Neil Macquillian travel tips

On a trip to Mexico's Riviera Nayarit, just a short drive from bright lights of Puerto Vallarta, Neil McQuillian discovers the unexpected...

As a tourist in London, you won’t be short of company. The capital has the three most popular free visitor attractions in the UK (British Museum; National Gallery; Natural History Museum). It also lays claim to the top three paid-for sites (Tower of London; St Paul's Cathedral; Westminster Abbey).

Galápagos. What do you picture when you hear those four syllables? Chances are it’s wildlife, from giant tortoises and marine iguanas to blue-footed boobies. And rightly so, for the animals on these islands, sitting in extreme isolation 1000km (600 miles) off the Ecuadorian coast, are genuinely spectacular. In fact, it was the so-called ‘tameness’ of the Galápagos animals – just one facet of their incredible idiosyncrasies – that helped bring Darwin to his world-changing theory of evolution.

Welcome to Season 3 of the Rough Guide to Everywhere! In this first episode, Rough Guides web editor Neil McQuillian (@NeilMcQuillian) joins author Thomas Rees (@ThomasNRees) as he dives deep into the vodou culture of Haiti – encountering artworks made from human skulls and plenty of evidence that it could be the best trip you ever take.

Do sea shanties have a voice in 2018? The coal mines, keel boats and whaling parties that brought them into being may be long gone, but Northeast England's shanty tradition has eternal qualities pulsing through it: folk memory, togetherness, oral tradition, protest and celebration, love and loss.

In 18th-century Louisiana, escapee African slaves would make a break for the bayous. Here they might encounter Native Americans and occasionally find asylum with them: two peoples who had in common a struggle for freedom from oppression.

So gloomy they named it goth? Not in the slightest. This town can certainly do black-eyeliner bleak with the best of them – anywhere with docklands can, and Gothenburg has got the largest port in Scandinavia. But Sweden’s second city is actually a ray of sunshine: friendly, funny, multicultural (23 percent of people living here weren't born in the country) and on the thrilling cusp of massive expansion.

If you're planning an autumnal escape, check out where our editors and writers have chosen as their favourite destinations at this time of year.

It's difficult to picture the Alps in your mind's eye without a blanket covering of white. But when the snows melt, another side to the region comes alive. Neil McQuillian reports from a verdant and warm Portes du Soleil.