From Hollywood to Starbucks to the ‘American Dream’, the USA has so relentlessly exported its culture around the globe that many of us feel that we know it already. The country is far from a monoculture though and there remains plenty to explore. LA, Las Vegas, Miami and New York all have their own international […]

A low-lying peninsula surrounded by the North and Baltic seas, Denmark is very much a maritime nation with a strong shipping industry. Yet with few natural resources to exploit it has been forced to invest highly in infrastructure and develop a highly skills-based economy. The result is a nation with the highest per-capita GDP in […]

After tempestuous political conflict during the 1980s, Latvia gained independence from Soviet rule in the early nineties. Since then it has experienced rapid economic growth and even more rapid economic decline – the recession that hit in 2008 set a new world record as the economy shrank 25 percent in two years. Civil unrest and […]

As a nation, Peru suffers from a veritable embarrassment of riches when it comes to natural beauty and pre-Columbian heritage. So for a long time Lima has simply left the rest of the country to it and gotten on with the business of being the capital. As a result, it is often overlooked by travellers, […]

If Alice had stopped to think for a moment before disappearing down the hole, she may never have discovered Wonderland and Carroll’s glorious cast of misfits would have remained undiscovered. So too if you dwell too much on Zimbabwe’s satellite pictures you may convince yourself – wrongly – that there is little there worth uncovering. […]

At the heart of southern Asia, bordered by China, India, Afghanistan and Iran, Pakistan is a hidden gem full of wonders rarely seen by many westerners. In large part this is due to years of turmoil; an uneasy relationship with India and extremist Islam have marred its reputation as a destination. To the everyday Pakistani, […]

Nestled in the packed heartland of Europe, Hungary is often overlooked by nations further west, yet this former world power still has a lot going for it. Split by the glorious Danube, it’s varied and forgiving terrain provides ample opportunities for fishing, horse riding, botany, bird-watching, cycling and a host of other outdoor pursuits; meanwhile, […]

An island of golden, tropical beaches and tranquil tea plantations hidden in green mountain valleys, Sri Lanka is a cricket-obsessed island off the southern tip of India. Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim influences are overlaid with the legacy of British rule. The classic countryside comes complete with ancient cities and colonial artefacts, not to mention busy […]

At the end of the last ice age, as polar caps retreated, the Sami were so enamoured with the ice that they followed it all the way north and still dwell there today, in the Sápmi region of Scandinavia. The haunting spirituality with which the wilderness affects the populace should not be underestimated; to understand […]

The United Arab Emirates is a marvellously contradictory nation, where conspicuous consumption and ostentation hold hands with traditional Muslim conservatism and a Bedouin culture than continues to thrive in the country’s deserts. Dubai, the city which invented the ‘shopping festival’, dazzles with its ultra-modern skyline and ever-present glamour. Yet the desert sands beyond tell a […]

New York is about far more than bricks and mortar, or even the people who inhabit it. It’s importance to the nation runs deeper even than its status as the world’s second biggest financial centre. The streets aren’t quite paved with gold, but to some they might as well be; New York is the embodiment […]

From rather modest beginnings in 1847, when it was founded as a Mormon retreat by the prophet Brigham Young, Salt Lake City boomed with the laying of the first transcontinental railway through the town. Originally populated by religious converts, the discovery of mineral wealth in the surrounding country brought greater economic prosperity, and today the […]