Fishing tips

Long before Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy put New Zealand on everyone’s travel list, hunters and anglers long coveted the island nation’s riches of fish and game. It is a sportsman’s Jurassic Park, where beasts grow to near-mythic dimensions and the stunning landscape inspired the fictitious land of Middle-earth.

For many Alaska visitors, the chance to drop a line in the briny depths of the ocean, or cast a fly rod upon a rushing river, is the reason they’ve traveled north – and for good reason. There is nothing quite like fresh fish – caught amid the stunning scenery of Alaska – consumed over a dinner table filled with tales of the day itself.

It’s inevitable: Every spring when we pull together the Hot List, our annual collection of the world’s best new hotels, restaurants, and cruise ships, a staffer remarks that this latest iteration has got to be the best one ever. After a year’s worth of traveling the globe—to stay the night at a converted farmhouse in the middle of an olive grove outside Marrakech, or sail aboard a beloved cruise line’s inaugural Antarctic voyage—it’s easy to see why we get attached. But this year’s Hot List, our 28th edition, might really be the best one ever. It’s certainly our most diverse, featuring not only a hotel suite that was once Winston Churchill’s office, but also the world’s largest cruise ship and restaurants from Cape Town to Bali. We were surprised and inspired by this year’s honorees, and we know you will be too. These are the Hot List's restaurant winners for 2024.

Made famous by the painter John Constable, and more recently, by singer-songwriter, Ed Sheeran, Suffolk’s rural landscapes and quintessential British seaside resorts make for an alluring destination for those seeking a holiday in the UK.

For nearly 20 years, the sparsely populated western slope of northwest Colorado has harbored one of America’s most exclusive—and little known—sporting communities. Simply put, Elk Creek Ranch is a 25,000-acre sportsman’s playground like none other.

Standing proudly as a B Corp organization, Luxury Cottages represents over 300 lavish properties dotted across the UK, from the coastlines of Cornwall to the rolling hills and narrow winding lanes of the Cotswolds.

Traveling aboard an Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) – the ferry network that connects Alaska's coastal communities – offers the same views as the cruise ships, but without the fluff.

Most diners don’t think of land-locked Colorado as the place to go for fantastic sushi. However, the Centennial State is swimming with good fish, partially because it’s a central hub for airplanes stopping between coasts. Local chefs demand it, too, making sourcing sushi-grade seafood easier.

The first thing that struck me about Luka was the silence. My wife, Caroline, and I had driven our rental car from Split north along the Croatian coast to Zadar and taken an hour-and-a-half ferry ride to the island of Dugi Otok. Then we had driven the island’s length southwards, through pine forest and scrub, to arrive at this tiny fishing village, where we would spend the next week. Both of us were slightly wired from driving on foreign roads. But the strange spell of Luka put an end to that.

With swimmable harbours in Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki and across Denmark’s cities, not to mention plenty of ways to enjoy the sea, from kayaking to urban fishing, there’s often a seaside air to Nordic cities in summer, and especially in Oslo.

Several hundred years ago, German-speaking traders would arrive in Bergen with boatloads of grain, cloth, and other vital commodities. They would stay for a few days in the wooden warehouses that line the harbor, before stocking their boats with dried fish from Lofoten and heading back to Europe.

From stunning views to local ingredients, custom shower treatments to shark sighting, these are some of the most unique–and luxurious–spa experiences around the world.

While culinary tours are typically synonymous with Southern Europe, Scandinavia presents a curious dining experience for visitors.

Two white-tailed eagles circle overhead as the rib pilot kills the power and we idle on shimmering waters, necks craning skywards as the sun bounces off the snow-capped peaks and islands that line the Bodø archipelago in northern Norway. The vivid afternoon sun has cast everything in high definition, making it hard to imagine that just a couple of months ago the peak of midwinter afforded just one hour of sunlight a day. “We have the same amount of sun each year in Bodø as Sydney or Benidorm,” says the pilot as we bid farewell to our avian friends and pick up speed again. “It’s just that here, it’s distributed differently.”

Ericeira may be famous as Portugal’s capital of waves—it was the second place to be named a World Surfing Reserve and is still the only one in Europe—but it’s plenty appealing beyond the ocean too. Less than an hour from Lisbon, it has beautiful beaches, windswept cliffs and a charming historic center, plus a vibrant international community. Yes, there are surf-town staples like acai bars and hostels flaunting their board storage, but there’s also plenty of destination dining and some five-star hotels that are worth an overnight or more.

Me and Asturias? We go way back. I first pitched up here in the mid-1980s as a backpacking student with an Interrail pass, riding the old-fashioned trains that rattled along the Cantabrian coast from Bilbao to La Coruña. I still remember my wide-eyed delight at seeing for the first time the verdant valleys rolling down to the sea, the huge beaches pummeled by big Atlantic breakers, the fishing villages stuck like limpets to the rocky coastline. Cold climates often imply caution and reserve, but there was a friendliness and warmth about the locals that reminded me—counter-intuitively, perhaps—of the laid-back Mediterranean.

With the tide out, it is a magical moment, rivulets of water swirl and eddy through the sand, the white cliffs of Cap Blanc-Nez loom behind me. There’s not a soul in sight. This jagged headland marks the start of the Côte d’Opale, which runs south-west from Calais for about 75 miles, and is part of the Pas-de-Calais region.

The food scene in Florida reflects the diversity of cultures that have made the sunshine state their home – an intoxicating blend of Southern recipes, Latin American flavors and old-school Floridian techniques...anyone for fried gator tail?

An inimitable blend of cool and kitsch, Brighton is one of the UK's most quirky, vibrant and welcoming cities.

Educational travel and voluntourism often serve as a conduit for experiential learning. An educational vacation or community service travel can enrich knowledge of places and customs in ways that can’t be taught via textbooks, especially for younger kids who tend to soak up hands-on lessons like a sponge. Through cultural exploration and immersion, students become enriched as global citizens, while developing a stronger knowledge of language and geography as well as an increased confidence and problem solving skills.

This is part of Off Season Italy, a collection of guides highlighting the year-round appeal of Italy's most popular destinations, courtesy of our favorite local tastemakers. Read more here.