The Cook Islands has won the highly acclaimed Best in Travel award for 2022 from leading travel brand Lonely Planet, which began publishing the popular Lonely Planet travel guide books nearly a half-century ago. The Cook Islands was voted number one in the Top 10 Countries category. The Cook Islands is reopening its borders progressively, first to ...

I had travelled by bus from Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe to the town of Kasane, Botswana, where I planned to enter the famous Chobe National Park. Kasane is at Africa's "four corners" where Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe all meet. Approaching the border, I stared in dismay at the long line of trucks waiting to complete the necessary customs c...

The Hunter Valley in New South Wales is Australia's oldest wine-producing region and it's only 120km or a two-hour drive north of Sydney, from where it gets most of its visitors. It is a region of stunning natural beauty and undulating vineyard landscapes, award-winning restaurants, innovative paddock-to-plate produce and more than 150 cellar doors...

Dur Hospitality has sealed an agreement with Accor to open an upmarket tourist resort in Jeddah with the first appearance in the city of its Rixos brand. Claiming to bring next-level luxury to Obhur Bay, Dur will upgrade and restyle the Makarem Annakheel Village, transforming it into the Rixos Jeddah Resort – a five-star luxury hotel with water par...

After a 27-year absence, critically endangered southern black rhino have been successfully relocated to Gonarezhou National Park in the south-eastern region of Zimbabwe. The groundbreaking relocation was conducted late last year by the non-profit Malilangwe Trust, in partnership with the Gonarezhou Conservation Trust, in a crucial conservation inte...

Cyprus is situated in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, less than 100 miles from both Turkey and Syria and about 500 miles southeast of mainland Greece. It is the third largest Mediterranean island after Sicily and Sardinia. When I lived in the UK it was a popular destination for both tourists and retirees from Britain, with its wa...