Rebecca Hallett travel tips

Forget review sites and apps, local tips and even (whisper it) guidebooks – maybe the best way to find your perfect destination is to spit in a tube. Not just any tube, of course, but one you send to a genetic testing company, who will then analyse your DNA and tell you where in the world your genes come from. And what more rewarding way to travel than to connect with your roots?

What does “solo female travel” mean now – and why are so many of us still afraid of it? In this episode of The Rough Guide to Everywhere, host Rebecca Hallett tries to get to the bottom of it with three intrepid guests: one-time Rough Guides senior editor turned freelance travel writer Rachel Mills; Jay Abdullahi, a black, disabled travel blogger, freelance writer, charity ambassador and show host; and human rights journalist Rebecca Lowe, who spent a year cycling alone across the Middle East.

Johannesburg is a much-misunderstood city but despite misconceptions it’s one well worth visiting too, with a wealth of museums and galleries, world-class jazz and – as it turns out – a thriving street art scene. With Past Experiences guide and founder Jo Buitendach, Rebecca Hallett takes a walking tour of Maboneng Precinct to discover a lesser-known side to the city.

San Francisco has changed a lot in the last few years. It’s now the buzzing centre of America’s tech culture, and so expensive that most of the artists and iconoclasts who made it famous can no longer afford to live there.

A safari without rhinos? That’s the sad future we may be facing. Right now South Africa is home to eighty percent of the world’s rhinos, but poaching is reducing their numbers every year – in 2017, three rhinos were killed every day on average. Anti-poaching units across the country are fighting to protect these and other magnificent animals, and this week on The Rough Guide to Everywhere podcast we learn about one particularly unusual group.