Mountain tips

As a travel writer constantly on the move, my adventures have taken me to the far corners of the globe, from the rugged terrains of Tanzania to the mountains of Bhutan. Yet amidst my travels, one constant remains: the search for that seamless trip to and from the airport.

Birds are a big thing in Oman’s Musandam Peninsula. As you walk along, it’s not unusual to catch sight of the flick of a sapphire-blue tail, the glimpse of scarlet-red feathers cloaked by a wing or the pop of banana-yellow on a crooked beak. It’s as if the sky has reacted in rainbow protest to the dusty beige of Oman’s landscape. Here, you wake up to a cacophony of twittering and cooing: Indian Rollers, Bulbuls and Sunbirds forming a dawn chorus.

The richly layered city of Dublin – full of culture, community spirit and character – has plenty of things to keep you busy and entertained, with even more beyond the capital that's worth seeing on a day out.

Despite the Côte d’Azur’s postcard image of beaches and palm trees, much of the Alpes-Maritimes – the French département (province) which lies in the Côte d’Azur's embrace – is covered by alpine terrain.

Tucson, Arizona is one of our Best Places to Go in the North America for 2024, part of our global guide to the Best Places to Go in 2024—find more travel inspiration here.

It’s difficult to do justice to Canada’s awe-inspiring landscapes.

Hitting the road in a camper van is one of the most intimate – and exciting – ways to experience the USA.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park closed a trail on weekdays starting Monday as crews continue rehabilitation work in the popular park.

Passing over the Atlas Mountains in 1925, the French military photographer Marcelin Flandrin spotted a Barbary lion walking through the sand. Flandrin had flown the route often enough to realize that the sighting was uncommon. He took a picture, which he published as a postcard sold to travelers visiting Casablanca.

In his semi-autobiographical novel, Roughing It, Mark Twain called Lake Tahoe “the fairest picture the whole earth affords.”

Sometimes, when you travel, you arrive somewhere so ridiculously picturesque, so dictionary-definition of how you expect the country to look, that you half suspect it was built as a film set, or has been “Disneyfied” specifically for tourists.

I’m on the easiest bit of one of the easiest legs of the GR20 – the self-styled hardest trek in Europe – so naturally here I am alone, lost in a cloud, with hands so cold I am seriously considering peeing on them.

If last summer is any indication—and bookings for 2024 suggest that it is—parts of Europe will be as inundated with crowds as they were in 2023. The best way to avoid the hordes is to go somewhere off the beaten path, seeking out corners of Europe free of mass tourism. Here are five European trips for those seeking a respite from the madding crowd.

In the battle to safeguard the planet’s endangered ecosystems, Canada is a global leader. Some of the world’s oldest, best managed, and biodiverse national parks reside north of the 49th parallel, collected under the umbrella of Parks Canada, a growing network of nearly 50 parks inaugurated since 1911.

Great road trips define Canada.

In Lake Tahoe, the peaks of the Sierra Nevada rise above turquoise waters so clear you can peer more than 70 feet below the surface. In winter, skiers prize the Tahoe Basin’s 14 ski areas, while in summer, people flock to beaches, hiking and biking trails. Perhaps the best time to visit Lake Tahoe is the shoulder seasons in spring and fall when the region is less crowded and hotel rooms are more affordable. 

From crystalline karst lakes in Croatia to soaring sandstone columns in Greece, UNESCO has announced the addition of 18 new sites to its Global Geoparks network. The list of geographical areas with international geological significance now numbers 213 locations across 48 countries.

With its daily sunshine, miles of wide golden sand beaches, lush green forests, brightly colored buildings, buses, tuk tuks and smiling people, the island of Sri Lanka richly deserves its title as “Pearl of the Indian Ocean.” And it also seems fitting that Time magazine described the country’s first luxury wellness retreat, Santani, high in the Dumbara mountains above the town of Kandy, as “one of the world’s 100 best places.” Following its launch in 2018, Santani Wellness topped the “best spa” lists of the world’s lifestyle press, including Vogue, Tatler, Conde Nast Traveller and Forbes.

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.

When winter’s chill was thawed by the blossoming of spring, our family would set off for the long drive from the Oxfordshire downs to our holiday house in Le Marche, central Italy. Cruising through the arable heartlands of Europe, my heart would skip a beat as we neared the totemic slate gradients of the Italian Alps. Snaking over the Brenner Pass, it felt like being spirited to another world: a sky-bright Narnia, as we emerged blinking-eyed into the Dolomites sun on the other side. Stopping in simple, family-run hotels for the night, the breakfasts were a joyful, modest but perfectly formed ode to the Sud Tyrol locale—the creamiest Sterzinger yogurts that we savored with crimson forest-fresh lingonberries, flower-flecked cheese (for breakfast!) draped with silky threads of marjoram honey from their farm. Today, most hip restaurants are ingredient-led, but these these mountain families have been doing it for centuries.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by Sedona’s staggering scenery and unique vibe.