More Competitions

Bradt Guides are running more of their 'Perfect Day' competitions in order to promote the latest issues in their Slow Guides series.

There are three competitions:

• Perfect Day in Shropshire
• Perfect Day in the Peak District
• Perfect Day in East Devon

To enter, you need to describe a perfect day in no more than 500 words. It can be either a real experience or imagined. The deadline is 31 May.

I'll definitely be having a go.

Destinations

We went to the Destinations Travel Show at Olympia yesterday.

At last year's event, I picked up some information about Hull (not very exotic perhaps, but useful for a weekend event I was, and still am, planning), the Isle of Man and North Korea. I actually managed to visit all three in the course of the year, so it turned out to be time well spent. (My review of last year's show is on Virtual Tourist).

International Friendship Exhibition, Mt Myohyang

This year, we dropped by the Regent Holidays stand to thank their North Korea specialist, Carl, for arranging our Christmas and New Year trip to North Korea. It was a fascinating and very unusual experience. We also bumped into Hilary Bradt at the  Bradt Guides stand. Last year I bought a copy of their North Korea guidebook, so I was able to tell her that we had found it very helpful for pre-trip planning, even though we couldn't actually take it with us.

This year I picked up information about Lake Ohrid and travelling to and around Italy by rail. I hope I get to at least one of them.

I always enjoy looking at the Travel Photo of the Year finalists. There were some really excellent shots, as always, though one of the best was a wildlife of leaping hares shot taken no more than a dozen miles from where I live!