II haven't visited this city for over 30 years (why?) but it's now a firm favourite short haul destination for me, for the shopping & eating, let alone the warm sunshine in the middle of winter. Here are just a few of our Marrakech highlights and top tips.......

Being England, it alternated between cold, lashing rain and somewhere that resembled the French Riviera. However, we found plenty of really awesome things to do, apart from eating and drinking, whatever the weather was doing, so I am putting this destination on my "great places to go out of season" along with Rye, Hastings and, of course, Brighton where I live!  

Are you a single lady or man of a certain age, or any age come to think of it, who sometimes travels solo?  I am currently in Napier, New Zealand, hopping over from Australia for a brief holiday with the sole aim of renewing my Aussie visa and to visit two towns I haven't managed to see on previous visits.  So Napier, after Wellington, was high on my list because it's an Art Deco town, completely re-built after the 1931 Earthquake, with stunning buildings everywhere.  When the sun comes out. But I digress. My rant today is..... why does the world behave as if we are all walking two by two in happy coupledom when the number of singletons is becoming more and more the majority but treated more and more like the minority and the odd ones out....