501places - 501places.com - 501 Places
General Information:
Latest News:
Tall travel stories: are they inevitable? 21 Aug 2013 | 05:02 pm
My wife tells me I always exaggerate (she must have told me this at least a million times). While I’m prone to stretching a point on almost any subject, there’s no doubt that my tallest stories come f...
Imber – Britain’s abandoned village 15 Aug 2013 | 01:54 pm
You don’t expect to find a church completely surrounded by a double ring of barbed wire in the heart of the English countryside. But then St Giles is no ordinary church, with very few services and acc...
The true British tourism champions (no fancy campaigns required) 6 Aug 2013 | 04:46 pm
It was a story that led me to Aldeburgh in the first place. I recently read Scapegallows by Carol Birch, a book that follows the life of Margaret Catchpole, a feisty young lady who was twice sentenced...
Catalina on Vatersay: a plane wreck with more than one story 24 Jul 2013 | 05:51 pm
If you take a walk around the island of Vatersay in the Outer Hebrides, you’re likely to stumble upon a very interesting discovery, behind which lies a tragic tale. Just off the road (there’s really o...
Responsible tourism – who does it benefit? 16 Jul 2013 | 01:20 pm
I looked down from the crest of the hill, heart rate slowly settling after a draining climb in the midday heat. A patchwork of fields spread out into the far distance, with only a church spire and a f...
The perils of lying to immigration officials 27 Jun 2013 | 10:27 pm
It’s funny how things turn out sometimes. As this story proves, you should be careful about telling jokes to strangers. Sometimes your most ridiculous fantasies can turn out to be a prophetic glimpse ...
A very English breakfast 16 Jun 2013 | 03:37 pm
A shrivelled lady in her seventies, back severely arched and supported in her chair by a pile of cushions, sits just inside the entrance. There’s a scent that’s hard to place but is reminiscent of a ...
Do we really need to travel? 14 Jun 2013 | 01:45 pm
According to the UNWTO (UN World Tourism Organisation) there are now over 1 billion people travelling internationally each year; a number that is expected to increase sharply as more people in India a...
Nan Madol: the lost city of the Pacific 1 Jun 2013 | 01:00 am
Approaching Nan Madol by boat there is little sense of the scale of the ruins that are about to surround us. The choppy waves of the Pacific subside as we make our way through narrowing mangrove chann...
Rule 1 of basic customer service: it’s about the customer, not you 28 May 2013 | 04:10 pm
I read a recent article written by a hotel receptionist (I’ve searched through my archives to try and find a link, with no success) that had me banging my head on the desk in frustration (metaphorical...
