FROM THE EDITOR

Travel just continues to feel so new.

Even though I jump on a plane every second week – mostly for work, occasionally for sweet leisure – the thrill hasn’t yet waned. I’ve tried to prioritise travel this year and said yes more than no. I’ve floated down the Mossman Gorge in the Daintree, “raced” with the Wild Oats crew off Hamilton Island, swum with turtles around Hayman Island and toasted a lolly-pink sunset aboard a yacht in Fiji.

Are you detecting a pattern? Yes – and it revolves around sun, sand and swimming.

It’s time to change things up.

As I write this note, I’m preparing to go to South Africa. Normally, I’d read everything I could on my destination and spend hours on websites but this time, I’m going with the flow. I don’t want to feel the weight of expectations – I want to be surprised. I want it all to feel new.

I suspect that after this past year – when so many of us have journeyed back to places we knew, loved and missed – we’ll once again go in search of novelty.

That was the thinking behind this special issue, which focuses on 23 places to go in 2023.

You can – and should – indulge in the triple treat of Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka but there’s such joy in road tripping through Japan, stopping at villages where tourists are an oddity. You’ve likely been to Adelaide but have you seen the stars at South Australia’s Dark Sky Reserve, one of only 20 in the world to receive international accreditation and the only place in this country awarded for its celestial beauty? Lake Como is wonderful – wonderful – but why not make a detour to Lake Garda for a Negroni at the Old Port?

This is the time. These are the places.

I hope your travels in 2023 ignite a sense of wonder.