You should have been there

As the prospect of a Spanish holiday draws a little closer Lola Culsán and John Weller reveal how to avoid the seaside crowds. Their new book, Hidden Beaches: Spain, is the fruit of an epic, covid-interrupted journey round the whole coast of Spain in a campervan. Get a 20% discount with the code, hiddenbeach21, from www.wildthingspublishing.com/product/hidden-beaches-spain-book/

Today we're talking about group travel with Joe Fallon, founder of the company TruTravels.  From steamy Thailand he tells us how he set up his firm and about his hopes for it in an uncertain future. We also discuss what group travel can offer that independent travel can't!  Joe's company website is trutravels.com.  Contact us at   twitter.com/YouShouldHaveBt

In honour of Valentine's Day, our subject is romantic destinations and locations. They range from heart-shaped islands to a windowless bar in Krakow. We'd love to hear your own stories of travel romance via Twitter- @you should have BT

Journalist Claire Wrathall helps us peek behind the plantation shutters of Mustique's exclusive villas and explains what it's like to visit this most exclusive of islands.  

Simon reveals his love of Quokkas,  while Mick's sceptical view of Australia's charms is well and truly challenged by Oz aficionados, Charlotte Hindle and Peter Webb.

There's nothing quite like a mechanical breakdown to disrupt your travel plans.  But sometimes it can make rather than break your holiday, as we hear from Steph Nelms and Alec Webb. Meanwhile  the President of the AA, Edmund King gives some timely advice on how to avoid mechanical mayhem. Do send your travel tales to us via Twitter  @youshould haveB1

To help draw up a shortlist of worthy contenders, we are joined by Sarah Baxter, Charlotte Hindle, Alec Webb and Tony Wheeler.  Would you believe that someone proposed The Sound of Music?  Do send us your own suggestions to our new Twitter destination, @youshouldhavebe1

What does this New Year have in store for tethered travellers?  And If we are allowed to get away, how much of the travel industry will still be functioning?  Our guest this week, having an educated guess at what might happen, is Tony Wheeler, co-founder of Lonely Planet guidebooks. Find out about Tony and his travels at  www.tonywheeler.com.au 

SImon goes head to head with Lyn Hughes, Editor in Chief of Wanderlust magazine, over ten mind-bending rounds. Can you outquiz them? 

With acknowledgements to Kratftwerk, we preview the new European Rail Timetable in the expert company of Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries. Prepare for the light at the end of the tunnel with their top train tips. Find details of their publications at  www.hiddeneurope.co.uk/

Where are the most enjoyable long walks and what's the best way to tackle them?  Our guest this week is Sarah Baxter, travel writer, walker and author of  " A History of the World in 500 Walks" . Her website is sarahbtravel.wordpress.com

We discuss how to travel healthily with Sascha Heeney. She 's not only a nurse but also a travel guide with Lupine travel (lupinetravel.co.uk) which specialises in tours to some of the world's hardest to reach destinations. Altitude sickness, malaria, air pollution water, food, insurance, it's all here! 

 Discover how the humble stinging nettle can help you find your way to a village pub with our guest, Tristan Gooley.  He's an expert in the lost and often fascinating art of navigating by the sun, stars, clouds, trees, even satellite dishes. Details of his ideas and his books are available on naturalnavigator.com

It's not just what you photograph but the context in which you take it.  Our guests today are travel writer and adventurer, Frances Linzee Gordon, and Mario Cavalli who is a film maker and photographer. Enjoy some of his work at https://mario-cavalli-images.squarespace.com/.  And, https://mario-cavalli-images.squarespace.com/-jodhpur-the-blue-city-holi.  See our photos at  http...

Helped by travel writer and adventurer, Frances Linzee Gordon, we discuss the contentious distinction between the words "traveller" and "tourist".   Would you ever find a true traveller in an all-inclusive resort?  Or a tourist on a dodgy local bus? 

We recall, or at least try to, some of the oddest drinks we've encountered during our travels and attempt to describe their flavours and their effects!

Simon and Mick are joined by travel journalist, Helen Coffey to ponder some of quarantine's big questions. Where was it first practised, how do you cope with being quarantined and hardest of all, what are the UK's current restrictions? 

Souvenirs come in all shapes and sizes and, of course, in various shades of naffness.  We compare our own favourites and talk to Julia Ferguson, a Business Psychologist, about the value that we place on these symbols of abroad. 

Simon and MIck are joined by Anna Hughes, Director of FlightFree UK, co-author of Peaky Climbers and a champion of cycling. They share the pleasures (and pains)  of cycling and wonder what could be done to make getting on your bike an easier experience in the UK. 

We hear from people who have walked the Camino de Santiago about the joy and pain they have experienced, and muse on the similarities between tourism and pilgrimages. Many thanks to Debra, Richard and Louise for their contributions

Simon and Mick compare notes about their respective attempts to enjoy some time off. But was it better to be scaling Holland's highest peak or to be walking through a road-free valley on the way to a pint of Sussex ale? Well, we'll let you decide!

A typing error leads Mick and Simon to wonder about the desirability of travelling in threes. When is three a better number of people than the standard two?  The answer seems to be - when you're in a boat with a dog, when you're up a snowy mountain or when you're flying on a low-cost Spanish airline on Valentine's day!  

Travelling and embarrassment seem to go hand in glove.  Simon and Mick wonder whether it's an essential part of being a tourist and also, if we are often the authors of our own discomfort, not to mention that of our children. The tale  of the false beards is a case in point.  Thanks are due to Poppy and Daisy Calder for dishing the dirt on their dad! 

Are you a responsible traveller?   See if you measure up to the standards proposed by some of the movement's new gurus, and enjoy the poetic pledge created by the Tourist Office of Finland.  Thanks to Anna Hughes of Flight Free UK for her interview  and to  Aaron Burden@unsplash for his photo.

What is that makes us stretch every sinew to get to the top of things? Simon and Mick's favourite high places include the Blackpool Tower, Buenos Aires' Barolo Tower, Mount Aconcagua, also in Argentina, and The Cirque de Gavarnie in the French Pyrenees. Joining them are Silas Webb, who scaled Mount Kilimanjaro and Ed Douglas, whose book, "Himalaya, a human history" is published on the 27th August...