Europe and Middle East

Exclusive guide to the best holiday destinations in Europe and Middle East. independent reviews from award-winning travel writers

Brilliant Edinburgh festivals and other fancies Edinburgh Festival Fringe credit Janeanne Gilchrist gallery detail

Brilliant Edinburgh festivals and other fancies

When my friends say they’re going to the ‘Edinburgh Festival’ I’m tempted to ask – which one? These days there’s a whole host of them year round – 12, in fact, from the Jazz and Blues fest to the Storytelling to the famous Fringe.

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The Ugadale Hotel

The famous first tee at Machrihanish Golf Club is looking impossibly perfect from my bedroom window at the Ugadale Hotel, framed as it is by the morning sun and the Atlantic rollers behind. Old Tom Morris, the designer of St. Andrews’ Old Course would be so proud his other baby is looking so good after all these years. The same could be said for the Ugadale Hotel, the once proud dame of Machrihanish saved from abandoned ruin by her new American owners, Southworth Development.

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Lucy Daltroff tracels to northern France to visit the Slack Deux Caps Art Festival. 

Slack Deux Caps Art Festival. Where beautiful art and nature merge.

The coast, between Calais and Bologne sur-Mer, just across the English Channel is relatively undiscovered by visitors and it may because of this that an outdoor art exhibition has been mounted on some of its most scenic points. Slack Deux Caps art festival is running between, 20th June to 20th September 2015 and the idea is that the art fits seamlessly into the landscape.

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Barcelona Primavera Sound 2015 by Train. Arrive at Barcelona’s premier festival in style.

Anna Smith attends Barcelona Primavera Sound  2015 but travels by train from the the UK.

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Walking Holiday in Le Marche

Our first evening briefing in the lounge of Hotel Leone was preceded by wine and nibbles, so naturally, on the pretext of looking to store much needed energy for the next day’s trek, the majority of my nibbles were gratefully received . After all, you don’t go on a walking holiday in Le Marche trekking the mighty Sibillini national park with hunger pains, that would be foolish wouldn’t it?

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Magnificent L’Orangerie du Chateau Restaurant. Loire Valley

Lucy Daltroff heads for the Loire Valley as she dines at L’Orangerie du Chateau Restaurant.

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