Innholdsfortegnelse for January/February 2022 i AFAR

DEBBIE OLSEN Writer A travel writer for more than 20 years, Debbie Olsen is the author of 125 Nature Hot Spots in Alberta (Firefly Books, 2018) and the blog Wander Woman Travel. On her trip to Métis Crossing (p. 40) in Alberta last year, Olsen reconnected with her Indigenous roots after growing up in foster care with limited access to her Métis mother. “In Canada, there are many Indigenous people who grew up separated from their culture as I did,” Olsen says. “It was nice to go and experience what Métis culture means.” Find her on Twitter and Instagram @wwtravelmag. CLARISSA WEI Writer Food and culture writer Clarissa Wei is passionate about telling the story behind the food of Taiwan (p. 107) from the perspectives of the people who make…

FAMOUS FOR ITS blush-colored beaches and the shorts, Bermuda has long been a traveler’s dream, but this 21-squaremile archipelago nestled in the North Atlantic also offers a substantial measure of Black culture and history. In 2020, it became one of the first places in the world to honor a Black woman with a public holiday; Mary Prince Day celebrates the formerly enslaved Bermudian who became the first Black woman in England to publish her own narrative, the seminal 1831 book The History of Mary Prince. Visitors to the islands can follow the African Diaspora Heritage Trail, which includes museums, monuments, and even a seaside cave connected to Bermuda’s Black past. For an experience that showcases both food and history, book Kristin White’s bike tour through the cobblestone streets of St.…

IN SEPTEMBER 2021, Costa Rica’s new Digital Nomads law began granting visas to foreign nationals for up to two years, inspiring remote workers to live out their long-term fantasies of surf, work, ceviche, repeat. Whether you’re eyeing a semipermanent move or just a weeklong break, one place to dip your toes in is Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, a small coastal town on the country’s less frequented Caribbean side. You won’t find the big brands or high-rises of Papagayo and Tamarindo here—just soft sand beaches and green macaws, and local boutiques such as Aloe Tienda for stylish handmade women’s clothing. The African influence is palpable in the Limonese Creole patois, calypso beats, and the coconut-sweetened version of rice and beans. Another plus of Puerto Viejo: The town experiences a dry season…

SET ALONG THE NILE RIVER in eastern Uganda, Jinja is home to misty views marked by rapids and waterfalls, as well as roads blanketed by red dust that spools onto the skin with a vengeance. My father’s work in the petroleum industry frequently took him to Jinja, 140 miles west of my hometown, Kisumu, Kenya. As a child, I often tagged along to explore the natural wonders of the area. On a recent visit, I based myself at the Nile Porch, a hotel with semi-tented, high-ceilinged rooms. I discovered Adrift Uganda, which offers trips along the Nile River that include Class VI rapids, and booked a trip. I was relieved when my group voted to tackle a Class III rapid called Bubugo—until I learned that it means “condolences” in the…

WHILE TOURISTS SWOON over the islands and coast of Croatia, its mountainous regions, located southwest of the capital city, Zagreb, remain blissfully off the radar. In Lika and Gorski Kotar, travelers can hike beside Plitvice Lakes and visit no fewer than four of the country’s eight national parks, and spot ancient yew trees and native flowers such as Carniolan lilies. Drawn by the remote wilderness and my own roots—my mother hails from a now-abandoned hamlet in Lika—I’ve been spending time in the area during the last several years. There, I found Jelena Pirc of Lynx & Fox, who guides day hikes into Gorski Kotar’s rugged sylvan landscapes frequented by bears, wolves, and the endangered Eurasian lynx. Pirc recommends visiting Stara Sušica’s new Large Carnivores Visitor Center, which opened in July.…

VISITORS TO CAIRNS, a coastal city in tropical north Queensland, typically arrive on a mission: See the Great Barrier Reef. Prepandemic, nearly 3 million people would pass through annually, boarding massive catamarans laden with scuba tanks and snorkel masks, an army of tourists in pursuit of wonder. As Australia’s borders reopen, Cairns is ready to welcome travelers again, with refreshed esplanade dining, new hotels championing sustainability, and an exciting experience celebrating the Indigenous heritage of the Great Barrier Reef. Some 70 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups have a continuing connection to the world’s largest coral reef system, and in 2018, Dreamtime Dive and Snorkel launched trips led by Indigenous Sea Rangers who share cultural knowledge passed down from their ancestors. During the tours, guests listen to evocative creation stories…

WITH 33 BEACHES, several islands and cays, and more than 100 restaurants, Anguilla packs a lot into its 35 square miles. Start by hopping on American Airlines’ new direct flight from Miami into Clayton J. Lloyd International Airport. You’ll disembark mere minutes from any one of the island’s beaches, a string of seductive white-sand scallops lapped by blue water. On Meads Bay, check in to Tranquility Beach, a collection of 15 suites (all with kitchens) that preside over sand resembling powdered sugar and offering magnificent sunset views. Close by is the Hummingbird, a charming cottage studio that’s a perfect choice for solo travelers. For lunch, try Ken’s BBQ in Anguilla’s capital, The Valley, where they have been cooking fall-off-the-bone tender ribs for more than 20 years. Don’t forget to finish…

MY LOVE AFFAIR with the Klein Karoo—a semidesert valley 200 miles from Cape Town, on the southern edges of the Karoo region—blossomed late. In part, moving far away from Cape Town to New York City allowed me to appreciate this area with fresh eyes when I returned. The Klein Karoo contains a 215-mile stretch of Route 62 that runs parallel to the more famous Garden Route. I traveled the entire road in January 2021, and my first stop was the country’s Sanbona Wildlife Reserve at the foot of the scrubby Warmwaterberg Mountains. The terrain, with its ancient rock formations and indigenous fynbos vegetation, is the only place to see the region’s nearly extinct white lions. At Dwyka Tented Lodge, set in an amphitheater of rock, there’s peace in the deafening…

IN SPRING 2021, I moved from Istanbul to a 200-year-old stone house on the Turquoise Coast—and found myself on the Carian Trail. Unbeknownst to me, the 528-mile route, part of Turkey’s growing network of ruin-laced treks, runs directly through my village. While I can access the path from my front door, the official trailhead begins in the seaside town of İçmeler in southwestern Turkey. From there, the trail slinks around the Bozburun and Datça Peninsulas and past Hellenistic temples and old stone monasteries. It winds by the Gulf of Gökova—there, trekkers can swim in the turquoise water where, according to legend, Cleopatra once bathed—and though there are many offshoots, the trail technically ends in the town of Karpuzlu. The Carian Trail unfolds like an outdoor museum: Ancient artifacts, pristine coves,…

FOR MORE THAN 850 YEARS, grapes in Saxony—Germany’s easternmost wine region—have been tended and harvested by hand, the wines made painstakingly in small quantities. One of my favorite ways to taste the sustainably grown wines, which are consumed primarily within the region, is also ecofriendly: via a bike ride on the 34-mile-long Saxon Wine Route. The route starts in the riverside town of Pirna and coils its way through terraced vineyards and historic towns such as Meißen and Radebeul along the Elbe River. In Radebeul, I like to stop at Hoflößnitz, a winery-turned-museum that makes organic wines. At the nearby 18th-century Wackerbarth Castle, visitors can stroll through gardens and goldriesling vines, a variety of grape mainly grown on the Elbe. Travelers can taste sparkling wines at Wackerbarth, the region’s oldest…

I NEVER THOUGHT MY QUEST to learn to surf would lead me to Bundoran, a coastal town in County Donegal in the northwest corner of Ireland. When I first visited in 2015, I thought I’d only be there for the three months my visa allowed. Now, I come every year, often bouncing around Europe or returning stateside while waiting for my visa to reset. Bundoran was a popular destination long before it became the surf capital of Ireland. During Victorian times, people flocked from across the country to soak in the Thrupenny and West End (Nun’s) Pools. Today, surfers from around the world come to visit Tullan Strand or ride the breakers at the Peak, home to some of Europe’s most consistent waves. I return to Bundoran each year, vowing…

YOU COULD SAY I grew up with Goa. In my youth, I visited to party with friends, lured by the Indian beach state’s notorious raves. But when I hit my thirties, I began to better appreciate Goa’s rich heritage, its Portuguese influence, and the growing number of restaurants, bars, and stores that celebrate the region’s culture and architecture. Nowhere is all of this more apparent than in the picturesque historic quarter of the capital city, Panaji, where brightly painted homes share streets with local boutiques like Sacha’s Shop, with its superbly curated resort wear from homegrown Indian designers. Another favorite is the rainbow-shuttered restaurant António at 31, which opened in January 2021: A throwback to Panaji’s old taverns, the menu from chef Pablo Miranda features seasonal fruit cocktails and tapas…

I GREW UP IN THE subtropics of New Zealand’s North Island, and the much more temperate, sparsely populated South Island has beckoned me throughout adulthood. Three of the South’s nine national parks are within a 90-minute drive of my current home in Nelson; and there are enough gold-sand beaches, mountains, and alpine lakes to spend a lifetime exploring. Challenge accepted. Road-tripping is the only way to really experience the South Island’s natural beauty. Start in Nelson, a city of more than 50,000 at the top of the South Island, and drive west about an hour to the eastern entrance of Abel Tasman National Park. Many travelers opt to hike—or “tramp”—the Coast Track, a five-day, 37-mile “Great Walk,” camping in tents along the way. If you have mobility issues (or perhaps…

MINNESOTA IS LAUDED for its lakes—more than 10,000 of them—but any local knows that its land deserves some love, too. To get better acquainted, head to northern Minnesota’s Iron Range, which has quietly debuted 250 miles of new biking trails in the past decade. The routes came about largely thanks to local cycling enthusiasts, who have worked to turn the area into a magnet for biking in nature. Tioga Recreation Area added 19 miles of mountain bike trails near the town of Cohasset in August 2019, and a trail expansion is currently underway in Cuyuna County, which already has 50 miles of rust-colored dirt paths spread over 800 acres. One of the most recent news makers? Redhead Mountain Bike Park, which opened in June 2020 after a nearly $2 million…

IT’S EASY TO GET AWAY from people amid the 47,000 acres of Acadia National Park, where the jagged Maine coast cuts into the Atlantic. But no matter where you go, you’re surrounded by historical figures. The intricate carriage trails around Mount Desert Island, where much of the park is situated, were commissioned by John D. Rockefeller Jr. in the early 1900s. Many of the island’s other trails were built as part of a New Deal–era Civilian Conservation Corps public works project in the 1930s. Stone stairs that seem almost magically carved into the mountainside form parts of Homans Path, a trail named for Eliza Homans. She was a wealthy widow and longtime summer resident who, in 1908, first gifted part of the land that would become the park. The 140-acre…

EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK—the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States—reveals only its outer edges to day-trippers. For a deeper view of a similar ecosystem, head to the Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge, just south of Marco Island. Here, one of the world’s largest mangrove systems covers 230 square miles, where fresh and salt waters meet. “We’re not a beach destination, like St. Petersburg or Daytona,” says Charles Wright, a naturalist who owns Everglades Area Tours and takes guests on kayak adventures through mangrove islands in the Gulf of Mexico. “But there are sandy barrier islands with beautiful beaches … from Marco Island to the mouth of the Lostmans River. “Most people think of swamps when they think of the Everglades—of airboats, alligators, and mosquitoes,” he adds. But the Everglades…

AS ONE OF THE NATION’S most multiethnic cities, with some 145 languages spoken, Houston is full of culinary and cultural innovation. MasterChef winner Christine Ha’s restaurant Blind Goat deliciously showcases the city’s Vietnamese community, while the local chain Tacos A Go Go represents some of the best of its Latinx options. (Be sure to try all the tacos while you’re in town: corn tacos filled with barbacoa; shrimp tacos; and migas tacos, a Tex-Mex staple made with scrambled eggs and jalapeños). For a taste of Houston’s Black-owned restaurants, book a table at Lucille’s, where the celebrated chef Chris Williams turns out fine Southern cuisine (catfish and grits, fish fry, and liver and onions). If you’re craving comfort food, head to Breakfast Klub. Don’t miss a trip to the Third Ward…

IN ITS 50 YEARS OF EXISTENCE, the United Arab Emirates has developed at lightning speed, creating cities out of the desert with record-breaking skyscrapers, lavish hotels, and a fast pace of life. I moved to Dubai in 2015, and when I wasn’t traveling for work, I filled my calendar with dinners, sundowners, and gallery visits. As the pandemic forced me to slow down, I rediscovered the joy of exploring the hidden sides of my home. By the time my friend Rashid Khalfan invited me to Abu Dhabi, the emirate south of Dubai that covers 26,000 miles, I was ready to explore farther afield. Rashid grew up in Dubai and has worked for many years in Abu Dhabi. We had cemented our friendship over a shared love of history, so a…

FIND ME A TREASURE in Luxor, Egypt, that can’t be savored in the open air—I challenge you. In three years of wintering in this city on the banks of the Nile, about 400 miles south of Cairo, I haven’t found one. Luxor is often called an open-air museum, a place where antiquities are as common as mosques, schools, or fruit stands. A visitor could stroll the grounds of Karnak Temple—not to mention Luxor Temple, Valley of the Queens, Valley of the Kings, or the Colossi of Memnon—for days and still find obelisks to marvel at, all while breathing in fresh Sahara Desert air. Luxor is where I met my husband, and it’s where we now live part-time (when not in Alberta, Canada), in a mud-brick house on the city’s quieter,…

IBADAN IS THE CITY of my youth, my mother’s youth, and that of her mother before her. Once an epicenter of Nigerian politics, Ibadan was founded by Yoruba warriors in the 19th century. Today, it’s characterized by its seven hills, colonial buildings, and rusty corrugated roofing. Thanks to the newly modernized Nigerian Railway, my mother and I recently returned to Ibadan from Lagos on a journey that took us past thick rain forests, farmlands, and rural communities. From the train station, our taxi dropped us at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), founded by Americans in 1967 to improve food security in sub-Saharan Africa. Spread over 2,400 acres, the IITA headquarters includes farms, offices, and a tree-shaded, utilitarian hotel. From there, we set off to explore the manicured grounds…

LIKE MANY PARISIANS, my husband and I soldiered through multiple COVID-19 lockdowns in the city with little access to green space. By the end of 2020, we realized we wanted to make a long-term shift to get closer to nature. So we decided to divide our time between Paris and the country, and bought a century-old stone house near a place eminently familiar to us: Fontainebleau, a town 45 miles south of Paris. For more than 15 years, we have hiked, climbed, and explored in the once-royal place, known for its vast forest and intricate sandstone architecture. The town was built around the 12th-century Château de Fontainebleau, which was updated in the 16th century and is now a UNESCO World Heritage site currently undergoing another restoration. Ancient forest—54,000 acres of…

EVERY TIME I RETURN TO BRISTOL, the West Country city where I spent my teenage years, it’s changed, often substantially. The trading port may wear its heritage on its sleeve—the waterfront’s imposing cranes and the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge are just two examples of Bristol’s maritime and engineering history—but it’s also a modern hub of creativity, ingenuity, and liberal thinking. Since my dad’s work took us there in the early 1990s, the city has witnessed the rise of trip hop, the street art of Banksy, a revitalized harborside and city center, and the advent of its own currency (which transitioned into digital currency in 2021). It was also named European Green Capital in 2015. More recently, a racial reckoning saw many of the city’s establishments question and ultimately condemn Bristol’s…

TAIWANESE FARE has long been considered a subset of the food of China. But diplomatic contact between China and the contested island nation ceased in 2016, and tensions have continued to climb. One of the by-products: Across Taiwan, many chefs are reviving a distinct national cuisine. “A lot of people think Taiwanese food is beef noodle soup and xiao long bao [soup dumplings],” says Huang Teng-Wei, co-owner of Siang Kháu Lū, a boutique cooking school that opened in 2019 in Taoyuan, southwest of Taipei. “But in fact, all these dishes came after 1950 with the Chinese immigrants.” Traditional Taiwanese cuisine tends to revolve around root vegetables (like sweet potato and taro) and rice, with dishes such as savory rice puddings flavored with pork. He and his wife, Chou Pei-Yi, are…