The Austrian countryside. Photo: Priyadarshini Paitandy
PRIYADARSHINI PAITANDY 
As a child, I had a huge framed poster in my room, with snow-capped mountains, pretty flowers, green meadows and fairytale-like cottages. Nineteen years later, I discovered the place in the poster does exist, and it is the beautiful country I am travelling to —Austria.
All the greenery with […]

SEEMA SANGHI
We’ve all heard of the universal township, Auroville, which exists just three hours south of Chennai and celebrated its 40th birthday last year. Co-founded by The Mother and Sri Aurobindo, with the purpose of “creating a place where men and women of all countries can live in peace and progressive harmony, above all […]

It can be surreal having dinner in a structure where everything is made of ice. Don’t forget to take your warm clothing though…

Ice, Ice, everywhere: Inside the restaurant at Snowland.Photo: Ranjita Biswas
RANJITA BISWAS
It either didn’t register properly or I didn’t do my homework; I suppose both, but as it happened, I landed up for dinner […]

The third largest dinosaur graveyard in the world is in Balasinor, just 90 km from Ahmedabad.

INDU BALACHANDRAN
There is a Jurassic Park right here in India. And guarding the Park’s 65-million-year-old eggs is a fiercely passionate, dinosaur-loving Princess.
“Here, like to hold one?” says Princess Aaliya Babi, transferring a canon-ball sized dinosaur egg onto my hand. I […]

Head to Wales, with bath houses, amphitheatres and castles in plenty, for a quiet tryst with the past…

Raglan castle: The last true medieval castle in Britain.Photo: Paromita Pain
PAROMITA PAIN
What would you get if you put a few million people and a few million sheep together? No, a very happy bunch of people wearing thick woollen […]

Glorious sights, great hospitality and a holiday to remember

 
Cellular Jail.Photo: SUBHA J RAO 
 SUBHA J RAO 
A seemingly unending water line with bobbing boats and launches and tree-clad hills dotting the horizon — that’s what the eyes first take in when you land in Port Blair. A little before the landing, the vast blue expanse below […]

One of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities, Benaras has many hidden gems to offer the patient traveller… 

 
Pilgrims at the Ganga ghats. Photos: K. R. Deepak
ZERIN ANKLESARIA

Benaras has always been the most inspirational of Indian cities. Thought to be the world’s oldest, boasting an unbroken habitation of 5,000 years, pilgrims and travellers have […]

The Spice Souk in Deira offers a glimpse of a very different Dubai, a part of the past that has managed to survive the glitzy shopping malls that dot the city. 

Dubai today… Photo: AFP 
SUDHA UMASHANKER 

Tucked away behind the Gold Souk that Dubai, the shopping capital of West Asia is so famous for, there is […]

Getting a pedicure done by hundreds of gorging fish can be a stimulating and hypnotically relaxing experience… 

 
The fish hard at work…. Photo: Hugh and Colleen Gantzer
Hugh and Colleen Gantzer
“Fish spas?” we said. “Isn’t that a bit over the top?”
We had heard of beauty parlours for dogs and cats, and pet psychiatrists, and […]

Amritsar is a city of passion and prayer, finds Nandini Nair 

Dawn breaks over Golden Temple. Photo: Nandini Nair
Amritsar offers both profound peace and pungent patriotism. Four hundred and fifty kilometres from Delhi, the Harmandir Sahib Golden Temple silences you with the sacred while Wagah Border makes you scream with jingoism. To visit Amritsar […]