Wanderlust issue 151 (November 2014) sample

Wanderlust Issue 151 (November 2014) Northern Lights – whatever your budget ♦ Hidden beaches ♦ Wild Canada ♦ Brazil ♦ North Korea ♦ Top travel secrets ♦ Pocket guides: Berlin, Northern Ireland, Port-au-Prince (Haiti)

CONSUMER MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR www.wanderlust.co.uk November 2014

NORTHERN LIGHTS t e g d u b r u o y r e whatev

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A trip to M for two pe alaysia op See page le...

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HIDDEN BEACHES TRAVEL SECRETS CANADA BERLIN CROWD-FREE BRAZIL HAITI NORTH KOREA

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CONTENTS

Issue 151 November 2014

360˚ – NEED TO KNOW

nder 6Viewfi to know this month...

14Need Go now 16Eat this...

18 5 minutes Kate Humble 20Know your...with...

24 Tour with theFêtebestGede guides 26 Elephants from above, Russian reindeer and Scottish splendour

lights n r e h t r o n for £250 8 5 see page

How not to be a terrible traveller New budget flights to Eindhoven open up this European gateway Pay homage to pumpkin pie as the US celebrates Thanksgiving We talk clean sands. Plus, new books We suss out Haiti’s own Day of the Dead Take a trip with a 2014 Guide Awards finalist

■ Special feature

112Hidden beaches

From super snorkel spots to sands a-swarm with penguins, we reveal 22 of the world’s best hidden beaches. Did we include your favourite?

▲ Award Winners

104

Wanderlust World Guide Awards – winners revealed!

They’ve led you across wild landscapes, around historic monuments and through verdant valleys: meet this year’s best guides

TRAVEL MASTERCLASS

72The masterclass 76Ask the experts 78Take better travel photos Travel clinic 80Traveller’s 83underwearguide to... technical

Discover hidden corners, new routes or a different side to somewhere: here’s how to get off-the-beaten-track This month: what to wear in India; responsible diving; choosing the right camera; ATMs in Africa Legendary snapper Steve McCurry gives his tips on taking an iconic shot Dr Jane gets into your pants! Think boils, piles and moles

Knickers, boxers, briefs, pants: our guide to the best for your trip

WIN!

A wild and wonderful adventure in Malaysia!

Turn to p110 A photo commission or £3,000!

See p86

Nunavik, p28

133 Port-au-Prince, p133

“There’s never a dull moment, so forget any preconceptions and prepare to be dazzled.”

Phoebe Smith

28 “Here we were, high in the Canadian Arctic, on an island inhabited by at least 50 polar bears, and the pilot of the only chartered plane hereabouts had just said that he’d desert us if the bears got too close. I gulped, hard.” Phoebe Smith

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Brazil, p46

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“We zig-zagged our way across the water, lined on both sides by impenetrable mangroves. The silence and solitude intensified with every bend of the river, the sounds of the village growing fainter with each stroke.” Nick Boulos

Wanderlust November 2014

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BECOME A NINJA WITH...

Professor Ikeda, p75 FEATURES

28Wild Canada 46Crowd-free Brazil

FROM THE ROAD

Discover polar bears, caribou and Inuit culture in the wildest corner of the Canadian Arctic Explore offbeat Bahia, home to endangered tribes, unspoilt beaches and the little-known village of Caraíva Northern lights Follow us as we attempt to see the aurora borealis on a £250 budget – do we succeed? Plus, seven ways to splurge on your aurora experience North Korea We enter this bizarre, secretive, intriguing country to find out what lies above the Demilitarized Zone…

58 88

POCKET GUIDES

100Your Story

Our most inspirational reader story yet? War veteran, amputee and Invictus Games medallist Tony Harris conquers Mount Toubkal Letters In our mailbag: travelling solo; trip-planning for China; swimming (or not) in the Nile; cheap anti-malarials

102 Month You Have 103This Been...

Extremely busy! Soaring over volatile volcanoes, offering advice on Indian railways, setting your sights on Kilimanjaro, exploring the untrodden side of Thailand, lusting after Central America and talking passport safety

88

Berlin, p137

Look past the bad press and earthquake woes to discover Haiti’s much-maligned capital; gateway to a rather different Caribbean

135Short Break: Newcastle, NI

Misty mountains, untouched sand dunes and a luscious Narnian landscape – take a trip to this magical corner of Northern Ireland

137Travel Icon: Berlin Wall

A quarter of a century ago, the barricade between East and West Berlin was torn down; 25 years on, we look at what’s still left and the vibrant city that’s risen around it

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Sweden, p58 Northern Ireland, p135

24 Hours: 133First Port-au-Prince

“It was a vertical, airy city of grandiose squares, fountains, parks and marble-clad monuments, with apartment blocks organised as urban collectives incorporating government shops that ration everything from rice to state manufactured underwear.” MA Ryder

North Korea, p88

This is your last call to enter the acclaimed Wanderlust Travel Photo of the Year competition to win a commission to the budding snapper’s dream of West Africa

The sand seems to go on forever here, as beach becomes dune, becomes coastal forest…

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TALKING HEADS Kate Humble, p20 “For me, travelling is being able to feel like you can have an immersive experience with local people. Public transport is brilliant for that. You go on African minibuses – instantly you will be in conversation and find out stuff that you wouldn’t find out if you were on an official tour.”

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Catch it now you can

Fishing for supper at Lake Manarsulik, in Pingualuit – one of three national parks that are waiting to be discovered by travellers to Nunavik

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Nunavik, Canada

Beyond the end of the road Inuit culture, curious craters and wild caribou, musk-ox and polar bears: welcome to Nunavik – Québec’s secret Arctic wonderland Words Phoebe Smith photographs Neil S Price

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THE PERFECT CHRISTMAS ❄ GIFT FOR ❄ TRAVEL ADDICTS

❄

10 ISSUES OF WANDERLUST + TRAVEL PHOTO OF THE YEAR VOLUME 6 BOOK + £50 TRAVEL VOUCHER ALL FOR £30

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Wanderlust Christmas Subscription Offer – PACKAGE WORTH £110

Travel Photo The Year Volu Of me 6 is th

❄

e brand ne w 136-page h ardback photobook worth £20

❄ * FOR ONLY £30 YOU CAN GIVE SOMEONE ❄ 10 ISSUES OF WANDERLUST ❄ A copy of the NEW photobook TRAVEL PHOTO OF THE YEAR VOLUME 6 ❄ £50 TRAVEL VOUCHER towards their next trip booking‡ Order online: www.WanderlustXmas.co.uk Or call us: 01753 620426 *UK subscription cost: £30 for ten issues. Overseas: Europe £42; rest-of-world airmail £52; rest-of-world surface mail £42. Payment must be in UK sterling. Order by 9 December 2014 to guarantee delivery (within UK) by Christmas – we’ll do our best to process orders received after that. Offer ends 31 December 2014. Wanderlust Publications cannot accept any responsibility for delivery delays due to Royal Mail. Free Wanderlust Travel Photo Of The Year Volume 6 book offer valid for UK delivery addresses only. Gift giver and recipient must be different. Not valid in conjunction with any other offer. ‡ Terms and conditions apply – see wanderlustvoucher.co.uk for details.

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uncharted

brazil An off-the-map village, an endangered tribe and endless empty sands – southern Bahia is Brazil at its most off-grid Words & photographs Nick Boulos

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Brazil: unplugged

The Bahian village of CaraĂ­va has no roads and no cars; electricity only arrived in 2008

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Sweden

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Aurora on the cheap Trips to see the northern lights are typically pricey – but do they have to be? We headed to Arctic Sweden on a budget to find out...

WORDS PETER MOORE

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North Korea

✪

Behind the line You can’t go where you like. You must have a guide.

You have to bow to the Great and Dear Leaders.

But still: is restrictive, secretive, bizarre North Korea the world’s most intriguing country?

Words & photographs M A Ryder

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Guide Awards

104 |

Wanderlust November 2014

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Guide Awards

2014

THE WORLD’S BEST GUIDES

Meet this year’s winners! Lyn Hughes reveals four unsung heroes of the travel industry after a night celebrating them at the Wanderlust World Guide Awards 2014

Getty

T

he Wanderlust World Guide Awards ceremony is the best and worst night of my year.

On the one hand I love it.

I love the chance to honour the truly great tour guides, who so often go unapplauded; having heard all about them, I relish meeting them in the flesh, hearing their stories and being wowed by their grace and humility.

But I also dread it. Narrowing down the long-list of nominated guides is so tricky. And then deciding on just one winner is more difficult still! I swear that all of us judges have less hair and more furrow lines now that the awards are in their ninth year.

Yet, even if it does cause a few sleepless nights, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I set up the World Guide Awards after the death of Wanderlust co-founder (and my late husband) Paul Morrison in 2004; I wanted to establish an award in his memory, one of which he would be proud.

Paul was fanatical about the

importance of good guides. This year’s inspirational finalists would not have been a disappointment.

The results were announced at London’s Royal Geographical Society on 21 October. If you couldn’t make it on the night, turn over to find out who took this year’s crown…

How the winners were chosen We asked you to nominate the outstanding guides you’ve travelled with – we received well over 2,000 nominations. We shortlisted these and invited further testimonials. The judging panel then met to decide who would win Gold, a £5,000 bursary; Silver £2,500; and Bronze £1,000.

The bursaries, kindly supported by Swarovski Optik, are to be spent on worthwhile projects chosen by the winners. Further prizes were very kindly provided by Swarovski Optik (swarovskioptik.com), Nomad Travel Store (nomadtravel.co.uk) and Powertraveller (powertraveller.com).

Wanderlust November 2014

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s e c r e t Windswept dramas. Wonderful wildlife. A spot of oldfashioned crowd-free kicking back. Whatever you hit the coast for, those hidden crescents of paradise are often travel’s greatest word-of-mouth currency – here Wanderlust opens its wallet. Don’t tell anyone…

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Through the arches

Legzira’s natural landscapes have been sculpted by centuries of waves

b e a c h e s

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