SORREL DOWNER

It’s peak holiday week, 28C on the coast of Almería, but I am one of only six people on the beach. Why? Because I am unfashionably – freakishly – early. The small resort of San José, the most accessible of the Cabo de Gata bays, is packed, but in Spain rising early to grab a spot, communing with nature and enjoying the relative balminess isn’t a thing. So, while hotels and apartments are stuffed to the gills, at 9am the town is still quiet: the bucket-and-spade kiosk shuttered ...

It’s the most southerly town in mainland Europe, only 14km from Africa across the Strait of Gibraltar. It’s a 1,000-year-old walled labyrinth with a youthful party scene and a world-class kitesurfing and windsurfing destination. In summer it’s also a destination for families who want just a shady dune, a bar and a place serving fish – all of which are available in abundance along the 35km of coast north of Tarifa, beyond the beaches of Los Lances ...

Showreel from US, Costa Rica & Spain 2013.

Such is the dazzle of Seville, Cordoba, Granada and Málaga that few visitors to Spain’s south-west pause to explore the space between them. Part of it, La Campiña, a region of Seville province, appears largely empty. But over ploughed fields and olive groves there are towers and ramparts, the hazy outlines of towns founded in antiquity. Over the centuries, these have been built up by Romans, Vandals, Visigoths, Arabs – who created the Islamic caliphate of Al-Andalus – medieval knights, religi...

Price aside, eating at a one of the Basque country’s many Michelin-starred restaurants and sitting on a sea wall with a picnic have more in common than you’d imagine. The region’s greatest chefs – including Eneko Atxa, Elena Arzak, Andoni Luis Aduriz of Mugaritz, and Victor Arguinzoniz of Asador Etxebarri – all say the fertile land and seas, fresh produce, independent artisans (cheesemakers, winemakers, bakers), plus a culture with food at its heart, make for a transcendent gastronomic experi...

A veteran of the London to Yorkshire rail commute, George was blasé at the prospect of the 19-day journey through Russia, Mongolia and China on the Trans-Siberian Express. The assurance there would be snow (plenty, with temperatures around -30) evoked enthusiasm, but it was the idea of sleeping on the train and what’s more, in bunks that brought him round. And so in the depths of a Moscow winter, fat in polar clothing, we board Train #10, the 23.24 to Irkutsk, Siberia.

As a 13-year old soldier in Sierra Leone shooting someone was “as easy as drinking a glass of water” says Ishmael Beah. But given a place at a UNICEF rehabilitation centre and access to an education, Ishmael was able to save his own life at least. Now 26 and a politics graduate living in New York, his recent autobiography, A Long Way Gone, reminds the world that child soldiers deserve and have the potential for a much, much better life.

With its flamenco festival kicking off this weekend, Sorrel Downer guides us through the merriment. Published: 21 Feb 2015 18 · Jerez: what to see, plus the best ......

Seville city guide: what to do plus the best hotels...

It’s just over 40 years ago that Spain emerged from itsgrim-faced isolation under the one-party state of General Franco. What followed was… a big party, which even the economic buffeting of the past decade still hasn’t quite managed to dampen down.
Spain has a unique history as a European tourist destination. For excitable northern visitors, it was a byword for wildness, colourful customs – and sexiness. ‘What men call gallantry, and gods adultery,’ Lord Byron wrote in the poem Don Juan, ‘Is ...

It’s vaguely European, Bogota, with its malls, brick buildings, drizzle and commuters in suits. The two of us sit about talking romance, London and kids; boys specifically, and their thing for Lego. Outside, at the apartment block gates there’s a sentry box, and a Labrador sniffing for explosives. To the east, the steep black wall of the Andes looms up, and to the south, past the rubble and squatters of Soacha, 200 miles across achingly beautiful country people avoid for fear of abduction . . .

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Interview with Oscar Camps, humanitarian head of Proactiva Open Arms about his work saving the lives of many thousands of migrants in the Mediterranean.