, then let it do the hard work for you of showing which tram to get from where. They're cheap for single journeys, but we splashed out on a Prague Card (not cheap at €60), but meant we could hop on and off any form of transport at will, and also got free or discounted entry at most of the sights. 

In winter the sun sets early (obvs), but this isn't a bad thing. Just make sure you wrap up warm and then hop a tram to the bottom of Petrin Hill on the Castle side of the Vlatava river. From here you board the funicular (always a fun way to travel) up. You can get off halfway, where there's a restaurant, or simply stay on to the top. Here you'll find three fabulous things. 

First, Petrin Tower, a one-fifth size Eiffel Tower built shortly after the Paris original. Of course, you can climb the steps to the pinnacle or be lazy like us and go into the café at the base for simply the best hot chocolate of your life. So thick a spoon practically stands up in it and so chocolatey it ruins for you forever.

Next, visit the Mirror Maze, built for an exhibition in 1926 and still tons of fun. Plus, it's housed in a very sweet castle-like building (free with your Prague Card!).

Last, but not at all least, the Observatory, where we found incredibly enthusiastic staff who were more than happy to move the telescopes and refocus them so we could have a peek at the tree in Old Town Square. Ah, there it is again...

Another day, hop on a bus to the top of Castle Hill. You'll have to do a little walking, but as it's all downhill it's pretty easy. Your Prague Card will get you into most of the buildings here for free and if it's winter, you'll be glad to get inside, as it can be bitter. When you've finished, leave the hoards behind and walk down past the little vineyard down into the Little Quarter, where more beautiful houses and palaces, many open to the public, await. There's a little park here next to the river, called the Kampa, where you'll find Werich Villa. It's home to a collection of modern art and, also, a very popular cosy cafe, which makes a nice stop.

Here is where I tried white hot chocolate for the first and, most definitely, last time. I was so intriqued by the idea of it, but the reality was so sweet it practically went over the top of the arc and into sour again. No thank you. But pleased to have given it a go. I also had a Prague bun: a sweet thing wtih a rich, creme anglais-type gush inside. Mostly what made this such a highlight was the local Praguers, all clearly enjoying the treat of meeting there to eat and talk. 

Outside in the Kampa another local tradition was going on: Even in the freezing cold, families and friends were meeting for stand-up picnics. Plastic containers of sweet treats and sandwiches, plus Thermoses of Gluhwein, with dogs and children running about. Hardy folk!

Finally, a dinner suggestion: The Eatery, in the Holesovice area. A tram ride, but an easy one, to get to this off-the-beaten track (for now) residential area that is slowly emerging as Prague's hipper neighbourhood. There's a good vegetarian selection, as well as meat and fish; you can sit at the bar and watch them cook while you eat or have a table; and it's all quite delicious at a very reasonable price - think €€, which is good for Prague.

Another night, take one of the dinner cruises along the Vlatava. Yes, a tourist thing to do, but still, a nice way to see the city from the water and eat at the same time.