Detour
Stories, ideas and destinations for people who love travelling slow.
Top features
Five of our favourite boutique hotels
Although the word ’boutique’ can suggest cuteness and exclusivity, at its best it represents a shift towards places where creative owners let their personalities shine. Rooms are often named rather than numbered, gloomy hotel bars are replaced by friendly communal… Continue reading >
Europe’s best secret beaches
Few holiday moments are more disheartening than arriving at a beach where you can’t see the sand for the sun loungers. In search of places to swap swimming pool cacophony for whispering surf, we asked our owners and the team… Continue reading >
Four reasons to visit Sardinia
Sardinia is an island famed for turquoise water and beautiful, glossy beaches. It’s also full of surprises. Inland, life goes on as it has for thousands of years. In spring, the island is carpeted with wildflowers and the uninhabited mountains,… Continue reading >
Guides
Slow guide to Devon
Everything about creating this guide felt a little different. For previous editions, we’ve travelled to Yorkshire and Northumberland, so far from our Bristol base that everything felt like a discovery. When it came to planning our trip to Devon, which… Continue reading >
Slow guide to Northumberland
Our trip to Northumberland presented us with some striking contrasts. We visited Britain’s smallest museum and a bookshop big enough to have an in-house train, contemplated a huge wilderness that was mostly man-made and found a 300-yard walk that took… Continue reading >
Slow Guide to Dorset
Famed for its stunning stretches of Jurassic coast, Dorset is as an idyll of rolling countryside, quintessential villages, towering cliffs and quiet coves. When our recent travels took us from an artists’ co-op hidden in a side street of Shaftesbury… Continue reading >
Slow Guide to Yorkshire
A city packed with ancient pubs, a town revived by a love of food, a fishing village full of painters and a landscape tapestry of history and culture. We went to Yorkshire to look beyond the image of rolling hillsides… Continue reading >
Inspiration
Quintessential châteaux under £150
The château is one of the defining images of France. Once the exclusive preserve of the rich and powerful, you can now explore their grandeur, and they’re surprisingly affordable. Here are five of our favourites for stays that mix history… Continue reading >
Four great places you’ve probably never heard of – issue two
The first edition was in our top three most popular posts of 2018, and so here’s the next round up – there’s an ancient city that’s been dubbed the new Sintra, an incredible desert that you won’t believe is in… Continue reading >
The science of water
“One of the many possible ways to describe life would be as a series of encounters with various bodies of water. Time spent in, on, under, or near water interspersed with the periods spent thinking about where, when, and how… Continue reading >
Six pubs for a romantic weekend away
Money can’t buy you love, but it can get you a cosy room for two in a beautiful country inn. Everything is taken care of so you can spend a perfect few days hiking the hills, soaking in a deep… Continue reading >
Journeys
Jo Tinsley explores untamed Jura in France
Jo Tinsley’s passion for slow travel, long rambles and sea swimming has sent her all over the globe. This summer, she road-tripped through Jura, a relatively unknown region in France, discovering remote lakes, medieval villages and thriving wildlife. The Jura… Continue reading >
Lois Pryce’s French 2CV adventure
Everyone, it seems, has a 2CV story. Even James Bond used one as an escape vehicle (admittedly only when his Lotus exploded). As a child of 1970s Bristol, my 2CV associations are less 007, and more my friend’s bohemian parents… Continue reading >
Tim Moore travels Portugal’s coastal trains
Writer and adventurist Tim Moore travels from Porto to Lisbon by train, relinquishing the itinerary and taking advice from strangers to find the spirit of travel is alive and well in Portugal. He cruises the Douro valley, masters an electric… Continue reading >
Mary Novakovich in hidden Venice
Plagued with news reports on over-tourism, unhappy locals and selfie sticks, it’s easy to wonder if Venice has been loved to death. To find out, we sent journalist and travel writer Mary Novakovich to meet local guides and discover a… Continue reading >
