Lucinda Baring

Saturday

Lucinda Baring

Travel Special – Antigua: Far from the madding beach

From our UK edition

It’s easy to slide into comfortable sloth in Antigua: breakfast, swim, sleep, read; lunch, swim, sleep, read — a morsel of frozen fruit on a stick or afternoon tea here, a snorkelling trip or paddle in a glass-bottomed canoe there. Then perhaps a game of tennis or trip to the spa, followed by dinner. But you’d be a fool to snooze your time in Antigua away. We made some wonderful discoveries. Who knew you could go zip-wiring through rainforest here? I came away with three top tips: first, avoid St John’s, with its cruise ships and KFCs, and head south instead to English Harbour, where row upon row of big boats wink at you like nautical pornstars. Have grilled lobster at Catherine’s Café on the waterfront, a rowdy but fun Antigua institution.

Saturday

Lucinda Baring

One for the road

From our UK edition

Have you ever been on holiday and struggled to choose a guidebook? I mean, where does one start? I imagine in a bookshop. But, if anything, that makes the task even harder. The choice is just too wide. Waterstones sell around 12 guidebooks per major city — far more if you want a whole country (there are a staggering 23 on India, for example). So I asked around. Which guidebook, if any (young travellers are increasingly turning to the web and online travel forums for advice whilst others are too mean to buy a guidebook and rely on friends’ recommendations, a hotel map and a good concièrge), did they choose when heading off on a mini-break? Were they faithful to a particular brand or did they judge a book by its cover? ‘I take the Times World Atlas,’ said one.

Saturday

Lucinda Baring

New wine in old bottles

From our UK edition

Lucinda Baring meets Simon Berry, chairman of a 200-year-old company that’s more modern than it looks  Berry Bros & Rudd in St James’s Street epitomises the idea of an old-fashioned wine merchant. Outside, the façade has remained largely unchanged for centuries. Inside, the panelling, desks and uneven wooden floor transport you to an era long gone. And yet this venerable appearance belies the efficient mechanisms of a much more modern business. Other family-run wine merchants have been less successful in updating their brand. Lay & Wheeler, a 150-year-old family business very similar to Berry Bros and perhaps their closest competitor, was bought by Majestic in March, and Avery’s of Bristol, established in 1793, is now owned by Laithwaites.

Saturday

Lucinda Baring

Ibiza undiscovered

From our UK edition

There’s nothing like a free holiday. Thanks to a banking ‘cash-rich, time-poor’ brother, a girlfriend and I jumped on a plane and headed to his empty finca in the hills of Ibiza. Our mission was to give it a lick of paint in return for a fortnight’s free board. The pool was green and fetid and there was no electricity or running water, but it was hot during the day, cool and mosquito-less at night and we could happily cope with an ancient generator and the odd pee in the garden for two weeks of such sun-soaked serenity. Call me a hippy (I’m not), but there really is an element of magic about this enchanted isle. Yes, it’s the clubbing epicentre of Europe, but off-season it is a haven of tranquillity and calm.