Standing in the Sicilian sun with your feet washed by the waves of the Tyrrhenian Sea, it’s easy to forget that there’s more to the tri-corner island than beauty. The beaches are magnificent—turquoise waters stretching out to the horizon, soft sand, gentle waves and some of the clearest water in the world. In the distance, on the rockier portions of the coast, volcanic rock juts out of the sea, its dark color and jagged edge adding drama to the vista.

Inland, the hills rise up and greet the sun, patched with golden fields of grain, vibrant citrus orchards, and the vineyards that produce Sicily’s fragrant nero d’avola wines. The skies are blue, the weather is warm, and somewhere, a few steps down a narrow street, someone is rolling fresh pasta to tempt you back from the shore. (more…)

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Watch out! Here comes another one. We’re walking down the boardwalk in Oludeniz, Turkey which also doubles as a paragliding landing zone. It’s no wonder people leap from the surrounding mountains and glide down to a soft beach landing, into this bay that’s one of the most photographed areas of the Mediterranean coastline.

Oludeniz means “dead sea” in Turkish. The actual town is named Belcekiz, but if you walk a couple hundred meters down the beach, you reach a peninsula of sand which creates a sheltered lagoon. The still, deep blue water behind this spit of land is the “dead” calm sea.
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Have you got six months off? Do you fancy a long walk? If so, World Expeditions may have just the holiday for you. They have become the only trekking outfit to offer a guided trip along the first completed section of the Great Himalayan Trail (GHT).

Stretching for 1,700km along the length of Nepal, the GHT will take you a mere 157 days to complete. You’ll see eight of the world’s 14 peaks over 8,000m, including Everest, and cross passes reaching up to 6,000m, climbing a total of 150,000m. That’s a Snowdon every day for half a year. Oh, and it will set you back £20,500. (more…)

Tags: account, Adrian, adventure, agency, aid, animist, Annapurna, annapurna regions, arc, asian countries, Barwa, Bhutan, Canada, Centre, challenge, China, completion, completion date, Continental, continental divide trail, country, cross, date, Day, Development, difference, district, elevation, Everest, Expeditions, focus, Food, footpath, GHT, government, GPS, Great, ground, guidebook, helicopter, Himalaya, Himalayan Trail, holiday, idea, India, Integrated, International, Kathmandu, leisure, length, lot, man, map, money spinner, mountain, Mugu, Namche, Nanga, Nepal, Nicholas Crane, outfit, outlier, Pakistan, Parbat, peak, Pennine Way, presenter, price, Programme, project, region, research, Richard, Robin Boustead, route, section, Snowdon, SNV, source, steroidal, television, thing, Tibet, Tibetan, time, total, tourism, trail, Trans, trans canada, trek, trekker, treks, trip, undertaking, US, version, walk, War, water, week, western Nepal, westernmost, work, world, world expeditions, world food, year

Switzerland is a country of picturesque mountain ranges and quaint little alpine villages. I had always wanted to visit this beautiful country and now I was finally getting my chance. However, having spent the whole day on a train, I was starting to wear down and my excitement was dwindling to say the least.

A bus ride was in order before we would arrive at our final destination, but as the bus approached, I fel sense of dread boiling up within. It was getting late in the evening and I hadn’t booked accommodations, so we would have to search in the rain for a bed. (more…)

Tags: adventure, age, air, alpine, alpine lake, alpine villages, Alps, architecture, assortment, backyard, base, basement, beautiful country, bed, biking, book, Brienz, brighten, bungee, bus, bus ride, cabin, cake, calm, calm waters, center, central Switzerland, chance, city, cliff, climbing mountain, couldn, country, couple, Day, delay, destination, distance, door, doorbell, dread, due, eagerness, edge, energy, evening, Everyone, excitement, exhaustion, extreme sports, exuberance, eye, fact, fel, final destination, floor, forefront, front, Gimmelwald, glacier, gondola, guide, hadn, halt, help, hiking, hill, home, homemade, hop, house, ice, Interlaken, Jungfrau, jungfrau region, Lake, landscape, Lauterbrunnen, lawn, life, location, look, lunch, man, medium, mist, months of the year, mountain, mountain ranges, multiple companies, name, nature, night, office, order, outcrop, panorama, pasture, path, picturesque, picturesque mountain, plenty, porch, railing, rain, rainbow, region, ride, river, river rafting, roadway, rock, room, sce, scene, scenery, school, sense, shop, shopping, simplicity, skiing, sky, sky diving, snow, Snow-capped, snowy, spot, stage, state, station, stomach, stone, stop, store, street, summer, sun, Swiss, swiss alps, Switzerland, Thun, time, tourist, town, trail, train, trip, valley, variety, view, village, wall, wasn, water, way, window, world, year

Everyone in Bali smiles. Big, broad, beaming smiles. And all that’s necessary to evoke it is eye contact. Even when they may be preoccupied with weaving their scooters through traffic or carrying a heavy, flailing pig across the road, you only have to hint at a smile from your own lips and the response is immediate and electrifying.

“Transport?” queried a smiling young man on a sidewalk in Ubud, an artsy town in the south-eastern hills. It’s a frequent offer on the streets of nearly every town in Bali. Everyone with a car will offer you a ride for a small price. You may say “no thank you” seven times on Monkey Forest Road in Ubud. But what’s heart-warming is that you will always receive an enthusiastic “Welcome!” in response. (more…)

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