For decades, the only way to access St Helena — a subtropical island 1,200 miles off the southwest coast of Africa — was aboard the Royal Mail ship RMS St Helena on its five-day sailing from Cape Town. But since 2017, a new commercial airport has made one of the world’s most remote islands easier to visit. We speak to Anthony Thomas, founder of St Helena dive operator Sub-Tropic Adventures, and Dennis Leo, wirebird conservation manager at St Helena National Trust, to find out how responsible wildlife tourism is taking hold on this remote South Atlantic island.
Anthony: I was born and raised on St Helena. My school was in Jamestown, so I had direct access to the ocean growing up. I learnt to dive at 14 and became certified at 16. I fell in love with St Helena’s marine life and became a dive instructor in 2000 — when I was 20 years old — and decided to open Sub-Tropic Adventures [a marine service provide] the same year.
Dennis: I came to St Helena in 2011 in want of a job. Back then, wirebirds — St Helena’s only endemic land bird — were in a critical condition. That year St Helena’s National Trust launched a predator control programme to help wirebird numbers recover. They needed help setting up traps and monitoring wirebird nests, so I applied for the job. Here I am 10 years later, managing the wirebird conservation programme and running wirebird-watching tours on the island.
Dennis: You can’t help but see wildlife on St Helena. The island is so small that one minute you can be walking in the hills with a masked booby flying over your head, then you’ll see a whale and its calf feeding in the bay below you. At 4pm, in Jamestown, you’ll see tropicbirds flying all over the place. The island is a paradise for birdlife.
Anthony: We have quite a protected marine environment on St Helena. Fishing around the island is controlled, and it shows when it comes to the diversity, abundance and size of the marine life you encounter. On a really good day, we’ll see hundreds of pantropical dolphins, whale sharks and Chilean devil rays on a single dive. We also have around 50 endemic marine species on the island.
Anthony: The number of divers that can dive at a particular site is now limited. All dive operators on St Helena must also pass an accreditation process to ensure they’re following sustainable practices. Right now we never have more than 20 divers at the same site, but these new regulations have been put in place to protect marine life as the island opens up to more tourists.
Dennis: At the National Trust, we’ve been protecting St Helena’s endangered wirebird since 2007. When the project started, there were 275 left on the island and now we have roughly 582 adults. We’re currently working on removing invasive
The website maxtravelz.com is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is inviting everyone to the ‘Amazing Thailand Countdown 2024 Vijit Arun’ celebration that will take place on New Year’s Eve at Nagaraphirom Park against the majestic backdrop of Wat Arun or the Temple of Dawn, one of Thailand’s most-visited attractions on the mighty Chao Phraya River in Bangkok.
Although it has been years since I’ve traveled in mesmerizing Tokyo, my memories are as vivid as though they had been sparked yesterday—pleasures aswirl in unique flavors and noises, creativity and ingenuity. So when luxury publisher Assouline released the new book Tokyo Chic, I dove into its 312 lush-paper-stock pages, with more than 200 photographs and illustrations, which are bound in an outsize (10-by-13-inches, 6.4-pound) format—a hefty hardcover wrapped in silk. The brainchild of Andrea Fazzari, whose deft imagery and words are love letters to the inimitable capital, Tokyo Chic showcases a massively enthralling—yet strikingly intimate—city. Currently based in Tokyo, Fazzari is a James Beard Award-winning photographer, author and restaurant maven with notable backgrounds in fashion and film. Born in New York City, she has lived in France, Hong Kong, Italy, Spain and Thailand—and speaks four languages. What a sophisticated guide to have at your armchair traveler’s fingertips! Indeed, this coffee table tome would make a treasured holiday gift for those who have already vacationed in Japan or simply dream of doing so.
One summer, many years ago when I was 17, I met a Dutch girl in a pub who was backpacking around Ireland. She said she was staying in hostels and was off to Doolin in County Clare the next day. Somehow, I hadn’t realised it was that easy to strike out and see the world. The next morning I took the bus to Doolin and began a lifelong love of independent travel and the open road. I never saw the Dutch girl again despite a full search of every pub in the village.
The ancient Kingdom of Fife is steeped in rich history and dramatic scenery. The region is located on a sprawling peninsula on Scotland’s east coast, appreciated for its cinematic scale, ambience, and pure sense of drama. The name ‘Kingdom of Fife’ derives from its historical significance as one of the major Pictish kingdoms, once known as Fib. This four-day itinerary guides visitors through the region’s charming fishing villages, to iconic landmarks and across wild coastal paths. It's a place where visitors can escape, relax and unwind. Explore the historic home of Scotland’s ancient monarchs and tuck into world-class local produce — all within an easy drive from Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital city.
Founded as recently as 1886, Johannesburg went on to become the largest city in South Africa. It was the long-time home of the country’s first Black president and is now a burgeoning student hub with a progressive mindset. Nelson Mandela’s House and the Soweto township along with the Apartheid Museum and Constitution Hill are vital components of any Jo’burg itinerary before heading to Kruger and beyond.
“In wine, there’s truth,” wrote Pliny the Elder of Greece in the first century CE. He also wrote that “The only certainty is that nothing is certain.” Both his conciseness and ambiguity are reflected in much of today’s writing about wine.
Germany and the United States spent 13% and 11% more respectively on outbound travel than in the same nine months of 2019, while Italy spent 16% more through August.
LATAM Airlines will operate the route between the UK capital and Peru with five weekly frequencies on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. This is the first time a Peruvian crew has operated a flight between Peru and the UK. This represents a milestone in aviation in the Andean region.