The CalenVoy Journal

Perspectives on
travel done properly.

Not destination guides. Not ranked lists. Just considered observations from people who spend their lives arranging exceptional travel, and paying close attention along the way.

16, Pieces

Europe

The coastlines, valleys and mountain regions that reward the second trip.

Caldera view from a private estate above Santorini, Greece.

Greece6 min read

Santorini. The Island Inside the Volcano.

Everyone arrives with the photograph already loaded. What it cannot show is what you are actually looking at.

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The Sella massif of the Dolomites above an alpine meadow, South Tyrol, northern Italy.

Italy8 min read

The Dolomites and the Lagoon. The Italy Beyond the Postcard.

Everyone does Rome, Florence, the Amalfi Coast, and Venice in a single overrun afternoon. The north holds a different country: a lagoon the day-trippers never learn to read, and a range of mountains where Italy shades into the Alps and stops sounding Italian at all.

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Private coastal villa in Cadaqués, Costa Brava.

Spain6 min read

Cadaqués. The Spain Most People Never Find.

There is a version of Spain that everyone knows. Cadaqués is not that version.

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A car-free Elaphiti island with stone harbour and clear Adriatic water, near Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Croatia8 min read

The Elaphiti. The Croatia a Short Boat Ride From the Crowds.

Everyone crowds the walls of Dubrovnik and the decks of the party islands. A short boat ride offshore lies a different Adriatic: car-free islands, a quiet inland of truffles and wine, and the Dalmatia the cruise ships and the tour groups never reach.

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Private estate overlooking Lake Alqueva, Alentejo, Portugal.

Portugal7 min read

Portugal. A Country That Rewards the Wrong Turn.

Everyone goes to Lisbon. The country begins when you leave.

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A traditional wooden gulet anchored in a turquoise bay on the Aegean coast, Turkey.

Turkey8 min read

The Aegean Coast. The Turkey Beyond Istanbul and the Balloons.

Everyone does the same three things, Istanbul, the balloons over Cappadocia, the all-inclusive resort coast. The Turkey that rewards the seasoned traveller is the Aegean: quiet peninsulas, a boat in the bays, and the greatest concentration of the ancient world outside Italy.

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Private villa nestled in umbrella pines, the Var, South of France.

France6 min read

The Var. The France Most People Drive Through.

Everyone goes to St Tropez. Almost nobody finds what is actually around it.

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The honey-stone fortifications and harbour of Valletta at golden hour, Malta.

Malta8 min read

Malta. The Mediterranean's Oldest Argument.

Everyone treats Malta as a cheap-flight, sun-and-sea package island. It is one of the most layered places in the Mediterranean, the oldest free-standing buildings on earth, the Knights, Caravaggio, a fortress capital, and a rock the whole sea has fought over for seven thousand years.

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Private lakeside estate in the Salzkammergut, Upper Austria.

Austria7 min read

The Salzkammergut. The Lakes the Habsburgs Kept for Themselves.

Everyone goes to Vienna. The Austria that actually shaped the empire sat, for eight hundred years, an hour east of Salzburg.

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A Regency country house and its parkland reflected in a still lake, the Irish midlands.

Ireland8 min read

The Great Houses. The Ireland the Coast Road Drives Past.

Everyone follows the same coastal circuit, Dublin, the cliffs, the Ring of Kerry, the long drive along the Atlantic. The Ireland the houses keep is inland and private: a country of Regency demesnes, parkland and lake, and five thousand years of history the coach never stops for.

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Private granite-shore estate in the Bohuslän archipelago, West Coast of Sweden.

Sweden7 min read

Bohuslän. Where Sweden Keeps Its Summer.

Everyone goes to Stockholm. Swedes spend their summers on the other coast entirely.

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Private lakeside estate beneath the Bavarian Alps, Chiemgau, Germany.

Germany7 min read

The Chiemgau. The Germany That Never Stopped Being Itself.

Everyone goes to Berlin or Munich. An hour beyond the city, the country reverts to something older and considerably more itself.

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Private shore-side estate in the Lofoten archipelago, Arctic Norway.

Norway7 min read

Lofoten. The Norway Above the Line.

Everyone lands in Oslo. The country that matters begins four degrees of latitude further north.

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A chalet on the south-facing terrace of Verbier, the Grand Combin massif beyond, Val de Bagnes, Valais, Switzerland.

Switzerland8 min read

The Val de Bagnes. The Switzerland Beyond the Ski Week.

Everyone arrives in winter, for a week, with the same photograph already in mind. The valley behind the resort holds the older country, the one that runs from a glacier to a vineyard in a single afternoon, and is at its best in summer, when almost no one comes.

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Private lochside estate in the Scottish Highlands, northwest coast.

United Kingdom7 min read

The Northwest Highlands. The Britain That Begins Where the Road Ends.

Everyone arrives in London. A long way north, the country becomes something else entirely.

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Ancient Caledonian pine forest below the Cairngorm plateau, central Scottish Highlands.

Scotland8 min read

The Cairngorms and the Great Glen. The Highlands the Country Is Putting Back.

Everyone does Loch Ness as a photo-stop and drives on. East of the famous road lie the mountains, the last of the old forest, and the one stretch of the Highlands being brought back to life.

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01 / 16

06, Pieces

Asia

Islands, temples and the landscapes that sit quietly to one side of the main circuits.

Private beachfront estate on Koh Yao Noi, Phang Nga Bay, Thailand.

Thailand6 min read

Koh Yao Noi. The Thailand Phuket Forgot.

Everyone flies into Phuket. Almost nobody looks left.

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Private palace estate on the lake at Udaipur, Rajasthan, India.

India8 min read

Rajasthan. The India the Maharajas Kept.

Everyone arrives in Delhi. The India most worth the journey sits five hundred kilometres west, in a desert the princely families held for a thousand years.

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Beachfront estate on Sri Lanka's south coast, Indian Ocean beyond.

Sri Lanka7 min read

Sri Lanka. The Island That Rewards Attention.

Most people spend a week here and leave having seen the surface. The surface is remarkable but what lies beneath?

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Private coastal estate on Jeju Island, volcanic coast and southern sea beyond.

South Korea7 min read

Jeju. The Korea the City Goes to When It Wants to Stop.

Everyone flies into Seoul. The country Koreans themselves retreat to sits an hour's flight south, in the middle of the sea.

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Private island estate on the Seto Inland Sea, looking across to Naoshima, Japan.

Japan8 min read

The Setouchi. The Japan the Country Itself Quietly Chose.

Everyone goes to Tokyo. Everyone eventually goes to Kyoto. Almost nobody finds the inland sea between them, and the archipelago of art islands the country has quietly built there over forty years.

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Private residence in a colonial shophouse quarter of Singapore, with the skyline beyond.

Singapore7 min read

Singapore. The City-State That Rewards the Longer Stay.

Most people treat Singapore as a layover. The city is considerably more than that, and the islands beyond it are something else entirely.

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01 / 06

09, Pieces

Africa

The regions a single capital city, however beautiful, cannot explain.

Private kasbah estate in the Drâa Valley, southern Morocco, with the High Atlas on the horizon.

Morocco8 min read

Beyond the Atlas. The Morocco That Begins Where Marrakech Ends.

Everyone goes to the medina. The country changes entirely the moment you cross the pass south.

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Private estate in the Cape Winelands with the mountains beyond, Western Cape, South Africa.

South Africa8 min read

The Cape. Where the Continent's Edge Becomes a Country.

Everyone photographs Table Mountain. Almost nobody understands what they are actually standing on the edge of.

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Acacia and open grassland of the Serengeti ecosystem, Crater Highlands in the distance, northern Tanzania.

Tanzania9 min read

Tanzania. The Africa the Safari Photograph Cannot Quite Hold.

Everyone arrives for the migration photograph and the Zanzibar beach. The civilisation between them is one of the oldest on the continent, and the one most travellers never quite reach.

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Reticulated giraffe on the arid plains of the northern Kenya conservancies, Mount Kenya beyond.

Kenya9 min read

The Northern Frontier. The Kenya Beyond the Migration.

Everyone comes for the Mara and the river-crossing, the part of Kenya that most resembles its neighbour. The country that is genuinely its own sits to the north, in an arid frontier the famous safari never reaches.

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The upper Zambezi River above Victoria Falls at dusk, northwestern Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe9 min read

The Zambezi. The Zimbabwe the Waterfall Hides.

Everyone comes for the falls and the photograph from the bridge. The country the river runs through, the elephant herds of Hwange, the walking country of Mana Pools, and the finest guiding in Africa, begins where the day-trippers turn back.

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Walking safari on the bank of the Luangwa River at dawn, South Luangwa, Zambia.

Zambia9 min read

The Luangwa. The Zambia You Travel on Foot.

Everyone meets Africa through the windscreen of a vehicle. Zambia is where the walking safari was invented, and the one country that still asks you to step down and meet the wild on its own ground.

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Red dunes and a white clay pan at first light, the Namib Desert, Namibia.

Namibia9 min read

The Namib. The Country Built Out of Emptiness.

Everyone comes for the photograph of the red dunes. The dunes are the least of it. Namibia is the second-emptiest country on earth, and the emptiness is the entire point.

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Avenue of the Baobabs at sunset near Morondava, western Madagascar.

Madagascar9 min read

Madagascar. The Island That Evolved Alone.

It is the fourth-largest island on earth, it broke away from everything else before the primates existed, and nine in ten of the living things on it are found nowhere else. Almost nobody goes.

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Traditional dahabiya sailing the Nile between Luxor and Aswan, Upper Egypt.

Egypt8 min read

The Upper Nile. The Egypt the Cruise Ships Pass Through.

Everyone sees the pyramids. Almost nobody sees the country that built them the way it was meant to be seen.

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01 / 09

04, Pieces

Americas

The continents beneath the itineraries, from high desert to Pacific rainforest.

Private estate above the Oaxaca valley, Sierra Madre beyond, southern Mexico.

Mexico8 min read

Oaxaca. The Mexico the Country Considers the Real One.

Everyone goes to the Caribbean coast. The country that actually shaped the country sits six hundred kilometres south, in a valley the Spanish never quite conquered.

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Private adobe estate on the high desert plateau of northern New Mexico, Sangre de Cristo mountains beyond.

United States8 min read

The High Desert. The America That Predates the Country.

Everyone has a version of the United States already in mind. A high plateau in the southwest quietly holds the one that has been here the longest.

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Pacific fjord and old-growth temperate rainforest of the British Columbia coast, the Great Bear Rainforest.

Canada9 min read

The Inside Passage. The Canada the Rest of the Country Does Not Quite Reach.

Everyone goes to the Rockies. West of them the country falls into a thousand kilometres of fjord and rainforest, the oldest, wildest Canada there is, and the one most visitors never reach.

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A private island in the Gulf of Chiriquí at sunset, Pacific coast of Panama.

Panama8 min read

The Gulf of Chiriquí. The Panama Beyond the Canal.

Everyone knows Panama as the canal, a place the world sails through rather than goes to. The country is one of the most biodiverse on earth, a bridge between two continents and two oceans, and its Pacific islands are a marine wilderness almost no one reaches.

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01 / 04

05, Pieces

Caribbean

The islands that quietly chose not to compete for the postcard.

Clifftop estate above Little Bay, Anguilla.

Anguilla6 min read

Anguilla. The Caribbean Everyone Flies Past.

Eight miles from one of the Caribbean's busiest airports. Almost nobody makes the crossing.

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The wild Atlantic surf and rock formations of the east coast at Bathsheba, Barbados.

Barbados8 min read

Barbados. The Island the Postcard Stops Short Of.

Everyone arrives with the Platinum Coast already in mind, the calm west-coast beach, the famous names at Christmas. The island behind the postcard is older and stranger: a coral rock alone in the Atlantic, the oldest democracy in the hemisphere outside Westminster, and the birthplace of rum.

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The horseshoe harbour of St George's at dusk, Grenada.

Grenada8 min read

Grenada. The Caribbean That Stayed a Garden.

Everyone arrives in the Caribbean expecting the same beach and the same resort strip. Grenada never built it. The most fragrant island in the region stayed a working garden of nutmeg and cocoa, and is the better, and quieter, for it.

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Beachfront estate on the Amber Coast, Dominican Republic.

Dominican Republic6 min read

The Dominican Republic. The Caribbean That Doesn't Know It's the Caribbean.

The most geographically varied nation in the Caribbean.

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A private island in the North Sound off Virgin Gorda at dusk, yachts at anchor, British Virgin Islands.

British Virgin Islands8 min read

The North Sound. The Caribbean You Sail Rather Than Land On.

Everyone pictures the Caribbean as a single beach, reached by one flight and stayed on for a week. The British Virgin Islands are the version that was never meant to be a fixed point, some sixty islands in a sheltered sea, the finest sailing grounds on earth, and a far corner where the richest thing to do is not visit an island but take one.

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01 / 05

01, Pieces