Why you should choose a road trip for your next adventure

Looks like a bungee cord is the travel emergency tool we didn't know we needed.

It’s the classic pre-trip selfie. You snap a picture of yourself with your passport and boarding pass, then promptly share the photo on social media. Your family, friends and followers may like it.

If you’ve never heard of Iceland-based booking website Dohop, you should check them out. The company has been nominated for two World Travel Awards—World’s Leading Flight Comparison Website and World’s Leading Travel Technology Partner—and recently launched an amazing tool called FLYR Fare Protection, in partnership with FLYR.

Here at SmarterTravel we don’t just write about travel, we do it. And now you come with us!

Airlines are offering up in-flight Wi-Fi now more than ever before, making it tempting to check in on your social networks and stream your favorite movies and TV shows in the air. But there are a handful of little-known reasons to never give in to that temptation.

Sometimes a red-eye flight can be the perfect solution to your long-haul trip. It can offer a place to sleep (so you don’t have to pay for an additional night of lodging); plus, a morning arrival means you can hit the ground running when you arrive. But depending on the airline, choosing evening—or even afternoon—travel can be a grave mistake that could throw your trip into a spiral.

It’s the opposite of a motorway. As I drive into the Cumeengeera Valley, scraggly summer hedgerows slap my wing mirrors. Punky tufts of grass on the boreen work like brushes, scrubbing the car’s undercarriage. The mountains around me make me feel the size a grain of rice in a giant green bowl.

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.

One of the world’s top adventure spots, tourists to Jordan tend to zip right through Amman and head straight to the mountains, Petra, or the fabulous burnt-orange desert in the south. But Jordan’s capital is well-worth devoting a long weekend to. It’s a vibrant, buzzing place to spend a few days, browsing through the fashionable city-centre boutiques, filling up on falafel and listening to an Ammani rock band bring the house down in a dry music venue.

The Seto Inland Sea lies between Japan's largest island Honshu and the smaller islands of Shikoku and Kyushu. Surrounding this serene body of water is the Setouchi Region, which features historic cities, castle towns and islands devoted to religion or art. These include the cities of Hiroshima, Okayama, and Himeji (all on Honshu); Matsuyama (on Shikoku); and the tiny islands of Miyajima and Naoshima. The Setouchi Region is a tranquil part of Japan, offering a more laidback and less crowded experience than Tokyo or Central Japan, but with just as many historic and cultural attractions. Here's why you should plot a course for the islands today.

Affectionately known by Brits as the Garden of England, Kent is famed for its leafy surroundings and home-grown produce. But thanks to its bounty of award-winning booze, cutting-edge art and spine-tingling scenery, this county is even more fruitful than its monicker implies. And now is the perfect time to visit – here are five reasons why.

Brazil’s booming southern states – Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul – are often strangely absent on tourist itineraries of the country. The cities of Curitiba and Porto Alegre will host 2014 FIFA World Cup matches, and the region is already a huge draw for Brazilian, Argentine and Uruguayan tourists. Yet it can be a hard sell for European and North American travellers – it lacks the glamour of Rio but often sports the same prices thanks to the booming economy. After an obligatory pilgrimage to the mighty Iguazu Falls most Western travellers simply move on. So what makes those sudamericanos stick around? Here’s ten reasons I can think of immediately…