The One-Horned Rhinos of Kaziranga National Park.

This Unesco World Heritage Site is set in spectacular scenery and is professionally run, without any fuss. Please believe the hype and take an elephant safari. It's a humbling experience to ride these stoical and patient relics from prehistory. You'll see plenty of rhinos as you pass through the elephant grass swampland, and if you're very lucky you may see some of the fifteen species of India's most threatened mammals. We saw wild elephants, several dear species and fantastic birds, but you could see fish eagles, hornbills, King Cobras, tigers, bears, leopards, or more.

We stayed in pristine huts with new kids on the block, the Nature Hunt Eco Camp. Superb.

www.worldheritagekaziranga.com
naturehunttours.com
Kaziranga National Park & Tiger Reserve
Bokakhat – 785 612
Golaghat
Assam, India
Telephone: +91-3776-268095
Google map: bit.ly/z8MT8D

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Il Ngwesi is a beautiful eco-lodge run by the local Laikipiak Maasai tribe in the breathtaking Savannah north of Mount Kenya. It is very remote. We went for our silver wedding anniversary and flew in over Treetops Lodge in a three-seater plane. We were the only ones staying and were met on the air strip and taken to our accommodation, the Prince William Banda, overlooking a waterhole. It was open plan in every sense, including the toilet and shower! We did sleep under the thatched roof the first night, but after that it was under the stars. We were superbly looked after by the Maasai; the walking safaris, sundowners and bush breakfasts were superb and the horizon pool looking over the savannah and back drop of hills was divine. A truly romantic place as I am sure the previous residents, William Wales and Kate Middleton, would concur.

www.ilngwesi.com
+254 (0) 020 20 33 122
Google map: bit.ly/wFySI6

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It has no roads, no cars. Its virgin rainforests are strictly protected and home to countless mammals from caiman to sloth and colourful birds like the striking blood-red Tanager. Its crystal waters are liberally sprinkled with turtles and offer some of the best diving in the world. You arrive by ferry and drag your suitcase along sandy tracks past quaint boutiques and restaurants or follow meekly as it is trundled on a barrow to your pousada by a burly local carrier. In the evening you will sit at a beach table, capirinha or chilled beer in hand, a bowl of freshly-caught seafood stew on order and your bare toes sifting the still-warm sand while a silent thunderstorm backlights the mountains of the distant Serra do Mar like some vast Hollywood set.

Ilha Grande lies just an hour off Brazil’s Costa Verde, that lush strip of Atlantic coastline stretching from north of Rio all the way down to Santos. It its time, this huge unspoiled tropical paradise, with more than 100 miles of jungle trails, has been a pirates’ lair – and as recently as the early 1990s housed a penal colony on one of its countless remote and isolated coves. Nowadays it still takes prisoners but only those who track down its isolation, sample empty beaches, coral reefs and laid-back Brazilian hospitality. It’s difficult to escape.

www.ilhagrande.com.br/
Google map: bit.ly/zrnHl9

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With luxurious sandy beaches, archaeological sites, cetacean spotting and shark fishing, the Isles of Scilly are the UK's own tropical paradise. Don't just stay in one place, though, use the excellent boat service to explore all the islands, several of which are uninhabited. You'll find rare birds, seal colonies, pre-historic remains and the UK's most south-westerly lighthouse, Bishop Rock.

Nature walking tours:
www.islandwildlifetours.co.uk
Walks start in late March and finish mid October, numbers and weather permitting.
www.scillywalks.co.uk
Katharine Sawyer leads archaeologial and historic walks round the islands between April and September
www.simplyscilly.co.uk
Google map: bit.ly/AlTA1D

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It's off the road and very quiet and the lagoon is so big. If you want to snorkle and see many tropical fish and corals it's the place to go. The water is clear and clean. Last time I was there I spent four hours with six large turtles. I watched them graze on the bottom of the sea floor. Also a great place if you are a shell collector.

Google map: bit.ly/yP3A8p

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Found 15kms outside Munnar, Eravikulam was declared a sanctuary in 1975 and upgraded in 1978 to a national park, in part due to its unique flora and fauna. We went at the wrong time to see the enigmatic Neelakurunji, a plant which produces its carpet of blue flowers every 12 years (go there in 2014 for the next viewing) but we did see the fabulously rare Nilgiri Tahr, the only species of Caprine ungulate (look that up in your Funk and Wagnall’s) found south of the Himalayas. There are around 2,500 left of this friendly wild mountain goat in the world, ensuring its place among the status of ‘endangered’ in the WWF list of rare animals.
We arrived at the park excited at the prospect of seeing rare goats. In addition to nature’s gifts, it is home to Anamudi (2690m), the highest peak in India south of the Himalayas. We were not allowed to walk up the mountain path, so along with everyone else ascended the foothills aboard the park bus. We jumped off with about 40 domestic tourists at the high entrance point. We were not allowed to deviate from the path. We were told to keep quiet so as not to upset the wildlife. We could not pass go. Fair enough.
Accompanied by families of screaming children scrambling in the undergrowth, shouting groups of men and chattering women in bejewelled thong sandles and saris, we tried to pretend we were at one with nature. A Nilgiri Tahr crossed the carefully designated pathway in front of us ignoring the noise: the 25 species of other mammals, 132 species of birds, 101 species of butterflies and 19 species of amphibians recorded in the Park kept their distance. An abrupt end to the path made it clear we would not be allowed any further, ending our dream of a decent shot at climbing the highest peak in southern India.
A little disappointedly we returned down the hill-path, trying to find a moment of tranquility among the tourist madness. Anyone who has visited India will know this is never an easy task. We gave up at the bus drop-off point, and, in a last ditch effort to find some serenity in the beautiful surroundings, decided to walk back to the bottom. Fat chance. A guard shooed us back up the hill and we joined a heaving bus of tourists back to the park entrance.
Oh well, we saw the goats.

Idukki, Forest Information Centre, Wildlife Warden's Office, Munnar PO, Kerala 685 612, India
+91 4865 231 587
Google map: bit.ly/xjyUeq

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Munnar, Kerala’s best known hill station, is set in a land of undulating hills blanketed by tea estates. But beware, in this dreamy landscape death lurks at every turn.
High up in the valley, under the cool shade of a cardamom plantation, I asked the guide if we could take a stroll into the rain forest. Nitish swiveled his eyes, carefully avoiding mine.
“Madam, there were wild elephants here yesterday.”
In the white heat of the tea estates women sliced fragile new shoots from the tips of shrubs, their razor-sharp shears specially adapted to catch the crop with each snip. Others heaved sacks as big as boulders onto a truck. A man sat in the shade, perfunctorily supervising the women’s work.
Wild elephants? Aren’t they one of the attractions here? I tried an encouraging smile, my excitement fading as he explained the danger.
“Angry elephants will charge and trample everything in their way, madam, including you.”
Stunted and pruned to within an inch of their lives, tea shrubs are packed tightly in manicured rows, like a green candlewick bedspread draped over the rumpled hillsides. Dotted around the slopes, shade-giving acacia trees perforate the swaddled fields. The women moved carefully between the bushes.
I glanced at the forest, now dripping with malevolence under its latticework of branches. Myna birds shrieked and glistening tropical flowers pierced the gloom. A shadow shifted in the darkness and a crazed string-puppet butterfly, the size of a bat, lurched out of the gloom.
Nitish, heartened by my hesitation, warned of foxes in these parts. I shrugged, Fantastic Mr Fox didn’t frighten me.
“If they are hungry they will attack you.”
Unlike the sly tricksters of childhood fairy tales, it seems Indian foxes are wild and ferocious, “like small Alsation dogs.” My naïve Jemima Puddle-Duck persistence faltered.
A muffled shriek from the tea fields stopped us dead in our tracks.
Nitish smiled as he went in for the kill, “also, madam, there are snakes.”
The next day we visited The Kanan Devan Hills Plantations Company tea museum, where monochrome images of puny white men holding guns, each with a foot planted on a dead tiger, were hung in the corridors. We watched a short, and surprisingly interesting, film about the history of the area, then walked through the displays. It is a working museum, and you can walk through the whole process from the leaves arriving to buying your souvenir bag of tea at the end.
A sign on the wall told us that schools and crèche facilities are provided for its families by the local tea cooperative. Remembering yesterday’s scream, I asked a manager if labouring in the plantations could be dangerous.
“Certainly, our workers get bitten by the occasional snake, but we carry anti-venom and are able to treat bites immediately.”
He informed us that all visitors to India should learn how to identify poisonous snakes.
“If you are attacked you must tell the doctor which snake bit you, so the correct anti-venom can be administered.”
Now, I reckon I can recognise an angry cobra, but with over 270 species of snake in India I decided I should keep my camera handy. If avoidance tactics don’t work, the only way I’m going to be able to explain which would-be slithery assassin has bitten me is to take its photo. Smile please.

www.kdhptea.com/TeaMuseum.html
KDHP House, Munnar-685 612, Kerala
+91-4865 230561

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In Summer 2008 I joined a conservation project in the Peruvian Amazon. I was based in the Manu Biosphere Reserve, said to be one of the most bio-diverse places on the planet. It was.
Strangely, for me, the jungle itself wasn’t the best bit. I loved the people who lived there. While I helped them to reforest instead of deforest, they taught me how big life can be even with very little.
On my last day I scaled a waterfall, avoiding bullet ants, poisonous spiders and deadly snakes, to visit a natural oil spring. Daniel, our jungle guide, told me that in 50 years time an oil company would be drilling where I stood, exploiting both the oil and the people who live there. Afterward I travelled up the Madre De Dios river to the Shintuya community. There I saw a hand painted Makaw on the side of a Peki-Peki boat. It was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen.
In that moment I realised there are all kinds of marks we can make on the world and I knew there and then I wanted to leave a brightly coloured one.

www.crees-expeditions.com/
Google map: bit.ly/yYlMAi

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The most incredible geological formations, colours, caves, waterfalls and dinosaur foot prints
Hardly discovered by tourists - off the beaten track but well worth the effort.

Google map: bit.ly/yQB1em

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Actually named Cayo Macho but renamed for the tourist trade, this is a iguana reserve on a desert island - basically Galapagos on a budget. The iguanas are completely unafraid of people and just hang around waiting for your meal leftovers like a bunch of scaly pigeons. There's also some extremely cute giant tree rats (they are cute, honestly) and the biggest hermit crabs I've ever seen. Well worth the two hour boat trip from Trinidad.

www.netssa.com/iguana_island_cuba.html
Google map: bit.ly/wSb4By

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Beautiful riverside lodge in a spectacular jungle location. You can dine under the stars beside the river and set off early in the morning to track orangutans in the wild. Amazing place.

www.bilitrainforestlodge.com
KG Bilit Seberang Jalan Sukau Kota Kinabatangan, 90200 Malaysia
(+6) 088-448-409

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Great Bear Lodge is the perfect base for watching wild grizzly bears on British Columbia's Rain Coast.
Trips are based at a remote floating lodge on the largely uninhabited Smith Inlet, but you fly in by float plane from Port Hardy on Vancouver Island, so the adventure starts even before you arrive. The Great Bear team can advise you on arranging travel to Port Hardy.
Each day you will be taken out by expert guides to view grizzly bears, either in a small boat during the spring and early summer, or to secure raised hides overlooking the river during the salmon run, when the bears are feeding in the river. Great efforts are taken to minimise disruption to the bears and indeed any other impact on the local environment, with the result that you can safely observe these beautiful animals behaving naturally in their native environment.
In addition to the twice-daily grizzly-watching trips, there are other optional activities such as boat trips, forest hikes and kayaking, as well as a host of other wildlife to watch even from the comfort of the lodge's outdoor deck.
The full board accommodation in the lodge is very comfortable, with delicious meals provided, and your hosts (Tom Rivest and Marg Leehane) provide a great welcome and expert information on all aspects of the local ecology, wildlife and the adventures of living in a breathtakingly beautiful wilderness location accessible only by boat or float plane.
This is a great "soft adventure" opportunity, accessible to anybody of reasonable health and basic fitness i.e. you do not need to be any kind of outdoor sports enthusiast to enjoy a trip to Great Bear Lodge, just somebody who appreciates the Canadian wilderness and the creatures who live there.

www.greatbeartours.com/
+1 888 221 8212

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This small gem of a beach is much loved by locals, both human and penguin. Situated within a sanctuary for 3000 African Jackass penguins, the crescent of white sand is backed by dense vegetation in which the penguins nest. The sheltered bay is surrounded by huge boulders on which children love to climb and leap into the sea. Penguin couples waddle down the beach to cool off in the water and seem happy to swim among excited children, posing for photographs or playing Pied Piper as they lead curious kids into the rock crevices to explore. A fantastic family day out is on offer including a visit to the penguin breeding sanctuary or a delicious lunch at the restaurant adjacent to the free parking area where local traders sell African artifacts. An entrance fee to the beach is charged (about 50p) which helps fund the penguin conservation.

Boulders Beach, about 45 minutes drive from Cape Town, close to Simonstown.
Google map: bit.ly/ubjLTM

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I recommend the beach on the Indian Ocean side of the coral-ringed Chumbe Island, located off the coast of Zanzibar. Chumbe combines sustainable ecological living with luxury; an affordable, private haven with a conscience. As a guest on this island paradise (and there are never more than 14 people at any one time), you have your very own beach, steps away from the front door of your beautiful palm thatched eco-bungalow. The beaches surround a marine protected coral park with world-class snorkelling, as well as being home to a historic lighthouse and the protected (and nocturnal) coconut crabs. The beaches are perfect for relaxation, nature spotting and romance, far removed from those of a typical holiday resort. On our first night, we were the only guests on the island. On our final night, the staff (always attentive without being intrusive) arranged a private, secluded candlelit dinner for two on the beach as a surprise. Bliss.

www.chumbeisland.com
+255 (0) 242 231 040
Chumbe Island Coral Park is a short boat ride away from Stone Town, Zanzibar
Google map: bit.ly/tEMflQ

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This place is called Hondo Hondo in the village because of the many hornbills which fly around the camp. The ensuite tents have great stone floor bathrooms and comfortable double beds so it feels like you are at home until you look out of the window or up from the bathroom - they are open air! When I had a shower there were monkeys in the trees watching me I am sure. The food is good and their bar has a good view up into the forest where we went walking in the morning. The forest is good for walking but very hot so make sure to take lots of water. A good place, very comfortable, and hidden from the rest of Tanzania

www.udzungwaforestcamp.com
+255 (0) 784 479 427

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Iguazu waterfalls is absolutely beautiful. If you can I recommend doing both the Argentinian and Brazillian side of the falls. We were lucky enough to see sunset over the falls and took a boat ride in front of the falls on the Argentinian side.

www.iguazuargentina.com/english

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My family and I spent a wonderful day hiking with an exceptionally knowledgeable naturalist/ guide from Canadian Wilderness Tours. Our guide, Rosemary, selected a trail for us with breathtaking views. She helped us identify the flowers, birds (including some unique alpine birds like ptarmigan and rosy finches). We had never really been able to understand geology but Rosemary showed us how the layers in the mountain were actually ancient sea floor deposits; she even managed to find some fossil coral for us. Rosemary also gave us a lot of background history and real insight into her piece of the wilderness. Her enthusiasm was very inspiring. After reviewing hiking safety with us, including hiking in bear country, she gave us a personalized list of other walks and hikes she thought we would enjoy. Our day with her was well worth the money, the information we received from her greatly enriched our two weeks in the magnificent Canadian Rockies

canwild.tours@gmail.com
+1 403 678 3795

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On a work trip to Umea in February we experienced firsthand how the locals embrace the short but sunny northern Swedish days outside. The highlight was a trip to the Algen Hus (Elk House) 45 mins inland. Owner Christer introduced us up close to these huge but gentle animals then he and his son took us on a snowmobile safari. Not a low carbon activity but great fun! As the sun went down we walked into the birch forest and wearing nothing but (optional) swimsuits, entered a traditional sauna, a world away from the hotel version. Once warm we jumped into the outdoor, log fired hot tubs where we sat drinking Swedish beer until it was dark in the beautiful forest. It may have been -15 but we didn't feel a thing. Get someone else to drive home!

www.algenshus.se/
Bjurholms Turist AB, Västerbotten
+46 932 500 00
Google map: bit.ly/pcw6xL

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Central Park in Manhattan and Prospect Park in Brooklyn both have small zoos, but the real NYC zoo in wayyy uptown in the Bronx. (And no, you won't get mugged if you visit.) The Bronx Zoo is the largest urban zoo in the U.S. with some 265 sprawling acres. Go on a sunny day when you can take in all the different indoor and outdoor exhibits. If you're up for it, you can ride a camel. There's also a monorail through the park if you're tired of walking. General admission is normally $16 for adults and $12 for children. But if you go on Wednesday, you can pay what you wish. The Bronx Zoo is open weekdays from 10-5 and until 5:30 on weekends. To get there, take the 2 or 5 trains to East Tremont Ave/West Farms Square. Rowr!

www.bronxzoo.com/
2300 Southern Blvd, Bronx, NY, United States
+1 718 220 5103
Google map: bit.ly/ojJNMD

* Amanda is our Been there local for New York. You can check out her page here: www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/articles/new-york-local-amanda-green.jsp and her own NYC blog here: www.noisiestpassenger.com/

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Located on the Nicoya Peninsula on the Pacific coast in Costa Rica. I spent a whole month on these two beaches during a gap year before university. Both are very laid back in their own way and unspoiled. Curu as a wildlife reserve is untouched and really basic. I was there for a conservation project and slept in hammocks on the beach. Montezuma when I went ten years ago was a bit of a hippy resort with plenty of cheap accommodation a long sandy beach and the biggest waves I'd seen.

www.curuwildliferefuge.com/
+506 2641 01 00
Google map: bit.ly/oGogyH

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