On today’s Season 5 Finale, I’m joined by one of the UK’s leading broadcasters and most recognisable voices, Jeremy Vine.

Jeremy began his journalism career as a BBC reporter for the Today show before becoming the BBC’s political correspondent at Westminster, and the BBC’s Africa correspondent based out of Johannesburg.

He worked alongside Jeremy Paxman as a presenter on Newsnight and back in 2015 he donned his dancing shoes becoming a hugely popular contestant on Strictly Come Dancing - although his first dance with partner Karen Clifton was scored a ‘2’ by judge Craig Revel-Horwood.

These days, Jeremy’s based back in the UK, and along with his eponymous daily topical programme on Ch5, his daily BBC radio 2 programme is the most listened to news show on UK radio. He’s also an accomplished author and tells us about his latest novel, which is set in Spain. 

Given his day job involves chatting to anyone and everyone, it’s no surprise that Jeremy had no shortage of conversation today and we have a great time dashing around the world today with his travel diaries, from the Channel Islands to an island off Canada, Siberia to Oman. This is a fun one, I really hope you enjoy it. So, Let’s get started. 

Destination Recap:

- Jersey, England

- Alderney, England

- The Blonde Hedgehog, Alderney, England 

- Johannesburg, South Africa

- Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA

- Siberia, Russia

- Oman

- Appledore, Devon, England 

- Glasgow, Scotland

- Dali Museum, Figueres, Spain -

Cadaques, Spain

- Sitges, Spain

- Fogo Island Inn, Newfoundland, Canada

Jeremy’s novel The Diver and The Lover is out now in paperback - a great read for a summer holiday. 

A huge thank you to today’s sponsors, DK Eyewitness and The Thinking Traveller.

September sees the launch of DK Eyewitness’s new series Like A Local, travel guides to the world’s biggest cities featuring the best local hangout spots, hidden haunts and independent businesses. Listeners to The Travel Diaries can now get 10% off the books over at wordery.com. Simply enter the code 'LIKEALOCAL' at the checkout to receive your discount. 

To book your dream villa holiday visit The Thinking Traveller. The Thinking Traveller's collection of luxury villas across Italy, The Greek Islands, Corsica and Mallorca are some of the best properties out there for a villa holiday and come in all sizes, whether you're travelling as a couple or for a big family reunion.

And with that, it’s a wrap for Season 5. Thank you so much to all my lovely guests for transporting us all around the world. And most importantly, thank you, my incredible listeners, for tuning in each week, for taking the podcast over one and a half million downloads, across 160 countries - what a dream come true. If you’re enjoying the podcast, leaving a review or five star rating is the best way to show your support, on your podcast app of choice. All the destinations mentioned by my guests are always included in the episode show notes, on my website thetraveldiariespodcast.com and also on my Instagram page @hollyrubenstein where I publish and save weekly guest guides, which plot out all the locations that have been discussed. 

And it’s not long until I’m back - we’ve got a couple of wonderful destination specials coming up, the first in a couple of weeks celebrating all things Caribbean, so keep an eye out for that. I’m off to Cornwall, again, and then to Provence in France. You can follow my travels on social media and as ever I’d love to hear from you. 

Season 6 will return in the autumn. Have a wonderful rest of your summer, and I’ll be back soon. 

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