Inspiring Travel Writing from Benjamin Curtis
Having decided to escape London life, Benjamin Curtis went to Madrid for a month in 1998, and has been stuck there ever since. Originally a photographer, he took up writing seriously upon arrival, and is now so enamoured with Spain that he rarely travels, or writes about, anywhere else.
Articles by Benjamin Curtis
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A Very Dominican Wedding
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Benjamin Curtis
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Dominican Republic
Luis, a local Santo Domingan, is driving me back to the hotel just in time to get ready for the friend’s wedding I’ve flown 4000 miles to attend, and photograph. We’ve just been Guayavera shopping, this being the four-pocket, tie-...
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Letter from Valencia
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Benjamin Curtis
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Spain
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Valencia Region
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Valencia
"In Valencia we are quieter, more tranquil than the people in Madrid" said the taxi driver who was taking me from the city centre to the beach. "Do you know Las Fallas?" he asked. I told him that indeed I did, and came down from the capital every...
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Letter from the 'Francisco de Goya' overnight express
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Benjamin Curtis
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France
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Ile-de-France
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Paris
It's nearly four years since a perfectly ordinary flight from Venice to Heathrow ended any chance of me stepping onto an aeroplane again. I'd been increasingly unhappy about the whole thing on previous flights to various long-haul destinations....
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Letter from Asturias
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Benjamin Curtis
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Spain
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Asturias Region
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Asturias
If you take a walk along the beach at Gandia, a small Mediterranean resort town an hour to the south of Valencia, at nine o’clock in the morning in July, a surprising sight awaits you. The entire front line, the 'Primera Linea', that long stretch of...
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Letter from the Loire
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Benjamin Curtis
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France
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Loire
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Saumur
Stroll into Saumur market on a Saturday morning and you may feel slightly confused. In this quiet provincial town at the centre of France's Loire Valley, almost everybody is speaking English. The few French present may be even more confused than you...
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Letter from San Sebastian
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Benjamin Curtis
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Spain
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Basque Country
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San Sebastian
The moment you leave Spain's sun-baked central high plateau and descend north east into the topsy-turvy, bottle-green hills of the Basque Country, you may feel a certain sympathy for the locals who argue for a separate, liberated Basque nation of...
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Letter From the Costa de la Luz
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Benjamin Curtis
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Spain
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Costa de la Luz
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Tarifa
Many years ago BBC Radio 4 produced a series called 'the off-season', going to well known places when no one else would. Goa, for example, in monsoon season. The theme struck a chord, and I decided to travel out of season whenever possible, to see...