Top Travel Links – January

This month’s round-up includes Downton Abbey, David Bowie, and Valentine’s Day

Reading

We’re starting with a special extended reading section this month, because 2013 has started with a big travel writing bang. As you would probably expect there are a number of different ‘where to go in 2013’ offerings around the internet – the finest of which are this authoritative collection from Forbes Travel Guide, this interactive holiday-planning calendar from The Guardian, and this exhaustive, 46 destination-strong collection from the New York Times. And for something more specific, here’s a selection of the 20 best bargain beach holidays for the year ahead. But that’s only some of what January has had to offer…

The BBC has served up a wealth of great travel articles this January, and we’ve struggled to decide which ones to feature. We’ve finally managed to get it down to just five (in no particular order): Eat Your Way around Yorkshire; Tasmania’s Greatest Mountain Quest; Tutankhamun Meets Downton Abbey in Rural Hampshire; Going Back in Time in Jamaica; and A Taiwanese Stinky Tofu Tour. Oh… and there’s also this sciency piece on Himalayan water… and this one on a cool island discovered by Darwin. Okay, so five-ish.

Outside of the BBC, there have also been some wonderful pieces from other extremely reputable travel sites. There was Mud, Leeches and Stunning Beauty in Tasmania in the New York Times, Jaw-Dropping Presidential Suites Around The World in Forbes Travel Guide and Richmond to DC: Abraham Lincoln and a tale of two White Houses in The Independent. But perhaps our fave feature of the entire month was the handy Seven Ways Not to Irritate Your Fellow Passengers when Flying from the Luxury Travel Blog.

Videos

With such a long reading section, we’ll keep the video section a little shorter this month. Therefore, here are three great travel-related vids we discovered this month: Parachuting off Machu Picchu (a Peruvian lawbreaker), Watery Wonders (diving off Malaysia), and Hong Kong’s Master Tailors (the story of suits).

Oh, and one more we simply must mention… January’s finest travel video that isn’t a travel video at all. It’s the brand new – and thoroughly unexpected – single from David Bowie; a lyrical love letter to Berlin.

Pictures

Think of hostels as being grubby little shacks with peeling wallpaper, squeaking bunk beds and scores of lank-haired backpackers? Well, here are 10 that go against the grain (though still have the backpackers!)

With The Shard – the tallest building in the EU – opening on February 1, here’s artist Stephen Wiltshire’s recreation of the view from the top in pen and ink. Most impressively, it was only drawn from memory!

Meanwhile, our slideshow highlights of the month include this extremely untouristy tour of Rome, this walk around a winter market in Swedan’s Lapland, and this collection of ultra-decadent floating suites.

And finally, perhaps the best ‘reader’s photo’ we’ve come across; just look at these waves of sandstone.

Events

Of course, there are several major festivals and grand openings (we already mentioned The View from The Shard) happening around the world this February, but there are two which will be more celebrated globally than any others – Valentine’s Day and Mardi Gras. People in cities all around the world will be kissing, dancing and eating as much as they can before the start of Lent. It’s going to be a good month!

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