The country that transfixed Blixen and Hemingway continues to attract travelers looking for the Big Five and more. Whether witnessing the Great Migration, touring Rift Valley lakes, or visiting wildlife conservancies in the country’s north, travelers experience a modern-day Kenya inextricably linked to its legendary past.
Read MoreBarasinghas are special; males are adorned with enviable horns — the animal’s name means ‘12-horned’ in Hindi, although some antlers possess 15 points. More importantly, the southern subspecies only lives in Kanha. Barasinghas nearly became extinct in the 1960s, but conservation efforts brought them back from the brink.
Read MoreThere sits my new favourite bird, the Indian roller, and in my viewfinder are two of the cream-and-blue beauties. They’re standing together but moving apart: one extends its head backwards, as if to laugh, while the other pushes its breast forward. They’re enacting a mating dance and I’ve never seen rollers, nor any bird like them, conduct such an intimate ritual.
Read MoreMany people feel an attachment to their childhood homes, but Chinese entrepreneur and philanthropist Ma Dadong took that nostalgia to new heights by rescuing his entire native village—and transforming it into the new Amanyangyun resort. Ma’s ambitious preservation project began in 2002, when he learned that an impending reservoir construction project in Jiangxi province was threatening his hometown, Fuzhou, and its Story Millie Kerr It Takes a Village For the designers of China’s new Aman resort, there’s no place like Ma Dadong’s home.
Read MoreThe helicopter vibrates wildly as I scan South Africa’s Phinda Private Game Reserve for elephants. I spot a bull dashing through a cluster of trees, but when I alert the pilot and conservationist sitting in front of me, they tell me he’s not one of the elephants we’re looking for. We’re trying to locate a herd, and one female in particular; the battery in her radio collar is about to run out, so the conservationists need to replace it as soon as possible.
Read More"The redesign champions the small African animals tourists often overlook when they go out looking for the big five,” says Geordi de Sousa Costa, design director of Cecile & Boyd.
Read MoreAs self-care or 'prescription' holidays quickly become a rising wellbeing trend for 2018, travel writer Millie Kerr shares her advice on why a countryside cottage is the perfect place to start...
Ever since I was little, I've fantasised about living alone in a country cottage. There would be a fire crackling through the night, a dog and cat at my feet, and stacks of books beside my quilted bed. But for a London resident like me — a person who's half countryside introvert, half urban extrovert — the fantasy never became a reality.
Read MoreCold beer, hotdogs, fireworks and flags. There’s nothing as American as the Fourth of July, the country’s annual celebration of its independence from the British Empire in 1776. Most places mark the occasion with the Star Spangled Banner and red, white and blue fireworks streaming across the night sky, but a small Rhode Island town devotes three weeks to the occasion.
Read MoreDowntown Austin is brimming with big-brand hotels (and has more on the horizon), so what makes this one unique? With 1,012 guest rooms, three restaurants and 42 meeting rooms, the property, which opened in February, is the city’s largest hotel and the second-biggest JW Marriott in the world. (JW Marriotts are part of a luxury brand within Marriott International that includes Ritz-Carlton.)
Read MoreAustin is the Lone Star State’s golden child: the quirky alternative to more conservative, less navigable urban locales—a place where cowboys, politicos, students, and hippies mingle over smoked brisket and ice-cold pitchers of beer. There’s live music at every corner, natural springs for swimming, and new bars and restaurants opening faster than you can say, “Keep Austin Weird.” To explore the capital city’s more intimate corners, book a room at one of its finest boutique hotels.
Read More“Sit here,” Chaba says. “And stay still. Imagine you’re a termite mound.”
The sun is just beginning to light up the eerily white Makgadikgadi salt flats when I make like a mound. It’s quiet—deafeningly so—until I hear a series of squeaks coming from behind me. The meerkats are awake and slowly emerging from their underground den. Suddenly, a self-appointed sentinel looks up at me with tiny spectacled eyes before climbing up my body—all the way to the top of my head, where he stands guard.
Read MoreTo an outside observer, it must have looked strange when I decided to go to wild Namibia in the summer of 2009. I’d spent the previous two years as an unhappy securities lawyer in London, so with the financial recession roiling markets and my firm announcing a coming round of layoffs, I figured it was a good time for a career change. And when I heard about a three-week volunteering program at the Harnas Wildlife Foundation, I knew I had to go.
Read MoreSan Antonio’s biggest attraction remains the Alamo; tour it before venturing to the Menger Hotel, where Teddy Roosevelt assembled his motley crew of Rough Riders. A replica of the House of Lords pub, the Menger Bar, which opened in 1887, is the ideal place for a Texas brew.
Read MoreBrass reading lights flanked a gilded bed frame, whose blue fabric headboard provided a pop of color. Draped across the bed was a faux-fur blanket that I loved for its substantial weight. A black, spidery light fixture dangling from the ceiling added a contemporary twist to the vintage vibe. The cozy room with oak herringbone floors and delicate crown moldings gave me the feeling of being in someone’s brownstone.
Read More“The Pearl is becoming as popular as the Alamo,” says Jesse Perez, executive chef of Arcade Midtown Kitchen, one of Pearl’s newest tenants and listed among the country’s “most anticipated openings of 2013″ by national blog Eater.
Read MoreTopnotch is on a five-mile recreation path trailing a winding river — suitable for year-round outings — and close to Smuggler’s Notch State Park. Guests can unwind with a spa treatment or make use of the indoor pool, sauna, steam room and shower, which are comparable to what’s behind closed doors in the spa.
Read MoreThe San Antonio River has been at the heart of the Alamo City for centuries — long before Texas gained independence from Mexico or joined the United States — but our relationship with it has always been complex due to flooding caused by the overflow of its banks. City officials have been mitigating this risk since 1724, when a severe flood forced them to move the Alamo.
Read MoreFalmouth sits in the center of the “Cornish Riviera,” England’s charming southwestern coastline, and the port is its lifeblood. For centuries, the world’s third deepest natural harbor ushered in commercial and military vessels, and in the past 70 years it witnessed epic send-offs, including D-Day troops bound for Normandy.
Read MoreTexans love to boast about the republic they enjoyed after divorcing Mexico, but no place celebrates the six flags over the state quite the way San Antonio does. The city has started a celebration of its history called Fiesta, whose signature event is the Battle of the Flowers parade on Friday.
Read More
