TrodPod

Two nations, one legal system and a long-running argument about rugby. England and Wales share an island, a monarch and a weather forecast that rarely bothers with optimism, yet each guards its own identity with some vigor. Expect Roman baths and Neolithic riddles, castles by the dozen, mountains that feel far bigger than their height, and cities that never quite stop talking. Pack layers, book tr...

Vast, empty and utterly beguiling, Mongolia is the land of Genghis Khan, endless steppe and the coldest capital city on earth. Roughly half the country lives in Ulaanbaatar; the rest is a rolling immensity of grassland, desert and mountain where nomadic herders still live in felt gers and horses seem to outnumber people. It's a country best measured in weeks, not days — big, wild, and unlike a...

The "Spice Island" of the Caribbean punches well above its size. This three-island nation supplies a whopping share of the world's nutmeg, and the scent of it seems to drift through everything — the food, the rum, the very air. Beyond the spice you'll find postcard beaches, rainforest waterfalls, an underwater sculpture park and a laid-back charm that has visitors quietly plotting how to emigrate....

Landlocked in the heart of Central Asia and roughly ninety per cent mountains, Kyrgyzstan is a trekker's dream and one of the friendliest of the "Stans." This is a land of turquoise alpine lakes, summer pastures dotted with horses, and a nomadic culture where a night in a yurt with a herding family is very much on the menu. You can walk for days and barely see another soul. It's not quite as off-t...

Lesotho is one of only three countries on earth entirely surrounded by another, and the only one that sits, in its entirety, above 1,400 metres. That altitude explains almost everything: the snow, the blankets worn as national dress, the horses, the water it sells to its enormous neighbor. Come expecting sub-Saharan heat and you will spend your first afternoon shivering in a jeep. Come prepared, a...

Tucked into West Africa's Atlantic coast, Guinea-Bissau is one of the continent's smallest nations and among its least-visited — which is precisely the point. Here you'll find a labyrinth of mangrove channels, a scatter of eighty-eight islands where saltwater hippos wallow, and a faded Portuguese capital that runs, memorably, on power from a Turkish ship. It's a fiddle to reach and gloriously unpo...

Canada is the world's second-largest country and, quite possibly, its most agreeable. A vast sweep of boreal forest, glacial lakes, and Arctic tundra stitched together by very long roads and improbably polite people, it stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific and up into the ice. Come for the Rockies and the wildlife; stay for the Tim Hortons, the multicultural cities, and a national temperamen...

The Dominican Republic is the Caribbean with the volume turned up — and a surprising amount of substance behind the sunshine. Yes, there are the postcard beaches of Punta Cana, all white sand and turquoise water, but this is also the site of the first European city in the Americas, the highest mountain in the Caribbean, and a merengue-and-bachata soundtrack that seems to follow you everywhere. Fer...

Ukraine is Europe's second-largest country and, right now, a byword for resilience. Beneath the headlines of war lies a nation of golden-domed monasteries, grand boulevards, and some of the richest farmland on Earth — the fabled "breadbasket of Europe." From ancient Kyiv to Habsburg-flavoured Lviv and cosmopolitan, Mediterranean-tinged Odesa, this is a place of deep history, fierce culture, and ex...

Tunisia is the ancient, sun-baked heart of the Maghreb: a small North African country carrying a hell of a lot of history. This is where mighty Carthage once challenged Rome, where Roman mosaics and amphitheaters rival Italy's own, and where whitewashed medinas, Saharan oases, and Mediterranean beaches sit within easy reach of one another. Add couscous by the platterful, warm hospitality, and a st...

Luxembourg is one of Europe's least likely little states — a tiny Grand Duchy wedged between France, Germany, and Belgium that punches absurdly above its weight. It's clean, green, multilingual, and eye-wateringly wealthy: a place of clifftop old towns, fairy-tale castles, subterranean fortresses, and surprisingly wild hiking country. Think of it as the jewelry box of Europe — beautiful, orderly,...

Kenya is East Africa at its most iconic — the Africa of documentaries and daydreams. Endless golden savannah roamed by lions and elephants, snow-flecked peaks, a Swahili coast of dhows and carved doors, and a fast, modern capital where rhinos graze against a skyline. It's the cradle of humankind, a major continental hub, and one of the great safari destinations on Earth — a country that has a habi...

The United Arab Emirates is where desert tradition collides, gloriously, with unrestrained ambition. In a few short decades, seven emirates have transformed from pearl-diving villages into one of the glitziest, most future-facing places on Earth. Yes, Dubai does the record-breaking skyscrapers and surreal excess — but there's far more here: Abu Dhabi's world-class museums, the palm-shaded oasis of...

North Korea is the world’s most isolated country, and visiting it is one of travel’s most surreal experiences. Everything is controlled, curated and choreographed – and yet, within those constraints, there is genuine wonder to be found. The Mass Games alone are worth the trip: a spectacle of such audacious scale it defies belief. Beyond Pyongyang, ancient tombs and historic cities hint at a Korean...

Guatemala is the beating heart of the Maya world –  a small, mountainous Central American country where volcanoes loom over colonial towns, jungle swallows ancient pyramids, and market colour spills into every corner. It's a place people arrive at for a few days and leave a year later, seduced by Lake Atitlán's spiritual calm, Antigua's café culture, and some of the most spectacular archaeolo...

The Gambia is Africa’s smallest mainland country: a slender ribbon of land wrapped around the river that gives it its name and almost entirely enclosed by Senegal. What it lacks in size it makes up for in warmth - both climatic and human. Known as the Smiling Coast of Africa, it offers golden Atlantic beaches, over 600 species of bird, a river teeming with life and a history both painful and profo...

Mauritius is the kind of place that looks almost too good to be true in the brochure - and then turns out to be exactly as advertised. A volcanic island adrift in the Indian Ocean, ringed by coral reefs and fringed with beaches of absurd perfection, it has parlayed its natural assets into one of Africa’s most prosperous economies. But it is more than just a beach destination: beneath the resorts l...

Laos is Southeast Asia’s quietest secret: a landlocked, mountainous country of saffron-robed monks, mist-wreathed karst peaks and a pace of life so languid it makes its neighbours look frantic. Once the Kingdom of Lan Xang — the Land of a Million Elephants — it was later the most heavily bombed country per capita in history, a fact that still shapes its landscape and its people. Today, it blends B...

Peru is South America’s superstar, and it knows it. From the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu to the culinary fireworks of Lima, from the enigmatic Nazca Lines to the vast green sprawl of the Amazon, this is a country of almost absurd variety. It has been reinventing itself for decades and keeps getting better. The food alone would justify the airfare. The rest is a bonus of civilization-spanning prop...

Benin is a small, narrow strip of a country on the West African coast with a history vastly disproportionate to its size. This was the seat of the Kingdom of Dahomey, one of Africa’s most powerful and militarized states, and a pivotal node in the Atlantic slave trade. It is also the birthplace of Vodun - the spiritual tradition that traveled across the ocean and became Haitian Vodou, Brazilian Can...

Turkey is one of those rare countries that genuinely straddles civilizations. Straddling Europe and Asia, it has absorbed the legacies of Hittites, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and Ottomans and turned them into something entirely its own. Istanbul alone could occupy a lifetime. Add Cappadocia’s surreal landscapes, the Roman grandeur of Ephesus, the thermal terraces of Pamukkale, and a cuisine that r...

Belarus is Europe’s great enigma: a landlocked country of vast forests, Soviet-scale boulevards and a political reality that makes it one of the continent’s most unusual destinations. Under the long rule of Alexander Lukashenko, it has earned the nickname ‘Europe’s last dictatorship’ - yet visitors often find a country of quiet charm, genuine warmth and a cultural resilience that defies the headli...

One hundred episodes. Twenty years on the road. Six continents and counting. To mark our centenary, we're doing something different: no single country this week, but a victory lap through the very best of the world's first half. Join us as we hand out wildly subjective, fiercely defended awards for the most sacred site, the most beautiful city, the greatest road trip, the finest cuisine... the whe...

Bulgaria is the Balkans’ best-kept secret, which is both its charm and its tragedy. Sandwiched between Romania, Serbia, North Macedonia, Greece and Turkey, it offers Black Sea beaches, dramatic mountain ranges, ancient Thracian tombs, crumbling Ottoman mosques and an Orthodox monastic tradition of extraordinary beauty – all at prices that make Western Europe weep. The yogurt is excellent, the wine...

Zambia is where the walking safari was born, and the country remains one of Africa’s finest wildlife destinations – raw, uncrowded and thrillingly authentic. From the thundering curtain of Victoria Falls to the intimate game viewing of South Luangwa, this is a country that rewards those willing to venture off the beaten path. It is also one of the continent’s most peaceful and politically stable n...