Poland Travel Guide: All you need to know to plan a trip

Poland

Magic abounds in Poland. It’s a country where old and new coalesce, and is home to 17 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It is a destination filled with Gothic cityscapes, medieval castles and where you’ll find a city quite literally overrun with gnomes. Mythical dragons, mermaids…

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Mumbai in 24 hours

Fashion capital, coastal metropolis, Art Deco enclave, Bollywood epicentre, financial hub. No matter how you chose to describe it – Mumbai is anything but boring, especially when you only have 24 hours in which to explore India’s largest city. As we step off the train…

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13 Nelson Mandela Tourist Sites in South Africa You Must See

Nelson Mandela

Today (18 July 2018) we celebrate the centenary of Nelson Mandela’s birth in the hamlet of Mvezo, near Mthatha in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province. Madiba, Rolihlahla, Tata, Khulu, Dalibhunga, no matter how you know or refer to him, he is the symbolic father of our democratic…

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Volcano Tourism on Reunion Island

volcano tourism

Reunion Island’s geological pyrotechnics make it an otherworldly destination where visitors can explore lava tunnels, hike the rim of an active volcano and watch the crater turn into a bubbling cauldron. It’s rather unique when compared to its tropical neighbour Mauritius and nearby Seychelles, as…

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My 2017 highlights in photographs

It’s become an annual tradition now – to map out a photographic essay of the countries and destinations I’ve travelled to throughout the year. You may read my 2015 and 2016 travel highlights too. This year I welcomed the new year with two dear friends in Mozambique…

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Axum: in search of the Ark of the Covenant

Ethiopia

Ethiopia is a land of royalty, ruins and angels. It narrates stories of human origins, kings and queens, biblical figures and relics. One of the many reasons why it’s such an extraordinary travel destination is that it has the greatest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites…

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16 fascinating facts about Ethiopia

Ethiopia

  Fact #1: Ethiopia was rated as one of the top countries to visit in 2017 This year Lonely Planet named Ethiopia one of the countries you should visit in 2017. After a two-week trip to the capital city, Addis Ababa, and the northern region – Axum,…

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Lalibela: Ethiopia’s Kingdom of Heaven

Lalibela

Ethiopian King Gebre Mesqel Lalibela ensured his name would always be uttered with awe, when he commissioned 11 interconnected monolithic churches and two chapels to be carved out of red volcanic tuff in the 12th century at his birthplace in the northern reaches of his…

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Reasons to love South Africa and 7 random facts

South Africa is epic in so many ways. To honour of Tourism Month and Heritage Day this month, I asked local and international travel bloggers what they love most about South Africa. Here’s what they said, along with a few interesting facts, you may not have…

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Hot Air Balloons & Technicolour Winds

Hot Air Balloon

There are few reasons why anyone would agree to wake hours before the sun. A sunrise hot air balloon flight over the Magalies River Valley in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, well, that’s reason enough. Silence. This is the place of morning calm,…

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Galle: Views from the Bastions

Galle

The Dutch colonial city of Galle and its fortifications are perched on a rocky outcrop on the south-western peninsular of Sri Lanka. This UNESCO World Heritage Site remains the largest European-built fort in Asia. Greek, Roman, Chinese, Indian, Persian and Arab seamen wandered around the…

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Buddha’s Tooth Relic Temple

Buddha’s Tooth Relic

Ticking clocks, beads of sweat, tapping feet, heavy heat. I lived in South Korea for close to two years and while the subway get packed, Buddha’s Tooth Relic Temple in Kandy experiences similar traffic during Esala Perahera. Hundreds of thousands of buddhists make the pilgrimage to…

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Sigiriya: Lion’s Rock

Sigiriya

The clock tower in Dambulla graciously welcomed me upon my arrival. Dambulla was to be my base over the next few days. In Sri Lanka main streets carve their way through the middle of town. They are named after the biggest city they lead to,…

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Changdeokgung Palace: Seoul’s Secret Garden

Changdeokgung Palace

My wonderful friend, Gina, and I spent the afternoon nobly frolicking around Changdeokgung Palace like we owned the place: quite literally we were pretending to be the daughters of royalty. We suspended our disbelief – no one had to know that we were ACTUALLY part of…

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Jeju: Island of the Gods

The ‘Island of the gods’ is an appropriate name for Jeju – the largest island located off the southern tip of South Korea. The island is mostly made up of fertile igneous rock, which came about from a volcanic eruption. The subtropical climate cultivates luscious vegetation…

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Hwaseong Fortress

Hwaseong Fortress

Hwaseong Fortress enfolds Suwon CBD in its arms. The fortress extends 5.74 kilometres and encloses 1.3 square kilometres. It was built in the late eighteenth century to protect the capital of Gyeonggi Province, which is where Seoul is located. It took two and a half years or 700,000 man hours…

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