Big's Bucket List on Flipboard

African safari alternatives that don't cost a fortune

The Big Five (buffalo, lion, leopard, elephant and rhinoceros) sometimes elude safari goers in more ways than one. Rates for a five-night luxury safari - including guided wildlife drives, sunset cocktails, and tents with more puffy pillows than London's Ritz Hotel - can cost anywhere between …

Ten great cycling routes: from day-trips to long-distance adventures

Wind in your hair, landscapes whipping by, cruising through peaceful forests: embracing the outdoors on two wheels is one of the healthiest and most enjoyable ways to get around. Here’s our round-up of great cycling routes which offer something for everyone, from multi-day adventures to relaxing …

Canada's wild side: the Great Bear Rainforest

For wildlife spotters, it's the score of a lifetime: a creamy white kermode bear roaming its home in the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia. Not a polar bear, but an offshoot of the black bear, there are only about 400 kermodes (which can stand up to six feet tall) in the wild; and only one …

Top 10 Ghost Towns

With their silent streets, derelict buildings, and remnants of homes and workplaces, abandoned towns offer a haunting view into the lives of once thriving communities.

Here’s a look at our top ten from around the world:

1. St. Elmo, Colorado

Once a booming mining town and trading post along railroad …

Five epic Halloween celebrations

Finding spooky fun and ghoulishly good times in five American cities

Finding spooky fun and ghoulishly good times in five American cities

Top five nerve-shredding road trips in Costa Rica

Renting a car in Costa Rica is costly and can even be dangerous if you're not prepared for what's to come. It’s also ridiculously good fun.

There are plenty of reasons not to rent a car in Costa Rica. First and foremost, it costs more than in the USA or Europe, mainly because of an all-but-mandatory …

Slow travel in Malta

Malta’s reputation as a package-holiday beach destination tells only a fraction of the story. While the warm climate and endless seas surrounding this tiny trio of Mediterranean islands make hanging out by the water an obvious choice, there’s so much more to uncover.

Venturing beyond the resorts …

Travel - 'How I quit my job to travel'

When Julie and Steven Hando bought a boat in June 2010, they didn’t intend to use it on vacation. Instead, it would be their home.

The couple from south Wales had worked for years as civil servants for the UK government (he a computer programmer, she an administrator and manager). But in 1992, …

Mongolia's lost secrets in pictures: the golden eagle hunters

The Altai Mountains run from Siberia in Russia all the way down to Mongolia’s Gobi Desert. An enormous mountain range, it covers a vast area of over 16,000 kilometres and is studded with huge glacial lakes and permanently snow-covered peaks that rise above 4,500m. One of the world’s last true …

Adventurous Mountaineers Scale the Alps for Incredible Photos

Although these stunning images might look like the work of Photoshop magic, photographer Robert Bösch (or Robert Boesch) captured these campaign photos for the Swiss mountaineering brand Mammut by carefully coordinating an entire team of mountaineers on the snowy Alps. Racing against time and …

His Camera Takes Us To The World 'We Must Preserve'

They're silvery and stunning — and their beauty bears a message.

"Genesis" is a new exhibit of more than 200 black-and-white images from the noted Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado. He wants to show us what the world and its peoples look like now, how climate change has already had an impact — …

Via Ferrata Crossing, Austria

China's “Supercave” Takes Title as World's Most Enormous Cavern

China's immense Miao Room cavern is announced as the world's largest cave chamber.

China's immense Miao Room cavern, hidden beneath rolling hills and reachable only by an underground stream, is the world's biggest cave chamber, an international mapping team reported on Sunday. (Related: "China's …

Hong Kong, from above

26 Amazing Waterfalls You Didn’t Know They Exist. They Will Leave You Breathless

The waterfalls are amazing at this period of the year. As a matter of fact there isn’t a special period when you are allowed to visit these amazing...

Top 5 underwater wildlife encounters

Want a wildlife interaction with a difference? Jo Price takes a deep breath and reveals the best underwater animal encounters

If 70% of our planet is …

12 Of The World's Most Jaw-Dropping Remote Hideaways

Escape to the glorious middle of nowhere in these sanctuaries, in mountaintops, prairies, forests, and seasides around the world.

When you live in a constantly connected (but spiritually disconnected) urban environment, it's natural to dream about escaping to some wilderness shack and never coming …

Vertigo-inducing attractions

Discovering lost isles of the South Pacific

Navigating a narrow channel through the reef, our Zodiacs slide onto a crushed coral beach and we scramble onto Mature-vavao, an uninhabited atoll at the eastern edge of French Polynesia.

It's a gorgeous little island, shaded by thousands of coconut palms and encircled by bands of water that run a …

Forget the Big Five – visit Ethiopia's wonderful wildlife instead

It’s a long drive from Addis Ababa to Bale Mountains National Park. Long, but absolutely glorious – past donkeys, sunny fields, hills, plateaus, red dirt paths and traditional circular houses painted in upbeat shades of purple, green and blue. It’s the kind of drive that lulls you into a trance as …

A Guide to Exploring the Amazon

Discover which Amazon gateway to travel from for wildlife sightings, a tribal journey or luxury river cruising.

Evoking images of verdant rainforest, isolated tribes and abundant wildlife, the Amazon brings out the intrepid traveller in many of us. But, as this huge wilderness spans across nine …

Namibian Star Trail

Capturing the rotation of the stars in a single frame isn't easy, but the payoff is worth it. I nabbed this shot on the Skeleton Coast of Namibia, where massive sand dunes flow directly into the ocean creating one of the wildest landscapes on earth. I set my camera on a tripod with a relatively …

Wildlife and Wild Fun in Northwest Costa Rica

Arenal Volcano National Park is home to one of the Americas’ most active volcanoes. The views are spectacular at night, when incandescent rocks glow and lava erupts, and can be seen from the Arenal Observatory Lodge. Surrounded by a river, the lodge was originally used by Smithsonian Institution …

Strap yourself in: the world’s most extreme road trips

Travelling these routes inspires wonder and awe in those willing to shrug off the discomforts and heart-in-mouth moments that they entail.

Whether you’re gazing through a dirt-smudged window on a clapped-out bus, its engine revving desperately to clear a narrow pass, or grinding through an endless …

Exploring the best of Croatia's islands

Croatia’s coast is speckled with dozens of magnificent islands that range from tiny, verdant and unpopulated to massive, arid and sporting ancient towns and villages. One of the chief delights on any visit to Croatia is hopping between the islands on the numerous ferries, catamarans and taxi boats, …

A thrillseeker’s guide to Vietnam

Dense jungles, brooding mountains, endless waterways, towering cliffs, hairpin bends: the potential for adrenalin-fuelled adventure is limitless in Vietnam. Whether you prefer to scale the heights of jagged peaks or plumb the depths of coral reefs, Vietnam will deliver something special. Heck, just …

Fall foliage tour: the ultimate New England road trip

Touring New England in search of autumn’s changing colors has become so popular that it has sprouted its own subculture of ‘leaf-peepers.’ Immerse yourself in the fall harvest spirit with the ultimate road trip.

Trip length: 5–7 days; 424 miles (682km)

Best time to go: late September to …

Unusual places to stay in the USA

We all know that lodging can make a break or vacation, but staying somewhere unique - a tipi, say, or a giant bird's nest, or even spending the night underwater - can turn a humdrum holiday into an unforgettable trip.

America's entrepreneurial spirit knows no bounds, and that includes one-of-a-kind …