The Escapist is here to take you down the roads less travelled

This magazine is called The Escapist for a simple reason. When we plan a holiday, close our suitcase, put passport in pocket and head for the door, there’s usually a part of us that aches to get away from our usual routines, have the chance to see things afresh and feel different – to escape. Well, if that’s you, I think that we can help.

For this outing of our annual travel magazine, we dispatched writers to destinations far off the tourist trail, as well as to an old favourite that can be discovered anew if you just wait until its summer swell of visitors has abated. We also told our design editor to hit the road (in the nicest possible way).

As they returned to Midori House with tales of their adventures, it was nice to see how their excursions had left them a little giddy with joy, how they all wanted to show you pictures of the extraordinary places that they had been to and the people whose stories they had heard. Just a few days in a good hotel or a remote lodge, walking a trail to a lonely beach, can have this effect on any of us.

I’ll be honest: I began wondering why I hadn’t dispatched myself on one of these life-affirming missions. We sent Sophie Monaghan-Coombs, who runs Monocle’s culture pages, to the African island of Príncipe, a former Portuguese colony that sits 240km off the coast of Gabon. It took her almost three days to reach this tropical outpost from London but her report reveals why it’s worth making the trek.

Simpler to get to was Florence but our reporter Grace Charlton found a city of quiet restaurants and easy-to-explore neighbourhoods that is, in its own way, just as surprising as any remote island. In Japan, our Asia bureau chief, Fiona Wilson, made the journey from Tokyo to the Gora Kadan Fuji ryokan, stepping into a world of perfection, precision and beauty that transported her from the everyday to somewhere close to heaven.

Sometimes you just need the guidance of someone who can see things afresh to make you realise what you are missing. Liam Aldous’s report on Tangier unpacks the city in a way that immediately had me plotting a visit. Meanwhile, in Bulgaria, Chiara Rimella explored Sofia and discovered a place where young hospitality players and brand owners are busy making a hometown that they want to live in, not waiting for city hall or some global player to do the work for them.

Even if you aren’t straying far from home for the next few months, I hope that you will enjoy hearing from some key hospitality players in our interview series and discovering everything from the latest in pet travel to why there’s a luxury hotel boom in Baghdad. Come on, let’s escape while we can.

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