Wanderlust Issue 222 Sampler

�

9 771351 473133

August/September 2022 £5.95

22 >

Taking The Road Less Travelled Since 1993

�

WONDROUS USA

URBAN ESCAPES • YELLOWSTONE AT 150 • WILDLIFE HOTSPOTS Shackleton’s South Georgia Ticino Vibrant Bogotá New Zealand The untamed Azores New Marrakech Micronesia Jordan’s Bedouin

Al Balad, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Photographer: Matthieu Salvaing The beating heart of Jeddah is its UNESCO-listed Al Balad neighbourhood, celebrated in this new book by James Parry. It was here that wealthy merchants commissioned lavish homes, building them ever higher because the old city walls (now long gone) meant they couldn’t expand outwards. Today, visitors stroll beneath its soaring tower houses craning upwards at the intricate and colourful rawashin (latticed balcony windows).

But even these are in danger. Despite attempts to preserve Al Balad over the decades, many of its buildings now lean heavily, so an ongoing project geared at saving those in the worst condition is welcome. With the country’s visa-onarrival scheme now reopened, we can’t wait to explore this historic area knowing that its future has finally been secured. © Matthieu Salvaing. Jeddah Al-Balad

by James Parry (Assouline; £70) is out now; eu.assouline.com

VIEWFINDER

WANDERSLEEPS

New Zealand’s green stays Whether going off-grid in a glass pod, staying on a working farm or living among the trees, these eco-friendly escapes will get you back to nature Reviewed by Gareth Clark

42 August/September 2022

JOURNAL New Zealand

NEST TREE HOUSES, WAITAKI, SOUTH ISLAND Hidden among the branches of a hilltop forest overlooking the Hakataramea Valley lies a treehouse stay that feels more like a boutique escape. Floor-to-ceiling windows stare out across the valley, a cedar bathtub sits snugly on the outdoor deck and a private treetop sauna offers a dash of off-grid decadence at this adults-only retreat. There’s also plenty nearby to keep you busy, with farm and vineyard tours affording a taste of the area’s rural charms. And come nightfall, you can just lie back and contemplate your place in the universe – the site lies on the edge of Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve. This summer also saw the owners open a second treehouse, so you’re now spoilt for choice. Treehouses from £251pn, including breakfast; nesttreehouses.com

Touching the stars Nest Tree Houses lies on the edge of a Dark Sky Preserve, and on a clear night you can make out constellations unique to the Southern Hemisphere

Cindy Mottelet; Cross Hill Lodge; Fold in the Map

CROSS HILL LODGE AND DOMES, LAKE HAWEA, SOUTH ISLAND Plush geodomes scatter the shoreline of Hawea, one of the lesser-visited lakes wrapping Wanaka. It’s certainly a setting designed to charm the camera lens, thanks to the area’s U-shaped valleys carved tens of thousands of years ago by departing glaciers. The domes offer plenty of home comforts, with floor-to-ceiling windows, plush double beds and even a small kitchenette. It’s a cosy affair, and the camp’s lodge even dishes up meals fresh from the farm. A few relics of the area’s gold-mining past survive on the slopes above, but the appeal here is nature. It’s out paddleboarding on the quiet lake waters or relaxing outside in a wood-fired outdoor hot tub that Cross Hill earns its restorative reputation. Domes from £205pn, ⊲ including breakfast; crosshill.co.nz

www.wanderlustmagazine.com 43

SOUTH GEORGIA

A JOURNEY of

ENDURANCE

A century after explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton died while moored off the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia, we retrace the steps of his most heroic adventure Words & photographs Mark Stratton

CALL OF THE WILD

The USA isn’t just a melting pot of people – it is also home to myriad wild species spread across all 50 states. You just need to know where to look…

Words Graeme Green

USA URBAN ESCAPES

USA Urban Escapes We all know the big US cities. But what about the rest? Discover Indigenous cultures, European relics, revolutionary history and incredible art and food in some of America’s overlooked stars

Alamy

J

USA URBAN ESCAPES

uly marks 246 years since US independence, and you could argue that Europe still doesn’t quite get the United States. You can see it in the way we travel. New York. San Francisco.

Los Angeles. Big cities, famous sights and Hollywood – that’s what we tend to focus on.

But that isn’t really America; it’s just part of it. Some would argue the least authentic part.

This is a huge country, and more often than not the places we fly over are invariably some of the most interesting: Midwestern industrial hubs reinventing themselves through art and culture; Southwestern border towns blending Spanish, Indigenous and Mexican heritage; New England enclaves where the aristocracy of the Gilded Age once thumbed their noses and flexed their wallets in glittering Italianate piles to rival any in Europe. There are 50 stars on the flag for a reason. Limiting yourself to a handful of states has never made much sense.

We can’t help but think that a tiny amount of snobbery – innate in all of us – comes into play. For example, most wouldn’t hesitate to seek out some medieval French hill town, far from the big city; Instagram posts declaring it to be the new ‘this’, the next ‘that’ would inevitably follow.

Why doesn’t the same apply to the USA? In many cases there is just as much history, art and culture as you’ll find in some European backwaters. There are colonial towns, Pueblo adobe villages, pioneer tales, revolutionary battlefields – heck, Hawaii even had its own monarchy. There is plenty to see and a wealth of stories to discover; it’s just that more often than not we only seem to accept the US for its national parks or its metropolises. Why not the rest of it?

The details in between are often far more juicy.

The Northeast is the perfect example. There are many different states within easy reach of heaving New York City, from tiny Rhode Island, where towns like Newport dazzle with 19th-century mansions, to history-rammed Massachusetts, where you might explore the ‘witch country’ around Salem, to the spruce forests and rocky coast of Maine. Any would make a fascinating detour for a few days. There are stories on top of stories here.

Then there are those cities that demand your attention.The Deep South is full of them. Complex places, like Charleston and Savannah, where the horrors of the slave plantations funded antebellum towns as delicate and fragile as they are beautiful; and where museums and institutions have finally started to ask the right questions and bring to light the tales of those left out of the history books. It’s the same for those cities where the dawn of the Civil Rights movement met with such fury and resistance; now their troubled backstories are part of what makes them special, as visitors trace trails that narrate a difficult past.

In the West you’ll find plenty of towns where Indigenous heritage is more pronounced than that of the European colonists who took the land. There is nuance; the kind you find in a huge country that is more like 50 nations under one banner. Sure, in places like Anchorage, glaciers and grizzlies tend to be the focus. But the Alaskan city is more than just a jumping-off point – it has its own fascinating sights and vibrant Indigenous culture.

It’s time to reassess how we look at the USA.You might find that it opens the doors to more destinations than you could visit in a lifetime, but that’s rather the point: there are 50 stars and they all deserve a chance to shine.

www.wanderlustmagazine.com 171

AZORES

AZORES

A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE The Azores might belong to Portugal, but for all this volcanic archipelago feels similar to its mainland cousin, there is a wildness to its landscape, geology and history that sets it apart Words Martin Symington

YELLOWSTONE & THE GREAT AMERICAN WEST

YELLOWSTONE & THE GREAT AMERICAN WEST

BACK TO WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

In 1872, a vast swathe of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho was set aside to create the first national park. Today, Yellowstone is more than just a wild gem – it’s the story of US conservation Words Lynn Houghton