Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2024 i National Geographic Traveller (UK)

Megan Hughes I’d heard wonderful things about the Bay of Kotor’s glistening coastline. What I wasn’t prepared for was the gloriously slow pace of life here. Whether enjoying a waterside wine-tasting or hiking its wild mountains, I never once felt hurried.  MONTENEGRO P.48 Berkok Yüksel Since my previous visit five years ago, the region of Urla has evolved into one of Turkey’s most prominent culinary destinations. With fine-dining experiences concealed among the olive groves and vineyards stitched across its valleys, it’s easy to see why. TURKEY P.68 Karolina Wiercigroch The Austrian state of Carinthia is home to some of Europe’s warmest bathing lakes. I was lucky enough to combine time exploring the beaches and floating saunas of Lake Klopein with hiking and biking in the dramatic Karawanken mountains. AUSTRIA P.126…

Guyana, named ‘the land of many waters’ by its Indigenous communities, is just that. Numerous rivers weave through it from the Amazon Rainforest, eventually meeting the Atlantic. And although it’s in South America, bordering Venezuela, Brazil and Suriname, it’s seen by many as part of the Caribbean region, due to a shared colonial past and connections to the sugar trade. Produce is highly seasonal in Guyana. During the wet months (May-August and December-January), mango is king, but you’ll also find guava, soursop and passion fruit. When it’s drier, pomegranate, star apple and five finger fruit are readily available. The cuisine itself is influenced by more than the seasons, however. Guyana has a diverse, multi-ethnic population, encompassing people of African, Indian, Chinese, Portuguese, European and Indigenous Amerindian heritage, among others. Cassava…

As I sit on Calais’ golden beachfront, eating from a bag of deliciously hot frites, it strikes me that it’s a shame so many travellers dash past this northernmost region of France, heading to the south. But those who pause a while will reap great culinary rewards. Hauts-de-France — stretching from Calais to the edge of Paris — is famed for its excellent frites, sold from mobile trailers and cabins known as friteries. But it’s also replete with seafood, samphire and many other sea vegetables, plus an array of cheese, macarons and Chantilly cream, to name just a few notable specialities. From Calais, I follow the undulating coastal road north west to Boulogne-sur-Mer. As France’s biggest fishing port, it doesn’t have the bucolic charm of, say, Brittany or Corsica’s fishing…

As the days shorten, the sun’s rays lengthen and a slight chill enters the air, so begins a special time for Jersey City. Just across the Hudson River from Manhattan, a 10-minute metro ride away, this charismatic US city exudes fall charm at its finest. As you wander the city’s streets, the smell of ingredients like cinnamon, pumpkin and clove pours out of cafes and bakeries, themselves overlooked by trees transitioning through shades of red and orange. Catch the best of these colours at Liberty State Park, where paths hug the Hudson River. In autumn, the park’s maple, oak, birch and sycamore trees shine with painterly orange and yellow leaves. “The parks in Jersey City are incredible, especially in autumn,” says Melissa McCart, longtime Jersey City resident and food journalist.…

From its snowcapped peaks in Torres del Paine to lush vineyards in the Central Valley and gurgling geysers in El Tatio, Chile is known for its startingly diverse climates and vast, impressive landscapes. Yet, some of its most magnificent spaces come into their own after dark, when the sun sinks and the skies morph into a dazzling dome of stars. Thankfully, the country is home to a handful of dark sky reserves where the lack of light pollution can help astronomy enthusiasts feel that bit closer to the universe. Local author and astronomer Rodrigo Zúñiga Vásquez reveals what makes Chile an astronomers’ paradise. HOW DID YOU GET INTO ASTRONOMY? It was a coincidence really. I grew up in Concepción in southern Chile where there are lots of clouds and I didn’t…

Dublin is a city that’s impossible to ‘do’. It has its big hits: there’s the Guinness Storehouse, where the ‘black stuff’ is brewed, tasted and revered; and there are taprooms that thump in the party district of Temple Bar. Dublin Castle sits near Trinity College, the country’s oldest and most illustrious university, which guards the Book of Kells, a treasured ninth-century manuscript. Literary giants like James Joyce made Dublin a UNESCO City of Literature and now stand alongside musicians like U2 and Sinéad O’Connor in its hall of fame — their legacy popping up across the city in street plaques, museums, former homes and studios. But Ireland’s capital and biggest city doesn’t have a huge number of defining landmarks to tick off. Which suggests something the locals will readily tell…

Subscribe today to receive three issues of National Geographic Traveller (UK) and one issue of Food by National Geographic Traveller (UK), with free delivery to your door, saving 87% on the cover price. Visit CHECKOUT.NATGEOTRAVELLER.CO.UK/OFFERS and use code ‘DSEPT24’ or call 01858 438787 and quote code ‘DSEPT24’ T&Cs: Closing date for orders is 1 October 2024. The prices shown are UK Direct Debit offers. Your subscription will begin with the next available issue. If you do not cancel at the end of that period, the subscription will auto-renew by Direct Debit every 3 months at £10. All subscriptions are non-refundable. Delivery can take up to 21 days. Credit card and donor subscriptions are also available. An annual bundle subscription to the UK is £35; to Europe, £56; and to the…

A new exhibition from the British Museum in London is set to challenge our view of historic cultures. Showcasing more than 300 objects, many of which have never been displayed in the UK, Silk Roads will zoom in on the people, objects and ideas that flowed along the trade network between CE 500–1000. Its aim? To broaden our understanding of the Silk Road as a single channel between East and West. Divided into five geographical zones, the exhibition reminds us that these routes connected Japan to Britain, and also Madagascar to Scandinavia. Its displays of gleaming jewels, faded paintings and fine sculptures all hint at an ancient world more intricately linked than previously imagined. Yu-Ping Luk, the museum’s Basil Gray Curator of Chinese Paintings, Prints and Central Asian Collections, reveals…

Time travel, impossible? Hardly. In the Forest of Dean, the mighty, moss-cloaked oaks and deep, fern-lined gullies are much as the Tudor kings left them when they last galloped through. Beneath the thick canopy of this ancient woodland, which straddles the languid River Wye and the Welsh border in southwest Gloucestershire, wild boars still churn the earth with their tusks, while woodpeckers and nuthatches flit in the branches above, the air scented with the resinous tang of pine needles. Lovers of the outdoors will be in their element here, with mountain biking, canoeing, hiking and everything in between up for grabs. And for those keen for more leisurely pursuits, there are charming, tree-fringed towns to explore, all honeyed cottages, country pubs and roaming sheep, where chefs are making the most…

I had a thousand conversations in the course of writing my book, On This Holy Island: A Modern Pilgrimage Across Britain. My notebooks were scribbled full of exchanges, had everywhere from Hertfordshire to the Hebrides. My computer memory filled with audio recordings of telephone interviews and Zoom calls. My inbox pinged with messages from editors while calendar appointments chirruped away in the background. It was a richly social experience. But sometimes I had to cut loose. To enter one of those spaces of deep silence from which you emerge to hear, see and understand everything more clearly. Such silence was what I craved when I travelled to Derwentwater in the English Lake District, my head running hot after weeks of writing. Stand on the lake’s north shore in Keswick, and…

Some call it Valencia’s green lung, others its heart — but all locals agree that the Turia Gardens is one of the city’s essential organs. People come to this meandering 7.5-mile ribbon of riverbed-turned-parkland to do the things that make life worth living. On the day of my visit, it’s sunny (it usually is) and pleasure is unfolding in all its manifold forms. As well as cyclists like me, people on inline skates propel themselves along its paths. On the grass are sunbathers and picnickers, plus a group practising tightrope walking; in the shade of a jacaranda, a woman plays her violin. For Valencians, this is much more than a park — it’s a symbol of hope, of triumph over disaster. Here on the Mediterranean coast, the rain in Spain…

There are seven lakes with pristine, drinking-quality water in the region of Klopeiner See–Südkärnten–Lavanttal, the easternmost part of Carinthia. The bathing season starts in May, when the lakes become hubs for water activities: swimming, stand-up paddleboarding, canoeing, boating and fishing. The holiday appeal of Klopeiner See (Lake Klopein) was first discovered by the Austrian upper classes in the late 1800s, and it’s flanked by neat rows of old-school hotels with private beaches and jetties. Smaller Turnersee offers a more tranquil atmosphere, its wild shore dotted with a handful of family-run B&Bs and camping sites. Both lakes can be explored along the Carinthian Lake Loop, a 250-mile cycling route taking in sights like St Lawrence Church in the village of Stein im Jauntal. Between the slopes of the Saualpe and Koralpe…

It’s a bright morning and I’m pedalling down South Miami Avenue on a vintage bicycle. Gradually, the glittering corridor of Downtown skyscrapers gives way to banyan trees, the emerald tangle slowly blotting out the sky. Swinging left, I turn onto a forested path. Ahead is the Vizcaya Museum, a limestone mansion with gardens that unfurl to meet the Biscayne Bay. The humid air feels thick, carrying the laughter of a couple posing for photos in a verdigris gazebo. Travel back just over a century, and Vizcaya, with its antique-filled interior, would have been a new-build — an emblem of the nouveau riche at a time when America was emerging as the richest nation in the world. Back then, Miami was an up-and-coming town, starting to attract wealthy bachelors like Vizcaya’s…

Step away from the lively, pulsating streets of Marrakech or the alluring beaches of Agadir and fresh impressions of the vastly varied country of Morocco emerge. Travellers have long been captivated by the colourful hotspots in Morocco, but the less-visited towns and villages also give visitors the chance to discover more of its natural beauty and gain insight into the country’s rich heritage. Each location provides meaningful experiences unlike anywhere else — from stargazing with camel herders in the Sahara, listening to Gnaoua music in a medieval-looking square or tucking into a tagine prepared by an Amazigh family. Here are four locations that you can visit with Intrepid, providing visitors with authentic experiences and the chance to forge meaningful connections with locals. 1 HIKE IN THE M’GOUN VALLEY So far away…

http://mpb.com Save the date for our latest series of storytelling workshops 28-30 JANUARY 2025 | LIVE & ONLINE HOW DOES IT WORK? The Masterclasses by National Geographic Traveller (UK) offers amateurs and professionals alike the opportunity to refine their travel storytelling skills in the company of industry-leading creatives. The series is divided into six separate workshops, each of which zooms in on a key aspect of travel writing or travel photography. Guests are invited to mix and match as many sessions as they like. ARE THE MASTERCLASSES FOR ME? For many, breaking into the travel industry can seem like a daunting prospect. These sessions are designed to equip ambitious creatives with the skills they need to succeed as a professional travel writer or travel photographer. Pick up expert tips and…

Belinda Qaqamba Ka-Fassie, Cape Town, South Africa I met Belinda while documenting the Miss Gay beauty pageants in Cape Town. Shortly after, we came up with the #blackdragmagic photo series. Our aim was not only to find a uniquely African expression of drag but to reclaim the public spaces where the LGBTQ+ community in Khayelitsha — a township just outside Cape Town — faces daily discrimination. Every drag artist had a very clear idea of where they wanted to be photographed; Belinda chose to pose inside the local shisanyama, a community space where women cook and sell barbecued meat. Concerned about how people would respond, my crew and I worked quickly, completing the entire project in only a few hours leeannolwage.com @leeannolwage…

Founded almost a century ago to allow travellers to stay in the former residences of local nobility, Spain’s paradors aim to connect guests to the culture and landscapes that surround them. This year the network has expanded its Nature for the Senses ecotourism initiative with new experiences at its properties in lesser-visited areas of north, central and western Spain. Activities range from wine-tasting to lace-making, and are now offered in a quarter of the network’s 98 hotels. Here are four to try. BEST FOR FOOD CULTURE Parador de Ciudad Rodrigo, Castile and León Close to the Portuguese border, an hour from Salamanca, this parador occupies a 12th-century castle overlooking the Águeda River in one of Castile and Léon’s biggest olive-oil producing regions. A new day trip offers travellers the opportunity…

You can tell a lot about a place from the way it greets its guests. In the city of St John’s, the capital of Newfoundland, an island off Canada’s eastern coast, visitors are inducted into the city with a ‘screech-in’ ceremony — a ritual involving downing a shot of rum at a bar and reciting some local dialect, before bestowing a kiss on a glassy-eyed codfish. This welcome — a nod to the time when fish was traded for Jamaican rum — sets the tone for a destination that’s set adrift from the mainland both geographically and culturally, and where things are done a little differently. St John’s remote location, on Newfoundland’s easterly tip, has long been part of its windswept charm. In the summer, it offers ringside seats to…

The Brontë Festival of Women’s Writing Immerse yourself in the Yorkshire landscapes that inspired the Brontë sisters at this festival of contemporary female writing held in their former Haworth home, now a museum. The focus this year is on younger readers, linked to the museum’s 2024 exhibition, The Brontës’ Web of Childhood, with Jacqueline Wilson headlining a programme aimed at encouraging writing for — and by — children and young adults. 20-22 September. bronte.org.uk Cliveden Literary Festival What Alain de Botton has called ‘the most dignified and beautiful literary festival on the planet’ is held in Berkshire’s 17th-century Cliveden House. Now a hotel, Cliveden has heavyweight heritage as a literary salon that’s hosted the likes of Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift. The programme encourages ‘lively discussion, thought-provoking ideas and political…

Over the past decade, Montenegro has quietly cultivated a reputation as one of southeastern Europe’s most eclectic travel destinations. Though smaller than many of its Balkan neighbours, its alpine interior has much to offer the adventurous traveller, from white-water rafting in dramatic gorges to skiing and snowboarding in winter. However, it’s on the coast that the country shines brightest.Ringed by the Dinaric Alps and encompassing the municipalities of Kotor, Herceg Novi and Tivat, the Bay of Kotor — or Boka Bay as it’s known locally — is an undulating succession of cerulean coves, pebble beaches and UNESCO-listed medieval towns. all of which sit beneath Mount Lovćen, the ‘black mountain’ that gives Montenegro its name. Montenegrins may pride themselves on their chilled-out demeanour but, in warmer months, Boka Bay’s pedestrianised urban…

There is an undeniable enchantment to travelling in Japan; a bewitching magic sweeps through its incense-rich mountain temples and forests full of deer, settling over neon-lit towns. Even those who have yet to set foot on its shores are often captivated by it — and for good reason. A large part of Japan’s exceptionality is that it rarely, if ever, disappoints. Its length and latitudinal range makes its natural environments strikingly diverse, which plays a huge role in the country’s enduring appeal. Strung along Asia’s eastern edge, the rocky fingers of its northernmost point, on the island of Hokkaido, almost touch Russia and the climate there is often in line with that of Siberia. On the island’s west side, the ski resorts of Niseko are considered to have some of…

THE EXPERTS Can you provide a music-themed itinerary taking in New Orleans, Memphis and Nashville? This is the holy trinity of American music cities, and a fairly easy trip to arrange as it’s all focused within the southern states. Arriving at the birthplace of jazz, follow the tinkling of ivories to the iconic Preservation Hall. Celebrating New Orleans jazz since 1961, this intimate former art gallery in the city’s French Quarter hosts live music performances every night. Bed down at the revamped Dew Drop Inn, a boutique hotel and landmark music venue where Ray Charles and Little Richard once graced the stage. From $133 (£104). preservationhall.com dewdropinnnola.com It’s an eight-and-a half-hour train ride from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Memphis, Tennessee. Music-lovers should shake a leg for an overnight stay at…

Thirty years ago, when Beks Ndlovu was starting out as a guide near his village in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, safaris were a different beast. Then, it was all functional camps offering back-to-nature simplicity for gnarly wildlife enthusiasts — more animal encounters than creature comforts. “It wasn’t so much about the nature of the accommodation as the experience — spending time in these remote places with your guide,” he says. In the intervening years, what he calls the “luxury space” has surged in popularity, driven by changing customer tastes towards high-end, relaxing experiences. For the camps, “it’s become an arms race,” says Chris McIntyre, head of Expert Africa, which specialises in high-quality, tailor-made and sustainable safaris to Southern and East Africa. Spa treatments, infinity pools and world-class gastronomy are rapidly…

Get in touch inbox@natgeotraveller.co.uk Have a query about subscriptions? Get in touch at natgeotraveller@subscription.co.uk or call 01858 438787 WIN Win a weekend bag worth £375 This Weekend Bag by Elvis & Kresse is handmade from decommissioned fire hoses and waste printing blankets — a subtle take on the brand’s fire-hose model, which is in the V&A collection for its use of repurposed materials and positive impact (50% of profits are donated to The Fire Fighters Charity). Reinforced stress points and an a padded strap make it perfect for a weekend away. elvisandkresse.com STAR LETTER Home turf How wonderful to read about North Staffordshire (UK Break, Jul/Aug 2024) — a beautiful area, with a rich industrial heritage, though it can be overlooked in favour of better-known parts of the Peak District.…