The Rough Guide to 2022

Landscapes as green and lovely as everyone says. Literary giants in Dublin; Titanic history in Belfast. A pint and good craic in a traditional pub. The lure of Celtic legends.

In Willemstad, the capital city on the island of Curaçao, the waterfront is dotted with buildings the color of tropical fruit: mango orange, banana yellow, kiwi green. Paired with the bright blue water in nearby bays, it’s almost a full kaleidoscope of color. Originally, the structures were limestone white, but an 1817 law forbade white facades on buildings to protect islanders’ eyesight from the bright reflections of the Caribbean sun – but locals joke that it was a money-making bid on behalf of the island’s only paint supplier.

Lake Como, or Lago di Como, is what the Riviera is to France: An area of the country that is so beautiful and serene it has attracted the rich and famous for centuries. (It is no secret that George Clooney has a swanky villa along the lake.) All these wealthy celebrities have managed to create a bubble of luxury around this magnificent part of northern Italy by building immense and luxurious villas along the lake’s shore, but if you’re a non-millionaire traveler who wants in on the action, worry not, there are ways to have a good and affordable time on the shore of Italy’s most famous lake.

Colourful Australian slang, or strine, has its origins in the archaic cockney and Irish of the colony’s early convicts as well as the adoption of words from the many Aboriginal languages. And for such a vast country, the accent barely varies to the untutored ear; from Tasmania (“Tassie”) to the northwest you’ll find little variation in the national drawl, with a curious, interrogative ending to sentences fairly common – although Queenslanders are noted for their slow delivery.

Hushed voices, the scratch of a bamboo whisk, then a bow, a nod and a bowl of steaming matcha is handed around. Any delicate sounds in the room are amplified by the formality of the occasion – so quiet you can hear people holding their breath – which heightens the sense that something very important is going on. This is a tea ceremony in full swing: the ultimate in Japanese hospitality.

In late 2018, we launched Rough Guides tailor-made trips, a unique travel marketplace where we connect you to local tour operators in over 70 countries worldwide. These local experts create a travel itinerary and book personalised trips for you, packed with personality and stimulating adventure.

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is one of the world’s most incredible natural wonders – it’s the largest structure ever built by living things and is visible even from space. For millennia, this glorious underwater world has blazed with colour, sheltering some of the earth’s most spellbinding ocean-dwelling creatures. But the unnaturally rapid increase in the earth’s temperature is putting this vast ecosystem under increasing threat.

Kyūshū, the most southerly of Japan’s four main islands, is pretty much left alone by tourists. Yet, the island – only a bullet-train ride from Tokyo – is one of the country’s culinary hotspots. Proximity to mainland Asia and historical legacies from trade with the British, Dutch and Portuguese has led to a fusion of styles. You can see this in the Chinese- and Korean-inspired ramen soups, Nagasaki’s famous castella cakes and the Fukuoka-style yakiudon noodles, which are typically served with a dash of Worcestershire sauce.

Rough Guides writer Greg Dickinson has hitchhiked in seven countries, flagging down over fifty cars, vans and lorries over a distance of 3000 miles. Here are some of his top tips on how to make the most of a hitchhiking adventure.

Always wanted to be a travel writer? Well you’re in luck. Last year we ran our travel writing competition and the winner, Steph Dyson, has become one of our regular contributors. This year, we’re opening it up again to seek out the best untapped travel writing talent.

It’s no secret that national lockdowns and travel restrictions have got us dreaming. And while many people are still staying clear of international trips, we’ve all been thinking about our favourite destinations and adding to our bucket-list line-ups. Here at Rough Guides, we took to Twitter to find out where our readers are dreaming of, starting with the allure of food…

With the 75th anniversary of the Liberation of Europe in the final years of WWII in 2019–2020, Rough Guides is releasing a new, comprehensive and inspirational guidebook: Travel the Liberation Route Europe. Rough Guides editor Helen Fanthorpe introduces the book and explains what it’s all about.