Frontier travel guides
Practical, image-led travel guides for remote islands, hard roads, harsh deserts, sensitive regions, and places that ask more from the journey.
Featured guides
Central Asia
Bamyan's empty Buddha niches, the Band-e-Amir lakes, the Minaret of Jam, the blue-tile shrines of Mazar and Herat, the bazaars of Kabul, the Wakhan corridor in the far north-east. Almost nothing in tourism has been built in 30 years.
Caribbean
"365 beaches, one for every day of the year" is the marketing line and not far off. English Harbour and Nelson's Dockyard (UNESCO), Shirley Heights for the Sunday sundowner with steel band, Half Moon Bay's pink sand crescent, the deserted Barbuda beaches (a 90-minute ferry).
South America
Venezuela
A jungle-and-river journey to the world's tallest uninterrupted waterfall, involving flights, canoes, weather windows, and local guides.
Atlantic
Pink-sand beaches (Horseshoe Bay, Elbow, Warwick Long Bay), Crystal and Fantasy Caves, the Royal Naval Dockyard, Hamilton's pastel-stripe colonial centre, wreck diving. A British Overseas Territory with Caribbean warmth.
South Asia
Tiger's Nest (Paro Taktsang), the dzongs of Paro/Thimphu/Punakha, the Punakha suspension bridge, mountain trekking, the Tshechu festivals (Paro April, Thimphu September). Deliberately slow tourism.
Southeast Asia
Kampong Ayer - the world's largest stilt-village water settlement (30,000 people live on the river). Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque.
Africa
SIAO contemporary African art biennale in Ouagadougou (held every two years in late October), Sindou peaks, the rock-built villages of the Lobi country, Tiebele painted mud architecture, and the spectacular Sahel cultural belt that bleeds into Mali and Niger. Pair it with Niger and Mali on a single overland.
Africa
Bujumbura on Lake Tanganyika, the Rusizi National Park hippos and crocodiles on the Congolese border, the southern source of the Nile near Rutovu, the Karera (Kagera) waterfalls south of Rutana, the Royal sacred drummers of Gitega, and the Kibira and Ruvubu national parks. Also the practical East African base for picking up the harder regional visas - DRC in particular.
Africa
Dzanga-Sangha and Dzanga-Bai for forest elephants and lowland gorillas; the Boali Falls; Bangui's riverside markets; one of the rarest passport stamps in the world. Most visitors are doing every-country circuits; some are wildlife specialists going specifically for the BaAka (pygmy) community guided forest walks.
Browse by region
Browse by difficulty