Scotland
Loch Lomond
Oak-covered islands scatter across the loch where the Highlands begin and the Lowlands end.
The loch stretches from the Lowlands into the Highlands, its southern shores dotted with oak-covered islands and its northern reaches narrowing between mountains rising sheer out of the water. Loch Lomond holds more fresh water than all the lakes of England and Wales combined, and on still mornings the surface mirrors the sky so precisely the islands appear to float in nothing.
Loch Lomond marks the geological boundary between Highlands and Lowlands — the Highland Boundary Fault runs directly beneath its waters, and you can read the change in the shoreline as the broad, island-dotted south narrows towards Inverarnan. Some thirty islands scatter the loch, from Inchcailloch with its ruined medieval church and ancient oaks — a short water-crossing from Balmaha — to Inchmurrin, the largest freshwater island in Britain, with its ruined Lennox castle. The West Highland Way follows the eastern shore through native woodland, kayaks launch from Balmaha into the island-studded south, and Ben Lomond, the most southerly Munro, rises from the eastern shore to a panorama reaching from the Arrochar Alps to Stirling. All of it sits within an hour of Glasgow, which makes the quiet corners feel like a conjuring trick.
Couple
Quiet western-shore bays, thirty islands scattered offshore and waterfront dinners give the loch a romantic register that runs from wild to refined.
Family
Flat lochside paths, gently shelving bays near Balmaha and the island-dotted shallows make the southern end work for children of any age — with deep water always respected.
Friends
Kayaking between islands, hiking Ben Lomond as a group or cycling the loch's circuit fills a weekend of shared outdoor work within an hour of Glasgow.
- The loch holds more fresh water than every lake of England and Wales combined.
- Inchcailloch's medieval church ruins stand among ancient oaks just offshore from Balmaha.
- The Highland Boundary Fault runs beneath the water, splitting Scotland in two.
- The West Highland Way traces the eastern shore through old native woodland.
Smoked trout and loch views from a waterfront dining room on the western shore.
Real ales in a drovers' inn at the loch's head, little changed in three centuries.
To Sua Ocean Trench
Samoa
The sea breathes through lava tubes into a thirty-metre swimming hole sunk in a garden.
Jervis Bay
Australia
Pale sand squeaks underfoot where clear water meets eucalyptus shade.
Savaia Giant Clam Sanctuary
Samoa
Swim to the flag: around eighty giant clams, the largest a metre across, wait below.
Paracas
Peru
Red sand meets turquoise Pacific where sea-lion colonies roar off the desert's edge.
Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park
Scotland
Britain's first Dark Sky Park, where the Milky Way spills across the silence like luminous dust.
Cairngorms
Scotland
Britain's only free-ranging reindeer herd grazes a sub-arctic plateau where blizzards strike in June.
Tobermory
Scotland
Crayon-bright houses line a harbour where fishing boats rock above sunken Armada gold.
Glenfinnan
Scotland
A railway viaduct arcs across the glen where Bonnie Prince Charlie raised his standard.