Ecuador and the Galápagos archipelago are sold on wildlife – but the people behind it tell an equally interesting story. Christy Spring goes beyond the fauna checklist, from Quito to the Chocó to the Galápagos, to meet them
What does it take to run a hotel that outlasts empires, divorces and difficult cousins? From farms transformed by daring couples to grand dames in the family since the 1800s, Christy Spring picks out her favourite family-owned hotels
Christy Spring didn’t come to Bali seeking transformation but instead to catch a connecting flight. Stranded by flooding and her father’s heart surgery looming back home, she finds that island serenity looks different when you actually need it
Forget strip-lit terminals and joyless queues – these railway stations make the journey as magical as the destination. Christy Spring picks out the finest palaces of movement, filled with Gothic grandeur and Beaux-Arts beauty
Tignes is a magnet for adventurous skiers – 300km of terrain across the Espace Killy, a season that stretches well beyond its neighbours, and a crowd that would rather be first on the glacier than first in the champagne queue
In Kanazawa, where samurai once laid down their swords for teacups and kilns, craft has long been a strategy for survival. Christy Spring meets its artisans for whom making – and mending – offer resilience in the face of loss
Skip the high-altitude ham sandwiches and budget booze, Courchevel is a powder playground for the ultra-rich. Christy Spring checks into a chalet costing over £126,000 a week to see if it’s worth the dough
Once prescribed as medicine for the frazzled, Europe’s mountains still trade on their promise of cure. In the Tyrolean Alps, Christy Spring checks into Eriro – a nine-room hideaway where luxury involves slipping off the map
Cycling through the remote Taurus Mountains, Christy Spring discovers that e-bikes do more than ease the climbs – they shrink distances, bridge generations, and open up a Turkey most travellers never see
New film Going East follows four skiers who ditch planes for public transport to traverse Europe’s mountains from Italy to Turkey. Christy Spring talks with director-editor Loïc Isliker about the film’s celebration of slow travel
Shake off the doldrums and swap sofa for a saddle: bikepacking is the lean, mean antidote to the midweek rut. Grab a bike, pack light and tackle anything from Méribel’s alpine heights to Iceland’s volcanic moonscapes
Emerging from decades of conflict, a tsunami and an economic crisis, Christy Spring finds Sri Lanka pulsing with wildlife, inviting travellers to venture beyond the all‑inclusive haze into its untamed wilderness
Embarking on a Mekong River cruise, Christy Spring observes Laos at a crossroads. Ancient rituals converge with burgeoning luxury travel and bold infrastructure projects, signalling a nation on the cusp of a potential tourism boom
