Matera is one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements on Earth. People have lived in its cave dwellings, the Sassi, since before the birth of Rome. For decades the city was called a national shame, its cave homes deemed unfit for modern life. Then the artists and filmmakers arrived and saw what others had missed. […]
The view from Ukko-Koli hill has been painted, photographed, and celebrated for over a century. Forested islands dot the surface of Lake Pielinen far below. The granite cliffs drop sharply to the water, and the silence between bird calls is profound. Koli National Park protects this landscape of ancient hills, old-growth forests, and rocky outcrops […]
Lapland stretches endlessly under a vast northern sky, and Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park sits at its heart. This is not a park of sharp peaks but of rounded fells, ancient mountains worn smooth by glaciers over millions of years. Birch forests give way to pine, then to open tundra where reindeer graze and golden eagles circle. […]
The Akamas Peninsula juts into the Mediterranean from the northwest coast of Cyprus, a rugged wilderness of limestone gorges, sea caves, and sandy coves that has escaped the development that has reshaped much of the island’s coastline. This is one of the last truly wild landscapes in Cyprus, a protected national park covering 230 square […]
The Pindus Mountains run like a jagged spine down the centre of Greece, dividing the mainland into two distinct worlds. On the western side, the Ionian Sea sends moisture-laden winds that create some of the greenest landscapes in the country. On the eastern side, the rain shadow produces the dry, sunbaked terrain that most visitors […]
Updated: August 26, 2020 | By Claire | More Bovec is a popular resort in the Julian Alps. It is a town located in the north-western part of Slovenia, just about 80 kilometers from the capital city of Ljubljana. Nestled in the Soca Valley at the foot of Mount Kanin, Bovec enjoys a spectacular alpine […]
Moldoveanu Peak is the roof of Romania, at 2,544 metres it crowns the Făgăraș Mountains, the country’s highest and most dramatic range. Often called ‘the Transylvanian Alps’, the Făgăraș offer some of the most spectacular ridge hiking in Europe, with Moldoveanu as the ultimate prize for anyone seeking the peak of Romanian adventure travel. Quick […]
Stratená is a small village in eastern Slovakia that serves as the perfect base for exploring one of Europe’s most beautiful national parks: the Slovak Paradise (Slovenský raj), a wonderland of deep forest gorges threaded with ladders, chains, and wooden footbridges over rushing crystal-clear streams, one of the most purely fun hiking experiences on the […]
Sněžka is the highest peak in the Czech Republic, a distinctive 1,603-metre mountain on the Polish border whose flat, windswept summit is crowned by the extraordinary disc-shaped St. Lawrence Chapel and a futuristic meteorological observatory that looks like something from another planet. Accessible via multiple well-marked trails from both the Czech and Polish sides, climbing […]
Categories: Czech Republic, Nature
Kmeťov vodopád (Kmeť’s Waterfall) is the highest waterfall in Slovakia, a spectacular 80-metre cascade in the remote Kôprova Valley (Kôprová dolina) of the High Tatras, plunging down a near-vertical granite wall in one of the Tatra National Park’s most pristine and less-visited valleys. Named after the Slovak botanist and ethnographer Andrej Kmeť, this waterfall is […]
Categories: Nature, Nature, Slovakia, Waterfalls