The Ultimate 2 Week South West England Road Trip Itinerary
Explore quaint villages, medieval castles, ancient places and spectacular coastlines with our epic 2 week, self-drive south west England road trip itinerary. Starting and finishing in London, this is a looping drive to Cornwall and back via the beautiful counties …
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Norway City Break – 2 Days in Oslo Itinerary
Discover the best things to do in Oslo with our suggested 2 days in Oslo itinerary covering the city’s cultural, architectural and natural highlights.
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How to Go About Planning a Trip to Cuba
Cuba is vibrant, beautiful and unlike any other place you’ll travel. In this guide, we’ve pulled together our tips, take-outs and important things to know if you’re planning a trip to Cuba.
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2 Weeks In Cuba Itinerary for the Independent Traveller
Explore the very best of Cuba’s west with our 2 weeks in Cuba itinerary for the independent traveller, taking in the highlights of Havana, Viñales, Playa Larga, Cienfuegos and Trinidad.
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10 Awesome Things To Do In Bariloche Argentina
Whether you have a week or just a couple of days to discover the natural beauty and unique character of Argentina’s spectacular Lakes District, here are our top recommendations for the best things to do in Bariloche. With its commanding …
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The Ultimate Two Week Self Drive Oman Itinerary
Our northern Oman road trip covers desert sands, off-road adventures, architectural gems and Arabian hospitality, in an epic two week self drive Oman itinerary.
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2 Week Egypt Itinerary: Explore Ancient Egypt’s Greatest Hits
Explore the very best temples, tombs and timeless landscapes of Egypt with our epic 2 week Egypt itinerary, travelling from Cairo to Aswan and Luxor. Last Updated 6 February 2024 by Dan
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Highlights of an Epic Rajasthan Road Trip in India
This incredible Rajasthan road trip will introduce you to the unmissable highlights of Rajasthan, along with a few of the must-see attractions en route in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, in the north of India. Nothing quite prepares you for …
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Human by Nature: An Adventure in Kerala
In India’s far southwest, an emerald streak of tropical coast and highland skirts the Arabian Sea. This is a corner of India entirely unlike anywhere else in the country, a seductively serene and slow-paced place shaped over thousands of years …
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30 Incredible Things To Do In Iran: Highlights For The First Time Visitor
It’s hard to know where to start when we’re asked about our favourite Iran highlights. The history here is older than human memory, the landscapes even more ancient, and the people are among the kindest we’ve ever met. Iran is …
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What To Do In Muscat Oman: A 3-Day Muscat Itinerary
Whether you’re on a city break, a stopover, or setting out on a longer adventure, find out what to do in Oman’s capital with our 3-Day Muscat itinerary. Muscat, the sweeping, mountain-backed capital of Oman, is the unassuming gateway to …
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A One-Day Off The Beaten Path Hanoi Itinerary
There’s a plethora of cool things to do in Hanoi, but if – like us – you’re keen to use your 24-hours to explore a slightly more quirky side to Vietnam’s vibrant capital city, get your walking shoes on with …
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10 Of The Best Things To Do In Bogotá
Planning to visit Bogotá? Want to know what to do and see in Colombia’s capital? Here are our recommendations for 10 of the best things to do in Bogotá for a taste of the city’s vibrant culture, history and food.
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7 Awesome Ways To Explore Sydney Harbour
A visit to Sydney isn’t a fait accompli until you’ve spent time really taking in the city’s most striking jewel: Sydney Harbour. The meandering natural waterway is the world’s largest natural harbour, and one of the most picturesque, stretching from …
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What To Expect From An Istanbul Hammam Experience
For thousands of years, people have been visiting Turkey’s public bathhouses to have their weary limbs steamed, splashed, scrubbed and kneaded to a state of serene cleanliness. But what’s the deal for the modern-day tourist unfamiliar with the hammam experience? …
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Island Fling: The Perfect 5-Day Isle Of Skye Road Trip
We leave the world behind on a 5-day Isle of Skye road trip, flying into Inverness and out of Glasgow, and exploring the moody moors and windswept ranges of this alluring Scottish island. Rugged, dramatic and irrepressible, Scotland’s Isle of …
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20 Cool Things To Do In Santiago
Santiago de Chile is a gateway hub for South America and yet for many people, Chile’s capital is often just a transit to somewhere else. With our list of 20 cool things to do in Santiago, we’re on a mission …
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Havana Highlights: Ten Awesome Experiences In Cuba’s Capital
Imagine walking down bustling city streets of Havana that are humming with life, past crumbling colonial buildings cast in bright shades of yellow, blue, pink and green, all high arched windows and narrow wrought iron balconies. Old Chevrolets and Fords …
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On The Trail Of Ancient Rock Art In Patagonia
Nine thousand years ago, Argentina’s first people roamed the Patagonian steppe. Through the seasons, the nomadic hunter-gatherers followed the guanaco, their main food source, from the high desert plateaus to the deep canyons of the Río Pinturas. There, they left countless markings …
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48 Hours In Innsbruck: The Perfect Winter Weekender
Innsbruck, Austria’s picturesque Tyrolean capital, attracts visitors year-round to its alpine panoramas and active outdoors scene. It’s especially charming in the early winter, when the city turns on the festive cheer and Christmas markets illuminate the town squares. As our …
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De Ruien – A Tour Of Antwerp’s Underground Past
I’m standing in a chilly, dimly-lit brick-vaulted passageway. A frothy brown sludge is lapping at my ankles. John is a couple of feet away with his nose wrinkled, wearing an expression somewhere between bemused and horrified. A kid’s high-pitched voice …
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Visiting Malta – A History In Nine Amazing Sites
It’s midday and the high sun has sapped the colour from the dry, dusty hills sloping down to the sea. Against a backdrop of wan blue sky, the ragged stone profile of Hagar Qim squats resolutely under a protective sail. This …
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The Heavenly Highlights Of Assisi
We’re standing in the arched doorway of the Porziuncola, a tiny stone chapel said to have been restored by a young man named Francis, shortly after he renounced his wealth for a life of poverty in the early 13th century. Around and …
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Epic Egypt: Photo Gallery
We’ve been thinking about Egypt a lot lately, and particularly after visiting the excellent Sunken cities: Egypt’s lost worlds exhibition at the British Museum recently. Since the revolution in 2011, it’s been a rocky road for the country and its …
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Hill Town Hopping Through Central Italy
It’s a beautiful, sun-drenched morning and we’re driving through tranquil rolling hills, past the occasional vineyard and olive grove, and tiny picture-perfect rural villages. We’re so distracted by the scenery that it’s a while before we realise the roads are getting …
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The Marvellous Mosaics Of Ravenna
We’re sipping frothy cappuccino in a café on a charming cobbled street while I run a crash course on the small town we’ve just arrived in. It’s a little over an hour since we decided to day trip here from …
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Shifting Views Of Most Serene San Marino
San where? Few people have heard of the tiny landlocked microstate of San Marino, even though it’s been clinging precariously to the hills and high places of the Appenine Mountains in north-east Italy for more than 1,700 years. But staying …
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Eat, Drink, Marvel, Repeat: A Wander Around Bologna
We had one major objective for our trip to Bologna: Eat ragu. Everything else would be a bonus. Having grown up on Spaghetti Bolognese, this was – for me – effectively a pasta pilgrimage. I’d done my research though and I …
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A 36-Hour Flirtation With Florence
We were definitely easing into our travels when we picked Florence as our launch pad for a stint in Italy. With 36 hours in the Renaissance city followed by two weeks in the region, drinking all the wine, eating all the food, drinking all the …
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A Marrakech refresh: Three days in the Red City
As we approached the exit at Marrakech airport, I had a distinct flashback to this very same moment five years ago. It was July 2011, our first visit to Morocco, and as the airport doors slid open on the world …
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Diving into the past in the Bay of Naples
We’re staring down a wide, stone-paved roadway that winds off into the distance. Nearby, low walls of crumbling brick trace out the arcades, rooms and courtyards of seaside villas in what was once the summer playground of Ancient Rome’s rich and famous. It’s …
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Hong Kong & Macau: Foreign and familiar
In Hong Kong, I felt the dormant shopper in me stir. Who wouldn’t feel the burn of their credit card, standing under the bright lights and big brands of what feels like the world’s biggest shopping mall? Somehow, I resisted. …
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Sri Lanka: Circumnavigating the emerald teardrop
We arrive at Colombo International Airport at 5am, weary and a little tetchy after taking the red eye from Mumbai. After a long queue through immigration with a plane load of other grumpy travellers, we finally emerge into a breaking …
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A love affair with Petra
Petra – where camels are touted as ‘air-conditioned taxis’, donkeys finally get the credit they’re due as ‘Ferraris’, ‘happy hour’ prices and ‘buy one get one free’ rides come into play at a moment’s notice, and horse rides to the …
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From the Red Sea to the Dead Sea
It was a journey of biblical proportions, starting with a mad dash across three countries in as many hours as we crossed borders from Egypt through Israel and finally into Jordan.
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Trip to Jerusalem
As day trips go, we knew we were being ambitious. It didn’t look like a big deal. On the map, Jerusalem was barely 40 or 50km away from us in the Jordanian town of Madaba…as the crow flies, anyway. From all …
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Sailing the Nile Aboard a Traditional Dahabiya
We follow in the footsteps of Egypt’s 19th-century explorers and set sail on a Nile cruise aboard a beautiful, traditional dahabiya sailing boat. We couldn’t blame Enrique for trying. Our dahabiya host was determined to get us off the boat …
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Road to ruin in Turkey – Part II
With three incredible weeks on the road behind us, we didn’t think Turkey could get any better. For our final week though, we risked further car-itation to hire another little runabout, and in one day alone, achieved a trifecta of superb ancient sites.
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Road to ruin in Turkey – Part I
For a moment, standing under the fluoro glare of neon lights, a sound like a wailing cat drifting out of a nearby karaoke bar, and a board proclaiming ‘best full English breakfast’ to our left, I wondered if my woeful navigation had somehow …
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Istanbul to Cappadocia and everything in between
Our tour guide looks and sounds frighteningly like Borat. He’s decked out in a safari vest, a neck scarf, and he’s sporting a moustache Merv Hughes would be proud of.
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12 Days In Greece – An Island Hopping Greek Mezze
Halfway into our seventh or eighth consecutive Greek Salad, John confessed that he wasn’t actually much of a fan of tomato. Or cucumber. Or green capsicum and onion, for that matter. I pointed out that this didn’t leave much besides feta, a …
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Tour d’España – Andale!
Somewhere in Extremadura, as we charged up a cobbly hill in 42 degree heat, hungry, thirsty and conscious that siesta (national closing time) was nearly upon us but we had yet to see the Roman funeral site! and the 2nd …
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From Bedbugs to Bliss: A Marrakech Birthday
Carrying the scars of the budget-conscious – bedbug bites, mozzie welts and that general itchy, uncomfortable feeling that comes from staying in less-than-salubrious digs, we left windy Essaouira for our return to vibrant Marrakech and some five star treatment. Arriving at Maison MK in …
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Pushing the senses: Fez to Essouira
“Welcome to Fez, where you from?”“Australia.”“G’day maaate! What you looking for?”“Just walking, thanks.”“There is nothing this way, it is closed.”“Really.”“Really, the lane, it is closed this way.”“Well, we’ll have a look anyway.”“The tannery is not this way, you want to …
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Sailing Into The Sahara On A Moroccan Camel Safari
For years, whenever I’ve thought about Morocco, I’ve imagined myself sailing gracefully through burnt-orange sands at sunset aboard a comfy, good-natured ‘ship of the desert’. The reality proved far different.
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The magic 4×4 carpet: Marrakech to Merzouga
Day four of our road trip from Marrakech to Fez found us in the tiny desert outpost of Merzouga, having just missed the sacrifice of a sheep by the groom who’s wedding celebrations we were about to attend.
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Welcome to Marrakech! You like the hot?
‘A thousand welcomes to Morocco,’ declared the beaming man holding a sign with our names on it. ‘You like the hot?’ Hot, it turns out, was an understatement. As the airport doors slid apart, a blast of dry, super-heated air had us …
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A Rio rejuvenation
The late UK instaceleb Jade Goody once remarked, ‘Rio de Janeiro…ain’t that a person?’, which (in addition to garnering her plenty of derision in the trash mags) got us thinking about how one would describe this complex and enigmatic metropolis. …
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Northern Argentina: Through the lens
Northern Argentina is simply spectacular. It’s a region of epic landscapes, unique geology, vibrant culture, intriguing history and engaging people. It’s a dream for amateur photographers like us. Join us below for a photo journey of our time in Argentina’s amazing north.
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Living the high life in the Andes
We’d heard good things but nothing quite prepares you for the business class comfort of Argentina’s long-distance buses – as far as our backpacker budget goes, they’re not particularly cheap but when you’re staring down the barrel of a 14 …
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A Classico Football Match: River Plate v San Lorenzo
His game: It’s a football fan’s dream to watch a local derby in Buenos Aires, and while this one wasn’t the ‘Super Classico’ between River and Boca, it was the next best thing – a ‘Classico’ with River (or “Los Millonarios’ …
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Buenos Aires: City of passions
We have it on good authority that a quintessential visit to Buenos Aires in Argentina isn’t a fait accompli unless you’ve become properly acquainted with the city’s legendary mainstays – tango, football, wine and steak. Having four left feet and an …
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Un po-Quito: Getting to know Ecuador’s capital city
Quito, city in the clouds. During our month in Ecuador, we’d flown in and out of its precarious, mountain-framed airport no less than six times. So we figured it just wouldn’t be right to carry on without some small ode to this, …
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New Orleans: Jazzed in the Who Dat Nation
‘Who Dat!’ It’s been the catch-cry of proud New Orleanians for over a hundred years, and it had a resurgence last year after the New Orleans Saints won the superbowl. More than just the game, the win was symbolic of …
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Key West – Gateway to the good life
Jay was dressed head to toe in black, sporting a frayed Abe Lincoln goatee and standing around 6½ feet from his steel-capped boots to the rim of his tall top hat. Our ghost host had one simple rule for our after-dark tour of Key West’s most haunted spots . . . . .
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The globe-trotters get started in Harlem
Arriving in New York City on a crisp winter’s day reminded me a little of England. It was certainly a far cry from the humid, rain swept and – at least recently – seldom sunny Sydney. The sky was a beautiful …
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