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Sue Aitken - Travel Guru, 141 Park Road, London (2026)

04/09/2026

𝗜’𝘃𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗜’𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻. 𝗦𝗼 𝗜’𝗺 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸.
When I started planning this trip to South America, there was one place I knew had to be in there.
Iguazú Falls.
I've been six or seven times now – I've genuinely lost count – but it's still my favourite place in the world.
And this time I decided it deserved a bit more welly.
Normally when I go, I stay at Hotel das Cataratas on the Brazilian side.
It's inside the national park, which means that once the park has closed and the day visitors have gone, you can walk down from the hotel to the falls and almost have them to yourself.
And however many times I've been, that's something I don't think I'll ever tire of.
But this time I'm doing things a little differently.
I'm spending two nights on the Argentine side first, before crossing the border and spending another two nights at Cataratas.
The two sides give you very different experiences. Argentina is where you get right amongst the falls, with miles of walkways taking you over and alongside the water. Brazil gives you those extraordinary panoramic views across the whole system.
I've visited both sides before, of course. But I've never actually stayed on both sides during the same trip.
Four nights at Iguazú might sound like quite a commitment for somewhere I've already visited six – or possibly seven – times.
But perhaps the fact that I'm going back yet again – and this time I've decided to spend longer there – tells you rather more about what I think of Iguazú than any amount of gushing travel copy ever could.
Some places really are worth going back to.

03/09/2026

𝗠𝘆 𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗷𝗮𝗺.
No horns. No swearing at the car in front.
And absolutely no desire for the traffic to start moving.

02/09/2026

𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸…
One of the more interesting briefs I've been grappling with this week is a trip to India for two ladies travelling together.
Nothing particularly unusual about that.
Except that for one of them it will be her first visit to India. The other has been a few times.
And that makes planning the trip rather more interesting.
For a first-time visitor, there are some things I'd be very reluctant to leave out. It would seem slightly perverse to send someone to northern India for the first time without seeing the Taj Mahal. And I'd want her to experience some of Rajasthan too – Jaipur's Amber Fort and City Palace, for example.
But equally, I don't want her travelling companion to spend two weeks thinking, yes, very nice, but I've seen all this before.
So I've been looking not just at where they could go, but at different ways of experiencing India.
One possibility is the Maharajas' Express – travelling through northern India by luxury train, with excursions along the way. Another is combining touring on land with a cruise along the Ganges. Both could incorporate some of the India a first-time visitor really ought to see, while making the journey itself part of the experience.
Then there are the tigers.
They're right at the top of the wish list for one of the ladies. Ranthambore fits very neatly into a Golden Triangle itinerary and would give them the opportunity to go looking for them.
But if seeing tigers is genuinely one of the priorities of the holiday, perhaps we shouldn't simply choose the national park that's most convenient.
Some of India's best tiger country is in Central India, with parks such as Kanha, Bandhavgarh and Pench. Heading there would take the itinerary in a completely different direction – but perhaps that's exactly what we should do.
And then there's the rest of Rajasthan. Udaipur was probably my favourite place when I travelled around northern India, so that's firmly in my thinking too.
We could even finish with a few days doing very little somewhere on the coast after all that travelling.
There isn't a right answer yet.
That's the bit I'm working on.

01/09/2026

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀.
A client asked me a perfectly reasonable question last week.
We were looking at an itinerary I'd put together for South Africa and Victoria Falls and he asked whether dropping a night from the safari would save him about £1,000.
The answer was yes.
And let's face it, £1,000 is £1,000.
But I advised him not to do it.
Safari was the reason for the trip in the first place. Cape Town and Victoria Falls had effectively been built around it, so cutting back on the bit he was most excited about seemed to me to be starting at the wrong end.
And there was another consideration.
Dropping from four nights on safari to three didn't simply mean one fewer night at the lodge. Because of the arrival and departure timings, it would also mean two fewer game drives.
Suddenly that £1,000 saving looks rather different.
That's something I think about quite a bit when I'm putting together a holiday that has started to creep beyond the original budget. As holidays occasionally have an irritating habit of doing.
There is nearly always something you can change to bring the price down. But the biggest saving isn't necessarily the right saving.
I'd much rather look at whether we can change a room category somewhere it won't particularly matter. You may survive without the Deluxe Ocean View Executive Something-or-Other for three nights.
Perhaps we lose a night from a part of the itinerary where there's already plenty of time. Choose a different hotel. Tweak the flights, provided the alternative doesn't involve three connections, a 4am departure and spending your first day on holiday wondering what possessed you.
Sometimes I'd even change the itinerary itself.
The question I'm asking isn't simply, how can we reduce the cost of this holiday by £1,000?
It's where can we make that saving so you'll notice it least?
Because if you're going to compromise, it makes sense to compromise on the things you care about least – not the reason you wanted to go in the first place.

31/08/2026

𝗠𝗮𝗹𝗮𝘆𝘀𝗶𝗮. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿-𝘀𝘂𝗻 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗺𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗼𝗳.
Start talking about an exotic holiday between January and March and the usual suspects tend to come up.
The Maldives. The Caribbean. Thailand.
All perfectly good ideas.
But Malaysia rarely seems to get the same attention. And I think that's a shame, because this is a great time of year to visit the west coast – and you can put together a holiday with far more to it than simply flying somewhere hot and lying on a beach for two weeks.
I'd start with Kuala Lumpur.
Give it a few nights. See the Petronas Towers, wander through the markets, eat extremely well and enjoy the buzz of a proper Asian city. And yes, I'd probably find a rooftop bar at some point. It would seem rude not to.
Then head to Penang.
George Town is the big draw, and rightly so. Colourful shophouses, temples, colonial buildings, street art and the sort of place where going for a wander without much of a plan is often the best plan.
And the food is reason enough to go.
Malay, Chinese and Indian influences all collide here and Penang has one of the best street-food scenes in Asia. I'd arrive hungry.
But Penang isn't just George Town. There are beaches, rainforest and some very lovely hotels too, so I'd give it enough time to see more than the city.
And then I'd finish in Langkawi.
By this point you've explored, walked, eaten and probably eaten some more. Now you can stop.
Stay in a lovely hotel, preferably with a beautiful beach, and spend the last few days doing remarkably little. Langkawi has rainforest, mangroves and plenty to explore if you want to – but there's absolutely no rule saying you have to.
That's why I like this combination.
Kuala Lumpur gives you the city. Penang gives you the culture and some seriously good food. Langkawi gives you the beach.
And January to March is a great time to do it.
So if you're contemplating escaping the British winter and automatically looking west to the Caribbean or towards the Indian Ocean – or heading to Thailand – you might want to put Malaysia on the list too.
It has rather a lot going for it.

30/08/2026

𝗜’𝗱 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲…
Sunday morning. Breakfast on the deck of your water villa at Baros Maldives.
I can think of worse ways to start the day.

29/08/2026

𝗧𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹. 𝗔𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗲𝗱𝗹𝘆.
I spend my working life organising other people's holidays.
Flights, hotels, transfers, itineraries, room types, entry requirements – making sure everything is in place so that when the time comes, my clients can simply pack a suitcase and go.
You might therefore imagine that I'm similarly efficient when it comes to my own holidays.
You couldn’t be more wrong.
Next week I'm heading back to South America, a part of the world I absolutely love. I'll be starting in Buenos Aires, staying on both the Argentine and Brazilian sides of Iguazú Falls, heading into the Pantanal – where I'm hoping the local jaguars will be cooperative – and finishing in Salvador.
So you can see this is not a small holiday. You'd think I might have been preparing for it for some time.
Instead, I've only just ordered my dollars.
I've discovered that various things I was planning to take need dry cleaning.
An emergency Amazon order for mosquito bands has been placed.
I've bought a new camera specifically in the hope of getting some decent photographs of the jaguars. I haven't yet opened the instruction manual.
And packing will, as usual, take place at the last possible moment, probably accompanied by the discovery that something absolutely essential is nowhere to be found.
I am, it turns out, considerably better at organising other people's holidays than my own.
Still, somehow or other, this time next week I'll be in Buenos Aires.

28/08/2026

𝗟𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗳𝗮𝗿𝗶? 𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗹?
One of the suppliers I work with recently told me that they get a surprising number of bookings for Brazil's Pantanal from people who've previously been on safari in Botswana.
And actually, that makes perfect sense.
Once you've discovered that you love wildlife holidays, there's a tendency to want another one. And another one. But eventually you may also start wondering what else is out there beyond the traditional African safari.
Which is where the Pantanal comes in.
The headline act is the jaguar. The Pantanal is one of the best places in the world to see them in the wild, but there are also giant river otters, capybara, caiman, monkeys, macaws and a quite ridiculous variety of other wildlife.
And it's a very different experience from an African safari. In the northern Pantanal, much of the wildlife watching is done from boats, travelling along the rivers and channels looking for jaguars and whatever else decides to put in an appearance.
It's not a cheap trip. But then neither is a really good safari in Botswana – which perhaps explains the crossover rather neatly.
And I'll be finding out for myself very shortly, as I'm heading back to my beloved South America in a week's time and spending part of the trip in the Pantanal, where seeing a jaguar is very firmly at the top of my wish list.
Whether the jaguars have been informed of this remains to be seen.
And perhaps the jaguar photos I'm hoping to be be posting on this page will persuade a few more of you to put the Pantanal on your own wish list.
As with all wildlife, nothing's guaranteed, but travel in hope, I always say.

27/08/2026

𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝗝𝗮𝗽𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗿𝘆 𝗯𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗺 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻. 𝗜'𝗱 𝗴𝗼 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗺𝗻.
I've been lucky enough to experience Japan during both cherry blossom season and autumn.
And if you gave me the choice of doing one of them again, I'd choose autumn. Easily.
Don't get me wrong. The cherry blossom is lovely and I'm very glad I've seen it. But it also comes with an extraordinary amount of hype. You spend the weeks before you go watching blossom forecasts and wondering whether you've got your dates right, because nature has an irritating habit of not consulting your flight booking before deciding when to perform.
Autumn felt rather different.
The colours were absolutely glorious – great splashes of red, orange and gold everywhere we went. Around the temples and shrines they were spectacular, and seemed to make places that were already extraordinary even more so.
Then we headed into the Japanese Alps, where whole mountainsides were turning colour. It was one of those trips where I seemed to spend an unreasonable amount of time stopping to take yet another photograph of a tree.
Perhaps because cherry blossom season is so firmly lodged on everyone's bucket list, I wasn't expecting autumn to rival it quite so comprehensively.
It also suited the way I like to travel. The weather was good for being out and about, we did a lot of walking, and there wasn't that feeling that the whole success of the trip depended on catching one rather fleeting natural event at exactly the right moment.
So if you're thinking about Japan and automatically assuming it has to be cherry blossom season, I'd give autumn a serious look too.
I've done both.
Autumn wins.

26/08/2026

𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻'𝘁 𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲…
I've recently put together a free guide for people thinking about a holiday to South Africa.
It tackles many of the questions that tend to crop up once you start seriously considering a trip – how you might put a first holiday together, which safari areas to look at, whether to self-drive, take an escorted tour or travel privately, how much you can realistically fit in, when to go, safety, malaria and what sort of budget you might need.
In other words, it's intended to help people make sense of what can initially feel like a rather bewildering number of possibilities.
Obviously, this isn't an entirely altruistic exercise.
I hope people find the guide genuinely useful. I also hope that some of those people will then decide they'd like to have a chat with me about their own plans and, with a following wind, perhaps even book their holiday with me.
That's how marketing works.
Yesterday I heard from someone who had downloaded the guide and wanted to let me know that she was rather disappointed with it.
Fair enough, I thought. You can't please everyone.
Except it subsequently transpired that she'd already booked her South Africa holiday.
It seems I now have to worry about customer satisfaction even amongst people who were never going to be customers in the first place.
Live and learn.
If you're thinking about a holiday to South Africa and would like a copy of the guide, do get in touch.
And if you've already booked your holiday – have a great time.

Sue Aitken - Travel Guru

04/09/2026

03/09/2026

02/09/2026

01/09/2026

31/08/2026

30/08/2026

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