It has been said that 2022 will be the year of revenge travel as people starved of foreign exploration seize the opportunity to traverse a less restricted world. Last year was a dry run – this year it’s serious, and while not all countries have lifted their embargoes there can be no denying that the clamour of tourist traffic is ascending to a roar. In Venice, not long ago as ghostly as a plague town, the Grand Canal is swarming; in Capri you can already feel the incipient hordes arriving to alight the island’s funicular.
There will be some that mourn this resurgence in foreign travel – not least those who want to save the planet. But who can blame anyone for wanting to indulge a long-frustrated wanderlust? Arriving in Amalfi recently, after a pre-dawn wake-up in gloomy London, felt like entering paradise – I succumbed to Stendhal syndrome trying to absorb the surfeit of gorgeousness, wildflower fragrances and views.
This travel issue, therefore, is a paean to all sorts of travel, from modest smallholdings to grand palazzos, and from the rainforest to ancient ruins. Some journeys are expansive: Vincent van de Wijngaard, Birgit Kos and Isabelle Kountoure travelled to the ochre-saturated Zagora desert to shoot our cover story, which takes its mood, in part, from Paul Bowles’ Moroccan masterpiece The Sheltering Sky. Maria Shollenbarger went to Australia to find out how the country, emerging from prolonged isolation, is re-evaluating its identity in light of Country and First Nation politics to offer a more authentic and considerate experience of the oldest culture in the world. Maria has also been to a new hotel in Como, established by the family behind the cherished Grand Hotel Tremezzo up the road. A smaller but no less elegant property, Passalacqua conjures up the nostalgic grandeur that the great Italian hoteliers do so well. Stefan Giftthaler took the photographs – and, as so often with his pictures, they made me want to drool.
Other pieces are more personal. The FT’s laureate of Wall Street, Unhedged author Robert Armstrong, travels to Bahía Solano in Colombia for a 50th-birthday fishing party with a gang of friends, a salty sea captain, a yen to catch some tuna and no short supply of drink. The story of an ambivalent fisherman among diehards, Rob’s piece is as sweetly revelatory about what goes on on blokey holidays as it is about the reels. Alice Cavanagh, meanwhile, discovers what it’s like to spend a night in Suite Dior in Avenue Montaigne, Paris. A lesser-known and highly exclusive feature of the flagship’s monumental facelift, an apartment has been installed for use by the brand’s most-esteemed clients. Checking in to find an art-filled bedroom, sitting room, onyx-slathered bathroom and all sorts of tasty extras – a midnight atelier fitting for one’s couture dress, for example, or the run of the store’s museum – Alice endured the gruelling assignment of being sent to stay there. How does it feel to sleep in one of the world’s most prestigious retail addresses? Read her story to find out.
For some people, the ideal travel experience requires only two sticks and a pit in which to cook one’s food. For this growing tribe of happy campers, the trappings of fancy linens, pool towels and room service are not the point. Don’t call it glamping, at any rate. Jamie Waters looks at the latest equipment, in particular the rise in all things ultralight. I have to say I’m sorely tempted to pitch my tent poles, but when it comes to travel, I’m extremely catholic in my tastes. Sometimes I crave the drama of an unspoilt vista and getting back to nature, sometimes I want to sink martinis in a five-star hotel bar. Happy holidays – no matter where you pitch up. Here’s to big horizons and a summer of blue skies.