Travelling Independently:

There are two choices that we make when we plan a trip. 1. To go on a prepaid guided holiday, perhaps a bus tour or a stay at a resort. The second option is to plan your own trip and travel independently. We opt always for the second choice. The reasons are many.

1. We don't like groups and prefer to explore on our own and not be herded around.

2. It is decidedly cheaper to do it on your own.

3. We get to see what we want and do what we want so the holiday is truly ours. 

4. We like being outdoors and active, not sitting on a bus. So having an independent holiday for us is a no brainer. We spend most of the day walking, exploring, stopping for coffee when we choose and visiting the sites that appeal to us with no time limit attached.

If this sounds like you, read on.

To travel independently, it is helpful to have a guide which led to a project I started around 2002-3. All the current guides that were available at the time, were large scale, covering wide sections of Britain and were heavy. I wanted SMALL SCALE so embarked on a project to write 5 small scale guides that focused on an area and covered all the bases. They were also light to carry around. 

The next two years were spent researching and writing the guides. I hired a copy editor and had them published. Some made their way into the travel section at Chapters and also the World Map Store in Ottawa. Others, I sold the students who registered for an evening course I created and presented with the Ottawa Carleton School Board. The five guides are:

1. Preplanning Your Trip

2. Warwick and Stratford

3. City of York

4. Shrewsbury and Ironbridge

5. The City of Bath