We're celebrating our 10th birthday at  Escape Worldwide , and looking back at 10 years of globetrotting in the name of bringing you great holidays - at least that's our excuse! We're having a look at our personal top 10 favourite travel experiences of the last 10 years. Mark gets far too close to a cheetah!  "It’s an early start this morning for a game drive from our home on the Masai Mara , the Mara Serena. We've been on safari for four days now and I'm getting in to the swing of things, with early starts to see the wildlife first thing in the morning when its all quite active, before the daytime temperatures start to rise and the big cats head for a snooze.  After a quick coffee we’re leaving the lodge at 6am, but it’s not long before the excitement starts. Within a few miles of the lodge we’ve already seen a herd of around 30 elephants crossing the plains, and a pack of the somewhat ungainly looking bat-eared foxes, but there...

We're celebrating our 10th birthday at  Escape Worldwide , and looking back at 10 years of globetrotting in the name of bringing you great holidays - at least that's our excuse! We're having a look at our personal top 10 favourite travel experiences of the last 10 years. Karen gets a little teary at the Taj Mahal  "There are some places that you feel you know even if you haven't been, and the Taj Mahal is one of them - it's such an iconic building that everyone knows what it looks like, but when you actually visit you're really blown away with quite how beautiful this place really is. I was part way through a trip to the highlights of Northern India when I visited the Taj Mahal - it was my first trip to India, and a real eye-opener to this fantastically diverse country. I'd started with a few days in Delhi, which acts as the main gateway to Northern India and is a good place to get started, both geographically and also historically and cultu...

We're celebrating our 10th birthday at  Escape Worldwide , and looking back at 10 years of globetrotting in the name of bringing you great holidays - at least that's our excuse! We're having a look at our personal top 10 favourite travel experiences of the last 10 years. Darren receives a warm welcome in Brazil! "This was my fourth visit to Brazil, but my first to Rio De Janeiro - I love the Brazilian way of doing things, where life revolves around the beach and there's always such a positive attitude towards things, so I knew I'd love Rio before I'd even arrived! As Escape Worldwide 's offices were in Stratford for many years, a mile from the Olympic Park for the London 2012 Olympic Games, I was interested to see how Rio's 2016 Olympic Games would be shaping up - beach volleyball at Horse Guards Parade is one thing, but on Copacabana Beach is quite another! There's still a very long way to go, but the plans for Rio's games are lo...

We're celebrating our 10th birthday at  Escape Worldwide , and looking back at 10 years of globetrotting in the name of bringing you great holidays - at least that's our excuse! We're having a look at our personal top 10 favourite travel experiences of the last 10 years. Natalie picks up a bargain - or three!  "This was my first visit to  Bangkok , and as an experienced shopper and bargain-hunter back home I was pleased to see that there were tons of shops and lots of shopping to be done - I am a self confessed handbag addict and was pleased to see that there was plenty on offer! Before shopping comes sightseeing, and I started at the Grand Palace, a real 'must see' for anyone visiting Bangkok. The palace is a series of palace buildings and temples, and is very much in use - it dates back over 300 years and although the current King doesn't live here, the palace is still used for official events, and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha i...

We're celebrating our 10th birthday at Escape Worldwide , and looking back at 10 years of globetrotting in the name of bringing you great holidays - at least that's our excuse! We're having a look at our personal top 10 favourite travel experiences of the last 10 years. Karen watches bathtime for baby elephants! "Sri Lanka has to be one of my favourite countries – I’ve visited a few times now, and on each occasion I see new places and a different side to the Island. There’s so much to take in, so it’s hard to say where my favourite location would be, but I think I’d put the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage top of my list! It’s quite easy to get to from the coast, too, so even if you visit Sri Lanka on a beach holiday rather than a tour, try to get here. Karen gets up close Personally, I think Sri Lanka lends itself exceptionally well to a bit of touring, spending a few days in the main areas - the North has loads of historical interest, centered around...

This month we're celebrating our 10th birthday at Escape Worldwide , and looking back at 10 years of globetrotting in the name of bringing you great holidays - at least that's our excuse! We're having a look at our personal top 10 favourite travel experiences of the last 10 years. Mark goes temple spotting in Cambodia ..... "The first time I really heard about Angkor Wat was 20 years ago, when I was backpacking around Thailand and made it to a temple that once stood on the edge of the Khmer empire, on what is now the border between Thailand and Cambodia - Khao Phra Viharn. This out of the way temple was in a sorry state and was around 100 miles from Angkor Wat itself, but it really gave a sense of how mighty the Khmer empire was in its heyday, and how magnificent Angkor would have been. I started finding out more about the Temples of Angkor, but it took me another 14 years to actually make it there! Bas reliefs at Angkor Wat Angkor Wat is just...

This month we're celebrating our 10th birthday at  Escape Worldwide , and looking back at 10 years of globetrotting in the name of bringing you great holidays - at least that's our excuse! We're having a look at our personal top 10 favourite travel experiences of the last 10 years. Karen makes a splash in Dubai "My first visit to  Dubai  was on the way back from Thailand one September, and while the weather in Thailand had been hot and humid, I wasn't really prepared for quite how hot Dubai can get in the summer! I wanted to see Dubai's main attractions in the few days I had there, but having explored the older parts of the city and finding that the only place I could cool off was on a traditional abra crossing the creek, I decided to head to the beach and to one of the best water parks in the region, Wild Wadi.  Take an abra accross Dubai Creek I wouldn't normally class myself as a water park kind of person, but in the hea...

This month we're celebrating our 10th birthday at  Escape Worldwide , and looking back at 10 years of globetrotting in the name of bringing you great holidays - at least that's our excuse! We're having a look at our personal top 10 favourite travel experiences of the last 10 years. James gets a little too close to a baby Orang Utan! "On my first visit to Malaysia I went to Borneo , which has always been on my 'must see' list of places. I was lucky enough to visit the Sepilok Orang Utan rehab centre, but it was back at my hotel where I got a little too close to these incredible creatures! Borneo is a really special place, and while it's not the easiest to get to it's well worth the effort. Having spent a few nights in the capital Kuala Lumpur (which I just loved - but that's a different story!) I flew over to Kota Kinabalu, the main town in Sabah - Borneo's geography is quite complicated, with the one island split between three countri...

Darren checks out Egypt's history from the air!  This month we're celebrating our 10th birthday at  Escape Worldwide , and looking back at 10 years of globetrotting in the name of bringing you great holidays - at least that's our excuse! We're having a look at our personal top 10 favourite travel experiences of the last 10 years. "I'm a huge fan of Egypt's historical sites - I think it dates back to my school days when tales of Pharaoh's and their treasures buried in the desert really captured my imagination! The thing to my mind that's so wonderful about Egypt's history is how accessible it is, and how easy it is to picture the scene thousands of years old - so many temples and other sites are so well preserved, it has to be the best place in the world for any history buff!  Balloon over Luxor at sunrise Luxor probably has the highest concentration of antiquities of any part of Egypt, and the West Bank is pro...

Escape Worldwide are 10 years old this year - Happy Birthday to Us!  This month we're celebrating our 10th birthday at Escape Worldwide , and looking back at 10 years of globetrotting in the name of bringing you great holidays - at least that's our excuse! We're having a look at our personal top 10 favourite travel experiences of the last 10 years. Mark's fear of heights goes out the window!  "I'd been in a helicopter once prior to my visit to Hawaii , and that was over the Victoria Falls in Zambia - I have a terrible fear of heights but I'm OK with flying and thankfully the experience in Zambia showed me that I was OK in helicopters too (unless the pilot does any sudden maneuvers which leave my stomach half a mile behind!) On Hawaii's Big Island, however, the view was so incredible that I didn't really have a chance to think about anything else! The helicopter that Mark took over Big Island The Volcano National Park is an in...