Mount Fuji: What the Climb is Actually Like Fuji-san is 3,776 metres high and the most climbed mountain in the world. About 300,000 people summit it every year during the official climbing season (early July to mid-September). It’s not a technical climb — no ropes, no ice axes — but it is a serious 5-8 hour ascent on loose volcanic scree, often done overnight to reach the summit for sunrise,...

Leptis Magna: The Roman City That Libya Has Left Mostly Alone Leptis Magna is a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the Mediterranean coast of Libya, 130km east of Tripoli, and one of the best-preserved Roman cities in the world. In terms of scale and completeness — forum, theatre, amphitheatre, circus, harbour, Severan basilica, the Hadrianic Baths — it matches or exceeds Pompeii. Fewer than 50,000...

Churchill, Manitoba: Polar Bears, Beluga Whales, and Aurora Churchill, Manitoba sits at the western edge of Hudson Bay, population around 900. It is the polar bear capital of the world, not as a tourism slogan but as a geographic reality. Every autumn, between 800 and 1,200 polar bears congregate on the western shore of Hudson Bay near Churchill, waiting for the sea ice to form so they can hunt...

Xochimilco is the southern borough of Mexico City where ancient Aztec canal agriculture still functions in a recognisable form. The chinampas (artificial islands built up from lake sediment over centuries) produce flowers and vegetables for Mexico City’s markets. On weekends, the embarcaderos fill with trajineras, large flat-bottomed punted boats, each painted in bright colours and named...

Uluru: What the Rock Actually Is Uluru is 348 metres high and 9.4km in circumference, but those numbers don’t capture what makes it astonishing. The relevant fact is that the bulk of Uluru extends far underground — the formation continues beneath the surface for an estimated 2.5km. What you see at the surface is the exposed tip of a much larger sandstone monolith, and the way it rises from...

The Hermitage: Three Million Objects in Six Buildings on the Neva The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg contains approximately 3 million objects spread across six buildings, the largest of which is the Winter Palace, the official Baroque residence of the Russian tsars. Catherine the Great started the collection in 1764 by purchasing 225 Dutch and Flemish paintings from a Berlin merchant....

Taipei: The City That Makes Everything Easy Taipei is one of the best-run cities in Asia for visitors. The MRT is clean, cheap, and announces stations in English. Street food is extraordinary and inexpensive. People are consistently helpful. The city is safe at all hours. It’s not without problems — air quality can be poor, summer heat is punishing (35°C+ with high humidity, June through...

Paris: The City That Requires Preparation to See Properly Paris receives around 30 million visitors annually and is, city for city, the most visited place on earth. The concentration of significant art, architecture, and food in a walkable core is unmatched. The problem is that the tourist infrastructure is calibrated for those 30 million and most of what’s laid on for visitors is mediocre...

Portland, Oregon: What’s Worth Your Time Portland has been written about so much, mostly in terms of its self-conscious weirdness, that the actual city sometimes gets lost in the mythology. It’s a mid-sized American city with exceptional food, good public transit, easy access to nature, and real urban problems that it would be dishonest to ignore entirely. The downtown has had a rough...

Oia is the postcard village of Santorini: white cube houses, blue domes, caldera edge. The images you’ve seen are accurate. What the images don’t capture is that from June through August, the 3,000 people who live here share the main pedestrian street with somewhere around 10,000 daily visitors, most of them in a hurry to reach the sunset viewpoint. The village is worth visiting. Just...

Tokyo: A City of 13 Million People Where Almost Everything Works Tokyo is the world’s largest city by metropolitan population, extraordinarily dense, and operates with a reliability that visitors from most other cities find disorienting. The trains run on time. Restaurants are not always where Google Maps says they are (many are in basements or on upper floors of unremarkable buildings) but...

Venice: The City That Exists Despite All Reason Venice is 118 islands connected by 400 bridges, built on wooden piles driven into the mud of a lagoon off the Adriatic coast. The main island is about 5km across, entirely walkable, and oriented around a system of canals that are the only roads for anything other than foot traffic. No cars, no bikes, no mopeds. It’s been like this since the 5th...

Munich: Bavaria’s Capital Done Right Munich is clean, well-connected, expensive by German standards, and full of genuinely excellent things to eat, drink, and see. Neuschwanstein Castle is two hours away and worth the trip, but the city itself justifies several days without needing to leave. What to See Marienplatz is the main square at the city’s heart, with the Neues Rathaus (new...

Tivoli Gardens: The Amusement Park That Inspired Walt Disney Tivoli Gardens opened in 1843, making it the second-oldest operating amusement park in the world. When Walt Disney visited in the early 1950s while planning Disneyland, he reportedly took notes. The clean grounds, flowers, and themed areas all went into the concept. Tivoli itself is smaller and older than what Disney built; it is also...

Rapa Nui (Easter Island) sits 3,700km off the Chilean coast, making it one of the most remote inhabited places on earth. The flight from Santiago takes about 5 hours on LATAM Airlines, which operates the only regular service. Round-trip fares from Santiago run CLP 300,000-600,000 depending on season and how far ahead you book. All visitors pay a USD 80 national park fee on arrival, which grants...

Iguazu Falls: Both Sides of the Border Iguazu is 275 waterfalls strung across nearly 3km of the Iguazu River, split between Argentina and Brazil. No photograph does it justice. The full volume of sound and spray when you’re standing at the rail above the Devil’s Throat (Garganta del Diablo) with water thundering into the gorge 80 metres below is genuinely overwhelming in a way that...

Mutrah Souq: Muscat’s Old Market, Still Working Mutrah Souq in Muscat’s harbour district is one of the oldest markets in the Arabian Peninsula — a covered labyrinth of stalls selling frankincense, silver jewellery, khanjar daggers (the curved Omani ceremonial knife), pashminas, antique pots, spices, and the full range of souvenirs that have accumulated in any trading port over...

Lavena Coastal Walk, Taveuni, Fiji Taveuni is Fiji’s third-largest island, about 400km east of Suva, and is known as the “Garden Island” for its dense jungle interior. The Lavena Coastal Walk on the island’s southeastern shore covers about 5km one-way along a trail that moves between rainforest canopy and sections of black sand beach, finishing at Wainibau Falls — a...

Tokyo Tower stands 332.9 metres tall in the Shiba-koen district of Minato ward, and its orange-and-white paint job (required for aviation safety, applied when it was built in 1958) makes it instantly recognisable from much of the city. It was the world’s tallest freestanding tower when constructed, modelled loosely on the Eiffel Tower but painted bright colours instead of grey. Is it worth...

Nyerere National Park (Selous): Tanzania’s Quieter Alternative to the Serengeti The area was renamed Nyerere National Park in 2022, in honour of Tanzania’s founding president, though it remains widely known as Selous after the British hunter Frederick Courteney Selous. At approximately 54,000 square kilometres of the protected area (the larger Selous Game Reserve surrounds it), it is...

Stockholm: A City That Rewards Slowing Down Stockholm is built on 14 islands where Lake Mälaren meets the Baltic Sea, and the water is present in the city in a way that constantly restructures your sense of distance and direction. Bridges and ferries connect the islands; neighbourhoods that are 10 minutes apart as the crow flies take 25 minutes to reach on foot because of the waterways. Once you...

Kykkos Monastery: The Richest Monastery in Cyprus Kykkos is the wealthiest and most influential monastery in Cyprus, founded around 1100 CE in the Troodos Mountains at 1,318 metres elevation. The Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus owns it, and its coffers have been supplemented over nine centuries by donations from Byzantine emperors, Ottoman sultans, and the Cypriot diaspora. The accumulated...

Hanoi’s Old Quarter: Navigating the 36 Streets The Old Quarter covers roughly one square kilometre north of Hoan Kiem Lake and has been continuously settled since the 11th century. The “36 streets” structure dates from medieval guilds that organised by trade: Hang Gai (silk), Hang Bac (silver), Hang Thiec (tin). Many streets still specialise, though the goods now include tourist...

Teatre-Museu Dalí, Figueres Salvador Dalí designed this museum himself, which tells you everything about the nature of the experience. It’s not a museum in the conventional sense — a white-walled room with works hanging at eye level for quiet contemplation. It’s a total environment, conceived as an artwork in its own right, installed in the shell of a 19th-century municipal theatre...

Jeju Island: South Korea’s Volcanic Subtropical Escape Jeju-do is a 1,848 square kilometre volcanic island 90km off the southern coast of South Korea. It’s the country’s largest island and its own province, with a distinct dialect, culture, and geology. The island centres on Hallasan, an extinct shield volcano at 1,947 metres (the highest mountain in South Korea), ringed by lava...

New York: The City That Doesn’t Need Introduction, Just Navigation Every piece of advice about New York begins with the same problem: the city has everything, so where do you start? The answer is the subway. A 30-day MetroCard costs $132; a 7-day unlimited is $34. Once you’re mobile across the five boroughs, the rest follows. Manhattan Times Square is mandatory exactly once, long...

Isle of Wight: A Day Out That Earns a Weekend The Isle of Wight is 380 square kilometres off the Hampshire coast, connected to the mainland by ferry from Southampton, Lymington, and Portsmouth. It’s sufficiently self-contained to feel like a proper elsewhere, sufficiently small to cover meaningfully in three or four days. In August it’s heaving; in May, October, or February it’s...

Swarovski Crystal Worlds: Art Installation or Theme Park, Depending on Your Expectations Swarovski Kristallwelten (Crystal Worlds) opened in Wattens in 1995 as a brand attraction marking the company’s 100th anniversary, designed by media artist André Heller. The original concept was surrealist: rooms inside a hill accessed through a water-spouting giant head, each room designed by a...

Easter Island: Getting Past the Postcard Version Rapa Nui sits 3,700km west of the Chilean coast, roughly equidistant from Chile and Tahiti, making it one of the most remote inhabited places on earth. LATAM operates direct flights from Santiago (about 5.5 hours), with one or two services daily. Tickets run CLP 150,000-400,000 depending on availability. There are no other commercial routes. The...

The State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg is one of the largest art museums in the world, occupying six interconnected buildings along the Neva embankment, the most famous of which is the Winter Palace. Catherine the Great began the collection in 1764, and what followed over the next 250 years was acquisition on a scale that most Western museums can only stare at: around 3 million objects total,...

Sydney: Better Than Its Reputation Prepares You For Sydney is the most visited city in Australia and, depending on what you want from a city, one of the most enjoyable in the world. The harbour is genuinely extraordinary — 240km of foreshore, the bridge and opera house framing each other across the water, ferries running constantly between wharves. It’s also expensive, sprawling, and takes...

Sea Turtles on Black Sand Beaches, Big Island: Where and How The title says “play with” sea turtles. To be direct: you cannot legally play with sea turtles in Hawaii. Green sea turtles (honu) are protected under the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Turtle Protection Act. Federal law requires you to stay at least 6 feet away. Approaching, touching, or riding sea turtles carries...

Great Smoky Mountains: The Most Visited National Park in America, For Good Reason More people visit Great Smoky Mountains National Park each year than any other national park in the United States, around 12 million in a typical year. The reason is partly convenience (it’s within a day’s drive of a third of the US population) and partly that the park delivers: 522,000 acres of temperate...

Spis Castle: The Largest Medieval Castle Complex in Central Europe Spis Castle (Spissky hrad) covers 4 hectares of a dolomite hill in eastern Slovakia and is the largest castle complex in Central Europe by area. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993. It is also, pleasingly, almost empty of tourists compared to its equivalent in western Europe. On a Wednesday in June you may have the...

Maui: The Good Parts and the Honest Caveats Maui is genuinely beautiful and remains Hawaii’s most visited island for good reason. It’s also expensive, can be crowded, and the Road to Hana has become a victim of its own fame. Go in knowing that and you’ll have a better time than you would if you arrive expecting a quiet paradise. The Things Worth Doing Haleakala Summit is the one...

Zermatt: Everything Revolves Around That Mountain The Matterhorn is 4,478 metres and visible from almost everywhere in Zermatt. The pyramid shape — near-perfect, isolated above the surrounding ridge — is legitimately arresting, which explains why it’s appeared on Swiss chocolate packaging since 1908. Zermatt exists, economically and culturally, because of this one mountain, and the village...

Clovelly: The Devon Village Where Cars Cannot Go Clovelly in North Devon is a fishing village built on a cliff face so steep that the main street (Clovelly High Street) is effectively a cobbled staircase descending 400 feet to the harbour. No wheeled vehicles can enter. Residents use sledges to move supplies down to their cottages. Donkeys were historically used for the same purpose; they’re...

The Smithsonian: Which Museums to Actually Prioritise The Smithsonian Institution runs 19 museums and galleries in Washington DC, all free, all on or near the National Mall. The problem isn’t access; it’s decision-making. Trying to do more than two or three in a day is a fast way to end up exhausted and having retained nothing. Pick your two, do them properly. The Museums Worth...

Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon The Shwedagon stands 98 metres tall, is coated in actual gold leaf, and has been a place of continuous worship for over 2,000 years. When you first see it rise above Yangon’s skyline, usually lit at night and visible from a few miles away, it’s one of those sights that does what it’s supposed to do. Up close, on the platform itself, it’s more...

Kelvingrove is free. That’s the first thing to say. It’s also one of Scotland’s most visited attractions, it houses a Salvador Dali and a Rembrandt, and it has a Spitfire aircraft suspended from the ceiling of the main hall. This is not a minor municipal gallery. The Building The red sandstone Spanish Baroque building opened in 1901 at the western end of Argyle Street in...

Trinity College Dublin: The Book of Kells and Everything Around It Trinity College was founded in 1592 by Elizabeth I on the site of a dissolved Augustinian monastery. It remains the only constituent college of the University of Dublin, which makes it slightly unusual constitutionally. The campus sits directly in the middle of the city, entered through an archway off College Green, and covers 47...

Registan Square: Samarkand’s Three-Faced Architectural Statement The Registan in Samarkand was the ceremonial centre of the Timurid empire and remains one of the most coherent examples of Islamic monumental architecture anywhere. Three madrasas (Islamic schools) face inward onto a square courtyard: the Ulugh Beg Madrasa (completed 1420), the Sher-Dor Madrasa (1636), and the Tilla-Kari...

Luskentyre Beach, Harris: The Real Thing Travel magazines routinely put Luskentyre in lists of the world’s most beautiful beaches, which sounds like hyperbole until you’re actually there. The sand is a pale cream-white that shades into turquoise water, backed by machair grassland and with the hills of Harris rising beyond. On a sunny day in June with low tide exposing a kilometre of...

The Nazca Lines are large geoglyphs etched into the surface of the Ica Desert in southern Peru. Made by removing the reddish-brown iron-oxide-coated stones to reveal the pale ground beneath, they cover around 450 square kilometres and include lines, geometric figures, and animal figures. The largest, a pelican, stretches 285 metres. They were made by the Nasca culture between 500 BC and 500 AD,...

Tintagel Castle: Arthurian Legend Meets Proper Coastal Scenery Tintagel is on the north Cornwall coast, 5km off the B3266 between Camelford and Boscastle. The ruins sit on a dramatically exposed headland, half on the mainland and half on an island connected by a long wooden bridge that replaced the original causeway. English Heritage spent around £3 million on the bridge, which opened in 2019 and...

Edinburgh in August: The Festival, the Crowds, and What to Do August in Edinburgh means roughly three weeks where the city’s population doubles and every available venue — pub basements, church halls, university lecture theatres, a car park in Leith — becomes a performance space. The Edinburgh Festival is actually several distinct festivals running simultaneously: the International Festival...

Cinque Terre: Five Villages, One Honest Assessment The five villages of Cinque Terre (Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, Monterosso al Mare) are strung along a 12km stretch of Ligurian coastline between steep terraced hillsides and the sea. They are genuinely beautiful and have been genuinely overrun by tourism since about 2010. The day-tripper numbers from La Spezia and Genoa are...

The Great Sphinx of Giza The Great Sphinx is 73 metres long, 20 metres high, and carved from a single mass of limestone bedrock. It faces due east. It was built during the Old Kingdom, almost certainly during the reign of Pharaoh Khafre around 2500 BC, though the exact dating and the identity of the face depicted have been argued about for centuries. What’s certain is that it’s the...

Dashashwamedh Ghat, Varanasi Varanasi is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, or so its residents will tell you, and there’s no reason to argue. Dashashwamedh Ghat is its most active and crowded ghat, situated on the main bend of the Ganges where the river turns north, which Hindus consider especially sacred. The name means something like “ghat of the ten sacrificed...

Gardens by the Bay opened in 2012 on reclaimed land between Marina Bay Sands and the waterfront, and it’s become one of the more distinctive parks in Asia. The 18 Supertrees (steel-and-concrete structures covered in living plants, 25-50 metres tall) are recognisable from any approach. They’re not subtle, but they work: at night the trees light up with a sound-and-light show (free,...