heritage & ruins Archives | Page 5 of 5

12 things to do in Montevideo, Uruguay

24th February 202116th March 2016 by Peter

Even if your pockets aren’t deep, there are lots of things to do in Montevideo. Here are some of our favourites from our DIY walking tour of the city

When we arrived in Montevideo we had less than two weeks of our round-the-world trip left and very little money. There are plenty of things to do in the city but it’s a relatively expensive destination in an already relatively expensive country.

With just two days and near-empty pockets we made the best of the situation and saw the city by way of a DIY walking tour.

Visiting the historic quarter of Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

17th August 20209th March 2016 by Peter

We earmarked Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay as a place in which to stop and take a breather from our hectic travels. Much like our time in Tahiti in the South Pacific, we thought it would be an ideal place in which to pause for a few weeks and reset before continuing onto another chapter of our trip.

Punta Arenas: following the Ferdinand Magellan route

12th October 202216th December 2015 by Peter

Punta Arenas overlooks the Strait of Magellan on the Ferdinand Magellan route and is home to some of the most famous ships in the history of navigation

The sprawling city of Punta Arenas, situated on the historic Ferdinand Magellan route, is not easy to define. It’s possible that the city itself is confused about its identity. Once a penal colony, it is today part roughneck, part modern metropolis, part open-air maritime museum.

The town’s position overlooking the coarse and inhospitable Strait of Magellan – the most important natural passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans – makes it essential to Chile’s maritime trade and provides access to the Antarctic peninsular.

Visiting Cusco, Peru: 21 dos and don’ts

24th February 202411th November 2015 by Kia

Peru’s Incan gem is testament to the fact that tourism need not destroy a town’s charm and soul. Here’s what to know before visiting Cusco

Cusco in Peru is one of the prettiest, cleanest and, yes, most consistent towns in which we’ve ever been.

The imposing colonial architecture, the trimmed lawns and sweeping views work in flawless harmony to negate the pernicious effects of tourism. Even the ubiquitous golden arches of McDonald’s are coloured an inconspicuous black.

two indigenous women in Peru interesting facts

15 interesting facts about Peru

25th May 20234th November 2015 by Kia

From gargantuan canyons to archaeological enigmas, we take a look at the most interesting facts about Peru and its people

Peru’s Machu Picchu tops bucket lists everywhere, most recently appearing at number three on Lonely Planet’s Ultimate Travelist, a compilation of 500 unmissable attractions across the world ranked by the publisher’s global community of travel experts.

On every corner: the extraordinary history of London

18th March 202123rd September 2015 by Kia

In London, you can walk past something significant every day and never notice. We list 10 hidden sites that illustrate the extraordinary history of London

London lacks many things: picnic weather in July, a resilience to winter snow, an effective solution to the hipster invasion. What it does have in abundance – more so than almost any other city in the world – is an inexhaustible well of intriguing history. It spills forth from domes and spires, flows amid the currents of the River Thames, and rushes through the veins of our subterranean network.

In fact, so bountiful and broad is the history of London, one could easily walk past something different every day without realising its significance. Here we list 10 extraordinary historical sites hidden beneath a banal facade.

A head of one of the statues pertrudes from the ground on Easter Island

Visiting Easter Island: the middle of nowhere

13th November 20218th July 2015 by Peter

Visiting Easter Island is a special experience. It deserves a place amid the Seven Wonders of the World, surpassing Christ the Redeemer and arguably others

I’m going to begin with a bold statement: visiting Easter Island deserves a place amid the Seven Wonders of the World, easily surpassing Christ the Redeemer and arguably one or two others as well.

6 tips for visiting Isla Del Sol, Bolivia

27th December 20199th June 2015 by Kia

If your trip to Bolivia is anything like ours, you’ll need a place to catch your breath and reset. Visiting Isla Del Sol is the perfect answer

Like most round-the-world trips, ours has not been a big yellow ball of shining happiness but rather a gradient of colours. At one end lie vivid and soaring reds: the Mount Yasurs and Salar de Uyunis of the trip. At the other end are greys and browns: the 32-hour bus journey from Guayaquil to Lima, the insurance claim for ruined electronics. And in the middle are large swathes of greens and blues: the days that aren’t breathtaking or life affirming, but pleasant and fun nonetheless.

10 real-life fairytale buildings

7th May 202030th May 2015 by Atlas & Boots

Eye catching, heart halting, jaw dropping: 10 real-life fairytale buildings straight from a Grimms’ tale

One of the best parts of travel is visiting a surreal place previously seen only in pictures. Whether it’s an unknown abode hidden in the hills of Portugal or an iconic structure plastered in the pages of National Geographic, these places are eye catching, heart halting, jaw dropping.

In short, they could be straight out of a storybook. Here are our favourite fairytale buildings from across the world.

Nazca Lines flight: one of the world’s great enigmas

30th December 202027th May 2015 by Peter

Take a Nazca Lines flight over one of the world’s great archaeological riddles. The 1,000 year-old uncanny figures are best seen from the skies

Very little ignites my wanderlust as strongly as a great travel mystery. And as travel mysteries go, the mysterious lines of the Nazca Desert in southern Peru are one of the greatest.

The network comprises over 800 straight lines, 300 geometric figures known as ‘geoglyphs’ and 70 animal and plant drawings or ‘biomorphs’. The lines are largely indiscernible from ground level – however, from the skies above they reveal an arresting network of figures and channels which spread across the desert below.

Salkantay trek to Machu Picchu: highlights and lowlights

11th March 202320th May 2015 by Kia

I look back on the highlights and lowlights of our Salkantay trek to Machu Picchu in Peru, to help future trekkers prepare for the challenge ahead

There are three things I feared when embarking on our year-long trip around the world. First: the bugs (let’s face it, that was warranted).

Second: our multi-day Salkantay trek to Machu Picchu in Peru (was I fit enough? Could I cope with the altitude? What about the lack of commode? Would I break down after a long bout of camping?). Third: Dealing with the Patagonian winter (I’ll face that battle when I come to it).

Best Machu Picchu trek: a comparison

7th May 202018th May 2015 by Peter

What is the Best Machu Picchu trek for you? We compare the pros and cons of each route to help you choose the trek that’s right for you

Machu Picchu, that great Wonder of the World, that icon of South America so ubiquitous on travel websites and agency storefronts. Is it any wonder would-be visitors fret about choosing the perfect trek?

Some book their trip months in advance to make sure they get their trek of choice, others are left heartbroken when they turn up to find that they’ve missed the boat.

Prior to our trip, we had one pressing question: is the Inca Trail worth it?

10 unknown architectural wonders

30th September 202311th April 2015 by Kia

We all know of the world’s great architectural wonders: Petra, Giza, Angkor – but what of the hidden gems rarely appearing on those ubiquitous bucket lists? Here are 10 unknown architectural wonders to add to yours.

San Agustin in Colombia faces lead image

San Agustin: the mystical funny faces of Colombia

30th December 20201st April 2015 by Peter

San Agustin in Colombia is a sleepy little town buried in the rolling green hills of the southwestern part of the country. The town unfortunately lacks the pretty and quaint charms of colourful Guatape or adorable Salento, but makes up for it with Colombia’s finest archaeological park within walking distance.

Visiting Alcatraz prison in San Francisco

27th December 201911th February 2015 by Kia

Visiting Alcatraz prison in San Francisco should be up there with the Golden Gate Bridge

I often joke that if you label any old building a tourist attraction and put it in a guidebook, people will come. It might be a prosaic power station, a random rock formation, or even a tour of a sewage factory – with enough PR, people will come.

In theory, visiting Alcatraz prison could fit into this category of non-attractions. It’s a prison. It has cell blocks, cells, walls and bars. Each cell is indiscernible from the next and the entire building, at least from the inside, should be largely unremarkable.

Pearl Harbor Memorial: a Brit’s view

27th December 20195th February 2015 by Peter

Our day starts with a 50-minute wait for the bus in Honolulu’s main thoroughfare. An hour after that, we find ourselves crawling along in the capital’s multi-lane traffic – not what we imagined when we planned our eight-mile journey in this supposed island paradise.

Kia tosses me a look. “I hope this is worth it,” she says with a tone that sounds sweet to the ears but hides much promise of pain.

“It will be,” I assure her, quietly gulping.

Robert Louis Stevenson museum: an unexpected highlight of Samoa

2nd January 20209th November 2014 by Kia

The Robert Louis Stevenson museum in Samoa was an unexpected highlight of our trip to Samoa. A cursory cultural stop became a genuinely fascinating morning

“The Booker Prize money wouldn’t even keep me in cigarettes,” once quipped best-selling crime writer Martina Cole. Faced with snobbery over the type of commercial fiction she writes, the irreverent author’s swipe highlighted the fact that commercial fiction subsidises literary fiction, allowing publishers to publish the highbrow literature that hardly anyone buys.

Chittorgarh Fort in India: it’s not the Taj Mahal

28th December 201923rd July 2014 by Peter

Chittorgarh Fort is the Rajasthani gem rarely promoted as a must-see

If you decide to take that trip of a lifetime to go and “find yourself” in India, it will probably include a trip to the Taj, a date with the Dalai Lama, a tour around the pink city of Jaipur and any number of other “spirit of India” experiences the guidebooks will throw at you.

These sights are all, of course, worthy of your time but don’t miss Chittorgarh Fort, the Rajasthani gem rarely promoted as a must-see.

Beng Mealea: the ‘other’ ruins of Angkor Wat

28th December 20192nd July 2014 by Peter

Beng Mealea is an otherworldly set of ruins far from the crowds that flock to Cambodia’s most famous sight, Angkor Wat

I love playing Indiana Jones on my travels and regularly get into character whenever the location seems right. I’ve done The Temple of Doom in India, The Last Crusade in Jordan, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on Nevis Peak.

Even though Cambodia was never a location for the films, Beng Mealea seemed just so right for Raiders of the Lost Ark.