If you’re going to build a hotel out of mud and straw, and place it on the far side of nowhere, then it had best be good. If you’re going to officially nickname it a ‘house of dreams’ and charge a thousand Euros a night, then it had best be phenomenal. Dar Ahlam, hidden in […]
I slowly navigate my ATV along a winding path, through coarse salt grass and lonely stands of palm trees. The sun is low in the sky and the desiccated landscape is bathed in that magical golden African light. All of a sudden the path widens and I’m there on the edge of the Makgadikgadi Pans. […]
Half the fun of travelling in Asia is learning to embrace the chaos and congestion, the colour and the noise. The other half is finding a place where you can escape the mayhem, and slip into a zone of visual, aural, emotional calm. Such retreats can be hard to find, especially in the increasingly turbo-charged […]
Brazil’s not known as a country to cover its charms. And yet, the little towns of Paraty and Tiradentes are largely hidden from the traveller’s initial glance. One is tucked in the mountains of the interior, the other snuggles the coast (about halfway between Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo). Geographically they’re 430 km apart, […]
Cusco has its fair share of hotels, welcoming grubby backpackers, blue rinse jet setters, and everything in between. You could spend hours (if not weeks) choosing the best place to bed down. If you’re a hotel aficionado and want to be wowed, it’s no done deal; there are several properties worthy of distinction. And of […]
If you’re keen to explore the pata-negra heartland of Spain’s Extremadura region, make the Monasterio de Rocamador your base. Surrounded by the oak groves typical of Extremadura, which teem with semi-wild pigs munching on acorns and getting tastier by the minute, Rocamador is a weird, wonderful and totally unique hotel, in a quite unlikely part […]
Halfway to the sea from Montalcino, where Tuscany gets a little wilder and a little less visited, the Castello di Vicarello is tucked away at the end of a country lane, and is as good as any small hotel we’ve ever visited. With four suites and one villa, it’s a small, personal place. The thousand […]
When Marrakech begins to overwhelm you with its smells and persistant sales pitches, click your heels three times and chant “there’s no place like Toubkal. There’s no place like Toubkal.” In a flash (relatively speaking—a 45 minute drive to be more precise) you will find yourself in a mountain retreat where the air is fresh, […]
First things first, it’s pronounced ‘Why-Hecky’. And it’s a tiny island in New Zealand. Not the North Island, nor the South Island, Waiheke is it’s very own dot on the map. Okay, so it’s more of a speck. I think everyone knows by now (or has been told ad infinitum) that New Zealand is a […]
If you can’t swing the fare (north of $200,000 USD) for Virgin Galactic’s forthcoming flights to outer space, perhaps it’s time for a visit to Turkey. Specifically, make your way to the central region of Cappadocia. Here you’ll find a landscape so surreal and magical you could easily feel you were on the moon. The […]