To travel.
To capture landscape in imagery.
To catch glimpses of culture.
To discover the narrative.
And then, to write.

Here’s a random selection of my travel articles.

Austria

The City of Music
A trip to Austria’s capital proves the perfect harmony of old-world charm and music, writes Marian McGuinness.

 

 

 

 

Discovering Musical Vienna
The workings of a small-group cultural tour with Limelight Arts
Travel.

 

Salzburg, a city of festivals and art
Travel Weekly’s Marian McGuinness has taken on Salzburg to
explore its skyline of alpine peaks, spires, domes and a looming
medieval fortress that make it so picturesque. Read about the city with the tagline Stage of the World.

 

 

Hallein: Austria’s Celtic Town with a Big, Salty Heart
Travel Weekly’s Marian McGuinness has returned to pen another guide to the many gorgeous cities of Europe. Moving on from
Salzburg ‘A city of festivals and art’, McGuinness discovers Hallein’s charm and wonder.

Nature Writing Prize – shortlisted essay – 2021

Meditation in Stone

 

Antarctica

On First Seeing Antarctica (Travel Story Prize – 2019)
Patagonia, the land of fire and ice, is also the Gateway to Antarctica; the enigmatic seventh continent. That’s where I’m heading. 1,238 kilometres away.

 

Norway

Into the light fantastic
Marian McGuinness worships the sky by night and snow by day inside the Arctic Circle.

Greece

Blown away by island beauty
Amid steep cliffs and a moonscape summit, Marian McGuinness finds Santorini’s got a hot reputation.

Pillars to the sky
Marian McGuinness explores orthodox monasteries crowning stony pillars that connect earth and sky.

Soaking up the hospitality
Marian McGuinness gets an intoxicating Greek welcome.

The Siren call of Samos
From Pythagoras to the sanctuary of Hera, Marian McGuinness explores Greece’s eighth largest Hellenic island.

Argentina

Life behind the sights
During a sobering vigil from her hotel window, Marian McGuinness sees a different Buenos Aires.

 

From cradle to the saddle
Machismo is no match for a little gaucho in a blue beret, writes Marian McGuinness.

 

Italy

 

 

Pesaro – A Musical Journey
When on the Italian opera trail, Marian McGuinness says, be sure to leave some room for Rossini’s birthplace with its pasta, pizzas and world-class festival dedicated to the portly master of the bel canto.

 

 

  

 

Genoa – A Musical Journey
Marian McGuinness explores the beautiful, unspoiled Italian city that Wagner believed outshone Paris and London.

  

 

Floating through a dream
The real Venice unveils itself to Marian McGuinness on a journey along the Grand Canal.

Rugged beauty and home of lost souls
Marian McGuinness hunts down a lost soul in a place of rugged beauty.

Paths to happiness
Marian McGuinness takes in the hamlets of Cinque Terre.

A cloister walk with thee
Marian McGuinness and her nun-wary companion embrace religious life in an Umbrian hillside town.

Where Keats met his maker
Literary ghosts seem to watch her every step, as Marian McGuinness traces a poet’s dying days.

The plot deepens
Marian McGuinness descends beneath Rome to where pope, saint and slave alike were laid to rest.

Australia

Going Troppo
Opals are just one of the beautiful sights that can be found in the remote and quirky Lightning Ridge.

 

Struck by Lightning
Opals are just one of the beautiful sights that can be found in the remote and quirky Lightning Ridge.

 

Northern Tasmania in Ten Days
Fly In Fly Out of Tasmania’s northern city and experience the food, history and culture of the northwest and wilderness coasts in a loop.

 

 

The Kingdom of Ironfest
The Blue Mountains fantastical festival of the Wild West, Steampunk, Time Travel and a homage to all things metal.

  

 

Walking in the path of an Ancient Volcano (The New York Times Style Magazine, Australia) 
Just three and a half hours from Cairns lie the oldest standing lava tubes on Earth and the longest lava flow in modern geological time.

 

 

Stromatolites: The Earth’s oldest living lifeforms (launching BBC Travel’s latest series, Nature’s Curiosities)
Blocking out the peripheral surrounds and imagining the sky methane orange from volcanic activity, this is what life looked like at the beginning of time.

 

Sydney Opera House serves up a little night music on the harbour shore (Winner of the 2017 ASTW Best Australian Story)
One of the most intoxicating views of Sydney Harbour by night is from the northern foyer of the Opera House. And as the Sydney Symphony Orchestra breaks for its mid-concert interval, the audience flows to the foyers within these famous ivory sails.

Opal Odyssey (Winner of the 2013 Festival of Australian Travel Writing)
We like Marian’s story most for its warmly heart-felt sense of place. Using accurate descriptions and colourful phrasing, she captures Lightning Ridge during her short visit.

Where cowboys race the clock
Marian McGuinness finds that a little yee-hawing goes a long way.

Generous to the core
In search of the perfect apple pie, Marian McGuinness finds the farmers’ market, orchards and cafes of Bilpin are a pip above the rest.

The bay of no regrets
Marian McGuinness finds the magic is still alive at her quiet childhood haven of Toowoon Bay.

Japan

 

Shades of the Shogun
Marian McGuinness takes a walk back through history in the little known Japanese jewel of a town, Sawara.

New Zealand

Best European Travel in New Zealand’s South Island
France, Slovakia, Iceland, Italy, Norway. It’s Europe on a South Island plate.

 

Thailand

Pedalling to the city’s amazing beat
Bicycle, Bangkok, no bell: what could possibly go wrong as Marian McGuinness cycles through the pulse of the city?

 

Ireland