Argentina is one of Geoffrey Kent’s must-visit destinations for 2020. Image by Jonatan Lewczuk

LUX columnist and Abercrombie & Kent founder Geoffrey Kent reveals his hottest destinations for the new year plus top tips of what to see and do

Egypt

Egypt has an enduring appeal with its mesmeric relics, atmospheric souks, and natural wonders. After the tumult of recent years, the Land of the Pharaohs is making a deserved comeback. In 2018, more than 11 million tourists visited Egypt, and the World Tourism Organisation has since named the country the world’s fastest-growing travel destination. In the latter half of 2020, the Grand Egyptian Museum is finally set to open. Encompassing 500,000 square metres, this vast exhibition space will showcase an omnium-gatherum of Ancient Egyptian finds – 30,000 of which have never been exhibited in public before.

My top tip: Egypt is a place where it’s imperative to have an experienced local guide so that you can truly appreciate this ancient civilisation’s history and culture.

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‘Egypt has an enduring appeal with its mesmeric relics, atmospheric souks, and natural wonders’

Sri Lanka

The ‘teardrop of India’ brims with lush landscapes, ancient treasures, and rich cultural heritage. Successive waves of Indian, Arab and European traders flocked to Sri Lanka’s palm-fringed shores, attracted by rare spices, precious stones, and magnificent elephants. Today ancient cities, tea plantations, and hill stations vie travellers’ attentions, alongside eight UNESCO World Heritage sites, great beaches and national parks with an abundance of wildlife. On a Sri Lanka holiday, a large dose of tropical warmth awaits, in both the weather and the welcome.

My top tip: Sri Lanka is home to the biggest leopards that I have seen anywhere – be sure to spend time in Yala National Park, where dozens of these magnificent cats live.

Geoffrey Kent recommends visiting Sri Lanka’s Yala National Park to see leopards

Argentina

There are few places in the world where you can feel the same sense of vastness and isolation that you can find in Argentina’s breathtakingly rugged landscapes. Voyage to Argentina in 2020 to experience one of nature’s most magnificent events: a total solar eclipse. Set to take place on 14 December, this aligning of celestial bodies will be visible from just a few South American countries. In Argentina, the event will briefly plunge northern Patagonia into darkness in the middle of the afternoon. Be among the few to witness this rare, magical moment in a region already famed for its spectacular scenery.

My top tip: If you go this year, you can become one of the first guests to stay at the explora Patagonia Argentina, the latest in the hotel group’s roster of exemplary eco-lodges.

Read more: An evening of contemporary art and fine dining with Gaggenau

Nahuel Huapi, a large glacial lake surrounded by the Andes Mountains in Argentina

Laos

Until recently, Laos was in the shadow of its more famous Indochinese neighbours. It has often been overlooked by travellers considering a visit to South-East Asia. This country’s charm and authenticity are drawing a growing number of visitors to its lesser-travelled trails, however, and we expect the trend to continue in 2020. Step back in time as you explore this nation of jungles, temples, hill-top villages, and ancient relics for yourself, free of the frantic pace of so many other Asian cities.

My top tip: Go in the forthcoming year to discover the Plain of Jars for yourself. Stretching across the Xiangkhoang Plateau, this vast archaeological site features thousands of enormous stone vessels, scattered by a past civilisation whose culture remains a mystery. While folklore suggests the jars belonged to giants, further excavations in 2019 point instead towards a more anthropological answer: that this was once a burial ground. Visit this hard-to-reach UNESCO World Heritage Site by flying in via helicopter, accompanied by an expert guide.

Geoffrey Kent predicts Laos will grow in popularity as a travel destination in 2020

Ethiopia

Ethiopia is one of Africa’s most enthralling – and often overlooked – destinations. Following on from an incredible trip there in late 2019 – one of my Inspiring Expeditions – it easily earns its spot on my list for this year. I can recommend thoroughly. Situated in the Horn of Africa, it’s a land of dramatic contrasts – stunning lakes and mountain ranges as well as the Blue Nile. It is home to strikingly diverse and beautiful people such as the Kara, the Hamar, Mursi, and Nyangatom to name but a few – proudly independent, who have never been subjugated in modern times. The rock-hewn churches of Lalibela offer historical intrigue, while the other-worldly Danakil Depression and wildlife of the Simien and Bale Mountains are a major draw for nature lovers. Whether in the bustling cities or remote highlights, you’ll find an abundance of history, tradition, and goodwill.

My top tip: Visit during the annual Irreecha thanksgiving festival of the Oromo people in Addis Ababa. Witness freshly cut grass and flowers being placed in water – a traditional offering that thanks God for the end of the rainy season and the start of spring. It’s a fantastic opportunity for immersion in this aspect of the country’s culture.

Ethiopia is one of Africa’s most enthralling – and often overlooked – destinations, says Geoffrey Kent

The Arctic

Celebrate the audacity of exploration on an extraordinary cruise through the rarely traversed Northwest Passage. In 2020, A&K’s Ultimate Iceland & Greenland luxury expedition cruise will be led by a modern explorer, famed mountaineer Alex Pancoe, who just completed the Explorers Grand Slam, an adventurers’ challenge consisting of climbing the seven summits—the highest mountains on each continent—as well as cross-country skiing the final degree to the North and South Poles. Accompanied by Pancoe, voyage from western Greenland to Nome Alaska. Following in the footsteps of Leif Erikson (Erik the Red), who founded the Viking colony in Greenland and ventured to Newfoundland a full 500 years before Columbus, and coming in the wake of more recent great explorers such as Roald Amundsen and Robert McClure.

My top tip: an exceptional expedition crew and luxurious ship make all the difference when travelling to the poles.

Geoffrey Kent cruising the Arctic Ocean

Find out more: abercrombiekent.co.uk

Petra, Jordan. Instagram: @abercrombiekent

Increasingly businesses and professionals are using Instagram as a way of promoting their brand, but the app can also function as a modern-day diary. LUX contributor and Abercrombie & Kent Founder Geoffrey Kent explains why he’s a social media convert

Oscar Wilde wrote: “I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train.” Not many people have led as sensational a life as that of the Irish playwright, but keeping a diary or journal isn’t just for the outrageous, or the pursuit of Adrian Mole-esque teenagers.

A growing body of research suggests that recording your experiences is a good practice, not only for posterity, but also as a good mental-health practice. Other benefits include aiding memory. Oscar Wilde also wrote that “memory is the diary we all carry about with us” – but memory is a funny thing. Impressions can last for years but the minutiae can become lost quite quickly if not written down.

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I discovered this for myself in 1958, as a teenager. When I was 16, I rode a motorbike from Nairobi to Cape Town on a 3,000-mile journey of self-discovery along some of Africa’s most dangerous roads. In my saddlebags, along with my Shell Oil road map, a poncho, tarpaulin sheet and elephant hair bracelets, were a pencil and journal. Every day, I made notes: the route I took, how many elephant hair bracelets I had managed to trade at market, leopard tracks on my tails, that the giraffes that I saw had smaller and smaller spots, that my next challenge would be climbing Kilimanjaro. I also posed more existential questions, such as: who is Geoffrey Kent? What do I think is worthwhile? I usually wrote at midday whilst catching shade from the broiling heat, resting at the base of baobab trees.

Geoffrey Kent at the Abercrombie & Kent camp in the South Pole. Instagram: @geoffrey_kent

Upon arriving in Cape Town, I felt a profound sense of achievement, duly recorded in my journal‚ and then my thoughts turned immediately to my next challenge – how to get home. I didn’t fancy another 3,000-mile bike ride back to Nairobi. I needed to earn some money so I could go back by boat or train – anything but by two wheels. A friend in Cape Town suggested I write a story about my journey and try to sell it. Thank goodness for my journal and all the notes I had taken along my route. I managed to pull together a good piece, full of accurate, evocative details, and the Cape Argus newspaper agreed to publish the article along with photos of me on my bike.

Due to my scribblings in my journal I was able to get home in style – in first class, aboard the Africa, the best ship in the Lloyd Triestino line, from Cape Town to Mombasa. From that day to this, I have always kept a diary. My diaries were invaluable in researching and writing my memoir Safari: A Memoir of a Worldwide Travel Pioneer. In the pages of Smythson notebooks unseen for years (sometimes decades), I uncovered details that had been lost to time – that I had been granted the first license to take travellers into the Ngorongoro Crater; how dinner with David Niven led me to own my first boat on the Nile; how I got into China before any other travel executive travelling as an Ethiopian citizen (thanks to my sister’s birth in Addis Ababa) in a tour group organised by an Ethiopian pro-Communist group that I had read about in the East African Standard.

Read more: Get to know these 4 new Instagram aesthetes

Over the years however, an evolution has occurred in step with technology and my method of memory-keeping has changed. I now keep a visual diary. Upon opening my Instagram account (@geoffrey_kent), I fell in love with the platform and now use it to – yes, promote my businesses and brands – but also as a photographic journal. It’s my new diary. Social media is the easy, accessible way to record your life and experiences in a public forum (shared with the wide world or just a private, select few – your choice). I post religiously – even from the South Pole.

An Abercrombie & Kent expedition to the South Pole (Day 5). Image courtesy of A&K

Antarctica is never one to be underestimated, but it is amazing too. I will long remember seeing the Emperor penguins, exploring the ice tunnels, climbing and naming a mountain in the Drygalski mountain range, and making it to the South Pole. Despite what can kindly be called patchy internet access, I posted daily to my grid and look forward to scrolling through my feed in years to come to bring to mind this sensational trip with some new close friends.

7 steps to Instagram success

1. Start by thinking about what it is you like about your favourite account.

2. Try the Preview app – it’s a cool tool for testing out your posts before you commit an image to your feed.

3. Quality rather than quantity – only feature amazing images which are in line with your chosen aesthetic.

4. Be sure to edit – Android and iPhone have excellent built-in photo editing tools for cropping and levelling, but there are lots of apps that can help make your photos picture perfect.

5. Be smart about hashtags – you can add up to thirty hashtags in one post, but you shouldn’t.

6. Include the geotag to boost your post’s visibility.

7. When and how much you post matters – those in the know suggest posting at similar times every day, when your followers are active.

Discover Abercombie & Kent’s portfolio of luxury travel tours: abercrombiekent.co.uk

Considered the largest waterfall in the world, Victoria Falls lies along the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe

Abercrombie & Kent founder and LUX contributor Geoffrey Kent forecasts the hottest travel experiences and destinations for the coming year

I believe that human beings collect experiences throughout our lives that both inform our personality as well as that speak to who we are. We each have an ‘experience portfolio’ that reveals what inspires us and what we care about. It reflects our tastes and signals our aspirations. What and where will you experience in 2019?

Explore the extremes of The Arctic

For over 500 years, the Northwest Passage and all its inherent possibilities have fascinated intrepid souls. The changing climate has now made it possible to explore the entire length of the famed sea route, which runs from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Explorers began to search for such a route in the 15th century but it wasn’t until 1906 that Norwegian Roald Amundsen’s expedition managed to navigate the passage. It’s thrilling to retrace the route pioneered by early polar explorers like Henry Hudson, John Franklin, Robert McClure and of course, Amundsen, from Kangerlussuaq in Greenland to Nome in Alaska. Travel through and past islands and sparsely settled lands where many pioneers were forced to overwinter when their ships were trapped by fast-moving ice.

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Which experience will make it into your ‘portfolio’? Perhaps seeing whale and grizzly, black and polar bear, meeting the Ingalikmiut people, or seeing the Northern Lights.

Pencil it into your diary: 26 Aug-18 Sep. Cruise from western Greenland through the Canadian Arctic to the Bering Sea in the company of A&K’s award-winning expedition team. This 24-day Northwest Passage cruise starts at £25,350 per person.

Geoffrey Kent dog sledding on an Abercrombie & Kent trip to Finland

Find yourself in Finland

Or more aptly, lose yourself in Finland. I led a trip above the Arctic Circle in 2018 and all the guests who accompanied me described it as “the trip of a lifetime”. Pictures simply do not do justice to the experience of losing yourself in this country’s vast landscape. Finland is a country in which it’s possible to escape the crowds, especially when you travel off-season. Beyond its vibrant capital, it reveals a very different side of Scandinavia – unspoiled, sweeping and still.

Which experience will make it into your ‘portfolio’? Ice driving, snowmobiling, searching for the aurora borealis, meeting Sami reindeer herders, dog sledding?

The Croatian town of Dubrovnik is known for its picturesque Old Town surrounded by 16th century stone walls

Visit the ancient world in Croatia

Croatia and its dramatic Adriatic coastline are delightful. Immerse yourself in Dubrovnik’s old-world charm as you walk the narrow street of the Old Town, surrounded by the historic 16th-century battlements. As we head into the eighth and final season of HBO’s epic fantasy TV programme Game of Thrones, it seems like an apt time to tour some of its filming locations. Dubrovnik has doubled as King’s Landing throughout the entire series and fans will recognise locations galore including St Dominika Street, Stradun, Minceta Tower, Fort St Lawrence and Trsteno Arboretum. Elsewhere Diocletian’s Palace in Split acts as Meereen, Trogir is otherwise known as Qarth and Kastel Gomilica goes by Braavos.

Go gourmet in Peru

Known for its ancient ruins, spectacular scenery and colonial architecture, Peru has added cuisine to its international appeal. Voted ‘best culinary destination’ at the World Travel Awards for the sixth year running, Peru’s vibrant restaurant scene is home to some of the world’s most influential chefs, who all delight in raiding the home larder for indigenous produce. With two of top 10 restaurants in the 2018 San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurant list (and three in the top 50), foodies are rightly taking notice of Peru’s gastronomic scene. Legendary super-chef Gastón Acurio, Virgilio Martínez Véliz and Mitsuharu Tsumura’s establishments in Lima and Cusco are a must for visitors. My tip: there is no better way to understand the local cuisine than to see where so many of the indigenous foods are harvested, so be sure not just to stick to the cities. In addition, petrol-heads should note that in 2019, the Dakar Rally will take place in only one country for the first time in its history, with Peru playing sole host.

Read more: Philippe Sereys de Rothschild on fine wine & supporting the arts

Discover the wonders of Zimbabwe

There’s never been a better time to visit Zimbabwe. A renewed hope is evident amid a changing political landscape and this spirit of optimism is attracting a fresh wave of tourism. ‘Zim’ is home to five different UNESCO World Heritage Sites and the glorious natural attractions of Victoria Falls, the Zambezi River and Hwange – the country’s largest game reserve. The country is more vibrant than ever with a burst of exciting hotel re-openings to boot – Bumi Hills Safari Lodge on Lake Kariba recently completed a £2.3 million upgrade and Singita Pamushana Lodge in Zimbabwe’s Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve reopened in May 2018 after a complete refurbishment. I recommend a helicopter flight over Victoria Falls – so breathtaking a sight that when David Livingstone first saw the falls, he proclaimed that they ‘must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight”.

Experiencing wildlife in its natural habitat is one of travel’s greatest rewards, says Geoffrey Kent, such as seeing Giant Pandas in China (pictured above)

Admire the diversity of our world’s wildlife

Experiencing wildlife in its natural habitat is one of travel’s greatest rewards. From the playful lemur to the elusive Bengal tiger, the giant panda and the mountain gorilla, the incredible diversity of the world’s wildlife contributes to the rich tapestry on Earth. As I read reports such as the WWF’s most recent, which states that humanity has wiped out 60 per cent of mammals, birds, fish, and reptiles since 1970, my desire to conserve our world’s wildlife is reaffirmed anew.

Every holiday you undertake with us contributes funds to A&K Philanthropy and its excellent animal conservation and local community benefit programmes. It’s a simple and easy way to help protect animals including rhino and leopard, and benefit local communities, while you enrich your life through experiential holidays. I have designed a safari by private jet that makes it possible to visit the world’s most intriguing wildlife in their dramatically varied natural habitats on one remarkable journey in the company of leading conservationists.

Pencil it into your diary: 15 Feb – 10 Mar, 2020. A&K’s 25-day Wildlife Safari: Around the World by Private Jet starts at $139,950 per person.

Discover Abercombie & Kent’s portfolio of luxury travel tours: abercrombiekent.com