We went to over a hundred different destinations this year, and published over a hundred different stories chronicling our travels. From Flores to Florence, we’ve covered it all. It would be impossible to select the best of these stories, nor would it be fair. Each destination had something unique, and each one was magical. So, instead, here are the 12 themed issues we did in 2016. Here are a selection of 13 Destinations of 2016 from Outlook Traveller.
January 2016: Heritage Destinations
We began the year with a heritage issue, with an in-depth look at destinations as diverse as the lost Chandella temples of Bundelkhand, the castles of Bhuj, and Rajasthani heritage from a train. Each destination was a find, none more so than Amitabha Gupta‘s photo feature on the forgotten terracotta mosques of Bengal. Click here to read the story.
February 2016: Responsible Travel
As detailed here, we looked at responsible travel through a bunch of stories on immersive journeys to various corners of India, including slow travel in Karnataka, an environment-sensitive wildlife lodge in Uttarakhand, and responsible luxury in Rajasthan. There was also Arundhati Nath’s sensitive story on a weaving village in Assam called Sialkuchi, home to the famous silk mekhala chadars. Click here to read the story.
March 2016: Experiential Holidays
When you travel, you can very well stick to your tight itinerary, see the sights and move on. Or you can linger and truly experience a place. So our writers took ayahuasca in Peru, went for a farm stay in Italy, embarked on a motorcycle tour of Rajasthan and got under the luxurious skin of Dubai. Nitin Chaudhary got under the skin of the Emerald City, Seattle. Click here to read the story.
April 2016: The Hills
One of our annual fixtures, the hills issue was big on great Himalayan holiday ideas, but it also featured a lovely take on the Parsi hospitality of Panchgani. Amit Dixit, meanwhile, renewed his love for the Vale of Kashmir with a great story on spring in Srinagar. Click here to read the story.
May 2016: City Breaks
We at Outlook Traveller love our city holidays, so we try to feature city stories as often as we can. In this issue, we took a look at the fantastic culinary cultures of Chennai, and went sailing in Mumbai, thus getting an unique perspective on both these seaside cities. Suman Tarafdar, meanwhile, fell in love with another seaside city, Tel Aviv. Click here to read the story.
June 2016: The Anniversary Issue
Hot and sweltering June is when we celebrate our anniversary, and we always try to pull a rabbit out of the hat every year. This year, we went for a double issue, one on the ineffable joys of travelling in India, and the other one on the best of international travel. As you can imagine, that’s a lot to choose from. So whet your appetite with a story by Rishad Saam Mehta on a hair-raising drive in the Himachal Himalaya across the Sach Pass, and a story by Lalitha Sridhar celebrating the joys of picture-postcard Wales.
July 2016: Islands
Escape to an island in the sun and leave all your cares behind. It’s the oldest travel dream isn’t it? Well, we were certainly feeling like getting away, so our writers set off for some very different kinds of islands, including to that marvellous island city of Malé, and the natural beauty of Bali, Flores and Mauritius. Meanwhile Bhaichand Patel brought us up close and personal to the Caribbean paradise that is Trinidad & Tobago. Click here to read the story.
August 2016: The Ideas Issue
All travel begins with a great idea, and Outlook Traveller exists to give you vacation ideas you can use. So we brought to you immersive travel in Spiti, the high life in Ladakh and the perfect Borneo holiday. Ranee Sahaney returned with a story on all things wild and beautiful at the Kruger National Park. Click here to read the story.
September 2016: USA
There’s just something about the United States of America that makes you want to keep going back. That vast country’s inexhaustible travel potential was the subject of this issue. To this end, our writers went on a drinking road trip across the country, went wandering about in Middle America, adventuring in Florida and on long drives in California. Charukesi Ramadurai went and paid homage to America’s great cultural lodestone of a city, New Orleans. Click here to read the story.
October 2016: The Wildlife Issue
This is another of our firm favourites, and a fixture for every October. Just as the various National Parks are gearing up to open for the season, we come to you with wildlife ideas. This year, we went to Zululand’s wilderness, tested the underwater beauty of Kenya’s Watamu coastline, traipsed theough the wilderness of Tadoba, and went driving to good old Corbett. Indranil Datta went looking for a tiger in Pench National Park and found a whole wild world. Click here to read the story.
November 2016: Western India
As that Pet Shop Boys song went, “Go west, life is peaceful there.” Well, we went looking for interesting experiences and found them in droves, from the vibrancy of Goa, the peace of Diu and the beauty of Diu. Priya P took us on a fascinating round of the princely palaces of Gujarat. Click here to read the story.
December 2016: Special Holidays
There are holidays, and then there are holidays that stay with you forever. The latter are special. So we thought it best to end the year with a bunch of special holidays. Our writers went looking for the red panda in the Bengal Himalaya, to the land of the Dongria Kondh in Odisha, to Bhutan on a bike, on a walking tour of Dehradun and Mussoorie and to Portugal’s untouched Azores Islands. Priya Ganapathy took us farther to Peru, and its unexplored treasures. Click here to read the story.