Say surfing and just about everyone imagines Hawaii. The more adventurous swing wide (and south) to Peru. But the really in-the-know surfers dial it down a few more latitudinal degrees, landing about 250 km from Santiago, Chile in a town called Pichilemu (peach-ee-LEH-moo). Chile’s got about 6,400 km of glimmering blue-green-grey coastline, and no place […]

It hit 38 C (100 F) in Toronto this July. And that’s before the humidex (it’s a Canadian thing—if you’re American, you have the heat index) pushed it up to something otherworldly like 49 C. I know it’s taboo to think of winter in the midst of our too-short ever-sweet summers, but my mind couldn’t […]

The theme song from Jaws is playing in my head as I lower myself into the freezing cold water. I hesitantly peer under the surface, but murky water makes it difficult to see. Suddenly a dark shadow emerges and I find myself face to face with the most feared creature in the sea. Dyer Island […]

Santiago is a slow burn. Sliced down the middle by the Mapocho River, the city’s character is elusive. It’s a hodgepodge of earthquake damaged colonialism and shopping mall post modernism, and its charms take patience to find; but we have the perfect vehicle for you. La Bicicleta Verde shortcuts the amount of time it takes […]

School’s almost out for summer, and if you’re wondering how you’re going to keep everyone suitably entertained, we’ve got you covered. Few families have shared a vacation that didn’t include a couple of epic battles—with so many varying interests, it’s often tough to keep the peace. If what you’re searching for is a single destination […]

Sometimes I rant about the trips we can plan and you just have to take my word for it. On this occasion, however, I have National Geographic Traveler backing me up. Check out our San Bushman Hunt & Kubu Island Safari—selected as the 2011 ‘Tour of a Lifetime’ in Botswana. What if I told you […]

I am a city boy. I thrive in concrete jungles, like the Barbican in East London, Soho in NY, or walking through the skyscrapers of HK. The thought of spending seven nights in a sea-faring vessel traversing the equatorial seas was not an immediately appealing prospect. Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands are in the vast Pacific, a […]

When it comes to the big mountains, the coveted hotels tend to be slope-side. But in Whistler, being right in the heart of the action may not be your best bet. In fact, Whistler’s best spot to stay is located ‘off-piste’, at the Four Seasons Whistler. Though the Fairmont is right on Blackcomb mountain, and the […]

If illusionist illustrator M. C. Escher had ever tried his hand at architecture, he might have designed a place like Argos in Cappadocia. This fabulous little hotel in central Turkey is a study in subtle confusion and organic delight. Steps lead up, stairs go down, bridges arc across roads, rooftops turn into terraces, and terraces […]

I will bet you any amount of money you like that when foraging for truffles in the likes of Piemonte and Perigord, there is no danger of you being stalked by a 550 lb black-maned Kalahari lion. I bet you thought you’d never get that chance, either—how wrong you were! It just so happens that […]

I’m the least likely candidate when a week long hike is mentioned at Trufflepig. But what is travel if not a challenge to your norms? Aren’t those experiences the most rewarding? And to be fair, hiking with Mountain Lodges of Peru is far from an uncomfortable experience. It was with some trepidation that I joined […]

I have cycled through the “City of London” many a time. The “City” refers to the financial centre hugging the north bank of the Thames between Tower Hill and Fleet Street. It is a weird region, teeming self-importantly during the week and eerily still at the weekend. During my time traversing its thoroughfares and alleys […]

“Vamos a la playa!” is perhaps my favourite phrase in the Spanish language. It is a little like the Brits saying “let’s have a nice cup of tea shall we?”, meaning let’s forget what ails us and focus on something else. In Spain and the Spanish-speaking world of Latin America, this is totally justified—it conjures […]

Remember summer? It’s fun at the time, but I enjoy it even more in the winter, scrolling through photos of bright blue and bright green with the odd glass of pastis gleaming in the foreground. Uh oh. My body is in January in the office; my mind’s in July in Provence. And not in just […]

I grew up in England’s glamourous northwest (home of Coronation Street and Take That), where excitement was not particularly varied. Playing in a motorway median was the highlight—like an extreme sport, the adrenaline came from car-dodging over four lanes. So whenever I find myself in a new city I look for an excursion that is […]

If trekking in the tropics with weird and wonderful wildlife is your thing, pack your hardcore hiking-boots for Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula. This 43,000-hectare park preserves the largest tract of Pacific coastal rainforest in Central America. The stats are impressive: over 500 species of trees, 400 species of birds (including most […]