Mary Novakovich

Mary is an award-winning travel journalist who writes for The Independent, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and the London Evening Standard, among many other publications. She’s also written numerous guidebooks on two of her favourite countries: France and Croatia. As soon as the snow appears, she’s off skiing – preferably somewhere where there’s lots of melted cheese on the menu.

Top travel memory: “I was in the Loire Valley in the small village of Montsoreau, where I was chatting to the woman in the tourist office. She asked if we had any plans that evening, and if we fancied either having dinner in the village’s poshest restaurant, or joining her and her friends for an informal supper on a boat on the river. The boat won, hands down. It turned out to be an old-fashioned wooden Loire boat called a toue, and we were soon spending this balmy July evening drinking Sancerre, eating saucisson and pâté and watching the sun set on the Loire. A magical, unexpected moment.”