Author: Daniel Stables

Nine things to do on Enoshima Island

The Japanese island of Enoshima is only tiny, but it’s packed with points of interest – from ancient Shinto shrines to modern Buddhist temples, and mysterious cave grottoes to hilltop viewpoints. It’s especially famous as one of the best places in Japan to enjoy beautiful sunset views over iconic Mount Fuji. The island can be…

Reasons to catch the Tokyo to Hakone train

A town of steaming onsen hot springs, ancient teahouses and world-class art galleries, presided over by spectacular Mount Fuji and reflected in the mirror-like surface of Lake Ashi, Hakone has it all. What’s more, it’s easily accessible on a daytrip from Shinjuku, Tokyo, a train journey of about eighty minutes on Odakyu Electric Railway’s Romoncecar. There…

Why you should visit Oyama

In the forested foothills of the Tanzawa area in Japan, Oyama is a village of hilltop Shinto shrines, ancient Buddhist temples and unforgettable mountain trails. The perfect jumping-off point for hikes in the Tanzawa area, Oyama’s soaring viewpoints and temples are also easily accessible for those who are less mobile, thanks to the Oyama Cable Car.…

How to spend 48 hours in Kobe, Japan: an itinerary

Home to historic hot springs, world-class cuisine and beautiful mountain landscapes within easy reach of the city, Kobe offers an accessible highlights package of Japan’s best bits. What’s more, it’s just an hour from Kyoto and 20 minutes from Osaka by train, so it’s a breeze to reach. Read our Kobe travel itinerary for ideas…

Why you should visit Oita in Japan

Ancient samurai towns, bubbling hot springs, serene mountain temples – Oita Prefecture, in the northeast of Japan’s island of Kyushu, is a wild and diverse region which promises travellers beauty and adventure in equal measure. It’s easily accessible from airports in Tokyo (Haneda), Narita, Osaka and Nagoya, too. Stay in quaint ryokan inns, bathe in…

Why Aomori is Japan’s best year-round destination

As the seasons pass, Aomori Prefecture presents a variety of faces to its visitors, each one different but no less beautiful than the last. A wild bouquet of cherry blossom swallows the region in spring, while summer is the time to explore the singing sands and floral meadows of the coast. As the year draws…

Nikko nature: why you should visit in spring

The coming of spring heralds the arrival of cherry blossom season in Japan – a magical time of year when the countryside comes to life in a riot of pink and white flowers. The unspoilt region of Nikko, on the main island of Honshu, is a spectacular place to experience this phenomenon, which the Japanese…

Exploring Japan in winter by train

Winter in Japan is particularly atmospheric, and travelling by train is a great way to take in the beautiful, snowy surrounds. Snow blankets the pine forests, traditional ryokan inns beckon you in, and the region’s onsen (hot springs) bubble invitingly. It’s hard to imagine a more scenic way to explore the mountainous Nikko region, on the…

On the trail of the Knights Templar in Portugal

Few organisations are as shrouded in myth and mystery as the Knights Templar. Popular culture holds them variously to be keepers of the Holy Grail, the inventors of modern finance, or devil-worshipping heretics whose shadowy practices live on behind the locked doors of modern Masonic lodges. The truth, as ever, is even more intriguing. The…

Shamans & Shysters: Unpicking the Witchcraft Industry in Catemaco, Mexico

Strung out along the photogenic shores of Lake Catemaco, circled by looming hills born of long-extinct volcanoes, and fringed by one of Mexico’s last remaining tracts of rainforest, the sleepy backwater town of Catemaco feels like its own little corner of the earth. Emerging from the air-conditioned cocoon of an ADO coach into what must…

A first-timer’s guide to Patan-Lalitpur, Nepal

While the frenetic chaos of Kathmandu sprawls and teems across the Bagmati River to the north, Patan – or Lalitpur as it’s also known – abides in the ways it always has: more peacefully, more quietly, and with an inclination towards the considered and the artistic. It’s no coincidence that Buddhism has long exerted a strong…

What you need to know about visiting the Himalayas

There is no mountain range mightier than the Himalayas, an awe-inspiring crest of snow-blanketed peaks which lifts the plains of the Indian subcontinent to the Roof of the World, the Tibetan Plateau. In the process, it notches up nine of the world’s ten highest mountains, including the greatest of them all: Mount Everest. Needless to…