CONTRIBUTORS

Steven Bond

Ticking off 50 countries, including many visited during his tenure as news editor at Destinations of the World News, travel journalist Steven Bond sees each new stamp in the passport as an opportunity to balance exploration with education. A road-trip aficionado, Steven’s travels have taken him from the UK and Kenya to Macau, and for this issue, he visits Malta to discover a trio of islands with a cinematic landscape and vibrant history (page 46). “I went to Malta for the seafood and sunshine, but arrived in a compelling storybook and cherry-picked a montage of highlights from myth, history and cinema,” he says. @stevenjohnbond

Laurel Munshower

A fine arts graduate who caught the travel bug after a summer abroad studying Europe’s Renaissance art, deputy editor Laurel Munshower is a nine-year resident of Dubai with travel tastes and experiences that vary from trekking the Nepalese Himalayas to watching an opera in a 2,000-year-old Roman amphitheatre in Turkey. This time, she travels south of the equator to stay at Shangri-La’s Villingili Resort & Spa, Maldives (page 54). “It’s easy to assume that those tiny Maldivian island resorts are simply bases for lagoon-adjacent luxury villas, but Villingili challenges that perception,” she says. “I never expected to find a jungle environment – complete with myriad creature residents – and it was a fascinating surprise that thrilled the intrepid explorer in me.” @travelaurel

Kris Karacinski

Art director and budding motoring journalist, Kris has reviewed a series of vehicles for the magazine’s motoring section, cruising along Sheikh Zayed Road and occasionally the winding mountain roads of Oman to test all manner of supercars. This month, he was tasked with test driving an American car but how did he cope without a hot little European sporty number for the weekend? Not as bad as you might expect (page 90). “The Cadillac AST-V seems to have it all,” he says. “Even the arm rest has an unrivalled level of comfort.”