By Rupert Parker
Lanzarote is a haunting island of dormant volcanoes, its surface covered in ash from centuries of eruptions with the last one in 1824. As the Canary island nearest to Africa, there’s little rainfall and strong north easterly trade winds. You’d think that nothing could grow here but the volcanic ash absorbs moisture from morning mists and it trickles down to the soil below. Vines are planted in pits as deep as 3 metres so the roots can take advantage of this water and they’re surrounded by semi-circular stone …

By Peter Rosenfeld
With the constant UK weather barrages, take a moment out to imagine endless glistening beach being massaged by clear blue ocean water. So gently that only the loosest sand particles dance in a tango of each wash as the warm sunshine caresses your gently bronzing body. Now turn and face the luxury villas strategically blended along the Ha My Beach to form the 5-star Nam Hai resort. Don’t you just know that life doesn’t get better than this in Vietnam?
I was lucky enough to visit this tranquil paradise in …

By Ceidiog Hughes
North Wales’s newest post office boasts an added attraction – a range of award-winning beers and ciders. And the Royal Mail couldn’t be more royal with the HRH Prince of Wales-inspired Pub is The Hub responsible for re-opening the post office in the Blue Bell Inn, in the village of Halkyn in Flintshire, Wales, UK.
Three years after the village post office closed when the sub-postmaster retired there is once again somewhere to buy stamps, post letters and parcels and collect pensions. Thanks to landlord Steve Marquis and Pub is The Hub, …

By Ceidiog Hughes
Festival unveils Bryn Terfel and Caro Emerald as headline stars
Opera superstar Bryn Terfel and jazz sensation Caro Emerald have been unveiled as the headline acts at next year’s Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod. The acclaimed bass baritone will be playing the lead in a special production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street featuring an all-Welsh cast.
Organisers also revealed there will be a world premiere of a new work by top composer Karl Jenkins and an appearance by the chart-topping singing brothers, Richard and Adam …

By Karen Bowerman
Karen Bowerman joined skiers and snowboarders to enjoy the snow in LAAX, Switzerland’s largest winter resort
He balances at the top of an exceptionally steep slope, tips his skis over the edge and shoots down. At the last minute he throws himself into the air, twists his body as if to spin, loses control and crashes into a large, foam pit. m standing at the bottom of Big Air, a 30 ft jump at the Freestyle Academy, in the Alpine resort of Laax in Graubunden, east Switzerland. The academy …