Travel dreams: Where Morning Wire staffers want to visit next
As we approach the end of yet another month of lockdown, we asked the staff at Morning Wire where they want to travel for their first post-coronavirus excursion. From the chilly wilds of Sweden to the neon-soaked streets of Tokyo, let us take you on a meandering journey through the psyche of our journalists.
Andy Silvester, editor
A few friends and I have made it something of a summer tradition to head to Sweden for a proper week away from it all. Picked up from a town near one of the Ryanair airports outside of Stockholm, we’re driven out to the coast where kayaks wait for us – along with all the kit you could ever possibly need for five days in the wilderness as well as our pre-ordered online shop (think cheese in tubes, various different kinds of processed sausage and unpronounceable beer).
A couple of hours later and we’re on the water, off to explore the stunning Sankt Anna peninsula for five days: setting up camp on whichever of the thousand-odd Baltic Sea islands and islets that takes our fancy. It’s a constant cycle of kayaking, wood-chopping and chatting over a beer and an open fire. The weather’s invariably perfect, the scenery is beautiful, and you don’t see a soul for a week. 2020 wasn’t the same without it, and I would saw my own arm off for the chance to do it in 2021. Andy’s trip is arranged by DoTheNorth
Josh Martin, news editor
I should probably say that I’m longing to return to the Coromandel because I was born in Thames and it’s where my family live, whom I haven’t seen outside of a Whatsapp screen in nearly three years. I should probably say that.
But what adds fuel to this fire of family reunification is an endless social media stream of normality forgotten in the UK. A long Kiwi summer: days spent at golden sand beaches without a carpet of sun lounger crowds, fresh mussel fritters and beer tasting flights without face masks, camping without friend number limits and concerts and cricket matches with no social distance dancing. I’d always wanted to travel for the unique or surprising but in 2021 I’m longing for sameness and familiarity.
Michiel Willems, digital editor
About 150 miles from Delhi, on the bank of the Yamuna river, lies one of India’s hidden gems. Forget the Taj Mahal, backwaters of Kerala or bustling Mumbai, this is incredible India at its best. Vrindavan may be the most sacred site in all of India for millions of people – Lord Krishna was born here – the city of half a million feels sleepy, forgotten and far less chaotic than the rest of India.
Even if you are not a follower of the global Hare Krishna movement, like me, this city is much more than a mere tourist attraction. It is the beating heart of India’s more mature backpackers scene; free spirits who fled wanna-be Goa or got bored of Delhi’s swanky late-night bars travel here to recharge. Why, or how? I guess there is only one way to find out.
Rachel Cunliffe, (former) business features editor
Sweden has become something of a political battleground over the past year. Lockdown sceptics have painted the stoic Scandinavian nation as a beacon of libertarianism free of Covid restrictions, while arguments have raged over the effectiveness of Sweden’s laissez-faire approach on both public health and the economy.
The reality (I am reliably informed) is more mundane: Swedes are not crowding into tightly packed clubs to hug and kiss one another, they are simply socially distancing as a result of government guidance rather than convoluted new laws.
Still, the thought of travelling to a country whose Covid policy rests on the common sense of its citizens and which has resisted the hyperbole and national panic experienced by other nations appeals to me. And I’ve never been one for the club scene anyway.
Instead, I’m drawn to the natural wonders of this Nordic kingdom: its lakes, waterfalls, forest and nature reserves. After months spent inside, the thought of trekking through the Scandinavian wilderness, visiting “Witches Mountain” at Blå Jungfrun National Park and keeping an eye out for elk and Arctic birds, feels like the epitome of escapism. And, of course, this is the perfect time of year to be dazzled by the Northern Lights.
Steve Dinneen, life&style editor
Of all the benefits that come with being the Life&Style editor of a newspaper – sometimes just referred to as “the fun bits” – the invitations to travel to far-flung locations take the crown.
In almost 10 years on the job I’ve been to more places that I could comfortably count, from Kenya to Colorado, Okinawa to the Scottish Highlands, Mauritius to the Peruvian Amazon. I’ve won what felt like a small fortune at the gambling tables of Las Vegas, downed spirits from a bottle inhabited by a coiled pit viper in Japan, tripped on magic mushrooms in Amsterdam.
Last year was the first since I was old enough to book a plane ticket that I haven’t left the UK. For my first post-Covid trip, I want something quietly spectacular, with an emphasis on the “quiet”. I’m not ready for the bustle of Bangkok or New York.
I want to rent a villa in tucked away pocket of Tuscany, hire a Vespa (in a past life in Bermuda, I owned my own Vespa) and zip along the coast, eating at a different osteria or trattoria for each meal, sipping espressos and the odd super tuscan and gazing stoically at the ocean. Is that too much to ask?
Stefan Boscia, political correspondent
At the top of my travel list is Peru, after being forced to cancel my flights to Lima last year. I’ve always wanted to visit Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca and the Amazon, while also exploring Peruvian food and culture in Lima and Cusco in between.
A part of this preternatural urge to visit is also doubtlessly connected to my fondness for Peru’s most esteemed native – Paddington Bear. A trip to South America may still be unlikely this year, but I’m hoping to set off early in 2022.
James Warrington, tech, media and telecoms reporter
If holiday plans have faded over the pandemic, travel dreams have only become more vivid. For me, it’s Japan. Not the ‘real’ Japan or the ‘hidden’ Japan, but the unashamedly tourist one. It’s Sofia Coppola’s Tokyo, a neon-drenched orgy of food and booze and activity.
The Instagram-friendly cherry blossoms of Kyoto and the snow-tipped peak of Fuji. The bullet train that propels you from metropolis to rural isolation as it carves its course through opalescent scenery.
It’s the other-worldliness of a Japan that exists, for me, only on the screen and on the page. After the drudgery of a year huddled in the same small corner of London, I can think of nowhere better to chase the unknown.
Edward Thicknesse, transport and industry reporter
As the pandemic struck last spring I was meant to travel out to Portugal for a couple of weeks walking the ancient pilgrimage route along the coast from Porto to Santiago de Compostela, so hopefully there’ll be a chance this year. Having done a couple of similar trips before, there’s no better way of getting away from everything – especially if you choose to turn your phone off for the duration.
All one has to do is find a bed for the night; besides that it’s just miles and miles with the sea on your left shoulder and the road ahead. Add to that lashings of seafood caught within your eyeline and wines from up in the Duoro valley and one can almost feel the worries drifting away with the tide…”
Hanna Godfrey, professional services reporter
You know what’s worse than not seeing friends for a drink in a beer garden? Seeing friends for a drink in a beer garden in January. If you thought being stuck inside because of a killer virus was my biggest bugbear, you’d be wrong, because more than anything in the world, I hate to be cold.
I am a jumper under my dressing gown with a mug of tea person until early May. That’s why, if I could go absolutely anywhere right now, I’d travel to Perth in Australia. A friend of mine escaped London to go back to her native territory a few months back, and now I’m bombarded with Insta-perfect shots of her riding her bike along dirt trails in the blistering heat, with not a dressing gown in sight.
We’d spend our days hiking and surfing (in this fantasy I’m an excellent surfer) and our evenings drinking famously awful Australian ‘goon’. Bliss.