Lonely Planet recently named Singapore their number one county to visit in 2015, which in it of itself is fine, except for the fact that it’s technically a city/state, right? That’s like saying my favorite food in the world is gum. While technically correct, it’s not exactly a satisfying an answer. (Actually, I don’t really chew that much gum — I’m more of a Werther’s Original guy, but that’s besides the point).

They have some other good suggestions on the list as well, including Namibia, The Philippines and Nicaragua, all of which are worthy contenders for your next trip. However, none of them happen to be places that Contiki is highlighting on their “New Destinations” page (except for Morocco, the idea of which I’m pretty sure Lonely Planet stole from Contiki). Weird, right?

That being said, I’d like to highlight three of the countries they offer tours to, not because they made the cut for this list, but because I actually would love to go there (or return to in two of the three cases).

1) Colombia

What else can you say about Colombia? It’s hard to turn on the Facebook without someone mentioning how they’re grabbing the next 5-hour flight to the country to take in the splendor of a country that just a couple decades ago was persona non grata to most of the outside world.

When I was there a few years back, I made a number of videos from around the country in which I traveled to Bogota, Medellin and Cartagena, among other cities, and which I got many comments about how I wasn’t playing the correct music in the background for each particular city’s video. Oh yeah, Colombians are very particular about their music (which is a good thing in my opinion).

What do I remember most about the country though? Probably how much I loved it there, including the food, the weather, the beaches, the people and the absolute insistence too many people had back home that I shouldn’t go. Man, that felt good to go anyways.

2) Guatemala

My friend and and contributor to this site, Luke Armstrong, is either from South Dakota or Guatemala, I keep forgetting which. What I do know is that when I went down there a few years ago to visit him and his group of ex-pat friends, he was certainly not treated like a Gringo at all. In fact, I think he was affectionately known as “The Man That Wears Shoes Made of Goats,” and was treated like a local.

Under his mastery of the Spanish language, including the many colorful ways to swear, we traversed the country, including stops in the always amazing Antigua, the stunning Lake Atitlan, scenic Semuc Champey and wondrous Tikal. Guatemala is usually my go-to country to suggest when people mention they want to visit Central American but don’t know where to go, and I have fond memories of visiting the county and almost getting burned alive on an active volcano (surprise, I made a travel video from there too!).

3) Portugal

I haven’t been to Portugal yet, but if there was ever a time to go there, it’s now. Why? Well, try having a conversation with anyone with absolutely any taste or insight into the pulse of “what’s cool” around the world, and I guarantee you will hear the line, “Lisbon is the place to live now,” or “Lisbon is the new Berlin.”

Something about the economic crisis a few years ago, the country’s unwavering attention to its proud culture and the fact that Portuguese sounds so good to the ear makes it perennially one of the best places in the world to travel to.

Portugal is also home to the biggest wave ever surfed (in Nazare), a video of which may be the most frightening thing I have ever seen in my life.

[This post was brought to you by the fine folks at Contiki, the worldwide leader in tours for 18-35 year-olds.]

By Matt Stabile /

Matt Stabile is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheExpeditioner.com. You can read his writings, watch his travel videos, purchase the book he co-edited or contact him via email at any time at TheExpeditioner.com.

The post 3 Countries To Visit In 2015 If You Don’t Want To Be Lame appeared first on The Expeditioner Travel Site.

It has been three years since I last saw Loch. We parted on a train somewhere under London, thousands of miles away from the town in Guatemala where we had first met. As the tube doors slid shut on an era, I did not imagine that it would be near Sagres, Portugal’s most Southwesterly tip, that we would meet again.

Yet here I am, in the small village of Raposeira in the Algarve, pushing open a salt-encrusted wooden gate to the Good Feeling Hostel where, according to a hurried e-mail exchange, I am to be reunited with my old friend who has taken up residence as a stand-up paddle instructor.

I barely recognize him. After months of surfing and sun, he has been transformed into a bronzed and hulking man of the sea.

Inevitably, he is on his way to take a couple of Spanish girls to check out the sunset from a suitably romantic cliff-top location. Yes, despite the passage of time and the consolidation his pectoral muscles, it was clearly the same old Loch.

The battered Peugeot retreats into a cloud of dust, bearing with it the two unsuspecting lovelies and one Central American lothario. I am left standing bemused and backpacked to watch the sun dip over a backdrop of whitewashed houses.

Shit. This was not the welcome I had anticipated.

It was not long, however, before I was greeted by resident chef, surf and jujitsu instructor, Carlos, and the sunshine vibes started to get the better of me. Handing me a beer, he explains a bit more about the way things roll at Good Feeling. Namely, in a relaxed fashion.

I cut some veggies for the communal dinner, before settling myself in a hammock to ponder the week ahead. I did not yet realize that, in my quest for a long-long friend, I had stumbled upon a jewel in the Algarve: a haven of breathtaking scenery, outdoor adventuring and toned body mass.

The Perfect Natural Setting

This area of the Algarve is dotted with national parks, leaving the coastline to exist in its natural and rugged state, unfettered by tacky holiday homes or ugly resorts. A number of the best beaches still remain relatively inaccessible, especially at high tide, which lends plenty of opportunity to explore.

A few of the area’s most noteworthy bathing spots include Beliche, Figueira and Barranco. Barranco, otherwise known as the “hippie” beach, is a stunning little bay, glistening emerald green — albeit freezing cold — water. And naked people.

Apart from a high saturation of exposed genitalia, one of the main attractions of this bay is as the starting point for stand up paddle tours.

Stand Up Paddle

Stand up paddling, or SUP as the kids are calling it, is actually a lot more fun than I had given it credit for, at least in this part of the world. Dramatic cliffs and submerged caves make for an active paddling experience, providing plenty of opportunities to jump off things and swim under things. Especially when your paddle instructor goes by the name of Loch.

We began with a brief introduction to the basics. These seemed, indeed, fairly basic but were accompanied with a warning: according to Loch, we would forget everything we had been taught when things “got real.”

Undaunted, we set off on our boards, kneeling against the wind resistance and heading towards a corner point which would allow us to escape the gentle swell generated by an offshore breeze. As predicted, however, instead of steering gently to the shelter at the opening of the bay as instructed during our basic training, one girl set out merrily into the open ocean. And, it seemed, to her doom.

[Dramatic Pause]

But fear not dear reader, of course she came to no harm. This diversion merely presented our very own Loch the opportunity slip into his role as The Alpha Male, a part to which he seems to have grown quite enamored.

He single-handedly dragged her to shore, before providing the rest of the group — including the newly infatuated damsel — with a master-class in rock scaling, cave swimming and yogic posing.

The guy was clearly in his element, and who could blame him? This was a far cry for the long dusty commute from an office in Guatemala City every evening. I was beginning to see where his love for the paddle board was coming from.

I too was starting to feel at home in a wet suit and was keen to take my burgeoning relationship with water sports to the next level. It was time to get my surf on  – she says, trying to be cool but sounding like a geriatric.

I Use the Term “Surf” Loosely

Despite a few brief periods in my life dedicated to the cultivation of a beach-chic image, I had never actually surfed before. Furthermore, my beginner’s board could have doubled up as the wall of a sturdy garden shed, hindering any projection of myself as an accomplished beach bum.

Nevertheless, I was soon wielding surf terminology with liberal abandon. This did little to nurture my credibility, considering the generic usage of “gnarly” was accompanied an unspectacular 10seconds of standing prior to a rather more spectacular face plant.

Kelly Slater probably probably doesn’t need to be watching his back just yet, but what I lacked in skill, I made up for in enthusiasm, trying out a number of beaches in my quest for aquatic glory. For those who know their hang heels from a goofy foot, the locals suggest Ponta Ruiva, Amado, Boudeira and Arrifana.

Horseback Riding

I have been an avid horse rider since I was a kid and I attribute it with some of my happiest memories, and my experience of hacking in Sagres was no disappointment.

Nidia runs Equivicentinos, a low-key operation just near Vila do Bispo. Only working with small groups, she offers a bespoke experience catering to the ability and confidence of each rider. It is clear that this is a woman who is doing something she loves, and just so happens to be making a living out of it. At a couple of points during our two-hour trek she actually seemed rather surprised to see me — herself absorbed by the dramatic vistas afforded by carefully scouted lookout points.

Unlike so often with riding schools, we were not limited to simply trailing along behind one another, but galloped through forest paths blanketed in pine needles and along cliff-top ridges, the sound of the waves breaking below echoing along the rocky coastline.

We even took the horses to paddle in the sea, letting them snort and splash in the water to the delight of holiday makers and, of course, the omnipresent community of naked people.

As I leaned my head back to enjoy the evening rays on my face, I realized why it was that my friend had chosen to give up the city life and head for the horizon on a paddle board.

Surely this is how humans should live, outside, at one with the elements, shedding their pudgy computer-addled bodies in favor of the sun-kissed, of the contentedness of aching muscles that have worked hard or the radiance you exude after a day of physical exertion.

Sleep with one eye open Loch, it might not be long before I return to crash this Casanova’s beach party.

By Hannah Wallace Bowman /

A restless Brit with big dreams and limited cash flow, Hannah is a freelance journalist and student. She is currently being sponsored by the European Union to take a Masters in Journalism and International Politics at the University of Amsterdam/University of Santiago, Chile, and the Danish School of Journalism. Check out her site DontDoNothing.com.

The post When A Lost Guatemalan Taught Me To Walk On Water appeared first on The Expeditioner Travel Site.

It’s always a little odd the first time you cross into another country — especially an English-speaking one — and suddenly find yourself surrounded by a completely different culture and unfamiliar language. This happened to me crossing from English-speaking South Africa — where many neighborhoods could easily be mistaken as outliers of Phoenix — into Portuguese-speaking Mozambique, where my feeble Spanish-language skills were no match for those seemingly garbled constructions thrown at me in the passport office.

Driving into the country, the influence was immediately apparent. As I bit into a pãozinho and watched as open-air schoolyards surrounded by pastel-colored, stucco buildings (that could easily have been home on the shores of the Atlantic) passed by, I thought about how you could travel almost anywhere around the world and likely run into the remnants of what was once Portugal’s vast empire. From Macau, India, Angola, Mozambique, Brazil, French Guinea, Barbados, to even the Canadian Maritime, Portugal’s influence is hard to avoid.

But what about the homeland? Though its empire has slowly been receding (China took back Macau in 1999), Lisbon itself has been undergoing something of a renaissance, landing on many of those “Top Places to Visit” lists, and even getting a little indie-cred with the rock-and-roll set (Animal Collective’s Panda Bear calls Lisbon home). This week, the the SF Chronicle visits Lisbon, stopping by the newly-opened Museum of Design and Fashion, roaming hip Santos for new designs and a few drinks, and discovering how the once “sleepy, inward-looking, dowdy, Lisbon,” a city known for not changing, finally has.

The post The Case For Lisbon appeared first on The Expeditioner Travel Site.

Ever check out HostelWorld’s monthly list of the top hostels? If you do, what you’ll most likely notice is that Lisbon dominates the upper half of the list, occupying #2, #4, and #5 (Travellers House, Rossio Hostel, and Lisbon Lounge Hostel, respectively). (The other thing you notice is that Krakow, inexplicably, seems to also be a hotbed for quality hostels, who knew?)

A writer over at the UK Times decided to visit all three hostels to see what the fuss was for herself; what she found were three centrally-located, clean, amenity-galore hostels with hip — sometimes quirky — designs, usually run by backpackers who know what other backpackers are looking for. And you were going to blow your travel budget on a hotel?

The post Did You Know The Best Hostels In The World Are In Lisbon? appeared first on The Expeditioner Travel Site.