Travel for the Over 30s

Lanzarote is one of the Spanish owned Canary Islands. Located around 100 miles off the coast of West Africa and much favoured by sun starved Northern Europeans. Who flock here in their millions. Helping to earn the Archipelago something of a reputation as a cheap and cheerful package holiday destination.

But these seven volcanic islands are not all birds of a feather. As each boasts a unique identity – with Lanzarote in particular boasting a series of breathtaking visitor attractions that are every bit as impressive as the island’s great beaches and year round climate.

This is all thanks to the work of an island born artist called César Manrique.

Cesar successfully campaigned against uncontrolled tourist development on Lanzarote. Securing a ban on high rise buildings and ad hoardings – while designing and constructing tourist attractions that effortlessly fuse art with nature. Transforming collapsed lava tubes and volcanic bubbles into concert spaces art galleries and nightclubs.

Cesar single-handedly saved Lanzarote from over-development - what I pleasant change from the usual story of over-development in Spain!

Not every country has freedom of the press - in fact even so-called western democracies are restricting the use of the Internet more and more the rise - of defamation cases against bloggers in the US is a particularly nasty trend - even the threat of legal action will make many inexperienced bloggers take down their post.

So what does that mean if you are travelling to places such as Cuba, Vietnam or Egypt - all of which are popular tourist destinations which also make the the CPJ list of the 10 worst places to be a blogger? It means that even as a tourist you should be careful.

I first visited Vietnam long before the Internet and the word was that you saved your critical letters and postcards for posting in Thailand once you left the country. Today the place is full of cheap Internet cafes - but if you were posting about serious political stuff on a well-established blog I would be careful - even if the authorities don’t catch up with you do you really want them to be hassling the innocent cafe owner who has to live there? Personally I would write the material on my own netbook but I would wait until I left to post it.

Photo Credit