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. Sydney, Without the Rookie Mistakes We landed in Sydney in January, the very middle of the southern-hemisphere summer, because that’s when we could get the time off back home. A mate who’d moved out there just laughed: “You’ve picked the hottest, priciest, most crowded week of the year — and you’ll spend the first day sweating in a queue for the wrong harbour cruise.” He wasn’t wrong on either count. We came back the next time in October, and the city felt warmer in spirit and far easier on the wallet. ...

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. Tokyo, Without the First-Timer Overwhelm The first thing most people do when they land in Tokyo is stand frozen in front of a rail map that looks like someone dropped a bowl of noodles on a circuit board. We did exactly that at Narita — three lines deep into the wrong queue, jet-lagged, trying to buy a paper ticket to a station we couldn’t pronounce. The fix took ninety seconds and we wish someone had told us before we flew: walk past the ticket machines, buy a Suica card, and just tap. ...

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. Tunisia: The Mediterranean Escape Hiding in Plain Sight Everyone I knew was saving up for Italy or Greece, queuing for the same beaches at the same prices. I flew to Tunisia almost by accident — a cheap fare to Tunis, a vague plan — and within an hour of landing I was being handed a glass of sweet mint tea by a man who refused to let me pay for it. That’s the thing this Tunisia travel guide keeps coming back to: it’s an overlooked, wallet-friendly Mediterranean country barely an hour or two from Europe, with some of the warmest people you’ll meet anywhere. ...

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. Ubud, Without the Tourist-Trap Mistakes The first morning, we made the classic mistake: we lined up for the Tegallalang rice terraces at 11am, in full sun, shoulder to shoulder with three tour buses, and paid for a “selfie swing” we didn’t really want. A guesthouse owner set us straight that evening: “Go at sunrise. Empty terraces, soft light, half the heat — and the same photo everyone fights for at noon, for free.” The next day we did exactly that, and Ubud finally clicked. ...

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. Uluru, Done Right the First Time We almost booked Uluru for January, because that was when we had a free week. A guide we emailed wrote back with one line that changed the whole trip: “By 10am in summer it’ll be 42°C and we’ll have closed the long walks before you’ve finished your coffee.” We moved the dates to August instead, and the difference was the trip — cool, clear mornings, the rock glowing through every shade of red, and not a heat warning in sight. ...

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. Venice, Without the Tourist-Trap Day We did Venice wrong the first time, and I can pinpoint the exact mistake: we booked a cheap hotel out in Mestre, on the mainland, to save money. It worked, sort of — until we realised we were riding the bus in every morning and leaving every evening, so we only ever saw Venice at peak-crowd noon, shoulder to shoulder with the day-trippers off the cruise ships. We never saw the city the locals talk about: empty alleys at dawn, lamplight on the canals after dark. ...

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. Zadar, Without the Tourist Traps We almost skipped Zadar. The plan was Split, then straight down the coast — Zadar was just the airport we happened to fly into. Then a guy at the ferry kiosk told us to be at the waterfront by sunset, “stand on the steps, you’ll hear it.” That evening the Sea Organ played the sea back to us through holes in the marble, the sky went orange over the islands, and we tore up the rest of the itinerary. We stayed three nights. ...

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 Best Time to Visit Cambodia, in One Sentence The alarm went at 4:30 and I almost ignored it. But we dragged ourselves out of the guesthouse in Siem Reap, climbed into a tuk-tuk in the dark, and joined a few hundred quiet strangers on the edge of a reflecting pool. Then the sky behind Angkor Wat’s five towers turned from charcoal to rose to fire, doubled perfectly in the water, and nobody said a word. It was late December, the air dry and almost cool, and I understood in that moment why everyone bangs on about the timing here. Come in the wrong month and that same sunrise is a sweaty, hazy scrum. Come in the right one and it is the best morning of the trip. ...

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 Best Time to Visit Egypt, in One Sentence I’ll never forget standing on the Giza plateau just after the gates opened in late November, the sandstone glowing gold, the morning air still cool enough for a jacket, and almost nobody around. By midday the tour buses had arrived and the sun had real bite, but that first hour, with the Great Pyramid looming silent above me, was worth getting up at dawn for. I’d deliberately skipped the Christmas crowds and the summer furnace, and Egypt rewarded me for 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. The Best Time to Visit France, in One Sentence We had the first week of August circled for Paris and Provence, mostly because that was when work shut down. Then a French friend laughed at me over coffee: “Half of Paris will be closed, and you’ll be stuck in Provence traffic behind every family in the country.” She wasn’t wrong. I checked, and the same trip in late June came back cheaper and, by every account, far calmer. We moved it, watched the lavender start to color the plateau near Sault with the roads still half-empty, and lower down I’ll admit the one date we still got wrong. ...

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 Best Time to Visit Georgia, in One Sentence There’s a moment I keep coming back to: late September in a Kakheti courtyard, a farmer pressing a cup of fresh-pressed grape juice into my hand, the air smelling of crushed grapes and woodsmoke, a long table of strangers turning into friends over a supra that ran past midnight. I’d booked the trip almost on a whim, mostly because the flights were absurdly cheap and the visa rules meant I could stay as long as I liked. I’ll come back to that visa detail, because it changes how you plan here. ...

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 Best Time to Visit Greece, in One Sentence We had the August ferries to Santorini and Naxos half-booked when a friend who’d done the same trip the year before sent a blunt message: “It was 38 degrees, the caldera path was a wall of people, and our room cost a fortune.” We almost ignored her, because August is when the office empties out. Then I priced the identical island-hop in late September and watched it come back a third cheaper, with the sea supposedly at its warmest all year. We moved the trip, swam off a near-empty Naxos beach in bathwater-warm water, and lower down I’ll admit the one ferry date we still got wrong. ...