The thing most people don’t know about safari in Africa is that it’s not all about seeing the big animals. Of course the sight of your first elephant in the wild is impressive (even more so if it’s charging you), and hearing a lion’s bellowing roar will rock your eardrums like nothing else. But when […]
When you visit a country for the first time, especially one that is completely foreign to any past experience, you tend to focus on a specific detail. You find comfort in this detail, and make a point to learn as much as you can about it. Using this method, you can comfortably learn more about […]
Sometimes—you might even say often—we travel to escape. When routines become audible like the meshing of gears, we feel the compulsion to lose ourselves, to shed skin. Some places encourage fantasies of time travel—where we imagine ourselves living as adults in a different age. Take the ancient Medina of Fez for example, or the caves […]
Ibo Island is one of those places I always hoped existed but then kind of lost faith in. Finding it was like remembering a dream a few hours after waking—I felt a rush of excitement and familiarity, a sense of triumph. And now I spend my days dreaming of going back. Because of its fresh […]
As winter finally unclenches its fist from around our collective throats, and the temperature deigns to rise above negative double digits, I know exactly what you’re thinking: “where shall we go next Christmas?” Actually, that’s probably the last thing on your mind as you dream of warm sunshine and footwear other than snow boots, but […]
This little corner of Northern Africa is one of our favourite places to plan in. Why? Because there’s nowhere else in the world quite like Morocco. Here are a few of our top reasons to visit: 1) Get the blues—Pink may be the navy blue of India (as Diana Vreeland, fabled former editor of Vogue, […]
Love is in the air. Mostly because we’re trying desperately to ward off the snowy chill of February, but also because of that heart-shaped holiday awaiting us at the end of the week. Whether you think it’s a perfect time for romance or a total Hallmark sham, you can’t lose if you simply look at […]
Mint tea in Morocco is everywhere: every visitor is bound to get an offer of tea, whether from a rug dealer or in a local’s home, and it would be rude to refuse. All business transactions, receptions, ceremonies, and celebrations involve tea in Morocco; it’s the sign of hospitality as much as it is the […]
Much like the natural hierarchy among Africa’s wild animals, there has always been an order of things in terms of safari destination rankings. Botswana has long been the lion, while Zambia’s role could be likened to scrappy meerkat. But roles evolve, and if there has ever been a challenger for the pride of Botswana, this […]
I’m a big fan of delayed gratification; a little hard work beforehand makes the reward that much sweeter. For example, when eating lobster (my favourite meal), I’ll start with the legs and the little flanges at the tip of the tail, twisting and tweezing out even the smallest fibre of meat until I can barely […]
When my mom texts me, she refers to me as “Nomad”. It started as a typo that her phone autocorrected, and stuck due to my longstanding travel addiction. When I rode a camel into the Sahara Desert to meet some real nomads this summer, she found it highly amusing. Traditionally, the nomadic Berbers in Morocco […]
Remember that Sounder article a while back about our silly sailor friend Phil, the Austrian guy who sailed from Cape Town to Rio and back? I sort of figured a journey like that would drain the crazy from his boat. Nope. On January 3rd I got an email from Phil with the news that he was going […]
Every campfire conversation in Africa promises a lifetime of embellishment, exaggeration and sweeping generalization. Having sat around many a campfire myself, you’ll have to forgive me the indulgence. I’ve heard many a Kenyan take pot shots at Southern African safaris, and Southern Africans are no less opinionated, so I’ll try here to present a balanced […]
Every November, for the past years, we’ve attended a remarkable travel show in Marrakech—PURE Life Experiences. It’s where we go to take the pulse of the travel industry (oh no, did I just use that word?), meet with some of the hotels and people we work with, and sniff around for new and noteworthy places. […]
There’s something to be said about being an original. Nearly a decade ago, Singita set the tone and claimed the style and design throne of South African safari lodges with the opening of Singita Lebombo. It remains the yardstick against which any lodge claiming to the best is measured against. Year after year Lebombo continues to […]
We all want to see lions, giraffes and elephants – these exotic animals have captured our imaginations from a very young age. For most tourists, a trip to Africa means a trip to see the lions, giraffes and elephants, but moving past this simple declaration they become quickly paralyzed by all the choice. This is […]