Sommaire pour Winter 2023 de AFAR

SARAH KHAN Writer Canada-born, New York City–based writer Sarah Khan spent the formative years of her childhood in Saudi Arabia. In Kingdom Come (p.92), she discusses her relationship to the country and its rapidly changing position on the global stage. “It’s fascinating seeing how it has evolved, and to watch [international travelers] discover it,” she says. Khan’s byline has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Travel + Leisure, and she recently served as the editor-in-chief of Condé Nast Traveller Middle East. Find her on Twitter and Instagram @bysarahkhan. KEITH DREW Writer Keith Drew is a journalist based in Winchester, England. He is the founder of the travel website Lijoma, which offers intel and inspiration for families on the road. There’s no place on Earth more…

Required eating Pumpkin seed oil, which can be found flavoring everything from salads to ice cream Best time of year to visit May—for both Design Month and the Lendwirbel festival Population 295,000 JUST OVER 100 MILES south of Vienna, amid the surprisingly Mediterranean climate of the Styrian wine region, sits Austria’s second-largest city. Here, a fairy-tale jumble of baroque and Renaissance buildings clusters at the base of the Schlossberg, the hill that was once Graz’s ultimate defense. Back in medieval days, a daunting fortress stood at its summit; Napoleon had it destroyed, but the colorful facades and terra-cotta roofs that sprang up beneath it still shine brightly in the southern Austrian sun. On the east side of the river Mur, Graz’s past is a vivid presence. On the west bank,…

How to get there A taxi from Dubai International Airport to Sharjah’s heritage district takes about 20 minutes. Population 1.6 million Required reading Building Sharjah (Birkhäuser, 2021), edited by Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi and Todd Reisz, is filled with archival photography and accounts of the emirate’s development. Required eating The breakfast tray at the Arabian Tea House comes with eggs, olives, rose jam, za’atar, labneh, Halloumi, fresh cream, honey, and tandoor bread. Best time of year to visit Summer is very, very hot. Go between November and April for more comfortable temperatures. EVER SINCE I MOVED to the United Arab Emirates seven years ago, I’ve loved Sharjah. It may not have the biggest/tallest/highest superlatives of Dubai or the epic palaces of Abu Dhabi, but understated Sharjah is home to some…

Required Reading The Betrothed, by Alessandro Manzoni, is an Italian classic about star-crossed lovers in 17th-century Lombardy and includes scenes set in Bergamo. Neighborhood not to miss Brescia’s Areadocks—an old railway warehouse complex—has transformed over the past two decades into an enclave of bars, restaurants, and design shops. Population Brescia 197,000 Bergamo 120,000 THE KEY INGREDIENTS of la dolce vita? Golden light beaming across ancient stones, a piazza that bustles at aperitivo hour, and streets ripe for a passeggiata (stroll) to work it all off. Enter Brescia and Bergamo, two cities in the northern Italian region of Lombardy that have been named joint Italian Capitals of Culture for 2023. If you only know them from news reports in early 2020—the two were hit hard during the pandemic—prepare to be bowled…

A “happy place” is, to me, a mini escape. No matter how high my stack of dishes is, I close my eyes and zoom back to a moment of bliss to lighten my current load. I’ve had to “travel” to my happy place a lot lately, and luckily, I’ve had it locked in for years: The Frick Garden Court. Picture it—Manhattan, 2014, on one of my customary solo birthday museum crawls, I’m perched atop a cool marble bench, bathed in peachy, diffused light, zoning out to the plop, plop, plop of the fountain. New York had been serving up obstacle after obstacle since I’d arrived in 2011, and I finally felt in control of my life. Nowadays, when I close my eyes and conjure the courtyard of this Gilded Age…

AS AN OWNER of a travel media company, I’m fortunate to work with a knowledgeable team, publish great stories, and meet people who give me endless ideas about where to go next. The only challenge: It’s hard to choose. One of my favorite sources of inspiration is AFAR’s annual Where to Go list. Our editorial team reaches out to writers, reporters, and correspondents around the world for their top picks of places our travelers should visit in the coming year. They then sort through them and select destinations that feel poised for “a moment,” whether it’s a new cultural institution, park, or food offering. I just got back from a cycling trip to eastern Canada’s Prince Edward Island (PEI). I went there based on an early preview of this year’s…

Population 558,000 Know before you go The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre has reconstructed an Indigenous language, now called palawa kani (using only lowercase). How to get there Qantas, Virgin Australia, and Jetstar all fly direct to Hobart or Launceston from Melbourne, Sydney, or Brisbane. Nickname Tas or Tassie What if I had realized that a couple of hundred miles off the coast of Melbourne was an island known for its stark and dramatic natural beauty? Stay longer In Hobart, try the Rox—an 1880s schoolhouse turned into apartments—or the Pavilions, guest rooms run by the Museum of Old and New Art. The reservation to make The restaurant Van Bone, located on Marion Bay, serves a four-hour lunch made with the bounty from on-site orchards and nearby organic farms. IT WAS MY FIRST…

How to get there There are no nonstop flights from the United States, but Air Canada launched seasonal service from Vancouver to Bangkok on December 1—the first direct route from North America in a decade. Where to stay The Standard, Bangkok Mahanakhon hotel opened in late July with saturated, curvaceous decor and a well-curated concept shop. Required eating Kuay teow reua, or boat noodles, are made with Thai basil, morning glory, and chile simmered in a tom yum soup base. Stay longer Hop a long-tail boat to Bang Krachao, aka the Green Lung of Bangkok, an island rich in farmland, jungle, and forest. Explore by bike and make a night of it by booking a villa at wellness retreat RAKxa. Nickname Bangkok’s complete Thai moniker is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon…

MY EARLIEST MEMORY of being on a plane involves a metal tray sticky with the syrup that coated my pancakes. I was eight years old. My parents and I were somewhere between New York City, our origin, and Port-au-Prince, Haiti, our destination. The sky was a crystalline blue, and we hovered above thick, white, fluffy clouds. I fantasized about leaping out of the plane and frolicking among them like characters from Care Bears, a cartoon I adored. From the very beginning, I loved every minute of flying. But by February 2020—when I took my last prepandemic flight, from a conference in San Diego to my home in New York City—flying had become unremarkable. My memories of the trip are shaded by decades of other flights across North America, Europe, Africa, and…

THE CLANG OF A BRASS BELL vibrates down my spine, and I watch my grandmother fold her hands in prayer. I mimic her movements, walk behind her, and circumambulate the altar. I am nine years old and visiting relatives in Bengaluru, India, from the United States. My mother, grandmother, and I are in a Hindu temple in Malleshwaram, a middle-class neighborhood that is the geographic center of my grandparents’ world. The fragrance of jasmine and champak flowers mingles with the mustiness of the space, and the stone feels cool to my bare feet. “Sit for a few minutes,” my grandmother, whom I call Ajji, tells me in Kannada. “We should always sit at the temple when we visit.” As we emerge from the dark interiors, we are greeted by a…

Best time of year to visit June to November. The camp is closed from December to May. Required eating Bread baked over an open fire on the spokes of repurposed bicycle wheels How to get there Fly into Dar es Salaam and take a smaller bush plane to the Jongomero airstrip, located in the southern part of Ruaha. SPRAWLED ACROSS 7,700 square miles in southern Tanzania, Ruaha is the country’s second-largest national park. Yet it draws only a tiny fraction of Tanzania’s safarigoers, who flock in much larger numbers to the more famous Serengeti in the north. But low visitation rates make biodiverse Ruaha a wildlife enthusiast’s dream: This vast landscape of habitats, ranging from savannas to wetlands, feels like a private game reserve, and travelers can go days without seeing…

ATLAS OCEAN VOYAGES This company has two Antarctic 200-passenger cruisers, the retro-chic World Navigator and the new, yacht-inspired World Traveller. Thanks to a hybrid power-management and propulsion system, each vessel uses one-fifth the fuel of a conventional ship. Dining options showcase Portuguese specialties, while travelers can unwind in L’Occitane’s onboard spa. 9 nights from $7,499 (with second guest included) VIKING The Viking Octantis and Viking Polaris aren’t just luxury cruise ships—they’re also equipped with scientific labs that provide data to such organizations as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Onboard amenities include private balconies and free internet access. Guests can also join deep-sea diving excursions on the ships’ six-passenger submarines. 12 nights from $13,995, based on double occupancy LINDBLAD EXPEDITIONS Sail on one of the company’s newest ships, the National…