October News from TravelLocal HQ

Our theme in this month’s newsletter is ‘Off the Beaten Track’.  We’ve some wonderful inspiration from our local partners in South Africa, Argentina, and Sri Lanka, guiding us in how to experience their country in a way that few others do. However, Off the Beaten Track isn’t only about going to the lesser visited parts of a country. It’s an attitude and a state of mind that can be applied to the most popular destinations around the world – explore the back streets; don’t just stick to what the guidebooks say. As more and more parts of the world suffer from ‘overtourism’, it is also the right thing to do – take the opposite road to the big tour group you come across, travel a more roundabout route to that famous site. Doing so not only means you might see something different, or find a vista different to the one everyone else takes a photo of, it means that when you stop for a coffee you’re helping spread the benefits of tourism beyond what is probably a tiny part of the city or place that you’re visiting. The same applies on a national scale of course; it’s often the lesser visited places in a country that could really benefit from visitors and the money they bring.

This month we also have an interview with Annie from our Panamanian partners. Most people associate the country with the eponymous canal, but here in the office a favourite fact gleaned from the interview is that Panama has more bird species than both the US and Canada combined – who knew!

We seem to have had an unseasonably warm October – but the nights drawing in and the trees shedding their leaves are difficult to argue with. There’s still time to escape for it all over the Christmas period if you start planning now – though plenty of places are filling up fast.

Talking of Autumn leaves – one of the best places in the world to see the turning of the leaves at this time of year is Japan, which is rightly famous for it. We are working hard putting the finishing touches to our Japan pages, and by this time next month those intrigued to see Japan’s vivid Autumnal colours in Autumn 2018 will be able to start planning a trip there.

We’ll be sure to let you all know as and when we’re up and running with it.

Until then, happy travels,

Tom & Huw