A winding five-hour drive from Bhutan’s capital, Thimphu, the Phobjikha Valley is one of the Himalayan kingdom’s most beautiful places, and also a prime spot to see black-necked cranes, said Ian Trower in DestinAsian.
With their striking black-and-white plumage and crimson crowns, these rare birds are “revered” by locals, who call them “birds of heaven”. Conservation efforts have helped boost global numbers from around 6,000 in the 1990s to more than 17,000 today, and each year several hundred overwinter in Phobjikha’s “farm-fringed” wetlands.
Their arrival is celebrated with a festival of folk music and dancing at the 17th-century Gangtey Monastery. Tour operators such as Ampersand and hotels such as the luxurious Gangtey Lodge offer bird-watching walks, and there’s also an exhibition at the valley’s “decagonal” Black-Necked Crane Information Centre. Go between November and mid-March, when the birds return to the Tibetan Plateau for the summer.
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Hiking in the mountains of Bavaria
It’s not particularly popular with British visitors, but the Allgäu region of southern Bavaria is a lovely place for summer hiking, said Will Hide in The Times.
On a recent trip, I stayed at the Hubertus Mountain Refugio, a 66-room “wellness resort” with a big spa, an outdoor pool and friendly staff dressed in dirndls and lederhosen. The surrounding Alpine peaks rise above 2,600 metres and allow for lots of long, bracing walks through woods and flower meadows.
For lazier days, there’s plenty of cultural interest within easy reach, including Lake Constance (a 45-minute drive west), the picturesque historic town of Kempten, and Neuschwanstein, the “fairy-tale” palace built by King Ludwig II. Two of his other residences – Hohenschwangau and Linderhof – are also within striking distance.
A coastal walk in northern Cumbria
Few corners of the UK feel as on the edge of things as the north Cumbria coast, a low-lying strip hemmed in by the Lake District fells, said Chris Moss in The Guardian.
It is beautiful but “gritty” too, and scarred by industry in parts, as I discovered on a recent three-day walk along its portion of the England Coast Path. From Maryport (a pleasant town where L.S. Lowry liked to paint), I went south to St Bees Head, with its “spectacular” cliffs, a journey of 23 miles.
Highlights along the way included Workington (a friendly place that “looks as its name sounds”) and Whitehaven, surely one of England’s “loveliest” coastal towns – a former “industrial powerhouse” with “crumbling” grandeur in spades, but which also has a “striking” new hotel, The Edge, an angular, “rust-coloured” building by the sea.
