Bear Grylls comes to Stanfords

Acclaimed adventurer, survival expert, Chief Scout and TV personality Bear Grylls came to Stanfords for a special book signing event and to promote the opening of the new Craghoppers store at Stanfords, which currently stocks Bear’s exclusive range of outdoor clothing.

Bear braved the wilds of London to greet the queue of admiring fans that awaited him. He enthusiastically signed copies of his latest books, posed for photographs, and even signed his range of Craghopper T-shirts!

Daniel du Plessis, sales advisor at Craghoppers in Stanfords, said, “It was great to see Bear come down and support the opening of the new Craghoppers store at Stanfords, especially as it’s proving to be a successful partnership”.

Intrepid adventurer Bear was one of the youngest climbers to have successfully completed an ascent of Everest, documented in his book Facing Up, and has since accomplished other ground-breaking expeditions. Facing the Frozen Ocean tells the story of Bear’s adventures across the infamous Labrador Sea in a small inflatable boat. In 2007, he became the first man to fly a powered paraglider above Mount Everest, whilst he has also featured in the Channel Four series ‘Born Survivor: Bear Grylls’, where Bear is parachuted into some of the most inhospitable places on earth. The book accompanying the series – Born Survivor – stayed for 10 weeks in the Sunday Times Bestseller List. 

News at Stanfords - Bear Grylls at Stanfords, © Carolyne LocherHis latest book Great Outdoor Adventures sees Bear sharing his experience of the world’s most extreme terrain to help you get the most of the great outdoors. Bear has recently been appointed Chief Scout, the figurehead for 28 million Scouts worldwide.

Author: Gareth Brereton







Winner of 2009 travel writing competition announced

The winner of the 2009 Bradt Travel Guides/Independent on Sunday Travel Writing Competition was announced at the Award Ceremony held at Stanfords, London.

Hilary Bradt, Chairman of Bradt Travel Guides, said the quality of the writing this year surpassed all previous years making the task of choosing the short-listed six finalists extremely difficult.

Well known journalist and travel writer Matthew Parris had the unenviable task of choosing the overall winner. Continue reading Winner of 2009 travel writing competition announced

'The Eagle Has Landed'

“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”

These are the words spoken by John F Kennedy on the 25th of May, 1961, on announcing his aspiration to send astronauts to the Moon before the end of the decade. Incredibly, only eight years later, Apollo 11 achieved this goal by becoming the first manned spacecraft to land on the Moon. Since 20 July 2009 marks the 40th anniversary of this extraordinary achievement, we at Stanfords decided to muster up some interesting facts about the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon…

Did you know that… Continue reading 'The Eagle Has Landed'

Slovakia

I have been to Slovakia plenty of times and always love it. In my opinion Bratislava may not be the best city to visit if you really want to discover the country. You should have a stop there but I think it’s also very interesting to have a look at other, smaller places in the country.

I like this country and I’ve always found new things to enjoy even if I have some predictable places I always want to go to and things I love to do again and again.

To start with, I can write some words about the country’s biggest music festival because I’ve been to it three times already. It is called the Pohoda festival and takes place in July, on the runways of Trencin airport, and lasts three days. There you can listen to many kinds of music, learn to dance, sit on the grass and drink whatever you want, watch a movie outdoors, and so on. The tickets are not expensive compared to the amount of fun you can have during those three hot Slovakian summer days.

The second thing I’d love to write about is central Slovakia. Here you can spend a delightful time in lots of little cities like Bojnice or Banska Štiavnica. Those cities are beautiful and very rich from a cultural point of view.

I must add that one of my favourite places in Slovakia is in Bojnice and is called Varadero. This is the best Cuban cocktail bar I’ve ever been to. It’s really worth stopping in this area to visit the castle and to try the Varadero’s Special Mojito, this way you can appreciate both sides of Slovakian culture – its historical background and its dynamic modernity. If you go to Banska Štiavnica you will enjoy the city, the lakes around it and certainly a tea house called Cajovna Klopaka where you can taste amazing tea and coffee.

If you go to the country I advise you to try the typical Slovakian breakfast with seeded bread, cheese, ham, fresh green peppers and tomatoes; also try the Haluski cooked with bacon grease; have a bite into a Kolacky made with poppy seeds, and don’t forget to drink Kofola.

To conclude I can advise you to plan some day trips around Slovakia as you’ll be very close to Vienna, Budapest and Prague, and also to go hiking in the beautiful High Tatras for a while.

If you decide to go there by car, use a sufficiently detailed map of Europe’s motorways and you won’t lose your way like I did, reaching the Poland borders thinking I was driving towards the Czech Republic.

I would recommend you to have with you the Czech and Slovak Republic map by Freytag & Berndt because it’s sufficiently detailed and it covers both countries but also some of the surrounding areas in Austria, Germany, Poland and Hungary. I would also recommend a small map of Bratislava to help you visualise easily where you are in the capital. As far as guide books are concerned, I recommend the Bradt guide to Slovakia, as it will be really helpful to plan your trip across Slovakia as it is full of information about accommodation, public transport and more.

Author: Pauline Martinez

10 Reasons to Go Self-Catering

Self-catering accommodation can often be the best option for your holiday – making your stay more relaxed, comfortable and fun. Matt Richardson, from self-catering specialist Lagrange Holidays, tells us why…

1. Self-catering isn’t what it used to be

Long gone are the days when self-catering meant a sparsely furnished, pokey studio flat with uncomfortable sofa-beds. Today’s self-catering residences are made up of spacious apartments with well-equipped kitchen areas, separate bedrooms and comfortable furnishings.
Continue reading 10 Reasons to Go Self-Catering

England – Walking in The Chilterns

The ChilternsA group of Stanfords staff – current and former – frequently meet up at a London station on a Saturday morning and head off for a bracing country walk. I joined them for the first time, but with more than a little trepidation, as they mentioned something about it being 13 miles long and the weather forecast was rain…

It wasn’t looking good; I had only walked for 10 minutes from the front door but I was already drenched. The sky was miserable and the forecasted rain was fulfilling its promise and pelting down. A 13-mile walk in this was going to be no fun at all. Continue reading England – Walking in The Chilterns

France for Casual Cyclists

You don’t have to be training for the Tour de France to enjoy a cycling holiday in France. The Loire Valley offers gentle pedalling and spectacular villages and chateaux to stop off at, says Alison Willis from France holiday specialist, Lagrange…

Most serious cyclists probably head to the Alps or Pyrenees for their French cycling fix; spending a week recreating the mountain stages of the Tour de France. But if you’re like me and prefer your cycling with gentle slopes and meandering curves rather than steep inclines and chicanes, then the Loire Valley could be your answer.

A massive project is underway to create a cycle path spanning the breadth of Europe from Saint Nazaire on the Atlantic coast of France crossing 10 countries and over 3,650km (2,268 miles) to reach the Black Sea in Romania. The section that follows the Loire in France more or less completed, so base yourself somewhere like Azay le Rideau in the middle of the route and the Loire is your oyster. Continue reading France for Casual Cyclists

France With A Baby

Exciting holidays are still possible once you have children, and the French mountains are an ideal destination for little ones, says Alison Willis from France holiday specialists Lagrange…

Having a baby doesn’t have to mean the end to days of throwing everything in a rucksack and heading off into the sunset on an adventure; it just means you might have to make a list first, then throw everything into your rucksack, grab the change bag and then head off. While babies are very small, they are infinitely portable, and toddlers although less portable will find even the smallest adventure fascinating. With that in mind, why not get back to being your old self and head to the Alps or Pyrenees to blow away the cobwebs and get your kids hooked on fresh air and walks.

Trains and little ones go very well together. It’s easy to assume because you have the baby paraphernalia to cart around that you are reliant on a car for all your holidays, but toddlers find train travel fascinating and the French high-speed TGVs mean that long journeys don’t feel endless. Ever-changing scenery can keep them busy for the first hour or two, while a few well-chosen toys and books and a trip to the buffet while away the rest of the time. Continue reading France With A Baby

How to Bus it in London

Visitors to London are often reluctant to take the bus, for fear they might not know which bus stop to stand at, which route to take or where to get off; and instead opt for the pricier tube. However, give buses a go – they can often stop nearer your desired destination than the tube, plus you get to see where you’re travelling past through the window – especially if you’re sitting on the top deck! Travel editor Simon Calder even says that his favourite journey in the world is taking the number 11 bus from Liverpool Street to World’s End, Chelsea in London.

Taking the bus in London has been made really straight-forward, with route maps and listings at every bus shelter, so you can easily identify which bus number to catch and where to wait for it. Here’s our easy-peasy guide: Continue reading How to Bus it in London

Top 10 Strange Place Names Around the World

There are some unusual, attractive and just plain funny names of countries, islands, towns and even glaciers all round the world. Here are our favourites…

After visiting Miserable Island in Tasmania, you may want to head for Happy, a town in the US state of Texas, with a population of 647. A film of the same name was released in 1999.

Have a romantic tryst at Love Lake in Canada.

Find paradise on Chocolate Island in the Philippines.

See if Pretty Hill in New Zealand lives up to its name. Continue reading Top 10 Strange Place Names Around the World