Scotland’s hidden treasure If you’ve never experienced Shetland, then you could be forgiven for thinking that it’s always a dark, cold, wet, treeless and barely habitable spot. And you’d be wrong, so very, very wrong. Even in the depths of winter, Shetland has a lot going for it. Lonely Planet’s experts ranked the islands in…

It is difficult to deny that the dark, cold days of winter can be a bit trying. Which is all the more reason to seek out activities full of light, warmth and the best mood lifter of all – food. Winter Festivals are a perfect antidote to the seasonal doldrums. Aberdonians love winter, and it…

Hidden pleasures of Poland Getting there is pretty easy, with flights from Aberdeen to Gdansk in the north of the country, Edinburgh to Warsaw Chopin or low cost carriers out of Glasgow to Warsaw, Krakow, Katowice or Wroclaw. Krakow makes the perfect base for a long weekend or city break. It’s a typically beguiling Mittel-Europe…

Perthshire offers the perfect destination when you just want a couple of care-free days away, without any fuss or the difficulty of finding your passport. Just chuck an overnight bag into the boot of the car and head down the A90. Take a meandering tour and hit all the highlights, whether it’s sports, shopping or…

Did you know that Hamburg was full of canals? I certainly didn’t but a wander round the impressive red brick warehouses of the Speicherstadt put me right. Once home to many of the city’s merchants, these towering and often ornate canal-side buildings now house Tehran’s carpet industry, which relocated in its entirety during the Iran/Iraq…