Travel Photo of the Week: The majestic Alhambra Palace

The huge Arabic fortress on the hill dominating the Spanish city of Granada – the Alhambra – is one of the world’s best-preserved Moorish palaces. Alhambra tours takes in the Alcazaba and Watch Tower dating back to the 9th Century. The Alhambra offers a great display of mosaics and examples of Muslim art. This photo sent through by a regular reader has now been set as my desktop wallpaper! I love Moorish architecture and Granada remains high on my bucket list!

Photo courtesy of Travel Tips Plus reader Lavinia.

Travel Photo of the Week: Amethystine Python

During our lovely break to Port Douglas we took a day trip northwards to explore the Daintree Rainforest region to Cape Tribulation. After crossing the Daintree River we stopped at the superb Daintree Discovery Centre. A must if you are in the area! The centre has won a multitude of awards in both general tourism and ecotourism. The highlight is most definitely the aerial walkway which takes you into various levels of the rainforest canopy and finishing off with a climb up the canopy tower to view of the rainforest treetops.

Whilst ambling along the elevated boardwalk with a small cluster of visitors, a young lady beside me called ‘Snake‘. We all stopped in our steps wondering where this snake was. As it turned out it, it was right in front of us and intertwined with the rainforest vines – very well camouflaged. The snake was an Amethystine Python and a small movement had caught the lady’s eye. Very well spotted we all thought! The small movement turned into further movements until it’s head poked out for some classic photos to be taken. What a good sport!

A recent break took me to Port Douglas in far north Queensland. An area of Australia I was yet to explore. The furthest north I’d been was Magnetic Island (twice) off the coast from Townsville. We enjoyed (my husband and I) 8 days with no work or kids to enjoy the surrounds of Port Douglas and boy, did we indulge! I was very impressed with Port Douglas and whilst it was more developed than I had expected, it proudly retained many of its historical buildings and features. One in particular caught my eye was the gorgeous historical chapel, St Mary’s by the Sea. Surrounded by lush tropical plants and only meters from the waters edge.

Travel Photo of the Week: Mousehole Harbour, England

The picture-postcard harbour of Mousehole lies 4km south of Penzance on the very tip of the County of Cornwall. Mousehole (pronounced “Mowzel”) is a very popular tourist destination. A small and very safe beach is located in a sheltered part of the harbour which is popular with families, particularly those with small children – making it an ideal location for family outings. Dylan Thomas (1930) described Mousehole as ‘ the loveliest village in England’, a title that remains true to the present day.

Photo courtesy of Travel Tips Plus reader Lavinia.