Travelling through Monaco can sometimes feel like entering a crazy, high class circus, as 30,000 individuals, predominantly wealthy foreigners, are packed into 1.95km2 of the second smallest country in the world. A constitutional monarchy since 1911, it’s foreign policy and many of its economic interests are aligned with France by virtue of treaty; yet it […]

The UK is both one nation and four – the English may casually switch allegiance between Britain and England but ask a Scot his nationality and he will always say he is a Scot. Moreover, the UK is teeming with Poles, Indians, Aussies, Jews, Turks, Saffers and hundreds of other races, while restaurants serve everything […]

Natural disasters have a way of forcing you to appreciate the best things in life; though to be fair, that was never a problem for citizens of the ‘Big Easy’, the fun-time, happy-go-lucky former French colony on the banks of the Mississippi. Reconstruction works after the widespread destruction of 2005 and Hurricane Katrina is well […]

Founded in 1876, Cairns was originally established in order to export the gold that had been discovered west of the bay. The swamps and mangroves were cleared and filled with dried mud and sawdust and subsequent agriculture on the reclaimed land helped to support it as a growing northern port. During world war two it […]

Founded by Peter the Great in 1703, the ground on which this beautiful baroque city stands now was little more than a swamp in the early 18th century. Yet during the reign of Elizabeth, Peter’s daughter, the city flourished into a grand city of picturesque plazas and busy canals, with neoclassical flourishes inspired by Italian […]

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, […]