More memorable trips taken by our team

From following Frodo’s footsteps across New Zealand to skinny dipping in Sweden, learning to tango in Buenos Aires to watching the sunset over Santorini, we can’t stop reliving our most memorable trips. Find our best travel stories below.

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I’ve been a big fan of the Lord of the Rings books and films for a long time, so a trip to Middle-earth (aka New Zealand) was an absolute must. My epic month-long road trip started in Auckland on the North Island and finished in Christchurch on the South Island. Along the way I visited many filming locations of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, including the idyllic Hobbiton, where it was a thrill to get up close to Bag End and enjoy a mug of cider in the Green Dragon. 

I also wandered through the forests of the elven kingdom of Lothlórien; gazed upon the area used for Ithilien, where I could almost glimpse the oliphants tramping through the undergrowth; and stood on top of windy Mount Sunday, the spot where Rohan’s Golden Hall of Edoras was built.

Of course, the trip wasn’t all about the film locations – in many ways these were a bonus to what this incredible country had to offer. Walking along tropical paths in stunning Abel Tasman National Park, the smell of sulphur that hung in the air and stuck to my clothes in Rotorua, drinking ice-cold glacial water on the glistening Franz Josef Glacier, and driving along the country’s highest highway to reach Queenstown, were all unforgettable memories on a trip jam-packed with amazing experiences.

Alison McGill, Senior Editor

One of the most vivid travel memories that I have is of my family’s first international trip together (even though it was just across the Indian border) to Bhutan in 2015. The high point of the trip was the three hour trek up to the Tiger's Nest Monastery. The climb (which almost seemed impossible) had every possible change of scene – where we started with the sun shining on us and ended with the heavens opening up and boy did it pour!

While my husband and eight year old son climbed with not a frown on their face, I huffed and puffed my way up, taking rest in between. One such time was just before we reached the monastery, owing to the sudden downpour we took shelter in a small temple en route – where the monk graciously offered us 'chai' and we lit lamps for our wishes, while waiting for the rain to stop. Once the rain abated we stepped out and almost all of us stopped breathing for a while – we got a glimpse of the monastery engulfed by the mist which slowly cleared to show us a rainbow – spectacular!

Priyanka Thakur,  Senior Managing Art Editor

I know I am biased but nothing beats the Swedish mountains. The cleanest air, the deafening silence and the most stunning views. My family and I tend to go hiking in Sweden every summer and two years ago we climbed Helags, the tallest mountain in Sweden south of the polar circle. The hike can be done over one to three days and we did it in two. 

From the carpark in Kläppen we hiked 12km to Helags mountain station. We passed through mountain birch forests, passed crystal clear lakes and once over the tree line we could see Helags with it’s glacier in front of us. The mountain station offers basic accommodation via STF (svenska turist föreningen), if you don't want to pitch your tent up, and has a shop with provisions as well as a restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner, if you don’t want to use the kitchen to cook your own food.

Day two and we headed for the top of Helags. The hike up is only 4 km but very steep. We passed close to the glacier and had to climb over boulders for the last 500 metres but the view that greeted us was well worth the effort. We stayed sitting at the summit for a long while taking in the Swedish and Norwegian mountains surrounding us. Climbing down to the mountain station was almost as hard as climbing up but after some lunch we were ready for the 12 km back to Kläppen with a stop for a skinnydip in one of the lakes. 

Åsa Westerlund, Picture Researcher

In the summer of 2019 we arrived in Bali for a dose of culture and exploration. Donning helmets we scooted up the east coast of Bali to escape and soak in the sights. Heading from Umalas, through the capital Denpasar towards Padang Bai, our senses were hit with an array of beauty: wafts of Nasi Goreng and incense on the roadside, locals selling their intricate homemade crafts, and the purring of a thousand engines and vibrant colours flying past us.

As the road opened up and the bustle of the city closed behind us, we found ourselves winding through blurs of tall swaying coconut palms under clear blue skies, the wind hitting our skin as we caught sight of the blue waters of the ocean to our right, and heard the joyful cries of children playing outside their homes. We were just two beings juxtaposed against a sublime green landscape, and it was utterly beautiful.

Laure Gysemans, Editor

I love wildlife-based holidays, and one of my all-time favourite destinations has got to be Rwanda. Nicknamed the 'land of a thousand hills', it is totally unlike Africa’s more famous safari spots – rather than vast savannah, the landscape is a beautiful rolling patchwork of different shades of green.

The absolute highlight of our stay was the day we went gorilla trekking. After a steep hike through thick forest in Volcanoes National Park, we arrived at a clearing to be greeted by a family of mountain gorillas. We spent an unforgettable hour in their company, thoroughly captivated by the playful babies rolling around at our feet and in total awe of the sheer size and power of the magnificent silverback.

Elspeth Beidas, Project Editor

One of my first real international trips was to Buenos Aires – a friend of mine went to live there after college, so I went with another friend to visit him toward the end of his year-long stay. I had travelled before, both to Costa Rica on a high school class trip and during my study abroad semester in Spain, but this was my first time travelling with no academic expectations along the way where the itinerary was solely ours to create.

We were in our early 20s, so this meant a lot of staying out all night, but we also ate incredible steaks, visited the Evita Peron museum and the Recoleta Cemetery, strolled the city's beautiful parks, and attempted to learn how to tango (it did not go well, but we had fun trying!) It was also during the World Cup, so one of my fondest memories is standing outside in the rain in a huge crowd watching Argentina play on a giant screen, with everyone cheering and singing!

Molly Humphrey, National Accounts Manager

In 2018, I visited my brother in Cartagena, Colombia. He planned a surprise weekend for us, which started with a five-hour bus around the Caribbean coast, with views of the stunning mountains of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. That evening, we arrived in the bustling town of Santa Marta. We hopped from lively bar to lively bar into the early hours. We woke the next day at six-in-the-morning – with a slight headache, for some reason – and took a seven-seater bus away from the coast and into the mountains.

An hour later, my brother and I arrived in Minca, a peaceful village on the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, and we tried to find a man wearing a red t-shirt. That man, I discovered twenty minutes later, was The Birdwatcher (he wouldn’t tell us his real name). The Birdwatcher took us on a six-hour trek through the mountains and showed us, among other species, Macaws, Woodpeckers, Owls, and Jacamars. The star attraction, however, was the Toucan, which myself and The Birdwatcher saw flying above us, only briefly, the multi-coloured bill easy to discern, but my brother was too busy playing on his phone. My brother, to this day, has never seen a Toucan and claims that me and The Birdwatcher were lying.

Ioan Jones, Project Editor

After finishing university I wasn't quite ready to be a grown up so set off with my backpack on a six-month tour through Japan, Australia and New Zealand. In Australia I teamed up with an absolutely awesome Canadian called Alex and rented a camper van to travel down Australia's east coast. I didn't – and still don't – have my licence, so a month's worth of driving was left to Alex. He didn't complain once – as long as he could honk the horn at every lorry that passed us. We were backpackers with barely a penny so avoided campsites where we had to pay for a pitch and parked up each evening in building sites and besides beaches, along lanes and laybys. 

One night, we pulled into a layby just off a main highway – big mistake. With every rushing lorry that passed us the camper van rocked from side to side. Before long, bleary-eyed Alex had had enough and drove (contact lens-less) through a couple of lanes and just parked up. We had no idea where we were so we were absolutely amazed when we woke up to the most beautiful scene: an early morning sun-dappled field, with streams of mist drifting past a bunch of kangaroos. Dawns haven’t quite been the same again.

Hollie Teague, Managing Editor

In July 2008, I decided to do the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. I had to do most of it alone, which was a bit nerve-wracking for me (a 5’3, 20-year-old woman). However, it was easy to meet other pilgrims along the way, and I kept ending up in these hodge podge groups of unlikely comrades. I also found it really nice just walking by myself sometimes, and I honestly have great memories of strolling down country roads alone in the Spanish summer. I didn’t have a smartphone or an iPod with me, but I barely even missed them, and it was nice to disconnect for a while. I experienced incredible moments of kindness, adventure and camaraderie, and have some amazing memories you couldn’t get from any other type of holiday. It was also socially acceptable to wear my Indiana Jones replica fedora for 3 weeks – absolute win!

Robin Moul, Project Editor

A trip to Santorini in the summer of 2019 has me revisiting my photo collection time and time again. It was instantly easy to see what all the fuss was about: aromatic Greek food, quaint villages and prime sunset-watching territory accompanied with a glass of local wine. The pretty village of Oia at the tip of the island has the best reputation for its stunning sunsets, but its popularity exceeded our expectations, preventing us from securing any of the “best” spots that Instagram told us we must watch the sunset from.

However, this ended up being a blessing in disguise, as we perched ourselves on pretty cobblestoned stairs framed by blossoming pink flowers and a quieter atmosphere, only to be interrupted by hordes of cheers as we turned around to witness a proposal from a balcony a few metres away! Once the crowds had settled and we turned back towards the horizon feeling elated, a boat slowly made its way across the sea while the sun sunk behind the white- and pastel-coloured houses that clung to the cliff face: truly idyllic.

Zoë Rutland, Editor

If there's one trip I'd want to relive time and time again, it would be hiking in Nepal. Hemmed in between Tibet and India, this rectangle of a country is blanketed to the north by the ice-enshrouded Himalayas, the home of Mount Everest. Most hikers, eager for a glimpse of the earth's highest mountain, head towards this sky-scraping giant on the Everest Base Camp Trek but – being the lovable introverts that we are – my boyfriend and I decided to hike the Langtang Valley route instead.

While still one of the most popular hikes in the country, this trek is blissfully quiet compared to the hustle and bustle of base camp, and we'd often walk for hours without seeing another soul. Such solitude gave us the chance to really soak up the unimaginable landscape before us: as we walked, swathes of surprisingly humid forest – echoing with the hooting calls of howler monkeys – gave way to snow-capped, saw-toothed peaks strung with glittering glaciers. We made regular stops at tea houses along the way for plates of gut-busting daal bhat and refreshing garlic soup – and I'll admit that, after drinking the latter, we were pretty pleased we weren't bumping into many other hikers...

Rachel Laidler, Travel Editor

Our memorable trips

Now isn’t the time for going places. However, as we spend the coming weeks mostly indoors, we can still dream about travel, plan future adventures and revisit ones we’ve taken before. This is exactly what we’ve asked our team to do – to dream and reflect. Here are 12 memorable trips taken by the DK Eyewitness team, featuring eclipses, safaris, cycling treks, pilgrimages, bunnies, toboggans and ancient ruins.

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Just because you can’t escape to a new adventure right now doesn’t mean you should stop dreaming. There are ways to remain inspired, whether you’re surfing the internet on your phone, lounging at home, or sipping coffee at your local cafe. Being an armchair traveller is all about learning about and reflecting, and ultimately engaging with far-flung places without ever needing to leave home.

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