You should have been there

Simon Calder and Mick Webb visit the UK's Gatwick Airport to discuss the carbon impact of flying

Simon Calder and Mick Webb create an alternative bucket list of places they've glimpsed from cars, planes and buses, and which they would love to return to one day.  Like this Greek village in the Peloponnese. 

...............Is it better than arriving?   SImon Calder and Mick Webb discuss Robert Louis Stevenson's famous quotation.  And they trek hopefully through the vast expanses of the World Travel Market, playing Crazy Golf, Abu Dhabi style, and collecting freebies, daft marketing slogans and inspirational ideas about  tourism.

........       should you do as the Romans or behave like a tourist? And how about in places like Dohar, Dubai or Australia's Ayres Rock?  

Simon and Mick have made getting lost into an art form. They recall their most memorable experiences and discuss various ways to avoid losing the plot.  Do send us your own stories via the audio link

Crossing frontiers is a crucial part of the travelling experience.  It can be time-consuming,worrying, frightening, often fascinating and sometimes downright entertaining .   In this Podcast, travel journalists, Simon Calder and Mick Webb, who have travelled far and wide, reflect on the borders they have crossed. Like the unforgettable night  spent trying to convince the Panamanian soldiers on the frontier between Colombia and Panama that they were bona fide tourists.  Far from any road, in the thick rainforest of the Darien Gap, where most travellers were smugglers, Colombian guerrillas or paramilitaries, it took some doing. The photo shows a border marker ( and Simon). Some remote border crossings seem to have very little serious connection with monitoring comings and goings, others, ironically, have become tourist attractions in their own right: Simon discusses the origins of the name and his own experience of crossing during the Cold War. And sometimes you get the feeling that it’s the border-crossing travellers who are providing the entertainment for the frontier officials.  Do send us your own tales of frontier experiences- the good, the bad and the ugly.