Australia
Australia is renowned as a place of nowheres but even to Aussies, Cape York presents a remote and forbidding frontier. The northernmost tip in the country is reached along corrugated 4WD tracks that will rattle the teeth loose from your jaw. You’ll find the cape approximately 1000km from Cairns, which means days and days of driving, including crossing creeks inhabited by estuarine crocodiles. For your reward, you’ll find a rocky headland and, well, not much else. Now the only thing left to do is to turn around and clatter your way back.
Quttinirpaaq National Park, Canada
Canada’s second-largest national park is probably also its least visited. Straddling the 80th parallel on Ellesmere Island, it reaches to North America’s northernmost point (Cape Columbia) and, for visitors, deep into their pockets – a charter flight in from the town of Resolute will set you back an immodest C$32,000. The park has no facilities, roads or even trees. What it does have are bears and bares: polar bears and beautiful, bare mountains. While here you may as well pay a visit to Grise Fiord, Canada’s most northerly town. Continue reading 'Best ‘middle of nowhere’ places'»
Santa Barbara
Okay so we all know the hotspots when travelling to California: San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. But why not take a break from these fast-paced cities and head to a destination that even Californians go when they want to get away?
Enter the beautiful, laid-back city of Santa Barbara, located between San Francisco and Los Angeles, just off Highway 1. With the famously scenic backdrop of the Santa Ynez Mountains, Santa Barbara is filled with Spanish-style architecture, long white-sand beaches, fabulous shopping and outstanding restaurants, making it the ultimate weekend destination. There are heaps of activities to suit your fancy (even if that activity is lying on the beach) so here are our recommendations for what to do when visiting Santa Barbara. But take it from this local author – this way of life can get pretty addictive!
1. Roam around State Street
This long street takes you from the beach right into Santa Barbara’s historic downtown. With a goldmine of shopping, restaurants and nearby museums, it’s a good place to kick off your relationship with Santa Barbara and its people. Continue reading 'Santa Barbara: California’s perfect weekend getaway'»
British
Island-hoppers needn’t venture to Greece or Thailand for their fix of beaches, ferries and the castaway lifestyle. In fact, Great Britain is made up of over six thousand islands. While many of these are simply rocky outcrops, hundreds are large enough to make it onto maps and many are well worth visiting. We’ve chosen five British islands that don’t usually make it into our holiday plans.
Inchcolm
Name a Scottish island in a spectacular location that’s home to an Abbey and sandy beaches. If you said Iona, think again. Much more accessible and much less crowded is Inchcolm, located almost in the shadow of the Forth Bridge. The abbey remains Scotland’s best-preserved group of monastic buildings and a boat journey here is one of Edinburgh’s most underrated attractions. If you opt to go ashore rather than viewing from the boat tours allow around 90 minutes to explore. Continue reading 'Great British islands'»
Vietnam
Dense jungles, brooding mountains, endless waterways, towering cliffs, hairpin bends: the potential for adrenalin fuelled adventure is limitless in Vietnam. Whether you prefer to scale the heights of jagged peaks or plumb the depths of coral reefs, Vietnam will deliver something special. Heck, just being here is one long adventure, but these experiences will take it to a whole new level.
Kayak Halong Bay
Use paddle power to explore this incredible forest of karsts that jut out of the South China Sea like stone sentinels. Kayaks go where other boats cannot, such as into hidden caves and secret lagoons, and will reveal to you the very best of the bay.
Conquer Mount Fansipan
OK, so it’s not Mt Everest, but at 3143m, it is the highest peak in the country. Meet some of the minority peoples on the trek before tackling the elements to arrive on the roof of Vietnam. Continue reading 'Vietnam for adrenalin junkies'»
Macau
The last outpost of the Portuguese empire, Macau only became part of China in 1999, two years after the British withdrawal from Hong Kong. Even today, the city state at the mouth of the Pearl River has a tangible Mediterranean feel, with baroque basilicas, cobblestone lanes, colonial mansions and grand civic squares.
Nevertheless, Chinese culture shines through in the form of caged songbirds, clicking chopsticks, Buddhist statues, incense-filled joss-houses and signs illuminated with neon hanzi characters.
For tourists from the mainland, the main attraction is the chance to gamble in Macau’s glittering casinos; international visitors come for the Portuguese relics, the shopping and the beaches of Coloane, the former island at the tip of the Macau peninsula. Continue reading 'Destination at a glance: Macau'»
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