Dear readers, Wanderlust Club members,

For a very long time, we’ve taken travel as granted. Yet for more than a year now, many of us have had to fulfil our wanderlust only through armchair travel, through throwbacks to our travel memories, through virtual travel. Indeed, we’re so grateful to you for keeping your wanderlust alive through our magazine.

This edition is quite special. As details on the resumption of travel are finally emerging, we are proud to present you with our biggest issue ever! You’ll experience an enhanced look and feel throughout, with inspirational photography and insightful, stimulating travel writing. There’s a whole new range of features and sections that have been added (see right); what does remain intact, is our commitment to bringing you the most rejuvenating ideas for authentic travel, for sustainable travel, for soul-defining travel. As the incoming Editor-inchief of Wanderlust, I am very eager to refresh and expand our proposition while remaining true to our 28-year-old journey.

We start by taking you to one of the most iconic – and far-flung – destinations of the Pacific, French Polynesia (p90), to find impossibly blue waters, ancient sea-faring traditions and a rugged landscape that transports you back through the eons of time…

As we always take the road less travelled, we’re sharing some of the great alternative routes to Peru’s storied Inca Trail (p110). Elsewhere, we sail with Antarctica’s whales on a meaningful, conservation-minded journey (p54) and attempt to spot the elusive Cantabrian bear in rewilding champion Spain (p130).

But that’s not all. Join us this issue as we take in Kazakhstan’s futuristic capital (p184); eat our way through Uruguay’s city of cool (p178); dig out 200 forgotten pyramids in Sudan (p174); walk about the USA’S oldest city, St Augustine (p168); buy memorable keepsakes in Jordan (p40); and swim with jellyfish in Micronesia’s microstate of Palau (p48), among many, many others. Further still, we’d like to remind you that travel cannot and should not ever be the same: our round-up of the most promising sustainable travel experiences for 2021 (p72), recognises the destinations prioritising a long-term view of their tourism development plans.

It is almost time to start planning again – and our wanderlust has hit rocket highs! Soon, we’ll be hitting the road. Until then, join us as we take you on the most invigorating travels around our glorious planet…

Outdoor eating and socialising (from another era) at Bryggen in the city of Bergen, Norway (p166)