Travel

Come at just the right time and you may be able to enjoy its eclectic charms and even buy unique pottery or a painted souvenir of your brush with a place wilfully out of step with the rest of the world

Escaping his overlord to spread the imperial gospel, Sakamoto Ryoma couldn’t stop to smell the flowers … but you can, on a wilderness walking tour with Walk Japan that follows his path

An unspoken invitation to press themselves close to a stranger for a tanda, or set of dances, may stop there, but those that navigate the codes and the dance floor well enough may find further invitations

Two luxe 5-star resorts in the Maldives offer their own approach to island life – but both have sumptuous villas, delicious food, relaxing spas, and plenty of sun, sand and surf

Yarsagumba fungus has boasted incomes in the region and paid for Chinese motorbikes and other mod cons, but will authorities be wise enough to recognise looming potholes on the road to development?

Think you can pronounce these hard-to-say countries, cities and other places? Try your hand at Phuket, New Orleans, Leicester, Reykjavík, Kaohsiung, Laos, Yosemite, Oaxaca, Edinburgh and more.

A road trip around Okinawa reveals why locals consider themselves apart from the rest of Japan, with its history and cuisine moulded by a rich Ryukyu past and South Pacific sensitivities.

French island has a lot to offer – jagged mountains, beaches, quaint villages, the house where Napoleon grew up – and renting a car is a good way to see it if you don’t mind hairy roads and aggressive drivers.

Once home to a sizeable European population, the backwater of Mengzi in Yunnan, southwest China, retains charming remnants of its early 20th century heyday.

Instead of flying from Hong Kong to Chiang Mai, the Post sets out to test infrastructure in Southeast Asia built under China’s Belt and Road Initiative. All goes well until we slip up and resort to van and bus.

The laid-back southern Indian city of Mysore attracts aspiring yogis from around the world, who are drawn by its culture, history and expert community of yoga practitioners.

The vibrant culture of Baku, Azerbaijan’s biggest city, reflects influences from the Islamic world, Soviet Russia and Europe. Bad traffic, pollution, and the price of hotel rooms may put off some visitors.

With its beautiful beaches, food and famously hospitable people, Fiji makes for a great tropical getaway for those willing to make the journey – even if the country does have a few bad points.

Animal welfare groups slam Bali’s elephant parks for cruelly exploiting captive animals for tourism, while park owners say the elephants enjoy human interaction and exercise.

Finding a list of official Hong Kong ferry routes opened long-time resident Bettina Wassener’s eyes to parts of the city of 263 islands she had missed out on. She decided to remedy that, and took them all.