Culture

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. The Amalfi Coast, Without the Traffic Jam Our first afternoon on the Amalfi Coast, we sat on a SITA bus for ninety minutes to cover what the map swore was twenty minutes, inching past oncoming coaches on a cliff road with no shoulder. The next morning a local at our hotel laughed and said one word: “Ferry.” We spent the rest of the week hopping between Positano, Amalfi and Sorrento by boat, watching the cliffs slide past from the water, and never sat in traffic again. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Andalusia, Done the Right Way We arrived in Seville in late June with a vague plan to “see Andalusia,” and by 2pm on the first day the pavement was throwing up heat like an open oven and we were hiding in a tiled courtyard willing it to be 6pm. A waiter watched us melt and laughed: “You came in summer? The towns inland will be hotter still — go in May next time, or get up early.” He was right on both counts, and the morning we finally drove up to Ronda at 8am — cool air, empty streets, the gorge glowing — was the trip we should have planned all along. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Antalya, Beach and Ruins in One Trip We almost skipped Antalya. The plan was a quick beach stop before “the real Turkey” further inland — and then we spent a morning lost in Kaleiçi, the old town, walking down crooked Ottoman lanes that suddenly opened onto a Roman gate and a tiny harbour ringed by cliffs. By lunch we’d torn up the itinerary. The thing nobody tells you about Antalya is that it isn’t a beach resort with some history bolted on; it’s a proper city where the beach, the ruins and the mountains all sit half an hour apart. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Athens, Without the Rookie Mistakes We landed in Athens at 2pm in late July, dropped our bags, and marched straight up to the Acropolis. By the time we reached the Parthenon the marble was throwing back heat like an oven, the queue snaked into full sun, and we spent more on water than on the tickets. A taverna owner that evening just laughed: “Tourists do this every summer. Go at eight in the morning, or at six in the evening. Never at noon, never in August.” The next morning we went at opening, had the Caryatids half to ourselves, and finally understood the city. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Bangkok, Without the Rookie Mistakes We landed in Bangkok at midnight in April, took the first taxi we saw, and spent 45 sweaty minutes crawling through traffic while the meter sat suspiciously off. A guy at the hostel just laughed: “April? You came in the hottest month, and you skipped the train.” He wasn’t wrong on either count. The next morning we discovered the Airport Rail Link, the air-conditioned Skytrain, and the river boats — and the city instantly got easier and cheaper. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Barcelona, Without the Rookie Mistakes We turned up at the Sagrada Família on an August morning thinking we’d just walk in, the way you wander into a cathedral anywhere else. A guard pointed at the snaking line and then at a sign: timed tickets, sold out, come back another day. We’d flown across a continent to stand on a hot pavement and get turned away. That evening, sweating in a fourth-floor room with no breeze, we booked everything else online — and the rest of the trip ran like a different city. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Bodrum, Without the Rookie Mistakes We booked our first Bodrum trip for the first week of August, because that was the only week the diary was clear. A friend who summers on the peninsula just laughed: “You’ll be circling for a parking spot, paying double for a sunbed, and queuing for the ferry in 35-degree heat.” She wasn’t wrong. We went anyway, learned the hard way, and the next time we came back in late September — warm sea, half-empty coves, prices that finally made sense. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. A Bordeaux Travel Guide From Someone Who Almost Skipped It I’ll be honest: I nearly cut Bordeaux from the trip. I had it filed under “city you go to for the wine,” and since that’s not my thing, I figured a single afternoon would do. Two days later I was still there, walking the same honey-coloured quay for the third time at dusk because I couldn’t quite believe a city could be this good-looking without trying. So if you’re here thinking Bordeaux isn’t for you, stick around. It might be the easiest French city break you’ve never planned. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Cappadocia, Without the Rookie Mistakes The first balloon went up while we were still fumbling with the coffee. By the time we got to the terrace, the sky over Göreme was already dotted with a hundred more, and ours — the one we’d left “for the second morning, when we’re less tired” — wasn’t among them. The wind picked up the next day and the flight cancelled. We left without ever leaving the ground. Lesson learned the expensive way: in Cappadocia, you book the sunrise balloon for the first possible morning and pray, because weather, not your schedule, decides when it flies. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Chefchaouen, the Blue City Without the Crowds I almost skipped Chefchaouen. Everyone said it was “just a photo spot” — turn up, get the blue-alley shot, move on. So I gave it half a day on the way from Fes and spent that whole afternoon quietly furious at past-me for not booking two nights. The blue medina isn’t a backdrop. It’s a slow, cat-filled, mountain-cool little town that rewards the people who stay long enough to get lost in it. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Chiang Mai, Without the Rookie Mistakes We almost booked Chiang Mai for March, purely because the flights were cheap. A friend who’d spent a winter there talked us out of it in one sentence: “You’ll land into smoke and spend the week indoors.” That’s the burning season — the part of the Chiang Mai travel guide nobody puts on the brochure — and it’s the single mistake that can quietly ruin an otherwise perfect trip. We moved the dates to December instead and got blue skies, cool evenings and a city that felt like it was showing off. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Chiang Rai, Beyond the White Temple Photo Everyone shows up in Chiang Rai for one photo — the dazzling white, mirror-flecked temple that looks like a sugar palace from a dream. We did too. What nobody told us was that we’d booked our trip for late March, walked out of the airport into a grey wall of haze, and spent the first afternoon wondering where the famous northern mountains had gone. They were right there. We just couldn’t see them through the burning-season smoke. ...