Lonely Planet

47 years ago, Lonely Planet founders Tony and Maureen Wheeler had just completed a life-changing journey from London to Australia, and written a booklet about a portion of it: Across Asia on the Cheap . As they sat in an Italian restaurant necking a few glasses of wine, they tried to dream up the name for their fledgling publishing company. ‘Once while travelling across the sky,’ said Tony, repeating the lyrics to the song Space Captain , as sung by Joe Cocker, ‘this lonely planet caught my eye.’ The correct words were actually ‘lovely planet’, but somehow ‘lonely planet’ stuck… and here we are today. Our hippy-era name must never have sounded more apt than it does right now, assuming your passion for travel is bottled up as you avoid…

Many mountaineers say Everest is becoming crowded – but it’s unlikely that the year 2020 will add much to the 5,000-or-more tally of people who have climbed to the highest point on Earth. Travel restrictions have halted mountaineers and regular sightseers alike, but there’s a wealth of films to take all of us into these often forbiddingly remote regions. While the Banff Mountain Film Festival’s UK tour has been pushed back, on its site you can find five short films exploring aspects of outdoors adventure (banff-uk.com/watch). The Lorax Project follows an Australian man’s dream to combine two seldom-paired disciplines – rock-climbing and BASE-jumping – at a sheer-faced mountain in Tasmania, while The Last Honey Hunter tells the story of a Nepalese villager whose own dream meant he was the only…

Roam with dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum Online offerings at London’s terracotta temple to nature include skeletal dinosaurs, game-changing scientific discoveries and a tour of the tank room, which is normally open only for specially booked visits (artsandculture. google.com/partner/ natural-history-museum). Take an intimate look at the Met Museum Get a feel for New York’s cultural behemoth with the Met 360° Project, videos where you can swivel the camera as it tracks through different galleries, or set the kids loose on an interactive illustrated map of the museum (metmuseum.org/art/ online-features). Uncover the cultural riches of Vienna A portal to some of the treasures of a museum-laden city, this site lets you in on the hoarding habits of the Habsburg dynasty, the art of Gustav Klimt, gemstones at the Naturhistorisches Museum and more (wien.info/en/sightseeing/sights/a-virtual-wayto-marvel-at-vienna). Go back to…

A new book, Cooking in Marfa (£35; Phaidon), celebrates a town that’s an unlikely haven of art and fine dining in the Texas desert – try this recipe for vivid flavours of the US Southwest and Mexico, even if you don’t go as far as grinding your own grasshoppers for the special ‘sal de chapulín’ salt Grilled avocado guacamole Serves 6 FOR THE TOSTONES Neutral oil, such as soybean or avocado, for frying6 green plantainsSal de chapulín or sal de gusano FOR THE GUACAMOLE 120 ml fresh lime juice60 ml avocado oil1 tsp citric acid (optional)6 firm-ripe Hass avocados, halved and pittedFlaked salt and freshly ground black pepper½ medium red onion, cut into 3mm dice2 jalapeños, seeded and cut into 3mm dice20g finely chopped fresh coriander½ tsp ground cumin2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil MAKE THE TOSTONES: Pour…

Kalsarikännit (FINNISH) ‘Being drunk while just in underwear (literally); having very casual drinks at home or with a friend instead of going out (figuratively)’ Voorpret (DUTCH); VORFREUDE (GERMAN) ‘A pleasant or excited anticipation of joy to come’ Dor (ROMANIAN) ‘An almost painful longing, for someone or something’ Tsundoku (JAPANESE) ‘Piling up books at home that you never get around to reading’ Fernweh (GERMAN) ‘A restless and intense desire to travel far away; “farsickness” in contrast to “homesickness”’ Retrouvailles (FRENCH) ‘A joyous getting back together after a long time’…

Go to art school Channel complex feelings about the world into creativity, joining artists working in different media for tutorials. Contributors include printmakers, portrait painters, ceramicists and sculptors – plus Sir Quentin Blake (search for ‘Isolation Art School’ on Instagram). Learn to cook While London’s famed Borough Market continues in reduced form, its wider network has moved online to swap recipes and post videos (see ‘Borough Market Community’ on Facebook). Find your voice Download Zoom then join singers of all standards to practise classic songs (thesofasingers.com). Learn a language When travel is back on, you can arrive with the basics of a new language, from Spanish to Korean (memrise.com). Master a new craft There are countless tutorials on craft website Etsy. Cast cultural horizons wider by making Armenian knot patterns, paper models of Japanese gates, and more (etsy. com/uk/market/tutorials). ARTIST’S…