Editor’s letter

‘T ravel is a state of mind. It has nothing to do with distance or the exotic. It is almost entirely an inner experience.’

There seems to be a Paul Theroux quote to back up almost anything you want to say about travel; the US travel writer and novelist has a knack of eloquently conjuring the words to describe shared experiences that are somehow personal to each of us. Lately, travel has been an inner experience, centred on nostalgia for places visited and fervent plan-making for trips to come.

With the chance of the real thing seemingly tantalisingly near — and yet, at the time of writing, still subject to government restrictions — we asked some of the most influential voices in travel to give meaning to these strange times. In this issue’s cover story, Pico Iyer, Levison Wood, Christina Lamb, William Dalrymple, Emily Chappell, Robert Macfarlane, Ade Adepitan, Felicity Aston and many more household names reveal the places they hold dearest, the travel experiences that have changed them, and the destinations that have demonstrated the power of a place.

Whether it’s a wild encounter, a meeting with someone new, or simply a moment of realisation that your place in the world isn’t quite what you thought it was, we celebrate the transformative eŠect that travel can have.

And on that note, I’d like to welcome the thousands of new subscribers who value armchair travel as much as the real thing. In print and online, we aim to ensure you #stayinspired.