Where to go in May

East Asia

Japan

A world where centuries-old tradition and radical modernity sit effortlessly side by side.

Southern Africa

Namibia

Silence on a scale found nowhere else, with deserts that change character every hundred kilometres.

Middle East

Jordan

Desert, history and a hospitality that often turns out to be the most memorable part of the journey.

Southern Africa

Botswana

A delta that changes with every season, in a country that deliberately keeps visitor numbers low across a vast expanse.

Scandinavia

Denmark

Flat, coastal and steeped in a light that never shouts, a country that finds its calm in understatement.

Indian Ocean

Madagascar

An island that has gone its own way for millions of years, and it shows in almost everything.

Mascarene Islands, Indian Ocean

Mauritius

An island where Indian, African, Chinese and French influences live side by side, far beyond the image of a villa on the beach.

Maghreb, north-west Africa

Morocco

A country where desert, mountains and coast merge within a few hours' drive, and the cities hold their own just as well.

South-East Africa, Indian Ocean coast

Mozambique

A coastline tourism has yet to discover, still bearing clear traces of its Swahili and Portuguese past.

Southern Africa

South Africa

A country with so many faces that two travellers rarely tell the same story about it.

Indian Ocean, granite islands

Seychelles

An archipelago where granite, primeval forest and sea sit so close together it almost feels unreal.

Southern Africa, a kingdom in the Drakensberg

Eswatini

A tiny kingdom usually overlooked in the shadow of its larger neighbours, which has let it keep a pace all its own.

Maghreb, Mediterranean coast

Tunisia

A small country where three thousand years of history and the edge of the Sahara lie just a few hours' drive apart.

Southern Africa, Zambezi valley

Zambia

A country where the wilderness is still given real space, and the waterfall at its edge almost becomes an afterthought.

Southern Africa, Zambezi plateau

Zimbabwe

A country that has kept its national parks and hospitality intact, and it shows in the quality of its guides.

South America

Brazil

A country so vast it constantly contradicts itself, with rainforest, coast and metropolis each living at their own pace.

East Asia

China

Ancient traditions, fast-paced cities and still landscapes exist side by side, in a country that seems to reinvent itself everywhere you look.

South-East Asian archipelago

Indonesia

Thousands of islands, no two alike: an archipelago that stretches far beyond the Bali most people know.

Malay Peninsula and Borneo

Malaysia

Malay, Chinese and Indian life exist side by side with ease, and the rainforest is never far away, not even from the cities.

Silk Road, Central Asia

Uzbekistan

Turquoise domes and hushed caravanserais that still tell the story of where the Silk Road once converged.

Western Balkans

Albania

Mountains that plunge straight into the sea, towns layered with history, and a coastline that has not yet bent itself to visitors.

Adriatic coast

Croatia

A coastline of stone and pine, island after island, where life slows down as soon as the roads narrow.

Central Europe

Czech Republic

Prague is only the beginning; beyond it lie castles, forests and small towns that rarely make anyone's list.

Eastern Mediterranean

Cyprus

An island that calls itself Greek, feels Turkish, and is fully neither, with an interior that few visitors ever see.

Baltic states

Estonia

Forest and marsh stretch to the horizon, a digital capital, and a stillness that feels further north than the map suggests.

Aegean world

Greece

Every island is a different Greece, and the mountainous mainland remains unknown territory for most visitors.

Danube basin

Hungary

A land of plains and rivers, thermal springs beneath the surface, and a capital that looks weightier than it feels.

Baltic states

Latvia

Woodlands, coastal dunes and an architecture that refuses a single style, in a country that quietly goes its own way.

Baltic states

Lithuania

Lakes, forests and a baroque old town that feels surprisingly southern for a Baltic capital.

Southern Adriatic coast

Montenegro

A fjord that is not really a fjord, mountains that fall straight into the sea, and a country smaller than its landscape suggests.

Central Europe

Poland

A country with more landscape than its history suggests, with forests, lakes and towns each rebuilt with real character.

Central Balkans

Serbia

A country that does not sell itself to visitors, with hospitality that is unfiltered and nightlife that lives up to its reputation.

Alpe-Adria region

Slovenia

Alps, karst caves and a sliver of coast all lie within a few hours of each other, in a country that never overdoes it.

Anatolia

Turkey

A country spanning two continents and some ten layers of civilisation, with an interior far larger and quieter than its coast.

Low Countries

Belgium

Belgium keeps its grandeur indoors: behind a façade, in a workshop, on a plate, and never needs a big story to go with it.

Balkans

Bulgaria

Bulgaria is a land of rose fields and mountain villages that has not yet learned to perform for visitors.

Atlantic Europe

France

France changes character at every provincial border and refuses to be reduced to a single image.

Central Europe

Germany

Germany combines urban precision with forest just a short walk away, and simply lets the two coexist.

Atlantic fringe

Ireland

Ireland lets the weather set the scene, and a conversation in the pub rarely stays small talk.

Mediterranean Europe

Italy

In Italy, beauty is not the exception but the habit, from a kitchen table to a square's façade.

Central Mediterranean

Malta

Malta is an island of limestone and fortress walls where every layer of history is still legible.

Low Countries

Netherlands

The Netherlands has fought for its space from the water for centuries, and loves an empty polder as much as a busy canal.

Iberian Peninsula

Portugal

Portugal turns its back on Europe and its face to the ocean, with a wistfulness that rarely turns heavy.

Iberian Peninsula

Spain

Spain differs as much from itself as from its neighbours, with a dry interior, a green north, and a day that starts late and ends later.

British Isles

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom never has to prove its character, made up as much of a wet moor as of a smart London street.

Tyrrhenian Sea

Sardinia

Sardinia has a rugged interior that wants little to do with the glamour of its own coastline.

Strait of Sicily

Sicily

Sicily carries the traces of Greeks, Arabs and Normans, with a volcano that always keeps the last word.

Oceania

Australia

A reef off the north-east coast, red rock in the centre, and an Aboriginal history tens of thousands of years deep.

Oceania

French Polynesia

A hundred and eighteen islands and atolls in the Pacific, from the lagoons of the Society Islands to the cliffs of the Marquesas.

Caucasus

Georgia

Tbilisi, the Kakheti wine region and the villages of the Caucasus, with medieval monasteries and a script of its own.

Atlantic Ocean

Madeira

A Portuguese island in the Atlantic, with peaks up to 1,862 metres, levadas along the mountainsides and a laurel forest on the north side.

Andes and Amazon

Peru

Inca cities in the Andes, a lake at 3,810 metres and rainforest on the eastern side of the range.

East Asia

South Korea

A mountainous peninsula where a fast-moving capital and centuries-old monasteries sit a few hours apart by train.

South-East Asia

Vietnam

A country best discovered at the table, one that feels like an almost different place from north to south.

South America

Argentina

From city rhythm to Patagonian wind, a country whose vast distances are part of the appeal.

South Asia

Sri Lanka

Small on the map, yet coast, highlands and culture can feel worlds apart after just a few hours' drive.

North America

Canada

Space, forests and coastlines where nature still sets the agenda.

Scandinavia

Norway

Vertical and unyielding: rock faces plunging straight into the fjords, with villages clinging to the edge between mountain and water.

Scandinavia

Sweden

Forest and water repeat in every direction, broken only by rust-red villages that feel as much a part of the scenery as the pine trees themselves.

Central America

Costa Rica

Sandwiched between two oceans, with volcanoes and cloud forest that need no introduction.

Central American highlands

Guatemala

A highland where Maya culture isn't a backdrop but sets the rhythm of everyday life.

Central American lake district

Nicaragua

Two colonial cities, centuries-old rivals, separated by a lake dotted with volcanic islands, rougher around the edges than its neighbours.

Eastern Himalaya

Bhutan

Monasteries clinging to cliffs, valleys without traffic and access the country deliberately keeps limited, a calm its neighbours lost long ago.

Central Asia

Mongolia

More horizon than border, with a rhythm still set by nomadic life rather than the clock.

South-East Asian city state

Singapore

Order and jungle blend here with ease, and the food comes closer to the country's true character than its skyline does.

Carpathians and Black Sea

Romania

Mountains where bears and wolves still roam freely, villages with a pace of their own, and a capital that keeps reinventing itself.

Alpine republic

Austria

Austria pairs the calm of high mountains with an urban elegance that rarely raises its voice.

Alpine countries

Switzerland

In Switzerland the mountains do not ask for attention, and order is almost a feature of the landscape.

Alpine arc

The Alps

The Alps ignore national borders and impose their own, slow rhythm above the tree line.

North America

United States

Canyons, mountains and a South with its own music, linked by the national parks.