Simon Calder at 25: The best trips I’ve taken
Simon Calder is celebrating 25 years at The Independent. Here he looks back on his best trips
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Almost all of the time, things work out well, and this has been the toughest category to whittle down – no room for Shanghai, the Azores, the overland truck through southern Africa, a rocket launch at Kennedy Space Centre, cycling through the Netherlands, travelling overland through Uzbekistan or that absurd hike across Snowdonia from Llandudno Junction to the youth hostel at Idwal Cottage.
Here are the best five trips I’ve ever done.
Three weeks on the road through northern Mexico when it was (relatively) safe, the cultural wonders of Oaxaca and western Guatemala, El Salvador’s version of Pompeii, hitching through Nicaragua and Costa Rica, and the cheerful madness of Panama City.
This trip took my personal policy of being on holiday pretending to work to new extremes. I spent November – the best month to travel anywhere vaguely south – on a circumnavigation that included Chowpatty Beach in Mumbai, Australia’s Outback, bungy-jumping in Queenstown, New Zealand, and following Che Guevara’s tyre tracks across the Andes. The highlight: Easter Island.
2011: A week in Orkney
When the sun shines and the wind abates, Scotland’s islands are as close to heaven as you need to be. The Western Isles were breathtaking in 2001, but the sky, sea and ancient history coalesced magically a decade later in Orkney.
Taking advantage of the lull in demand due to the London Olympics, the four of us flew on easyJet to Ljubljana and spent a hilarious week being stretched to the limits by fantastic Slovenian guides in one of the loveliest parts of Europe.
2014: California and Baja California
Starting with a Los Angeles city break including hiking through the Hollywood Hills, with a night in San Diego plus a week in Baja California snorkelling with sea lions, scampering through desert landscapes and indulging at one of the world’s more appealing ends.
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