Gems.travel
The places that are real, and barely written about: a gazetteer of the world's overlooked corners.
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Tuvalu Travel Reality: Funafuti, the Conservation Area and a Runway Life
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Mongolia Beyond the Gobi Tour: Moron, the Northern Lakes and Reindeer Country
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Kazakhstan Travel: Almaty, the Tian Shan Foothills and the Steppe Beyond
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Guyana Travel: Into the Interior, the Canopy Walkway and Brazil Border
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Eritrea Travel Guide for Asmara Modernist Architecture and the Coast Road
Guides for countries
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Afghanistan
Northern Afghanistan’s towns—Mazar-i-Sharif, Balkh, Samangan, Kunduz—hold mosques, stupas, and bazaars that remain a record of the country’s deep history, not a holiday destination.
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Albania
A guide to the Albanian interior towns of Burrel and Lushnje, where the land between the coast and the mountains reveals the country's stark, unfiltered centre.
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Angola
Angola’s interior rewards the determined with the Kalandula Falls, the cool Huambo highlands, the Serra da Leba switchbacks, and the faded Portuguese towns of the coast.
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Benin
Benin end to end: a travel guide for adventurous travellers covering Cotonou, the Vodun coast, the Dahomey palaces, and the remote Atakora hills.
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Botswana
Botswana is more than the Okavango Delta—its large villages, museums, and long roads reveal a country of deep history and quiet cultural riches.
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Brazil
Sao Luis, Fortaleza, and Belo Horizonte deliver Brazil’s most underrated urban travel: tiled colonial streets, forró nights, and the country’s best bar food, far from the Rio-Salvador circuit.
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Bulgaria
Using Sliven and its famous clock tower as a base to explore the textile towns, wood-built villages, and slow rhythms of Bulgaria's Balkan foothills.
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Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso offers Ouagadougou's film festival, the Banfora escarpment, and Sahel trading towns, but security constraints now define any journey here.
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Burundi
Burundi extends beyond Bujumbura to Gitega's drum sanctuaries and the hippo-dotted Rusizi river mouth on Lake Tanganyika.
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Cambodia
Cambodia beyond Angkor: the border towns that trade in gems, the volcanic northeast, and the coastal stretch from Kep to the Cardamoms that most travellers never see.
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Central African Republic
The Central African Republic recorded honestly: what travel is possible, what is not, and what the country asks of anyone who still decides to go.
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Chad
Chad's Sahel towns, the shores of Lake Chad, and the Ennedi massif form a journey through three realities that few travellers ever connect.
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China
China’s provincial cities like Lanzhou, Guiyang, and Nanning offer regional food, overnight trains, and almost no English—a raw travel experience far from the usual tourist circuit.
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Colombia
Colombia's second cities and its Amazon reserve reward travellers willing to step off the Medellín-Cartagena axis and into the country's deeper interior.
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Comoros
The Comoros archipelago unfolds across three islands: Grande Comore's volcano, Anjouan's old sultans' town Mutsamudu, and Mohéli's marine reserve.
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Democratic Republic of the Congo
Lubumbashi, Kisangani, Mbuji-Mayi, and Kolwezi are the DR Congo’s distant urban realities—mining towns and river ports with their own rhythms, far from Kinshasa.
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Djibouti
Djibouti is a small country that is mostly landscape: Lac Assal's salt crust, whale sharks in the Gulf of Tadjoura, and the Goda Mountains rising from the rift.
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Eritrea
Eritrea rewards patient travellers with Asmara's UNESCO-listed modernist architecture and the dramatic road down to Massawa on the Red Sea.
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Eswatini
Eswatini packs mountains, wildlife reserves, and vibrant craft markets into one of Africa's smallest, easiest-to-navigate kingdoms.
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Fiji
Fiji stretches far beyond the resort transfer: Nadi's highlands, Viti Levu's interior villages, and marine reserves that reward those who leave the Coral Coast behind.
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Gambia
The Gambia follows its river inland: from coastal Banjul to Basse, past mosques, market towns, and the slow rhythms of a country most travellers only see from a beach bar.
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Guinea-Bissau
Guinea-Bissau's Bijagos archipelago and scattered mainland towns like Cacheu and Bafatá form one of West Africa's most logistically demanding but richly layered journeys.
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Guyana
Guyana's central artery, the Georgetown-Lethem road, climbs from coastal mud to the rainforest canopy and the Brazil-bordering Rupununi savannahs.
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Honduras
An inland route through Honduras, from Tegucigalpa's mountain bowl to Comayagua's colonial plazas and the cool Lenca highlands around La Esperanza.
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Indonesia
A Sumatra-focused route that skips Java and Bali for Palembang's river markets, Kerinci's volcanoes, and the quiet southern coast of Indonesia.
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Ivory Coast
Cote d'Ivoire moves from Abidjan's urban pace to Yamoussoukro's vast basilica and the slow lagoon towns of Grand-Bassam and Assinie.
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Kazakhstan
Almaty is the launchpad for Kazakhstan’s extremes, placing you between high-altitude lakes in the Tian Shan and the infinite Kazakh steppe.
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Kiribati
How to plan a journey through Kiribati, from crowded South Tarawa across the lagoon to the outer islands and on to the far-flung Kiritimati atoll.
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Liberia
Liberia beyond the headlines: riding empty waves at Robertsport, navigating Monrovia's bruised streets, and hauling into the wet drum of Sapo National Park.
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Mali
Mali's deep history—from Bamako's riverbank guitars to the mud mosques of Djenné—persists, even as conflict bars the northern routes.
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Mexico
A ground-level travel guide to northern and central Mexico's working cities—Chihuahua, Juarez, Leon, and Acapulco—for those looking past the beaches and pueblos mágicos.
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Mongolia
Trade the Gobi's camel treks for the deep north: Mörön, Lake Khövsgöl, and the Tsaatan reindeer herders of the Darkhad Depression.
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Nigeria
Nigeria’s ancient cities—Kano, Zaria, Jos, Abeokuta, and Aba—each hold a distinct history and rhythm that independent travellers can reach with patience and local guidance.
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Oman
Oman by road links the Jebel Akhdar mountains, Musandam's fjord-hugging roads, and the Empty Quarter's distant edge in one long, self-propelled arc.
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Portugal
A guide to Portugal's interior: the granite north, the fortified border towns, and the wide Alentejo plains far from the coastal crowds.
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Switzerland
Switzerland at ground level: the border cities where three languages meet, the Rhône valley's industrial ribbon, and the Jura towns behind the famous peaks.
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Syria
A sober reflection on Syria as a destination now: the cultural heritage that survived, the places lost, and the complex meaning of travel there today.
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Timor Leste
A route guide across Timor-Leste, from Dili's harbour through the mountain coffee country to the empty beaches and sacred edge of the eastern tip.
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Togo
Togo packs West Africa's density into a narrow strip, from the spiritual epicenter of Togoville to the wildlife corridors of Kéran National Park.
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Tuvalu
In Funafuti, Tuvalu, the airport is the town common, the sea is both a wonder and a threat, and the conservation area holds a silent, pristine Pacific.
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Uganda
Uganda beyond the gorillas means Lake Victoria's Ssese Islands, Jinja's river town pace, and markets that hum with a vitality no permit can capture.
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Venezuela
A record of Venezuela's central cities—Caracas, Maracay, Valencia and Colonia Tovar—where dignified plazas anchor a complex urban heritage.
By region
Latest articles
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Cote d'Ivoire Travel Guide for Abidjan Yamoussoukro and Lagoon Towns
Cote d'Ivoire moves from Abidjan's urban pace to Yamoussoukro's vast basilica and the slow lagoon towns of Grand-Bassam and Assinie.
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Timor Leste Travel Dili Mountain Road and the Eastern Tip Guide
A route guide across Timor-Leste, from Dili's harbour through the mountain coffee country to the empty beaches and sacred edge of the eastern tip.
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Togo Travel Guide: Lomé, the Voodoo Coast and Kéran National Park
Togo packs West Africa's density into a narrow strip, from the spiritual epicenter of Togoville to the wildlife corridors of Kéran National Park.
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Northern and Central Mexico Travel Chihuahua Juarez Leon Acapulco Reality
A ground-level travel guide to northern and central Mexico's working cities—Chihuahua, Juarez, Leon, and Acapulco—for those looking past the beaches and pueblos mágicos.
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Mali Recorded: Bamako, the Niger River and Sites Beyond Current Reach
Mali's deep history—from Bamako's riverbank guitars to the mud mosques of Djenné—persists, even as conflict bars the northern routes.
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Kiribati Travel Tarawa Outer Islands and the Vast Ocean Between Them
How to plan a journey through Kiribati, from crowded South Tarawa across the lagoon to the outer islands and on to the far-flung Kiritimati atoll.
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Honduras Inland Travel Tegucigalpa Colonial Towns and the Highlands
An inland route through Honduras, from Tegucigalpa's mountain bowl to Comayagua's colonial plazas and the cool Lenca highlands around La Esperanza.
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Burundi Travel: Gitega, the Royal Drummers and Lake Tanganyika Shores
Burundi extends beyond Bujumbura to Gitega's drum sanctuaries and the hippo-dotted Rusizi river mouth on Lake Tanganyika.
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Chad the Sahel Towns the Lake and the Ennedi Beyond Them
Chad's Sahel towns, the shores of Lake Chad, and the Ennedi massif form a journey through three realities that few travellers ever connect.
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Oman by Road the Mountains the Fjords and the Empty Quarter Edge
Oman by road links the Jebel Akhdar mountains, Musandam's fjord-hugging roads, and the Empty Quarter's distant edge in one long, self-propelled arc.