Roads less traveled

My little off-the-beaten path adventure in Tokamachi, Japan with snow, green forests and a weird animal that followed my every step.

In the smartphone era, going off-grid has become a popular travel style. It seems that some people’s worst fears have become other people’s bliss. Take Alaska for example. Would you enjoy hiking where there is no path, crossing rivers that could easily drag you along if you don’t pay attention? Oh, and don’t forget the…

Svalbard is a small Norwegian island located north of the Arctic circle; roughly in between Norway and the North Pole. It has a little over 2.500 permanent inhabitants, making it the most northern settlement in the world. One of the few things I heard about this archipelago is that the weather conditions can be rough…

If you’re looking for truly off-the-beaten-track experiences, Central Asia will eminently be your dream destination. Each country in this area has its own attractions; the stunning natural beauty of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, the colorful mosques of Uzbekistan, and then there is Turkmenistan. It’s in many ways the black sheep of the herd, the weird kid…

It’s hard to find perfection in this world, as often the most beautiful places are spoilt by tourism. Tanna island, however, located between Australia and Fiji, has everything that you could wish for without having to deal with the downsides. It has breathtaking scenery, palm trees, exotic fruit, pristine waterfalls, flowers, hills, local tribes, white…

On one of my many searches for cheap flights I came across the option to have a layover in Qatar’s capital city: Doha. I have to admit that I didn’t know a single thing about this city (full disclosure: I didn’t even know it was the capital of Qatar) and as I would have a…

Pakistan has truly received a bad reputation in the media over the last few years. Bordering Afghanistan and Iran on the west and India on the west, you can imagine that the country’s appeal as a travel destination is doomed by association alone. As there has been some terrorist activity in the country, you might think that getting…

“We might have witnessed the last North Korea Mass Games in history”, my buddy Joe tells me. We’re in a cafe in rainy Amsterdam catching up. I met Joe on a tour to Pyongyang (North Korea’s capital) and we both left the tour more puzzled that we already were. Although the whole tour was only a day and…

Travelers hitchhike for various reasons. Some don’t have the financial means to travel otherwise, some consider it more fun than the conventional ways of transport. In some parts of the world hitchhiking is even the only option, and is practically a substitute for public transport. Hitchhiking might sound simple enough, but when you’ve tried it yourself you…

Nothing stops us humans. Even when faced with a far too big of a gap between two pieces of land, the humans will not yield to cross it conveniently. The life of a bridge architect must be a stressful one. His calculations will initiate building projects featuring ginormous machines you never knew existed. Hundreds of…

We Europeans are spoiled. You only know you’ve crossed the border by train or car when the signage and landscape changes. If you’re lucky they will check your passport and give you a nod and a smile. South America holds other rules, especially the north part of it. Crossing from Venezuela to Guyana by bus is…

Aaah, North Korea. Plenty of mystery surrounds this hermetically closed-off country (also referred to as DPRK), which occasionally pops up in the international media. My curiosity got the best of me and I decided to visit North Korea on a budget tour since I was already in the area at the time. I’ll save my…