Author: Tim Chester

Epic journeys

Travel by camel through the Sahara, hike the Appalachian trail, and grab forty winks on an overnight train from Nairobi as we take a look at the world’s most epic journeys. Crossing the desolate sands, Niger © StanislavBeloglazov/Shutterstock   A camel journey across the Sahara is an authentic and intimate experience that gets to the core…

The most overrated destinations in the world

Have you ever been somewhere really hyped up and just found it a bit average? Bundled yourself off somewhere on the recommendations of friends, forum users or travel mags to find it’s just a bit, well, meh? Every regular traveller tends to have one place that didn’t stand up to expectations, and for me it…

Ten beautiful time-lapse videos

Time-lapse photography, where multiple images are captured and played back at an increased speed, can portray the world in unusual and awe-inspiring ways. Here’s a look at ten of the best clips we’ve seen, featuring Yosemite National Park at night, a flight across the USA, and the northern lights. Yosemite Range of Light This clip,…

Great Rivers Of The World – The Nile

The Nile is often associated with bad puns and Egypt, but the world’s longest river actually stretches over ten countries and assumes a variety of identities along its 4,130 mile course. Taking in (deep breath) Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and of course Egypt, it’s a magnificent stretch…

New York City – a street-by-street movie guide

From King Kong to Coming to America, New York City has played host to an immense number of films over the years; the city is probably more mapped on celluloid than any other place in America. On this giant Rough Guides map of the city we pin some of our favourite movies, old and new…

Tear gas in Taksim Square – Turkey in turmoil?

Tim Chester recounts his experiences travelling through Turkey a month ago – including a brief encounter with tear gas – and explains how the current situation doesn’t reflect the country as a whole. Nothing prepares you for your first faceful of tear gas. It dismantles three of your senses at once, knocking out sight, smell…

Exploring London from above

There’s three things I try and always do on arrival in a city: get on a bike, get on the water, and get high. Cycling combines the pedestrian’s macroscopic view with the speed and convenience of a vehicle and allows you to explore a place in great detail fast. From New York to Amsterdam, most…

Our favourite travel books

Which books do you turn to for a spot of armchair travelling? Who are the authors that can transport you from sofa to far flung locale within a couple of words? My personal favourites include Pico Iyer’s unforgettable portrayal of love in a tumultuous time in Cuba And The Night and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Travels…

Turkey in twelve meals

Updating a guidebook is fascinating, exhausting, repetitive and exhilarating work. Nothing spurs you under the skin of a place more than 40 pages of listings that need checking in detail and the thought of thousands of travellers following your footsteps and relying on your diligence. Pounding the streets in search of that new café, lifting…

The world’s most expensive cities

Don’t go to Japan or Australia if you’re looking after your pennies. A new poll from the Economist Intelligence Unit has placed Tokyo and Osaka as the first and second most expensive cities in the world, followed closely by Sydney, Oslo and Melbourne. Personally, I didn’t find Oslo too bad, but as a Londoner I’m…

Great rivers of the world – the Amazon

The Amazon is a land of true superlatives. The biggest river system in the world, it features eight of its top twenty longest waterways across 80,000 square kilometres of navigable passages, and churns a fifth of the globe’s fresh water through the largest rainforest on the planet. Spanning seven countries – Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador,…

Sounds Of The Cities – USA

Perhaps the most striking thing about American music is not its inventiveness or diversity, but how each and every city or region across the vast country has such a distinct sound. New Orleans seems to breed funk while Seattle fosters grunge and indie rock and most visitors head to Nashville for country. Of course a…