My ex work colleague, Elaine aka Por Por (Cantonese nickname), who I keep in touch with decides to come over from Hong Kong and stay with another ex work colleague, Joanna, who lives in London. I had promised Elaine a road trip next time she visited the UK, and I'm a man who keeps his promises. After spending her first night in London, Elaine catches a fast train with Joanna out of London to Reading where I pick them both up for Por Por adventures to begin. Bath Our first destination is the beautiful city called Bath, which is situated in the county of Somerset. This city gets it's name due to Roman built baths that date back to AD 60 and is the main tourist attraction of the city. The Romans discovered the hot springs ... read more

About a year ago I received an e-mail notification of Couchsurfers needing somewhere to stay in the nearby town to me called Reading. Although the town Is spelt the same way as in reading a book its actually pronounced as "Redding". I message this guy called Miguel who I thought wanted to stay near Reading and was visiting from South America. Anyway, turns out that Miguel doesn't need anywhere to stay and just put Reading down as the location in the hope to speak to native English speakers. After messaging Miguel a few times, I knew he was a top guy. We have many similar interests and both passionate about travelling. I find myself talking to Miguel on a regularly basis and, although we have never met in person, felt like we had become good friends. ... read more

Day 1 An early start as we take the train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes. The train stops on the way to allow people to get off to do the one day Inca Trail hike. I'm gutted to miss the chance of doing this trail. The permits for this hike are restricted to 200 tourists a day and, despite booking my trip four months in advance, it was not good enough for visiting Machu Picchu at the start of the peak season. Although I missed out on one of the best hikes in the world, the train still at least offers impressive scenery views of the Scared Valley. Once we arrive at Aguas Calientes and check-in at the hotel we have plenty of free time to explore this small town. The town gets it's Spanish name ... read more

An early start to catch a short flight to Cuzco from Lima. This will be flight number 3 of 9 for this trip and I am pushing myself hard with my fear of flying by deciding to sit in a window seat for the first time ever. I am really glad I did as the views of the Andes are absolutely stunning! Once we arrive at Cuzco airport we are greeted by our G Adventures guide who will be taking us all the way to see Machu Picchu. The tour group is large with 16 of us in total. Apart from myself there is only one other solo traveller and the rest are couples. It does feel slightly awkward there being so many couples in the group, but everyone seems friendly. The age group very mixed, ... read more

Day One Niagara Falls has been high on my bucket list for quite some time so I decide to stop off in nearby Toronto before heading down to South America after discovering that the cost of my plane tickets were massively cheaper flying indirectly. However, this meant I could only spend two nights in Toronto to achieve best price with minimal stops to South America. I scratched my head at the thought of two whole days in Toronto knowing it wasn't enough time to see everything. Before setting off on my journey, I looked at a guidebook (Eyewitness Top 10) and thought hard about what I really wanted to see and planned my itinerary carefully. Luckily my flight was early leaving the UK and with Canada being 5 hours behind I had arrived in Toronto by ... read more