Rare Earth Travel

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Rare Earth Travel I design seamless, tailor-made holidays for busy people who want to relax, reconnect and enjoy the journey.

Every detail is thoughtfully handled so you can simply travel with ease.

29/09/2026

One of my favourite things about staying at the METT was enjoying some of the surrounding area!

We hired bikes (with a guide) and followed the coastal path into Estepona, with the sea alongside us for the entire ride.

And Estepona itself was well worth the journey. Its Old Town is full of pretty squares, colourful streets, flowers, cafés and traditional Andalusian buildings, and is lovely just to wander around.

For me, this is what makes a holiday interesting. I love a beautiful hotel, a good beach and a comfortable sunbed, but I also want to get out and discover what’s beyond the hotel.

And travelling by bike made getting there part of the experience too. 🚲🇪🇸

Definitely worth leaving the sunbed for.



METT Marbella - Estepona
Shusma Knight

28/09/2026

A few days at METT Marbella 🇪🇸

I’ve just returned from a stay at METT Marbella on the Costa del Sol, giving me the chance to experience the hotel properly and see what it might offer my clients.

There’s a lot to like…

I was lucky to stay in a beautiful suite, and there’s a good choice of rooms and suites throughout the hotel, including some with shared or private pools.

The main pool area is a lovely place to spend the day, although it does get busy, and there’s also a wide sandy beach just a few steps away. For something a little more private, you can hire one of the day spaces with its own plunge pool.

Food was definitely one of the highlights of my stay. Excellent sushi, a relaxed beach restaurant, a great breakfast selection and several different places for drinks and dinner. The Greek restaurant was particularly memorable, with dancers and plenty of plate smashing!

There is plenty to enjoy here, and experiencing a hotel for myself means I come home knowing far more than I could ever learn from a brochure or website, including which of my clients I think it would suit.

More from my few days on the Costa del Sol to come…

METT Marbella - Estepona
Shusma Knight

18/09/2026

There’s a side of Sri Lanka that’s very easy to admire through a car window.

I’d rather get out and walk through it. 🇱🇰

When I travelled through Sri Lanka, I stayed at beautiful Nine Skies, high in the hill country near Ella. From the hotel, I walked part of the Pekoe Trail through tea plantations, hillsides and local villages.

The Pekoe Trail is a long-distance walking route through Sri Lanka’s central highlands, divided into individual stages, which means you don’t have to turn your holiday into a trekking expedition to experience it.

A section can simply be woven into a wider tailor-made journey. For me, that’s the appeal.

You slow down. You notice more. And rather than simply travelling between the highlights, you get to experience a little of the landscape and everyday life that sits between them.

I wouldn’t suggest spending your entire Sri Lankan holiday walking, but adding an experience like this can completely change the pace of an itinerary.

And knowing which experiences are worth building in, rather than simply trying to fit everything in, is one of my favourite parts of planning a trip.

Would you add a walk like this to a Sri Lankan holiday, or would you rather admire the tea country from the train? 🇱🇰

11/09/2026

I loved GoldenEye. But I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone.

And that’s not a criticism.

GoldenEye is one of those hotels with a very definite personality. It’s relaxed, individual and full of character, with an extraordinary history and a real sense of place.

For someone who loves independent hotels, beautiful surroundings and somewhere that feels completely different from a traditional luxury resort, it could be absolutely perfect.

But if your idea of luxury is a large, polished resort with lots of restaurants, extensive facilities and everything on hand, I might suggest somewhere else.

That’s one of the reasons I find hotel visits so valuable. It’s not simply about deciding whether a hotel is ‘good’. It’s about understanding who will love it, who won’t, and matching the right person to the right place.

GoldenEye would be very high on my list for the right client. 🇯🇲

Would it be your kind of hotel?

09/09/2026

Sometimes the best travel moments are the ones you don’t plan. 🇯🇲

On our way to Jamaica Inn, we stopped at a roadside service station for a quick comfort break and discovered a promotion taking place on the forecourt.
There was music, dancing and plenty of encouragement for our group of female travel agents to join in.

So, being good sports, we did. 😂

The locals were joining in too, everyone was having fun and we even came away with an assortment of Jamaican tea, soft drinks and snacks to try.

It was completely spontaneous and one of those little moments that captured something I loved about Jamaica: the warmth, fun and personality of the island seemed to find us wherever we went.

Not every memorable travel experience appears on the itinerary. 🇯🇲

07/09/2026

The question I get asked at this time of year is often, ‘Where can we go for some winter sun?’☀️

The answer is… lots of places.

But the better question is: what do you actually want from your winter holiday?

If you don’t want to fly too far, the Canary Islands can be a brilliant escape from the British winter.

If culture, food and touring are the priority, I’d look towards Thailand & Southeast Asia.

If you’re dreaming of warm seas and tropical beaches, it’s hard to beat the Caribbean, although choosing the right island is every bit as important as choosing the hotel.

If you genuinely want to stop, switch off and do very little, the Maldives takes some beating.

And if you’d rather combine sunshine with food, w**e, safari, scenery and plenty to explore, South Africa would be very high on my list.

Five winter-sun destinations. Five completely different holidays.

That’s why I always start with how you want your holiday to feel, rather than simply asking where you want to go.

Which would you choose?
🇮🇨 Canaries
🇹🇭Thailand
🌴 Caribbean
🇲🇻 Maldives
🇿🇦 South Africa

If you’re already thinking about escaping the British winter, save this one for later. ☀️

05/09/2026

A beautiful pool, a fabulous bedroom and impressive lobby are easy to photograph.

But when I visit a hotel, I’m looking beyond the obvious.

🛌 What’s the entry-level room actually like?

🏊‍♀️Is the pool peaceful or will you be fighting for a sunbed by 8am?

🚶‍♀️How far will you be walking to breakfast?

🧑‍🍳What does the restaurant feel like when it’s busy?

❓And perhaps most importantly, who is this hotel actually right for?

I visit different destinations and stay in hotels whenever I can because the little things don’t always show up in a brochure or online.

A fantastic destination or hotel can still be completely wrong for a particular client.
Knowing the difference is where experience really matters.

What’s one thing you always look for when choosing a hotel?

03/09/2026

More choice doesn’t always make choosing a holiday easier. In fact, sometimes it makes it much harder.

There are thousands of hotels, hundreds of destinations and an endless stream of recommendations online.

Add different opinions from everyone travelling and suddenly the holiday you’re looking forward to can take hours and hours of research just to work out where to go.

That’s a big part of what I do at Rare Earth Travel.

I get to know what matters to you, how you like to travel and what you want from your time away.

Then I use my own travel experience, industry knowledge and trusted contacts to narrow down the possibilities and recommend the options I genuinely think will suit you.

I’m going to share more of that knowledge here. The places I’ve visited, hotels I’ve stayed in, things I’ve learned, honest opinions and practical advice that might make planning your next holiday a little easier.

If that sounds useful, follow along.

Nicola 😃

25/08/2026

Our last day in Verona, and sadly the last day of our Italian escape. ☹️

We started with a date at Juliet’s House. I’ll admit, this wasn’t the highlight of Verona for us, but it feels like one of those places you have to see while you’re here. The historic house contains artwork, costumes from productions of Romeo and Juliet and, of course, the famous balcony where everyone wants their photograph taken. Although, rather less romantically, the balcony was actually added to the building in the 20th century to help create the Juliet story for visitors!

From there we wandered through Piazza delle Erbe, with its market stalls and beautiful fresco fronted buildings, and discovered one of Verona’s quirkier sights. Look up as you pass beneath the Arco della Costa and you’ll see an enormous whale rib that’s been hanging there for centuries!

There were plenty of lovely leather goods in the market, and yes, somehow, I managed to buy another handbag! That’s two in two days for someone who claims she’s not much of a shopper!

We walked across Ponte Nuovo over the River Adige into the Veronetta neighbourhood, before making our way back into the city and following part of Verona’s old city walls.

There was still time for a wander along Via Mazzini, Verona’s elegant main shopping street, which is packed with Italian and international brands. Another little surprise can be found inside the Benetton store, where glass panels in the floor reveal the remains and mosaics of an ancient Roman house beneath your feet.

Eventually, we found ourselves back where our Verona adventure had begun, at the Arena and Piazza Bra.

And so, our little Italian escape came to an end.

Two nights in Milan, three nights in Verona, an impromptu day on Lake Garda, opera under the stars, incredible food, plenty of gelato, two new handbags and, most importantly, five days away together, just the two of us which was exactly what we needed.

Something we haven’t done for a very long time, and something I don’t think we’ll leave quite so long before doing again.

24/08/2026

When plans change… jump on a train to Lake Garda!

Our plan for our second day in Verona had been to visit Juliet’s House, but we couldn’t get the tickets we wanted until the following day.

With temperatures soaring in Verona, we decided there was only one thing for it. Jump back on the train and head to Lake Garda for the day! And what a good decision that turned out to be.

We caught the train from Verona to Desenzano del Garda and after a short walk downhill from the station, found ourselves at the edge of the lake.

First stop? Gelato, obviously!

Desenzano is a really pretty town, with cafés and restaurants, lovely little shops and gorgeous views across the lake towards the mountains in the distance.

We decided to explore a little further and hopped aboard one of the ferries that criss-cross Lake Garda, choosing Sirmione, which sits on a narrow peninsula stretching out into the lake. The ferry from Desenzano took only around 20 minutes.

Sirmione was beautiful. We wandered through the historic centre before coming across the magnificent Scaligero Castle, one of the best-preserved medieval castles in Italy. From there we followed the path along the water, passing beautiful gardens and little beaches, and even a designated ‘kissing spot’, so naturally we had to stop for the obligatory kissing selfie!

There was also time to browse the shops filled with colourful Italian pottery, leather goods and mementos…and somehow a new handbag managed to come home with me!

We caught the ferry back to Desenzano and finished our day with some delicious pizza for dinner before strolling back to the station and catching the train to Verona.

What started as a last-minute change of plan turned into one of my favourite days of the trip. It also highlighted just how easy it is to combine Verona and Lake Garda. No car, no complicated planning, just a train, a ferry and a little spontaneity.

Sometimes the unplanned days really are the best ones.

Tomorrow, though, we have a date with Juliet…

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