Innholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2021 i AFAR

DANIEL MÜLLER Photographer German photographer Daniel Müller spent four days last June shooting his first feature story for AFAR (p.78). An active hiker now based in Switzerland, Müller is used to the mountains, but this was different: He and his assistant trekked upwards of four hours a day, battling inclement weather and icy trails. And while Müller says the sweeping Alpine vistas impressed him, he also wanted to capture what he calls the “in-between” moments—the hikers sharing schnapps in the sun, the smiles and advice traded on the trails, and the deeply satisfying Kaiserschmarrn, a traditional fluffy, torn pancake that served as a fitting reward for reaching yet another mountain hut. “I wanted to get at the sense or feeling you have when you hike these mountains,” he says. Since…

AS WE WRITE THIS, the world is beginning to see the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. COVID cases and death rates are dropping, and, most significantly, distribution of vaccines has accelerated worldwide. Travel is starting to rebound after the most devastating year in memory. We at AFAR are as anxious as anyone to get back on the road. We are also more cognizant than ever of the effects of our actions and are deeply committed to traveling more conscientiously. With that in mind, we have converted AFAR into a public benefit company, specifically devoted to making travel a force for good in the world. We will be accountable to all our stakeholders—including you, our readers—for our success in this regard. Later this year we are launching a…

IN A WORLD linked more closely than ever by business and technology, Zita Cobb sees mostly broken connections between people and places. Cobb experienced this disconnect firsthand as a young girl on remote Fogo Island in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, where islanders had lived sustainably for hundreds of years before the onset of industrialized overfishing. Her father, an illiterate fisherman, supported his household on subsistence living and trade. As the cod population plummeted, he wondered how he would feed his family when the fishers on the boats were fishing for a living and the boat owners were operating the boats for profit. “My father kept saying, ‘I don’t understand why people fish day and night—don’t they realize they’re going to take all the fish?’” Cobb says. “Then he finally figured…

ADELTIOLOGIST IS SOMEONE who collects postcards. I have spent more than 50 years of my life as a postcard addict roaming the world, always on the lookout for the little piece of pasteboard that would complete my collection, add another valent to its scope, or just plain make me smile with delight. My first postcard collection was made on my first trip to Europe in the summer of 1963. Then, I traveled with my parents. Faithful tourists, we had divided out souvenir tasks into three disciplines: still photographs, slides, and movies. It was an extremely well-documented trip, but it was truly notable because, like many tourists had in the past, I discovered postcards. I became obsessed with the pasteboard rectangles, amassing a collection of the wish-you-were-here views as we traveled.…

AFAR.COM/TRAVEL-GUIDES Asheville Craft brewers and culinary upstarts, artists and free spirits mingle in this North Carolina city set against the Blue Ridge Mountains. Puerto Rico We’re craving mofongo and fluffy mallorcas, the sound of panderos in San Juan, and a sandy path that leads to a secluded beach. Time to consider a trip to PR. AFAR.COM/OUTDOORS Outer Peace Thinking about exploring the outdoors on two wheels? Want to discover underrated national parks? Check out our new guide for the “camping curious.” AFAR.COM/TRAVELFORGOOD Travel Sustainably Consult our list of once-in-a-lifetime adventures that also support Indigenous-owned businesses, wildlife restoration, and more. WHERE ARE YOU GOING NEXT? TWEET US @AFARMEDIA AFAR.COM/TRAVELTALES New Episodes! Don’t miss season two of our Travel Tales by AFAR podcast, streaming this May.…

+ APOORVA GANDHI + RUEMAPP + MEIZHANG + DANIEL SK JELDAM + AKWA SIAGYE MAN + ZITA COBB AFAR, AT ITS CORE, has always believed in the power of travel as a force for good. After an unprecedented year, our mission—to inspire, guide, and empower travelers to have enriching experiences that make a positive impact on the world—resonates more than ever. The people you’ll meet on the following pages, our 2021 Travel Vanguard honorees, have spent years working to contribute to responsible, sustainable, lasting change in the travel industry. As we begin to explore again, these visionaries are fitting guides to motivate us to tour, cruise, journey, stay, hike, and meet in more conscientious and connected ways…

LONG BEFORE the global pandemic, Mei Zhang’s goal was to enable travelers to cultivate meaningful relationships with the people and landscapes of China. But as the Berkeley-based founder of WildChina watched the rift between the U.S. and her native country widen—exacerbated in the U.S. by racist language characterizing COVID-19 as the “China virus” —she saw even more opportunity to create mutual understanding. Says Zhang: “To me, the most interesting thing about building WildChina has been fostering this kind of human-to-human contact and relationship that’s real, and not implemented or prescribed either by the government or by the Western press.” Since 2000, Zhang has done just that, taking both international visitors and domestic travelers on immersive trips that celebrate the myriad people and cultures within China. She accomplished this by enlisting…

WHEN DANIEL SKJELDAM became CEO in 2012, it was to help save Hurtigruten, the homegrown business founded in Norway in 1893, from collapsing. Two years later, with Hurtigruten once again profitable, Skjeldam made sustainable travel its core mission: because the more he joined his staff on expeditions, the more he saw the devastating effects of climate change. “One of the biggest concerns among crew members has been the massive change happening around them,” Skjeldam says, who grew up using Hurtigruten’s coastal express ships in his native Norway. “Officers who had been sailing in the area for 30 years would say to me, ‘You know, Daniel, where we are now is where a glacier used to be.’” Hurtigruten, which sails between the Arctic and Antarctic circles, stopped using heavy fuel oil—a…

I’M told there was nothing to see at first, just a staccato rumble thundering up from the valley below. It had been a quiet afternoon in Tyrol, the next blast of summer rain still just a threat to the east. Over at the mountain hut Bettelwurfhütte, the day’s arrivals moved out to the patio as the rumble approached. For 125 years the stone and wood structure has been a refuge for weary hikers, an outpost of warm beds and hot goulash high on the southern face of Austria’s Kleiner Bettelwurf. At 6,814 feet, when the patio is not shrouded in ghostly mist, the view takes in the full vertiginous majesty of the surrounding peaks. Elsewhere in his beloved Alps, John Ruskin, the 19th-century English art critic, wrote of the “ghastly poise”…

I’VE MISSED WANDERING until my calves hurt. Getting lost and then found again. Making a serendipitous discovery on a small, empty street in a big, bustling city. Tasting a dish that has deep ties to traditions that aren’t my own. I’ve missed meeting strangers whose love of home and pride of place upend any preconceptions I might have had before visiting. I’ve missed figuring out the idiosyncrasies of transit systems. I’ve even missed hearing, “We’ve reached our cruising altitude.” We will travel again soon—of that I am sure. Borders will reopen; family, friends, and loved ones will reunite; and milestones will once again be celebrated in crowded restaurants and on epic trips we’ve spent the last year wistfully dreaming about. But when travel does come roaring back, I want it…

JUST BEFORE WE LAND at Orly Airport, the Air France fight attendant asks if Paris is my final destination. “Actually, I’m driving to Le Perche,” I reply. “Never heard of it,” she says, shrugging, as she pushes her cart down the aisle. This little-known part of lower Normandy—far from the D-Day beaches—may still be one of France’s best-kept secrets. For now, at least. Travelers are starting to take notice, thanks in part to the 2018 reopening of D’une Île, a rustic country hotel and restaurant run by the Parisian chef Bertrand Grébaut.1 I, however, am going for the apples. Ninety miles west of Paris, I steer my rental car off the highway into a landscape of golden hills blanketed with large apple trees. Their long trunks and rounded crowns look…