Scotland’s wild isles: a nature
You only need watch the fictional Hogwarts train chug over the real Glenfinnan Viaduct or stare at an airbrushed shortbread tin to get a sense of the astonishing beauty of Scotland’s Highlands and islands. Get up close to the real thing, and you’ll find that the grand landscapes, appealing countrysi
Spotting Costa Ricas Little Five
Spotting Africa’s ‘Big Five’ - elephant, rhino, cape buffalo, lion and leopard - has become something of a Holy Grail for wildlife watchers.But while Africa has a bit of a monopoly on the big beasts, little Costa Rica’s critter count is off the chart. This multi-faceted Central American jewel boasts
Watching wildlife along Californias coast
Ready for coastal Californias top wildlife spotting adventures? Here youll find the USAs mini version of the Galápagos Islands, as well as an underwater canyon as big as the Grand Canyon. The Golden States 1100-mile shoreline abounds with tide pools, kelp forests and protected bays and beaches too.
Canadas wild side: the Great Bear Rainforest
For wildlife spotters, its the score of a lifetime: a creamy white kermode bear roaming its home in the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia. Not a polar bear, but an offshoot of the black bear, there are only about 400 kermodes (which can stand up to six feet tall) in the wild; and only one in
Watching wildlife in Yellowstone National Park
With its exploding geysers, pristine wilderness, stunning lakes and a thousand miles of hiking trails, Yellowstone National Park is one of the last truly wild corners of the American West. It’s the worlds oldest national park, and also Americas largest, outside of Alaska; parts of it are as far from
Alderney, Sark and Herm: exploring the lesser
How much adventure can you fit into a few square miles? When it comes to the least explored islands of the English Channel, the answer is far more than you might think.Alderney, Sark and Herm share many of the traveller-pleasing traits of their bigger, better-known neighbours, Jersey and Guernsey: f
Forget the Big Five – visit Ethiopias wonderful wildlife instead
It’s a long drive from Addis Ababa to Bale Mountains National Park. Long, but absolutely glorious – past donkeys, sunny fields, hills, plateaus, red dirt paths and traditional circular houses painted in upbeat shades of purple, green and blue. It’s the kind of drive that lulls you into a trance as t
On the trail of the muskox in Greenland’s great wilderness
My legs are starting to go numb, but I daren’t move. I’m crouching behind a lichen-splattered rock in one of the world’s last great wildernesses, western Greenland, fighting the urge to swat a cloud of mosquitoes. My every wobble risks causing a distant muskox to bolt – and I’ve walked for hours to
Congo wildlife: closer than ever
The remote jungles of the Congo are not so remote in the Republic of Congo, the friendlier western neighbour of its bigger cousin, the Democratic Republic of Congo. Thanks to several years of reasonable stability and improved infrastructure, some of the Congos best preserved wilderness is more acces
Life as youve never known it: Namibias most exotic creatures
The Namib Desert’s beauty can be overwhelming, but so can its unforgiving climate. To live in such an environment requires an ingenious array of evolutionary adaptations, and there is no shortage of them in Namibia: spiders cartwheel down dunes to avoid predators, geckos condense drinking water on t
Watching wildlife in Norway’s north
Northern Norway is one of the most varied wildlife-watching destinations in Europe, its combination of High Arctic landscapes, Atlantic shorelines and boreal forests sheltering an astonishing array of species. If you miss the land mammals in the wild, most can be seen at Polar Park (near Setermoen:
Butterfly tourism: amazing wildlife experiences with the monarch butterflies of Mexico
There are many contenders for the title of world’s greatest travelers. The wildebeest chasing the rains across the African plains. Birds heading for warmer climes in winter. Whales swimming across oceans. And of course humans who have been to just about everywhere on the planet. But the monarch butt
Wild Québec: encountering nature in Canada’s backyard
From moose spotting in the Forêt Montmorency to whale watching in the Baie Ste-Catherine, Québec is the Canada of epic nature, big wildlife and wide-open skies our author Kerry Christiani always dreamed about. Forêt MontmorencyPierre Vaillancourt is no ordinary guide. Wolves, he tells me, are hi
What to do on the Panama Canal: adventure, wildlife and village life
It’s an engineering marvel, a multibillion-dollar commercial behemoth, and by 2016 an ambitious project to make it even bigger will be complete. The Panama Canal, which joins the Atlantic to the Pacific, is certainly Panama’s greatest claim to fame. Moving mountains and carving through dense jungle,
On the trail of West Australias cute and not
In Australias Wild West, even a cursory glance from your car window reveals an incredible richness of wildlife. Beyond well-known fauna like bottlenose dolphins and migrating whale sharks, you can seek out cavorting sea lions, strutting brolga and marsupials who definitely arent camera shy. Here are
Jasen nature reserve: Macedonia’s secret getaway
Deep in the Balkans, this grandiosely named nature reserve might just be the best-kept secret among Europe’s national parks. Home to the rare Balkan chamois (wild goat) and endangered Eurasian lynx, Macedonia’s Jasen is one of the region’s most ecologically significant areas. While there are no delu
More than just Cabo: getting back to nature in Baja California Sur
You can (and many do) head to the Cabo resorts of Baja California Sur and do nothing more energetic than raise your arm by the pool to order another cocktail – but you’d be missing out on the chance to experience the natural wonders that this part of Mexico has to offer. Marvel at the marinelife and
This other Eden: the Azores, Europes secret islands of adventure
For in-the-know travellers, the Azores have long represented a beckoning blip on the radar of possible destinations. Recognition from Unesco and other organisations has helped that blip to pulse more brightly over the years.But most people still know little, if anything, about this far-flung archipe
Wildlife
Romania, land of eerie mountains and Vlad the Impaler – or so the stereotypes say. But the southeast of the country cradles a pristine wilderness of wetlands, forests and rocky steppe. As you bat away emperor dragonflies bigger than your hand, or watch tortoises lumber past to a deafening chorus of
The Great Glen: coast to coast along Scotland’s rift valley
Scotland’s epic Great Glen is the gift of a dramatic tectonic collision that raised the Scottish Highlands and opened a giant crack across the entire width of the country. Surrounded by some of the UK’s highest mountains and filled with four immense lochs, the glen is rich in Highland heritage and i
