North America
Budget Travel in Mexico Starts With Geography
Mexico can be affordable, but calling it a cheap country is not much of a plan. A week in a beach resort,…
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Africa
Bazaruto Is a National Park, Not an Empty Paradise
Bazaruto is often sold with the usual island language: untouched, undiscovered, empty. It looks good in a brochure, but it is a…
Africa
Diving Mozambique Requires More Than Warm Water
Mozambique’s coastline is long enough to make the phrase “diving Mozambique” almost meaningless on its own. Ponta do Ouro in the south,…
Africa
Swimming With Whale Sharks Is a Privilege, Not a Promise
A whale shark encounter is usually sold through one perfect image: clear blue water, a vast spotted animal, and one swimmer suspended…
Africa
Ten Days in Mozambique: Pick a Coast and Leave Room
Ten days in Mozambique sounds generous until the map starts asking questions. The coastline runs for thousands of kilometers, roads can be…
Africa
One Week in Mauritius Is Enough If You Stop Racing
Mauritius looks small on a map, which encourages a particular kind of itinerary: breakfast in the north, snorkeling in the east, a…
Africa
A Mauritius Road Trip Needs More Time Than the Map Suggests
Mauritius is compact enough to tempt you into circling the island in a day. You probably can. You will also spend that…
Africa
Mauritian Food Makes More Sense at the Counter
Mauritian food is often introduced as a fusion of Indian, African, Chinese, French, and Creole influences. The description is not wrong, but…
Africa
A Romantic Weekend in Mauritius Needs Less Itinerary
Romance usually survives a bad hotel view. It has a harder time with a seven-stop itinerary, three hours in traffic, and one…
Africa
The Trouble With Going Somewhere to Help
I went to Malawi to volunteer. Years later, that sentence still bothers me a little. It makes it sound as if I…