A friend thought it would be amusing to introduce me as a BP representative It looks as if the Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival is still going ahead this year. “Please join us for our 75th annual festival to be held September 2-6, 2010, in picturesque downtown Morgan City,… Read More

Luke Bainbridge goes back to old skool with a hip-hop tour of the Bronx in the company of 70s pioneer Grandmaster Caz “Welcome to the one and only hip-hop tour on the planet … my name is Grandmaster Caz and I’m one of the cats that started hip-hop.” We’re… Read More

If cabin crew vote for further industrial action, then a new wave of strikes is possible from the first week of August onward British Airways is facing further industrial unrest by cabin crew after the latest attempt to forge peace with the Unite trade union failed. The Acas conciliation… Read More

Four years ago, I was doing a big project in Iceland. It meant travelling all round, and at one point I went to the small town of Höfn, in the southeast corner. It has 1,500 people, one bar, one hotel. It’s like the end of the world – there’s… Read More

Reports that president will choose Crete for a break, although the US embassy says such a trip would be ‘surprising’ No one knows whether he will stay on a yacht or in a hotel, or even step ashore. Indeed, if truth be told, no one can say whether he… Read More

This month’s instalment from blog network Spotted by locals uncovers a secret city beach on the banks of the Danube, a dose of culture in a former medical factory in Zagreb and the revival of an historic arts centre in Paris Budapest: Duna Beach & Sunbathing Park – your… Read More

Outdoor gear is made from climate-changing oil-based chemicals – manufacturers need to clean up their act Since I spend as much time as possible getting muddy and sweaty outdoors, it’s always seemed perfectly reasonable to me to try and help protect the very thing that I feel so passionate… Read More

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 14 June 1939 Friends of mine who have relations in Denmark have told me that they do not always enjoy the steamer journey from Harwich to Esbjerg. It takes 22 hours or more, and the North Sea is sometimes rough. But air… Read More

Freelance travel photographer, MatadorU student, and Matador contributor Jeff Bartlett shares some pictures from a recent cycle tour through Argentinean Patagonia. A journey that began with an innocent conversation about possible honeymoon destinations resulted in a 2,700km cycle journey up Patagonia. Beginning in Punta Arenas, Chile, we quickly crossed… Read More

You can smell the sweat, sex and ganja in Ian Thomson’s ‘story of modern Jamaica’ The Jamaican tourist board won’t thank Ian Thomson. Worth $1bn a year, tourism is Jamaica’s main source of income. Along with the trade in narcotics, which plays no small part in the island’s 1,500… Read More