Q: Can you explain the concept of “slow travel” and how it’s integrated into this book?
A: Travelling slow isn't so much about the speed in which you move – the bullet train is one of our unforgettable journeys after all – but the way that you travel. It's about taking the time to immerse yourself in a destination, by immersing yourself in its culture, food and people, rather than just ticking off a list of places and experiences because they're must-dos. The best way to travel slow is to embark on a journey through a place. As you move through a country, or a continent, you see it off the tourist trail – sampling roadside dishes, taking in amazing landscapes and meeting local people along the way. These experiences just aren't possible on a whistle-stop city break. That's why we picked the world's best journeys on foot, by bike, on the road, by train and on the water for this book. The text, images and maps celebrate the joy of taking the scenic route rather than focusing on your final destination.
The "slow" movement started as a reaction against package holidays, overtourism and everything Instagram. Cheap short-haul flights and fly-in-fly-out breaks have already suffered due to COVID-19, and we anticipate that it's something that travellers are unlikely to hurry back to. First, there's the high chance of catching COVID-19 at an airport or on a plane, and then there's the fact that evidence has shown that fewer global flights affected carbon dioxide emissions drastically. When we are all able to travel again, we will be travelling smarter and slower. Not just because we'll have to, but because we want to.Q: How did you and the team pick the journeys featured?
A: We knew that we needed to feature a huge number of journeys, but we didn't realise how hard it would be to choose just 200! With the world's best walks, cycles, drives, train rides and water-based journeys all covered by this book, it took us nearly a month to nail the final list. We consulted with different authors, as well as editors in the DK offices around the globe, to make sure that we covered everywhere from the Arctic to Zimbabwe. The DK Eyewitness team advocated for some of their favourite travels, and our own Danielle Watt even wrote the Tour des Cirques and the Hebridean Way. I'm so lucky to work in a team of passionate travel experts.Q: What is your favorite spread and why?
A: When the author delivered the text for the Trans-Siberian Railway spread, it instantly made me want to book a ticket. The language is so evocative – I can almost see the perma-frosted landscape, hear the various characters chattering on board and feel the carriages rocking along the rails. I don't know whether it's from a childhood watching Agatha Christie films, but I think there's something really romantic about travelling by train – stopping off at little-known stations, watching the landscape unfurl outside the window and soaking up the atmosphere inside the carriage. It seems a world away from both the daily commute and recent travels on public transport during COVID!
Q: What did you like most about working on this title?
A: Everyone always says this, but it really was amazing to collaborate with such a talented team of editors, designers, picture researchers and cartographers. Even when we were told to work from home in March, the pace never faltered. Personally, I loved working with so many different authors on this project. With all 30 of them on board, we were able to celebrate taking the scenic route around the entire world. Unforgettable Journeys was the perfect title to work on during the pandemic, because I now know what journeys I want to take when COVID is a distant memory. What's on the list? The West Coast Trail, the Wild Atlantic Way, cycling the Silk Road, canoeing down the Zambezi River and, of course, the Tran-Siberian Railway.
