
On my first visit to Asia, international smugglers tried to scam me
I almost got caught in an Indian jewellery smuggling ring. I was that close. It was real.
Traveller's globetrotting backpacker, Ben Groundwater, finds the good, the bad and the ugly in the world’s best destinations. Ben is a columnist, blogger, feature writer, and host of Traveller's podcast Flight of Fancy, who has visited more than 80 countries during his 12 years in the industry. Ben was named travel writer of the year by the Australian Society of Travel Writers in 2014 and 2015.
I almost got caught in an Indian jewellery smuggling ring. I was that close. It was real.
Holy mountains and samurai strongholds are among the secret attractions of Tohoku.
There's a European airport that has its own brewery. A real brewery.
When you're drawing up your 2020 travel plans, you can safely strike these destinations from your list.
Here's a tip: don't go to French Polynesia on your own.
All of our rituals seem to involve alcohol. All of them.
Airports have duty-free, but they're also duty free. So go on, have a morning beverage. Indulge yourself.
You can certainly tell a lot about a nation – or at the very least a city – from your arrival at one of its air hubs.
Not many tourists experience the hospitality of the Basque capital.
It's stressful, it's chaotic, but it's something you can't avoid. Here's how to survive the drama that is the airport experience.
In certain societies, these actions of ours would be considered deeply immoral and ethically wrong.
Shouldn't we leave the drunken bust-ups and awkward airing of decades-old feuds for Christmas gatherings and birthdays?
The guy selling dates speaks Arabic, plus some French he says, and maybe even a little English. Or at least I think that's what he says.
Travel should be easy. It should be fun. It shouldn't require specialist skills or any specific qualification. And for the most part that's true.
It seems like every few months there's a new list of the world's most liveable cities. People love this stuff. Depending on which list you choose, the world's most liveable city right now could be Melbourne, it could be Vienna, it could be Munich or it could be Zurich. Wellington is usually up there. Copenhagen too.
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