...ABOUT...

I like to keep notes. Notes about the places I've been to, amazing meals I've savoured, trinkets and tchotchkes I've bought and where I’ve bought them from, and notes about interesting characters I’ve encountered along the way. On top of this I keep notes on places I haven’t yet been to: pages torn from magazines, excerpts from books whose authors have piqued my interest in a place by their wonderful words, and scribbled itineraries detailing how to get there.

All together this makes for a whole lot of notes (!) which, over the years, have been nestling in diaries, books and box files burgeoning with ticket stubs, leaflets, business cards; even a torn remnant of a paper tablecloth from a Parisian bistro. Every time friends or family have asked me for my travel recommendations I've always consulted my trusty encyclopaedic vault of notes.

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Travel Notes is a place to gather a selection of these notes and stories about my travels in one place. What you will read here are honest recommendations on places I've been to myself and genuinely liked or loved. I hope you will be able to use these notes for your own adventures.

Happy travels!

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As well as writing for Travel Notes Catharine Hewitson has penned travel and food stories for a number of newspapers and magazines in the North East of England. You can view all of  her article clips here.

As well as writing for Travel Notes, I'm a freelance writer and Travel Editor for La Di Da, a glossy print magazine based in the north of the UK. My writing portfolio also includes contributions to  The Journal, the Evening Chronicle, the Sunday Sun, The Northern Echo, Paperbird and Living (Durham, Tees Valley & North Yorkshire) magazi