Risshaku-ji Temple, better known as Yamadera, is one of the most atmospheric and worthwhile day trips from Sendai. We visited during autumn, when the mountainside was covered in red, orange and yellow leaves. It was incredibly beautiful and absolutely worth every step.
Nikka Whisky Miyagikyo Distillery is one of the best day trips from Sendai, especially if you enjoy Japanese whisky or want to see somewhere beyond the usual city sights.
Matsushima is one of the easiest and most rewarding places to visit from Sendai. The bay is filled with small pine-covered islands, the waterfront is easy to explore on foot, and a sightseeing boat takes you out among the scenery rather than leaving you to admire it from the shore.
We spent two weeks in the city, mostly based in Kimihurura, a leafy, hilly neighbourhood with plenty of cafés, restaurants and places to work. We didn’t try to see everything Kigali has to offer. Instead, we settled into the neighbourhood, worked during the week and explored when we felt like it.
We spent three nights in Doha on our way from Zambia to Nepal, taking advantage of the Qatar Airways Stopover programme to turn our connection into a short trip of…
When booking our Qatar Airways flights from Lusaka to Kathmandu, we realised we had an easy opportunity to visit another country along the way.
Our route already took us through Doha, and Qatar Airways allows you to book a longer stop in the city through its Qatar Stopover programme. We chose to spend three nights in Qatar before continuing to Nepal.
We were flying Business Class, and when we compared the options, choosing a three-night stopover didn’t change the price of our flights. We simply had to pay for our hotel and what we spent while we were in Doha.
For us, three nights was enough time to explore the city without adding too much time or expense to our journey from Zambia to Nepal.
There was just one thing we hadn’t planned perfectly: we visited in July. And Doha in July is very, very hot.
Sendai is a brilliant base for day trips, especially if you want to see more of Tohoku without changing hotels every night.
Sendai gives you access to a different kind of Japan. You have proper shopping, great restaurants, easy trains, forest parks, mountain temples, onsen towns, whisky distilleries and the coast all within reach.
While staying in Kimihurura, we put together our own self-guided art walk through the area. We took a moto to Niyo Arts Center and then made our way back on foot, stopping at different art spaces along the way.
Windhoek is often treated as little more than the starting point for a trip around Namibia. Most travellers fly in, pick up a rental car or join a tour and head straight for the desert, national parks and dramatic landscapes the country is famous for.