‘It’s nice to help a life to live’: meet Sri Lanka’s turtle guardians
Volunteers are helping save baby sea turtles as the endangered species’ favourite nesting spots come under pressure from development, poaching and tourists
January 2024
My big move
My big move: my dream job took me to Bangkok – but living overseas can be lonely without friends
Cook like you're on holiday
‘No rules’ and ‘riotous flavour’: how to cook and eat like you’re on holiday in the Philippines
September 2023
From sulphur baths to Stalin’s home: five great trips in Georgia
Spectacular mountains and valleys, natural hot baths and a Soviet-era ghost town are all just a day trip away from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi
August 2023
‘A portal to a different world’: a gamer’s guide to visiting Japan
Whether you enter the big green pipe to Super Nintendo World, or want to rummage through rare games in Electric Town, Japan is a video game paradise
April 2023
Bali influencer backlash intensifies as island cracks down on problem tourists
Locals on the Indonesian island have been enraged by behaviour that includes visitors driving motorbikes dangerously and posing nude at sacred sites
Indonesia considers tourist tax to curb bad behaviour in Bali
Business groups fear cost could damage tourism sector still recovering from effects of pandemic
The latest lure in the White Lotus’s tales of corruption and greed? The luxury hotels of Thailand
The third season of the HBO comedy-drama is set to be shot in Thailand’s stunning beach resorts and tourist magnets – and who can blame them?
March 2023
New project seeks to bring south Asian literature to western readers
Nepal imposes ban on mountain trekking without a guide
‘Tourism is our only option’: the community banking on birding in north India
From the agencies
Bright lights, big city Bangkok – in pictures
February 2023
Jungles, jackfruit and community tourism: this is Sri Lanka at its best
Our author and her family are wowed by an ethical travel break, meeting local schoolchildren and visiting eco resorts set in verdant countryside and by pristine beaches
December 2022
Dfat updates travel advice for Indonesia: how will Australian tourists be affected by laws banning sex outside marriage?
Planning a Bali holiday? Here’s what we know about the new laws and what they mean for travellers and the LGBTQI+ community
August 2022
Brigid Delaney's diary
I’m off to Bali! It’s like the pandemic never happened. Except it did – and it hurt us all differently
Brigid Delaney
‘Very good for tourists’: Thailand aims for high season with U-turn on cannabis
May 2022
Thailand cove made famous in The Beach reopens to visitors after four-year closure
Maya Bay was once a sorry victim of overtourism. Now the beach’s wild residents – and a restricted number of human visitors – are returning
November 2021
From the Observer archive
From the archive: down the Yangtze with Paul Theroux, 1982
Despite the big filthy cities alongside it, the travel writer finds the river largely unchanged over hundreds of years. By Chris Hall
September 2021
The Audio Long Read
The real urban jungle: how ancient societies reimagined what cities could be – podcast
Forbidden territory: on horseback to the source of one of Earth’s most formidable rivers