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Let’s take a moment to reflect on 2022 (don’t worry, we’re scrupulously avoiding all of the obvious and well-documented bad bits).
Come to think of it, let’s make that 100 moments, each with a sharp focus on the best travel experiences from this year.
Despite 2022 being interrupted at times by what shall we call “events”, our team of writers and editors have somehow managed to still clock up tens of thousands of kilometres, journeying to every corner of the world, our own backyard included.
It’s been a collective and at times challenging effort to bring you travel inspiration after a few, agonising years when our ability to see and embrace the world suddenly evaporated (sorry, we weren’t meant to mention the bad bits).
We’ve crystalised 2022 in 100 easy-to-read snapshots, accompanied by superb photography. We trust they not only reflect our most special experiences on the road, in the air and on the sea (you name it) but also hope they inspire and inform your own travels for 2023 and beyond.
So sit back and enjoy these and the following pages and take your own moment to savour and enjoy these travel moments, all of them joyously experienced in what’s been one of the most testing times for our imperfect but wondrous world.
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THE TIME Friday, March 18, 7am
THE MOMENT I fold back the sides of my safari-style tent to find a green turtle has joined me for my morning coffee. I’ve just spent a night aboard Lady Musgrave HQ, a new eco-glamping pontoon moored off Lady Musgrave Island, and today my schedule is directed only by the tide (and maybe the buffet lunch). It’s still hours until the day-tripping crowds turn up, so I savour the sunrise. The turtles, the reef sharks and the fish will all be waiting for me as soon as I put down my cup and pick up a snorkel. See ladymusgraveexperience.com.au
THE TIME Wednesday, July 20, 7am
THE MOMENT The everyday act of flipping open a curtain reveals a completely extraordinary view of the Pyramids of Giza outside my window at Marriott Mena House Hotel here in the Egyptian capital. Despite the prolonged international shutdown and a world in disarray, they’re still there, glowing golden in the early morning Cairo sun before the summer heat bleaches sky and stone. See marriott.com
THE TIME Wednesday, July 27, 4pm
THE MOMENT I’m checking in to Edinburgh’s astonishingly good looking Gleneagles Townhouse. Occupying a former bank building, the exquisite hotel is part guest quarters, part members’ club, part gathering place for the city’s happily unpretentious social set. My room oozes class with heavy fabrics, marble basins, bedside books and decadent wallpaper. At the members-only rooftop bar, I look across Edinburgh’s blue slate rooftops towards waterside Leith. See gleneagles.com; visitscotland.com
THE TIME Sunday, July 31, 5.20pm
THE MOMENT It’s 14 degrees outside, but my body is warm as a sous vide salmon. I’m in the outdoor tub at Wattlewood, the newest off-grid cabin escape in the Byron Shire. The setting sun filters through the gums overhead, as it makes its way behind Wollumbin Mount Warning. The architecturally-designed cabin beckons. But for now I’m happy in this open-air, hand-crafted wooden bathhouse, the steam rising around me and the kookaburras laughing at the pink sky. See airbnb.com
THE TIME Thursday, September 29, 4pm
THE MOMENT It’s rare for a traveller in India to be alone. Yet here I am, lying on sun-warmed boulders, nothing but the Ganges river rushing by beside me, and the Himalayas rising up all around. I’m at a new family-owned retreat called Mandala, set in a five-bedroom home in a mango grove, at the exact point where the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi rivers combine to form the sacred Ganges. The perfect place for contemplation, rejuvenation, and solitude. See mandalaretreathome.com
THE TIME Wednesday, September 24, 3pm
THE MOMENT The nurturing sea is warm and buoyant, cradling me as I float, cloud watching without care in Datai Bay, on the northernmost tip of Malaysia. Coconut palms shade the deckchairs on the white-sand beach in front of me, behind are the first islands of southern Thailand. A macaque raids my freshly opened coconut, sea otters frolic in the mangroves nearby and a pair of exotic hornbills pose coyly for my camera. All are sheltered within the 750 hectares of rainforest that the Datai has pledged to protect. See thedatai.com
THE TIME Sunday, October 2, 8am
THE MOMENT A 40-minute helicopter ride into the Himalayas from Kathmandu has taken me to Happy House. Built in 1971 by current owner Ang’s grandfather, the stacked stone Sherpa house has been a refuge for famous writers and mountaineers, including Sir Edmund Hillary. Recently it has undergone a renovation and has, blessedly, opened as a guesthouse. The kitchen garden and nearby forest have provided much of the breakfast spread – including pan-fried morels, delicate fern shoots and pickled garlic – we’re about to eat on the sunlit lawn. See beyulexperiences.com
THE TIME Saturday, October 22, 6.30am
THE MOMENT The quintessential sound of a Bali morning is the shush of a twig broom collecting fallen frangipanis from vivid green lawns. It’s the sound that accompanies the first cup of tea for the day, taken by my villa’s pool in one of the island’s newest and most luxurious resorts. The Jumeirah Bali is inspired by Hindu water palaces, and each villa has its own pool and views of the turquoise waters, where surfers wait patiently at the Dreamlands break. See jumeirah.com
THE TIME Sunday, October 23, 11am
THE MOMENT Among parents, Fiji is whispered about like it’s some fantasy land, a place that couldn’t possibly be real. The resorts! The beaches! The childcare. And now I’m discovering that the stories are true, that this is the ultimate: staying at Jean-Michel Cousteau resort in Savusavu, where every child has a private, full-time nanny, and parents are free to do whatever they please. I’ve just been scuba-diving. My partner is hanging out by the pool. The kids are having a blast with their carers. Everybody wins. See fijiresort.com
Contributors: Paul Chai, Anthony Dennis, Michael Gebicki, Ben Groundwater, Belinda Jackson, Brian Johnston, Ute Junker, Nina Karnikowski, Rob McFarland, Steve Mckenna, Julie Miller, Catherine Marshall, Justin Meneguzzi, Craig Tansley and Penny Watson