All in all, there are well over 1,000 hotels and hostels in London, and accommodation rates run high. Entering your travel dates into a hotel or hostel booking site brings up an endless list of options; an overwhelming chore to sort through each to find those which offer excellent value, a great location, and receive good guest reviews.

Tucked away far to the north of Norway next to Greenland there lies a spit of land and ice in the Arctic Ocean. When I visited this archipelago, Svalbard, I expected to find a barren land of tundra, research stations, polar bears, arctic foxes, and ice floes. And in part, I was right.

We sped across the ice, 187 feet above Paris. We took in breathtaking views of the city skyline while sipping warm hot chocolate on the ice. We braved the bitter chill to carve out figure eights high above the rooftops of the French capital, illuminated by the twinkling lights of the tower above us.

It’s easy to turn a blind eye to what lies beyond the Gran Canaria coast. With golden beaches and azure skies, the sun on your face and breeze in your hair, 2.2 million tourists flock to Spain’s Canary Islands each year for the ultimate sand-in-your-toes experience.

We entered Albania via Podgorico in Montenegro. I don’t know, there is something about the name “Montenegro” that made me think it would be stunningly beautiful – and the coastal area was, but then so are most coastal areas. The rest was not. Beautiful, that is.

3 Irishmen, a South African and an Australian go Canyoning in the Swiss Alps…not the start to a joke, just my Thursday in Kandersteg. We caught a train to Interlaken to hit the canyons.