A guest contribution from Melvin Boecher, the founder of Traveldudes. We were invited to London to celebrate a friend’s wedding on the 31st of December. It was fantastic! As we were already in London we also did some sightseeing. I’ve never been on the London Eye, so we decided to go for it. It was [...]
My velvet escape travel tip: Auckland
“My velvet escape travel tip” is a guest series about what the name ‘Velvet Escape’ evokes and what that would be in the hometown of the guest writer. With this series, I hope to uncover travel tips from places around the world to help visitors have a truly local experience. Today’s guest post is by [...]
Shifting capitals
As a kid, I would spend hours studying my geographic encyclopedias. I memorised all the data I could find, like the size of each country, its population and its capital city and used this to challenge my friends at school to a game of “Name The Capital”. There was one guy at school, Raymond, whom [...]
Hip boutique hotels in New York City
New York City has a wealth of cutting-edge boutique hotels that are so exclusively hip that they remain beyond the mainstream luxury travel radar. They can be found all over Manhattan in a multitude of styles, from classically understated to unabashedly decadent. Here are five boutique hotels in New York City that are sure to [...]
DoubleTree Tower of London – a new name in a grand location
It wasn’t long ago that I had a glass of wine at the Skylounge atop the Mint Hotel Tower of London. As I sat there, I thought about the hotel’s grand location near the banks of the Thames right across from the Tower of London. The City, London’s historic and financial heart is literally just [...]
Velvet moments: travel photo – a winter sunset in Amsterdam
What a difference a few days make. Last weekend, I went for a long walk along the frozen canals of Amsterdam and in the countryside. There were many activities on the ice in Amsterdam – a classical concert, people partying, speed-skating competitions and many others, like me, who simply went for a stroll. Today, there’s [...]
The spires of the Duomo
Milan is famous as one of the world’s most dynamic fashion and design capitals but there’s one monument whose design will never run out of fashion: the Duomo. The Duomo is the largest cathedral in Italy and one of the largest in the world. Work on the current structure began in the 14th century and [...]
The Dutch winter frenzy
It’s that time of the year again, when the thermometer hanging outside my window shows a lower reading than the display on my freezer. When I first moved to the Netherlands more than 20 years ago, one of the first things that caught my attention was the Dutch people’s preoccupation with ice. As soon as [...]
A guided tour of Westminster Abbey
A guest post by Andrea Kirkby. Westminster Abbey is one of the London landmarks that I always think takes an entire day to itself. I know some people ‘do’ it in an hour and a bit, but it is the sort of place that richly repays a more leisurely, lingering visit. And there’s far more [...]
Unravelling the mysteries of theatrical Covent Garden
A guest post by Andrea Kirkby. Covent Garden wasn’t quite in at the start of London’s theatrical tradition – Shakespeare’s Globe for instance was south of the river and other early playhouses clustered in the East End – but it’s been the centre of London’s theatreland since the time of Charles II. Nell Gwyn acted [...]
About Keith Jenkins
I'm Keith Jenkins. In July 2008, I left my ten-year banking career to travel around the world. I've not looked back since.
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