I have visited fifty countries.
My family have had homes in the UK, the USA, Spain, and Singapore.
We have had au pair girls living with us, who came from France, Germany, Italy and Yugoslavia.
I speak French fluently. I have restaurant Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German and Dutch. I am struggling to read menus and signs in Greek, Hebrew and Russian (Cyrillic also in Bulgaria) and Chinese symbolic signs (also used in Japan).
ALBANIA
The Best Thing In Albania?
The colourful buildings in the capital city centre and throughout the country. Designed to raise morale at a time of economic crisis.
The Scary Thing In Albania
- Cliffside roads in the remote north, to wonderful mountaintop cafe viewpoints, and resort south to busy beach resort.
ANDORRA
AUSTRALIA
The best things in Australia
Super cities, Sydney and Perth.
The Twelve Apostles, on the great Ocean Road photo opportunity of rocks in the sea.
AUSTRIA
Best things To See And Do in Austria
Grinzing wine tasting area in Vienna. Learning about Salzberger Nockerl, meringue.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salzburger_Nockerl. Mozart Chocolates sold on the plane and everywhere.
Wishlist For Austria
Vienna, Esperanto and languages museum
BAHAMAS
BELGIUM
Worst problem in Belgium
Place names in two languages. You need to know both when driving and looking for signposts.
Best Things In Belgium
Chips (potato chips). Waffles. Chocolate. Beautiful Bruges. Looking at lace, buying lace ear-rings.
CAMBODIA
Best moment - Siem Reap for a tour of: Ankor Wat.
Scary moments. Losing our rickshaw at the entrance. One rickshaw when we said goodbye. At the end of the day, a national holiday, there were hundreds, and our vehicle had been told by police to move to the next car park.
Second scary moment. I lost my rickshaw. Supposed to meet me by the gold Buddha at the entrance. The route through a temple was in one entrance and out the other side. All four entrances had a large gold seated Buddhas.
CANADA
Best Views - Niagara Falls.
Quebec City - you can see history, the cliff climbed to conquer the city, by British General James Wolfe.
Canada Wish List - see the mural revealed by falling tide on the wall of the St John Harbour at the Bay of Fundy.
CHINA
Best - Shanghai waterfront. Great Wall.
Wishlist - Terracotta warriors.
Scary moment - losing my tour group in China where I could not speak a word of Chinese. Getting on a coach tour bus and half a mile down the road discovering they were a German-speaking group.
CORSICA
Worst disaster - Guitarists played late into the night keeping me awake. The coach to the airport broke down and we were told to cross the road. I was knocked down by a car, had multiple injuries and was not expected to survive. (1984.)
Wishlist - Maison Bonaparte.
CROATIA
Best - Dubrovnik which I visited with my parents from a cruise ship back when it was Yugoslavia.
CYPRUS Greek and Turkish.
Best moments - The wine museum.
Walking across to Northern Cyprus, Greek to Turkish and back to Greek.
Worst - Embarrassment, first asking for Turkish coffee, then Greek coffee, being told it was Cyprus coffee.
DENMARK
Best - Hans Andersen's Home
DUBAI
ENGLAND Best sights, so many: Brighton Pavilion, York Shambles, Cornwall , Lake District - Wordsworth's House, Waddesdon, Bronte House Museum, Yorkshire, Oxford, Cambridge, Hadrian's Wall, Cadbury's Factory. London's Keats House, Dickens House, National Gallery, Tate Modern Gallery, National Portrait gallery. Worst moments, wondering whether you have missed the last train ans wondering there the night buses go.
FINLAND Best moment. Meeting Santa Claus. Worst moment, finding we were naked in saunas, with a large group of people, journalists I was travelling with.
FRANCE Paris. Worst disaster. My family drove from overnight at our ex au pair girl's home in Rheims, across France to the border. I then realised I had left my passport behind in a passport neck bag on the back or a chair.
GERMANY
GREECE Best moment - learning the story of Alexander the Great in the tomb at the second sity, Thessalonkia.
Scary moment - Earthquake whilst I was in a hotel on Zakinthos island. The drinks in our glasses shook.
HAWAII
HONG KONG
HUNGARY
INDIA Scary moment. Losing my taxi at a shopping centre with four entrances. All the taxi drivers had dark skins, dark hair and black moustaches. All the taxis had number plates ending in the same three letters which was code for a taxi from that city.
INDONESIA
IRELAND
ISRAEL Best sights: Historic and biblical Jerusalem, Art deco (Bauhaus) beach city of Tel Aviv (founded in 1909), kibbutzim, Ein Gedi waterfall into the water by the cave.
ITALY Roman Rome, Opera in La Scala Milan, Umbria Etruscan gateway.
JAPAN Worst moment, being asked to how how to eat a fried egg, with chopsticks.
JORDAN Best sigh - Petra. Scariest moment: getting on and off a camel which knelt down and tried to tip me off.
KOREA (SOUTH KOREA)
LUXEMBOURG
MALAYSIA
MALTA
MEXICO
MOROCCO Marrakesh - best moment, pigeon pie, and bread kept under conical rafia hats.
NEPAL Best moments - the domed temples with eyes watching you.
NEW ZEALAND
POLAND Best moments: eating Borscht in underground restaurants. Most chilling moments - Auschwitz Birkenau, and Schindler's Factory Museum
PORTUGAL Mountainside s-bends along the Douro valley from Oporto to Regua and onwards to Spain.
RUSSIA
SAN MARINO
SAINT MAARTEN
SCOTLAND Edinburgth. Hilltop Castle. Portrait Gallery. Poets' area of old town and museums.Tartans and bagpipes.
SINGAPORE
Singapore Best moments - Giant waterfall in Changi Airport. The airport's free Butterfly Garden (two floors, one way, allow time). Night Safari. Gardens by the Bay. Botanic Gardens, free, containing the Orchid Garden (paid?)
Singapore Worst moments, a live crocodile under a boardwalk.
SOUTH AFRICA
Memorable Moments in South Africa. Table Mountain.
Wishlist for South Africa - wine trail.
SPAIN
My parents had a one bedroom home in Marbella for years.
Best Moments: In the Canary Islands in 2026, Tenerife,
Worst Moment in Spain - my bag stolen in Marbella. Previously my mother's bag was stolen.
Spanish wishlist - Barcelona's Gaudi Cathedral and other Gaudi monuments in Barcelona and other cities. Some of them require you to park your car and can't be seen from the road.
Spanish Scary Moments. Cliffside S bends in Picos de Europa.
SWITZERLAND Alprose Chocolate Factory. Covered bridges.
THAILAND Royal Palace. Floating Market.
TUNISIA
TURKEY Blue Mosque and Green Mosque
VIETNAM Halong Bay. best sight
Scary moment - first tuk tuk ride at speed from airport to checking at hotel.Tuk-tuk (motorcycle carriage) transfer to hotel in Siem Reap.
YUGOSLAVIA Dubrovnik, now CROATIA
WALES Brunel's bridge Fishguard Last Invasion Tapestry, Caerleon Roman Museum. Worst disaster. I was driving to my annual writers summer holiday in Caerleon, Wales. On the M4. Another car drove into the back of my car. I had to transfer by train to my destination.
USA Disneyland LA, Disney World Florida, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon. New York's Jewish Museum, Sex museum and many more.
WISHLIST
CHINA
Terracotta Warriors are on my wishlist.
UKRAINE
BEST TRANSPORT
Tuk-tuk (motorcycle carriage) transfer to hotel in Sien Reap.
TRAVEL TIPS
1 Keep a track of your own best and worst holiday experiences.
2 Make an Excel document of trips, hotels, museums, favourite food.
I am compiling this all week. Come back every day for updates on mine.
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