Our top travel articles

Once on the brink of destruction, Chad

Saudi Arabia might be offering tourist visas for the first time ever, but this doesn’t mean it’s necessarily ready for tourists.

Deforestation in the Congo Rainforest is on the rise and, if left unchallenged, we could lose it all in as little as a generation.

Tree-planting efforts here have been so successful you can now combine your volunteering with birdwatching.

If you are a woman, the monasteries of Mount Athos don

There’s a major flaw with the idea of camping on Antarctica. The whole experience is so novel, so ‘once in a lifetime’ that you probably won’t sleep a wink.

If you are going in search of snow you need to be flexible and look beyond skiing.

Local people are learning to adapt, and visitors will need to adapt how they travel too.

India will experience a more erratic climate, with freak weather events becoming more regular.

There are few people who can say they

There are many reasons to choose the Camino del Norte; scenic sandy beaches, the wind-whipped coastline, and the Picos de Europa mountains.

Cycle with a Maasai who balances his spear against his shoulder whilst he pedals, or stop to let cantering giraffe cross the road ahead.

You’re in Cuba, cycling with local people and staying the night in their homes. It’s very hard to replicate this type of experience.

This is one of the least densely populated countries on earth. Between Kyrgyzstan’s mountain villages there are meadows that seem to go on forever.

There’s an advantage to starting inland: no one else is there. Most people only visit the edge of the Valencia region – the sandy bit where all the resorts are.

Wide expanses of untouched wilderness, forests full of beavers and bears – Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are best explored on foot.

On some cycling vacations, you stick out: a strange group cycling where everyone else is driving. In Colombia, it’s different – everyone is on a bike.

Follow the Pinar del Rio road west of Havana and you'll find a rollercoaster cycle ride across the Sierra del Rosario mountains.

Cuba in 1961 was under attack. On the outskirts of Havana, a less seismic event was taking place – an 18-year-old sugar cane worker bought his first bicycle...

There’s getting off the beaten track, and then there’s horse riding in the mountainous foothills of Argentina.

When it comes to building a cycle route along one of the world's most notorious political borders, the list of complications is long.

Pelotons of lycra pass you by and you start to wonder whether you’ve made a mistake. You’re on the ambitious, cross-continent EuroVelo 6.

Crete is no stranger to the problem of overtourism, but exploring on foot is a surefire way to escape (almost) all of the crowds.

Sticking with the Corfu Trail for much of its length, you’ll pass a succession of sleepy villages, including Liapades, famous for its old mansion houses.

Come winter, Mount Toubkal becomes the gateway to adventures and the perfect opportunity to get to grips with crampons and ice axes.

Walking in the Austrian Tyrol is nothing new – especially not for Austrians, who have vacationed in their mountainous homeland for decades.

The Markha Valley trek may be one of Ladakh’s most popular, but far from a hiking super highway, you’re more likely to encounter Tibetan shepherds than other tourists.

This is one of the most inaccessible parts of the Spanish Pyrenees, so its brown bears, eagle eyries and monasteries remain largely unknown.

In the deep hush of the Western Valleys Natural Park, it’s hard to believe that you’re in a province that also houses some of the region’s most popular ski resorts.

This dramatic valley is the heart of Incan culture, home to some of Peru’s most traditional communities and a wealth of hikes. Avoiding the crowds can be surprisingly simple.

An alternative to the classic Inca Trail, the Lares trek offers better access to traditional Quechua culture than any other trek through the Sacred Valley.

Don’t dismiss the Salkantay trek as second-best to the classic Inca Trail; this alternative five-day route to Machu Picchu is spectacular in its own right.

Travelers looking for an authentic experience in rustic settings, surrounded by towering mountain peaks, will love the Albanian Alps.

Yurts in Iceland aren’t quite as strange a concept as you’d think. Plus they don’t price Icelanders out of their neighbourhoods like Airbnbs.

A trip to Lapland wouldn’t be complete without a husky ride, right? And yet the welfare of the animals might not be crystal clear.

Electric snowmobiles are non-polluting, and nearly silent, making them great for spotting wildlife, and good for the environment, too.

Visit Iban longhouses and Melanau tall houses, taste delicious street food, and enjoy a chance to support local communities.

You can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs, and you can’t reach the North Pole without breaking its ice.

Matang Wildlife Centre provides an opportunity for orangutans and other animals to be rescued and returned to the wild. But they need your help.

Nyaru Menteng Sanctuary in Indonesian Borneo offers a step-by-step programme for orangutans to return to the wild.

Find out more about volunteering at the original orangutan rehab center funded by the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF).

Conservation efforts have helped big game numbers as well as ensuring that communities have a stake in the park and its development.

If you like your landscapes big and your wildlife even bigger then this is a match made in megafauna heaven.

The Kazakh are opening their doors to tourists, who can join them on their hunting expeditions into the mountains.

Komodo dragons can reach speeds of up to 20km/h. Usain Bolt can run 45km/h. Are you half as fast as Usain Bolt? If not, best not get too close.

A community-driven approach to conservation has meant that the ivory poaching crisis has largely by-passed Amboseli.

The last remaining Asiatic lions can be found solely in Gir National Park in Gujarat. The population that has almost doubled in the last 40 years.

Follow the lead of the macaques in Jidokudani Monkey Park, by enjoying a soak in a natural hot spring.

Traditional recipes are burned into the nation's psyche just as prominently as Christianity, socialism and border disputes with Greece.

I know you haven’t been to Banalistan, but I bet it sounds familiar.

Japanese food and drink is healthy, seasonal, and often locally sourced – which means a miniscule carbon footprint.

Cape Verde culture is built on music, storytelling and food – some of the only ways enslaved Africans under Portuguese rule could express themselves.

Southern Transylvania is the realm of some of the last remaining Saxon villages in Romania, but change is coming.

Food and accommodation are just as essential an experience as sightseeing and, when kept small and local, offer a real taste of China.

Gujarat is a state of enormous diversity, yet in terms of international tourism it is still largely undiscovered.