A short morning in the Estonian capital: the Viru Gate, Town Hall Square, Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, the parliament on Toompea Hill, the Pikk Hermann tower where the 1989 Baltic Way began, and what it cost.
Travel blog
Destination stories from Saki The Wanderer
Travel notes connected to my Telugu vlogs: city walks, history, Indian connections, film locations, spiritual experiences and unusual short trips.
A foggy day in the Lithuanian capital: the Gate of Dawn, Cathedral Square, the tiny Republic of Užupis and its constitution in Sanskrit, Trakai Island Castle on its lake, Gediminas Hill at night, and what it cost.
A guided day trip from Antalya: the Kekova sunken city by boat, St Nicholas Church and the Santa Claus story in Demre, over a hundred rock tombs and a Roman theatre at Myra, and what the tour cost.
Kaleiçi old town, Hadrian's Gate, the Kesik Minare, the Düden waterfall dropping into the sea, a vegan lunch, and what the day cost.
A full day in Armenia's capital: Republic Square, chess culture, Saint Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral, the Cascade Complex, Tamanyan's Opera, Mother Armenia and the night's musical fountains.
A full-day Armenia group tour: Geghard's cave-carved monastery, the Symphony of Stones, Garni Temple, and a foggy panic-mode boat ride on Lake Sevan.
Six countries in one day: two Schengen tripoints, the border town of Baarle, and a Channel ferry home.
Antwerp's cathedral, Het Steen and diamonds, the legend behind the city's name, and a short drive to Doel, a Belgian village once marked for demolition.
The Algarve capital most tourists skip: a Moorish gate, Faro Cathedral's bell tower, two Chapels of Bones, a Ria Formosa sunset boat tour, and an unexpected Telugu restaurant.
The Seven Hanging Valleys Trail and a boat tour into the world-famous Benagil Cave, with sea arches, the Submarine and Elephant caves, and cliff divers along the Algarve coast.
Free nationwide public transport, the Gelle Fra, the double-decked Adolphe Bridge, the Bock Casemates and Chemin de la Corniche, why one of Europe's smallest countries is also one of its richest.
Mullerthal's waterfall, fairy-tale Vianden Castle, and the village where the Schengen Agreement was signed on a boat.
Curchi Monastery, the cave monastery and wishing cross at Orheiul Vechi, a traditional village lunch, and the underground wine city of Cricova, where Yuri Gagarin once got lost.
Crossing into the unrecognised breakaway state of Transnistria: Bender Fortress, the Sheriff monopoly, Tiraspol's Lenin statue, Gagarin Alley and a Back to the USSR lunch.
Chisinau travel blog: Europe’s least-visited capital, Soviet architecture, the Eternity Memorial and Ciuflea Monastery.
Prague movie locations, Old Town, Astronomical Clock, Castle, trams and Indian lunch.
Roman Emperor Diocletian’s palace, Riva waterfront, Game of Thrones cellars, Klis Fortress and Telugu cinema connection.
The walled Old Town, layers of Roman and Ottoman history, the Ancient Theatre of Philippopolis, a buried Roman Stadium, and the real answer to Plovdiv's seven hills.
The Latin Bridge where World War One began, a mosque, church and synagogue side by side, the Meeting of Cultures line, and the abandoned Olympic bobsled track on Trebevic.
Tito, the breakup of Yugoslavia, the Siege of Sarajevo, the Srebrenica genocide, Sniper Alley and the hand-dug Tunnel of Hope.
Kravica Waterfalls, the hillside village of Pocitelj, the Blagaj Tekke, and Stari Most, the Old Bridge rebuilt stone by stone after the war.
Litewski Square's union monument, a real-time video portal to Dublin and Vilnius, the walled Old Town's tightrope walker statue, Lublin Castle, and the history of Majdanek.
A 6-hour layover city tour: the Gothic cathedral, Romerberg's half-timbered old town, the Eiserner Steg love-lock bridge, the Euro sign, and the Alte Oper.
24 hours in the Arctic Circle: the frozen lake at Prestvannet, the Gateway to the Arctic, the world's northernmost McDonald's, and a full-sky Northern Lights display.
Returning 13 years after working there: the 1934 cable car up to Alps views, Notre-Dame Square, and a student city nicknamed the Silicon Valley of Europe.
Inside Varosha, a resort town more popular than Paphos once, frozen since 1974 and sealed for nearly five decades before slowly reopening to visitors.
Walking across the Green Line into a country almost nobody recognises, the 1974 split explained on the ground, and a Byzantine castle in Kyrenia.
The mythological birthplace of Aphrodite, a sliver of British sovereign territory, and the real-world headquarters city of the betting apps flooding Telugu YouTube.
The mosaic-floored Villa of Theseus, tombs carved into rock two thousand years before Petra, a lighthouse, and a boat tour cancelled twice by rough seas.
The Jordan Museum PM Modi visited, the hilltop Citadel that's been Amman's capital for over a thousand years, and a Roman theatre still in use today.
Floating at the lowest point on Earth, why the water is ten times saltier than the ocean, and the view of Jerusalem and Bethlehem from Mount Nebo.
The Siq, the Treasury and the real history behind the myth of hidden gold, Petra by Night, Little Petra, the Roman Theatre, and 800 steps up to the Monastery.
A night in a Martian-style tent, Hollywood's favourite desert (The Martian, Star Wars, Dune), sand boarding down a red dune, and a staged Arab Revolt train raid.
Beyond Valletta: Gozo's walled Cittadel, Comino's Blue Lagoon in the rain, Mdina's silent Game of Thrones streets, and an unexpected Telugu-speaking community working across Malta.
Europe's smallest EU capital: a centuries-old noon cannon ceremony, a boat trip to the Three Cities, Dingli Cliffs, and the small church where a Tamil film song was shot.
A city destroyed almost entirely in WWII and rebuilt exactly from old paintings, the Palace of Culture and Science, Chopin's heart, and the remarkable true story of an Indian Maharaja who sheltered Polish refugee children.
Cabbage Market Square, a bullet-shaped astronomical clock, the crooked-horn legend of the Old Town Hall, Spilberk Castle's grim history, and the St. James Church Ossuary.
A catamaran ride from Vienna, Bratislava Castle's upside-down table shape, the UFO Bridge, Cumil peeking out of a manhole, and an empty Jewish quarter's quiet history.
St. Stephen's Cathedral, the Hofburg Palace, the square where Hitler addressed a supportive crowd after annexing Austria, a small Hindu temple, and the real filming locations from Namo Venkatesa.
A giant Alexander the Great statue at the centre of a naming dispute, a clock frozen at the exact minute an earthquake levelled the city, and nearly a thousand statues nobody agrees were worth it.
A cable car up to the Millennium Cross above Skopje, a Byzantine monastery, a stone village, and a boat ride into a cave holding one of Europe's deepest underground lakes.
Sunrise over Gibralfaro, the Alcazaba, Picasso's birthplace, an unfinished four-hundred-year-old cathedral, and a bullring that once hosted a Telugu film song.
Athens in under 24 hours: the Acropolis and Parthenon, the Ancient and Roman Agoras, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the Changing of the Guard, and a full history lesson climbing the hill.
A capital with no old town, no river and no beach, yet 6,000 years of history: Roman ruins inside a metro station, and the wartime story of how Bulgaria saved its Jewish population.
A dictator's paranoia written into hundreds of thousands of bunkers, a pyramid built for his own memory, and a genuine investigation into Albania's claim on Mother Teresa.
Two continents, one city: the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, the Grand Bazaar, Galata Tower, and a ferry across the Bosphorus to an Asian side that turned out more charming than expected.
A dragon legend, Wawel Castle, the history behind Auschwitz-Birkenau covered with the gravity it demands, and 380 steps down into the Wieliczka Salt Mine's underground cathedral.
The world's smallest country in one morning: the Vatican Museums and Raphael's rooms, the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Square, and a border that is just a line in the pavement.
Two days in Rome: inside the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, and vegetarian food from ghee idli to spaghetti.