This section holds three kinds of thing. Tips are problem led and do not go out of date: your cover, your paperwork, your health and your money, each written as the six mistakes people actually make. Guides are destination led and time bound, with the dates, entry rules and small print checked against primary sources. Travel Tales is travel writing, for reading rather than planning.
Everything here is independent. We do not sell, compare or arrange insurance, currency or anything else, and nothing on these pages is an affiliate link. Where a claim comes from the FCDO, the NHS or another primary source, that source is named and linked at the foot of the page so you can check it yourself.
Travel insurance
Six mistakes that turn cheap cover into no cover. When to buy, what to declare, and the limits that actually matter.
Read the tips →Money
Six mistakes that quietly take a slice of your holiday money. Card fees, currency conversion, airport rates and what to do when a card gets blocked.
Read the tips →Visas & entry rules
Passport validity, onward travel proof, transit rules and evidence of funds. Why being refused at the border is usually paperwork, not suspicion.
Read the tips →Health
What a GHIC does and does not do, vaccinations and timing, carrying prescription medication, and what happens if you need treatment abroad.
Read the tips →Destination guides
Where to go and what to sort first. Christmas markets with confirmed dates, New Year done properly, and the ten places with an actual reason to go in 2027.
3 guides Browse the guides →Travel Tales
Places that surprised us, plans that went sideways, and the small things nobody warns you about. Written for the pleasure of it rather than for planning.
12 stories Read the tales →