Chalkmarks - travel, trips and tips

Why my home in Dalmatia had a Split personality

Hvar got sun news for you!

Out of war comes a peace of art

Leave behind the drama, it’s calmer in Varna

Raising the Olympic bar on chocolate in Lausanne

There’s lots to like when you travel by bike in Umbria

Chalkmarks

When travel is the mantra

Prepare for adventure

Latest Articles

What came first the coffee or the egg?

SO WOW: this is egg coffee. I’d dropped into the legendary Café Giang in Hanoi to try this iconic brew from where it was born.

25th May 2020

Coronavirus latest: Don’t count on a vaccine, warns top scientist

PEOPLE shouldn’t count on a coronavirus vaccine any time soon - despite what politicians say - a top scientist warns.

20th May 2020

Government has the trust of the public for now…

DESPITE growing criticism of the Government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, trust in it is as a record 20 year high.

14th May 2020

“Essential exercise” on memorial to war dead

YOUNG couple perform hip thrusts and arm dips oblivious to the fact their makeshift gym is a national war graves memorial.

7th May 2020

The journey to Auschwitz

YOU’D think we would’ve stepped off the bus in silence. But we didn’t. People were asking for the toilets. They wanted coffee.

5th May 2020

If only you knew: Sicily

THIS is the largest island in the Mediterranean and the biggest region in Italy. It's also home to many of Europe’s volcanoes!

1st May 2020

A tiny island not to be sniffed at!

VULCANO! How can it look so beautiful but smell so bad?

29th April 2020

Golf buggies for all on Isla Mujeres!

DON’T stop me now, I’m having such a good time, I’m on a golf buggy. I’m having a ball. Weeeeeeeeee!

28th April 2020

Published articles

Mail on Sunday

You’ve had Champagne, tasted Prosecco, tried Cava, now who’s for a Crémant?
IT’S the fabulous festive fizz from France that’s about to burst the prosecco bubble.

Sunday Mirror

Feastern Europe
TUCKED away in the north-east corner of Slovenia is a tasty food-lover’s paradise.

The Guardian

Living in Lima
AFTER backpacking around Peru Natalie Chalk is hooked but finds teaching English in Lima to be full of surprises.

Daily Express

Experience Denmark’s second city, Aarhus
DESPITE those Scandi-noir sagas and Sarah Lund jumpers, Denmark has been voted the happiest place on the planet.

May 2020

From the blog: The Best and the Worst

Nuzzled by the largest land animal on earth
WE leave at 6.30am without breakfast, only hot water bottles and blankets heading out on a wild South African safari.

Postcard from Bali: How to survive a volcano
I WRITE to you watching a volcano erupting on Bali. It’s gonna be a blast. Wish you were here.

My cracking time with the Magic Man
GODDAMN it, this isn’t going well. I’m lying face down on my hotel bed while a ‘magic man’ cracks my bones.

Hell or high water: Atlantic crossing was my biggest test
NATALIE sailed on board the world’s eighth largest passenger liner, the Anthem of the Seas sailing from England to America.