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Some of our favourite destinations and amazing places to inspire your travel plans.
Adding excursions is a great way to explore your chosen destination and make your trip a memorable experience. Whether you're keen to soak in the warm water of the geothermal Blue Lagoon in Iceland, spend a night in a Mongolian ger camp or watch the sunrise in Burma from a hot air balloon, it's the experiences that make a Regent Holiday.
Are you looking for inspiration for your next trip? Look no further than our experts' pick of the most pioneering tours, exciting experiences, trending destinations and brand new holidays in the Regent collection.
Growing up in the rolling Cotswold hills and enjoying walking holidays to the Brecon Beacons, Lake District and Munroe-bagging in Scotland it seems inevitable that when I started exploring the wider world my hiking boots would be one of the first things to get packed whenever venturing abroad.
When it comes to trying to pick a favourite destination or travel experience, I'm a bit stumped. It’s hard to pick out just one because setting off along a trail leading from the guesthouse built into the cliff at the head of the canyon in Jordan’s Dana Biosphere Reserve, being invited for tea by the local Bedouin herding their goats in the valley and ending at the candle-lit guesthouse in Feynan is so different from the experience of strapping on your crampons, picking up your ice axe and heading up the stunning Svinafellsjokull glacier tongue in Iceland.
However one of the 'stand out' highlights of my travels with Regent would have to be the climb up Borneo’s Mount Kinabalu which stands at 4,096 metres and is the highest mountain in South East Asia. Whilst the mountain is reasonably accessible and not too technically challenging (although you have the option of taking the nerve-wracking via ferrata route) only 146 permits are issued each day so the mountain never feels too busy. The first day sees you climb solidly for about 6 hours through the pitcher-plant and bird-rich rainforest before taking a well-earned rest at the Laban Rata guesthouse. The second day involves a pre-dawn start to reach the peak for sunrise. As I climbed the moon was high and to the north-east, I could watch a spectacular display of lightning over the sea happening several hundred feet below me which was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
The beauty of this peak is that having achieved the impressive feat of reaching the top and returning to the national park at the foot of the mountain you are lucky enough to be in Borneo so can take your weary limbs to soak in the baths at Poring Hot Springs, head further into the jungles to visit the orang-utan, elephants and proboscis monkeys or simply find a beautiful beach to relax on whilst enjoying the wonderful food and hospitality of the locals.
Read more about my travel experiences in my blog
Having spent over 5 years in the travel industry, I have thoroughly enjoyed being able to experience a variety of different countries. My personal passion is taking a cruise – I find them to be a great way to see a whole host of destinations and scenery in one trip without having to unpack more than once! One day I would love to experience one of our Arctic cruises, the voyages that visit Spitsbergen and Greenland are fascinating.
I still love our land-based holidays too - spending 10 days exploring Iceland was an incredible experience as I got to try many activities for the first time. While whale watching from Reykjavik Harbour I was lucky enough to see whales swimming right next to our boat. One of my favourite excursions was horse riding through to the volcanic landscapes – the scenery was incredible. There is something for everyone in Iceland and I think it is one of the loveliest places in the world.
Carl has been with Regent holidays since 2004 and is one of our leading experts on the Caucasus and North and South Korea. He has led dozens of tours, and knows some of our more uncommon destinations like no one else. With 20 plus trips to North Korea alone under his belt, Carl is regularly called upon by the BBC, The Times and other media outlets to comment on the country.
From Carl: I joined Regent in 2004 after two years living in Mongolia. From Bosnia to Burma, I have always enjoyed more unusual destinations - and that’s why I love leading tours for Regent. In my time here I have had enough weird, wonderful and memorable experiences to fill a lifetime; whether posing as a scientist to get our inaugural Chernobyl tour group into “the zone,” being given a private train carriage for the 9000km journey all the way from Pyongyang to Moscow or being followed by the Turkmen KGB. My tours are always an adventure.
My true labour of love is developing our North Korea tours and I have had the opportunity to visit this unique, propaganda-filled country more than 20 times. In many cases, we have been the first ever western tours into certain cities and regions.
One of my favourite tours at the moment is our pioneering North Korea tour – exactly for that reason – we’re visiting regions and cities very few people get to see. Our trip up to the provincial capital of Chongjin is especially rare, while the chance to visit an everyday market in Rajin is completely unique. If you want to see North Korea beyond Pyongyang, this is the tour to take.
I have also worked on creating a pioneering tour that travels through Abkhazia, a forgotten, ex-soviet breakaway state in the Caucasus that offers visitors the opportunity to watch as a region unofficially recognised as a country begins to flourish following a turbulent past few decades.
Growing up in the rolling Cotswold hills and enjoying walking holidays to the Brecon Beacons, Lake District and Munroe-bagging in Scotland it seems inevitable that when I started exploring the wider world my hiking boots would be one of the first things to get packed whenever venturing abroad.
When it comes to trying to pick a favourite destination or travel experience, I'm a bit stumped. It’s hard to pick out just one because setting off along a trail leading from the guesthouse built into the cliff at the head of the canyon in Jordan’s Dana Biosphere Reserve, being invited for tea by the local Bedouin herding their goats in the valley and ending at the candle-lit guesthouse in Feynan is so different from the experience of strapping on your crampons, picking up your ice axe and heading up the stunning Svinafellsjokull glacier tongue in Iceland.
However one of the 'stand out' highlights of my travels with Regent would have to be the climb up Borneo’s Mount Kinabalu which stands at 4,096 metres and is the highest mountain in South East Asia. Whilst the mountain is reasonably accessible and not too technically challenging (although you have the option of taking the nerve-wracking via ferrata route) only 146 permits are issued each day so the mountain never feels too busy. The first day sees you climb solidly for about 6 hours through the pitcher-plant and bird-rich rainforest before taking a well-earned rest at the Laban Rata guesthouse. The second day involves a pre-dawn start to reach the peak for sunrise. As I climbed the moon was high and to the north-east, I could watch a spectacular display of lightning over the sea happening several hundred feet below me which was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
The beauty of this peak is that having achieved the impressive feat of reaching the top and returning to the national park at the foot of the mountain you are lucky enough to be in Borneo so can take your weary limbs to soak in the baths at Poring Hot Springs, head further into the jungles to visit the orang-utan, elephants and proboscis monkeys or simply find a beautiful beach to relax on whilst enjoying the wonderful food and hospitality of the locals.
Read more about my travel experiences in my blog
Having spent over 5 years in the travel industry, I have thoroughly enjoyed being able to experience a variety of different countries. My personal passion is taking a cruise – I find them to be a great way to see a whole host of destinations and scenery in one trip without having to unpack more than once! One day I would love to experience one of our Arctic cruises, the voyages that visit Spitsbergen and Greenland are fascinating.
I still love our land-based holidays too - spending 10 days exploring Iceland was an incredible experience as I got to try many activities for the first time. While whale watching from Reykjavik Harbour I was lucky enough to see whales swimming right next to our boat. One of my favourite excursions was horse riding through to the volcanic landscapes – the scenery was incredible. There is something for everyone in Iceland and I think it is one of the loveliest places in the world.
Carl has been with Regent holidays since 2004 and is one of our leading experts on the Caucasus and North and South Korea. He has led dozens of tours, and knows some of our more uncommon destinations like no one else. With 20 plus trips to North Korea alone under his belt, Carl is regularly called upon by the BBC, The Times and other media outlets to comment on the country.
From Carl: I joined Regent in 2004 after two years living in Mongolia. From Bosnia to Burma, I have always enjoyed more unusual destinations - and that’s why I love leading tours for Regent. In my time here I have had enough weird, wonderful and memorable experiences to fill a lifetime; whether posing as a scientist to get our inaugural Chernobyl tour group into “the zone,” being given a private train carriage for the 9000km journey all the way from Pyongyang to Moscow or being followed by the Turkmen KGB. My tours are always an adventure.
My true labour of love is developing our North Korea tours and I have had the opportunity to visit this unique, propaganda-filled country more than 20 times. In many cases, we have been the first ever western tours into certain cities and regions.
One of my favourite tours at the moment is our pioneering North Korea tour – exactly for that reason – we’re visiting regions and cities very few people get to see. Our trip up to the provincial capital of Chongjin is especially rare, while the chance to visit an everyday market in Rajin is completely unique. If you want to see North Korea beyond Pyongyang, this is the tour to take.
I have also worked on creating a pioneering tour that travels through Abkhazia, a forgotten, ex-soviet breakaway state in the Caucasus that offers visitors the opportunity to watch as a region unofficially recognised as a country begins to flourish following a turbulent past few decades.