Go Travel Daily

‘Do you get many tourists in the north?’ I quiz the local guide Houssem Belloum as our minivan approaches the efficient UN Buffer Zone (aka Green Line) checkpoint. After the obligatory brief passport check, we continue our late-night drive from Larnaka airport in the south of the partitioned island to the old harbour town of Kyrenia (Girne) in the north. ‘Thank God, no,’ he fires back, only half-joking. I know I have come to the right place.

Remember the Alamo? You’re not alone. Nearly every visitor to San Antonio includes a stop at this historic battleground, the most-visited place in Texas. However, while the proudly historic 300-year-old city celebrates its tri-centennial, San Antonio is rapidly changing, experiencing population growth and urban renewal at an unprecedented pace.

Increasingly, we travel for restorative reasons: not just to tick off the big-name sights but to recharge from busy urban lives. Few places offer more serenity than Oualidia, a soulful small town and beautiful lagoon halfway along Morocco’s Atlantic coast, two hours south of Casablanca and three hours northwest – but a million metaphorical miles – from Marrakesh’s easily overwhelming cocktail of hurly-burly, haggling, dust, and dubious guides.

Pop quiz: does peering through a telescope at distant stars sound like a fun night out? Would you rather examine giant sloth fossils than relax on the beach? And when you’re at the beach, would you prefer to follow hermit crabs and peer in tide pools instead of working on a tan? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, you might just be a science geek traveler.

After a near-life-threatening diagnosis in 2009, Kiko Mathews decided to pack in her teaching job and embark on an adventure that would lead her to some extraordinary places. Finding her feet again while traveling in Africa, Kiko discovered her love of paddleboarding, which became the catalyst for her various initiatives aiming to empower women and encourage an active lifestyle.