Getting the flavour of…
A remote Moroccan oasis
A “brilliant green gash” on the edge of the Sahara in southern Morocco, the oasis of Tighmert is a peaceful place to escape from the country’s more touristy corners, says Alice Morrison in the FT. Seventeen kilometres long and only four wide, it is occupied not by Berbers or Arabs but Sahrawis, literally “people of the desert”, who have their own language, and a social code “with hospitality at its core”. Their low red-clay houses sit among vegetable gardens and pomegranate groves, and there’s a small museum that explains their traditional way of life. Combine a trip there with a stay at one of the region’s luxurious kasbah hotels, and visit nearby Amtoudi too, where ancient forts sitting atop huge rocks look like ships “run aground in the desert”.
Contact Epic Morocco (020-8150 6131, epicmorocco.co.uk) for a bespoke itinerary.
Hiking in the Faroes Isolated in the Atlantic between the Shetlands and Iceland, and ruled from Denmark, the Faroes hit the headlines last year when a local restaurant, Koks, won the archipelago’s first Michelin star. But the islands are as joyous a destination for walkers as for foodies, says Tim Ecott in The Sunday Telegraph – like “the best of the Lake District”, but with more sea views and none of the crowds. Hiking with a guide is a good idea because there’s no “right to roam” on private land, and the public paths are not all well marked. There are hundreds of peaks to scale, but also easier coastal walks, such as that to Trælanípa, the 150-metre-high “slave rock” from which the Vikings used to throw old or disobedient slaves into the sea. Reika Adventures (00 298 267900, www.reika.fo) can organise guided walks and climbs.
A glorious beach in Yorkshire It has no cocktail lounges or Rick Stein restaurants, but the little Yorkshire town of Filey and its five-mile sweep of “glittering sands” work the sort of seaside magic that “turns you into a kid again” – making it the winner of this newspaper’s British beach of the year 2018, says Chris Haslam in The Sunday Times. With an elegant seafront promenade, Filey has long been the area’s most genteel coastal resort, counting Charlotte Brontë and Frederick Delius among its admirers – but it’s not short of fish and chip shops or arcades either. However, its chief appeal remains its natural setting: the beach itself, above which the town sits in glorious isolation, and the low, wild headland to the north of the town, where peregrine falcons swoop among “screeching” flocks of seabirds.
The stylish (“but definitely not hipster”) Downcliffe House Hotel has doubles from £140 b&b (01723-513310, downcliffehouse.co.uk).