SOFT FOOTPRINTS
TRAVEL GUIDES
A collection of first hand travel guides by Ian Howes: where to go, how to get there, and the details the big sites leave out.
This Month's Guide
The Biggest Planning Mistakes Around Sintra
Most visitors don’t leave Sintra wishing they had seen more. They leave wishing they had tried to do less. The region looks deceptively manageable on a map, and that appearance is one of the most reliable sources of planning problems. Why Sintra’s Scale Fools Most Visitors Sintra is a UNESCO World Heritage Site sitting in the hills above Lisbon, roughly 40 minutes from the city by train on the Comboios de Portugal line from Rossio or Oriente. It is one of the most popular day trips from Lisbon, and on
Where People Actually Walk in Korčula Town at Sunset
It took me most of a day in Korčula Town to understand what I was watching. People were not sightseeing by late afternoon. They were settling into a pattern. Particularly for the widely photographed Korčula town sunset. Around half five, the bells from Saint Mark’s Cathedral Bell Tower often mark a shift. The lanes that had been busy since midday, moving visitors between the City Museum, Marco Polo’s birthplace, and the Bishop’s Treasury, begin to thin out toward the centre and fill toward the edges. People are not leaving. They
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Our Most Recent Posts
Lefkada in May: What the Island Is Like Before the Crowds Arrive
Lefkada in May is quieter, greener and cooler than summer. It is a good time to visit if you want the beaches without the pressure. The island connects to the Greek mainland by a causeway rather than a ferry, which makes the arrival feel different from most island trips. A floating bridge beside the old fortress of Castle of Agia Mavra opens once an hour or so to let boats pass, stopping traffic for around ten to fifteen minutes. In May that pause tends to feel unhurried. Drivers pull over,
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