| Beach Life (Part 3) - Marbella beach, Puerto Banús Beach, Laguna Beach |
| For those who simply cannot stay away from its particular brand of glamour and excitement, Puerto Banús is like a crater to a meteorite. Before you impact though, it is important to pick the right beach, as the areas extending on either side of the marina have their own character and following. |
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| Beach Life (Part 1) - Cabopino |
| In itself quite famous, it is one of those beaches you need to know how to find. Just exit the coastal CN340 at the Cabopino turn off, follow the roundabout in the direction of the Puerto Cabopino marina and then turn right onto a sand track that soon re-emerges as an asphalt drive leading directly to a car park on the edge of the dunes. |
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| A Suitcase Full Of Memories (Part 3) - Cycling in Jordan |
| It’s the final day of my amazing journey, cycling 280 miles across Jordan from Madaba near the Dead Sea in the north to Aqaba at the Red Sea in the south. It’s been a physically challenging trip, but one where every single detail is indelibly imprinted on my memory. |
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| Lower Zambezi National Park Zambia |
| The mother plunged straight into the water, searching with its trunk for the culprit. Fortunately enough she caught the crocodile by its tail and immediately lifted it up out of the water and into the air. Incredibly, she then started hitting it against a large tree! She left the croc lying flat in a pool of blood, before searching for her badly injured infant. |
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| 6 Ways To Stay At Coorg |
| If you want to be friend with nature but still stay in luxury, this is one of the first-ranked resorts of this area with Kodava style architecture. Besides English-style breakfasts and BBQs, chefs can offer you the curry, or local pork. This is the ideal of sustainable travel: wind energy, fair events, and pollution and noise control. |
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| Berlin - Around Town : Tiergarten & Federal District (part 1) |
| In 1999, Berlin’s green centre became the government district. Around Tiergarten, Berlin’s largest and most popular park, stand the Reichstag, the Bundeskanzleramt and Schloss Bellevue, seat of the President of the Federal Republic of Germany. |
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| Washington, D.C - Around Town : Penn Quarter (part 1) |
| Like other urban downtown areas, Washington’s city center is filled with shops, hotels, restaurants, and theaters for every taste. Yet downtown Washington borders Pennsylvania Avenue – often called “America’s main street.” |
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| Rome - Around Town : Around Piazza Navona (part 1) |
| This is Baroque Rome in all its Theatrical Glory, a collection of curvaceous architecture and elaborate fountains by the era’s two greatest architects, Bernini and Borromini, and churches filled with paintings by the likes of Caravaggio and Rubens. |
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| Madrid - Around Town : Downtown Madrid (part 1) |
| This busy intersection was the first to have electric street lighting, trams and, in 1919, Madrid’s first underground station. Meanwhile Calle de Alcalá was becoming the focal point of a new financial district as banks, insurance offices and other businesses set up their headquarters in showy new premises. |
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| Beijing - Around Town : Greater Beijing |
| Way out in the northwest of the city is a cluster of sights that includes the unmissable Summer Palace, with the almost equally intoxicating hillside Xiang Shan Park and the haunting ruins of the Yuanming Yuan, or Old Summer Palace, close by. It might be a squeeze to get all three into one day’s sightseeing but it’s worth a try. |
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| Beijing - Around Town : Western Beijing |
| Buddhism, which started in India, probably came to China along the Silk Route. The earliest sign of the religion is associated with the founding of the White Horse Temple near the old capital of Luoyang in AD 68. |
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| Trekking Into The World Of God (Part 1) - Survival of the slowest |
| The three-day guided Kaikoura Wilderness Walk begins at the woolshed at the historic Puhi Peaks Station, a remnant from the early fanning days. It is a few hours drive north of Christchurch on the east coast and a 45 minute drive north of Kaikoura through the `Valley of the Feathers'. |
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| Nights Under The Stars (Part 3) - Chile |
| Negligible rainfall tends to correlate with the absence of cloud cover, and the desert’s generally inhospitable conditions mean it is scarcely populated, so there is scant light pollution. No wonder then that the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the world’s most advanced visible-light astronomical centre, is located here, at Cerro Paranal, 75 miles south of Antofagasta. |
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| Nights Under The Stars (Part 2) - USA |
| Utah is the location of the world’s first official Gold Tier International Dark Sky Park, an honour bestowed on the Natural Bridges National Monument in 2007. It is also home to Amangiri, not merely one of the most beautifully designed hotels in the Amanresorts portfolio, but one with a resident astronomy guide and a 10in Dobsonian telescope. |
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| Nights Under The Stars (Part 1) |
| The stellar mysteries of the skies have inspired earthbound fascination for millennia. As the rare sight of the transit of Venus approaches this summer, Claire Wrathall picks the best places to stay and gaze at the beauty of the heavens |
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| Mythological Sorrento |
| One of the best-known walks is the Path of the Gods, which you can do at a brisk pace in about two hours, or three with a picnic break built in. The walk starts in the hilltop town of Agerola, and follows a mountain path - scarily narrow in places with an unfenced sheer drop. |
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| I Fell In Love With A Shaman In The Peruvian Jungle |
| I am sitting in a small, filthy restaurant 24 hours into a two-week trek around the north of Peru. The trek marks the start of a three-month sabbatical from my glamorous, fast-paced job as a celebrity interviewer on a newspaper. |
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| Burma Beckons (Part 6) |
| Many hotels in Burma are owned by the families of powerful members of the military. The options on our list are, to the best of our knowledge, unconnected with the regime. |
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| Burma Beckons (Part 5) |
| Tourism in Bagan, however, is not without controversy. When I first visited the district in the 1970s there were villages in what is now the designated archaeological zone. In the 1990s the residents were relocated in the name of conservation, and indeed tourism. |
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| Burma Beckons (Part 4) |
| Indeed, part of the charm of any trip to the country is the inclusiveness of the form of Buddhism practiced there and the fact that today you often join happy groups of Burmese travelling to these religious sites from far afield – such freedom of movement being a far cry from my previous experiences of Burma. |
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| Burma Beckons (Part 3) |
| A number of ceasefires with rebel groups have been holding since about the end of the 1990s, but there is still conflict in some areas – which are out of bounds to tourists – and more recently there have been reports of truces being broken in several previously peaceful places |
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| Burma Beckons (Part 2) |
| We spent a day re-exploring Rangoon, visiting the sublime Shwedagon Pagoda – its 99- metre main golden stupa presiding over the city – and the colonial downtown area where tenacious vegetation cocks a snook at the grandeur of the Victorian-era buildings. |
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| Burma Beckons (Part 1) |
| Over the past 50 years Burma has, of course, become a byword for political prisoners and military oppression. Although it was renamed Myanmar in 1989, many Western states ignored the change and continue to refer to the country as Burma: it is, in effect, a mark of defiance against the brutal regime, most notably on the part of the UK and USA. |
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| Chicago - Around Town - Northside (part 2) - Shops |
| Internationally acclaimed clothing designer Cynthia Rowley grew up in Chicago, so it’s fitting that one of her upscale boutiques is here. Her collection of dresses, accessories, and separates is trendy and feminine. |
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| Chicago - Around Town - Northside (part 1) |
| Encompassing parts of Old Town, Lincoln Park, Lakeview, and Wrigleyville, Chicago’s Northside boasts upscale restaurants and chi-chi boutiques galore, as well as some of the city’s best bars and one of its most progressive theater companies, the Steppenwolf. |
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| Munich - Around Town : Schwabing & University District (part 1) |
| Encompassing Schwabing, Maxvorstadt, and the fringes of Lehel, this district covers the entire area lying to the left and right of Ludwigstraße and Leopoldstraße. At the beginning of the 19th century, the expansion of the Old Town north and west of Odeonsplatz began with the development of Maxvorstadt, then a suburb. |
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| Seattle : Around Town - Fremont (part 1) |
| Fremont declared itself an “artists’ republic” in the 1960s, when a community of students, artists, and bohemians moved in, attracted by low rents. The name crystallizes the unflagging spirit of independence, eccentricity, and most of all, nonconformity. |
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