By the time Tony co-founded Lonely Planet Publications in 1973, he already had the travel bug. And ever since, travel and discovery have been at the heart of his life and career.
I love absurd travel suggestions – ones you read and you think ‘where on earth did that come from?’ The Australian newspapers The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald featured a travel enquiry:
• If the only flight option is Ryanair, should we ditch that destination?
A couple were looking at a visit to Sardinia (good idea), but were contemplating scrapping the whole plan if it required flying with Ryanair. Michael Gebicki, the paper’s ‘Tripologist,’ answered the query with an absolute straight face, suggesting the possibility of flying with Wizz Air (now there is an airline I have had really bad experiences with) or taking a seven to eight hour ferry ride (well that could be fun), but never hinting at why anybody might hate Ryanair so much that they’d abandon a trip rather than board one of Michael O’Leary’s 737s.
Over the years I’ve taken Ryanair on quite a few occasions and they’ve always done exactly what they promised, got you there safely and relatively comfortably (OK the seats don’t recline, big deal for short flights?), didn’t lose my luggage and ran to schedule. The only Ryanair flight I’ve taken which was somewhat delayed was totally down to bad weather, you could see it out the window, and the pilot kept us informed on why things weren’t going to plan. Something which I’ve had too much experience of not happening on other airlines. And of course, underline this, Ryanair are cheap. Sometimes amazingly cheap.
▲ Equally important Ryanair – or rather Michael O’Leary – are often hilariously funny. Take their recent dispute with Elon Musk. Mr Tesla got angry with Ryanair for not installing Starlink Wi-Fi access on their aircraft. O’Leary suggested Musk was an idiot and ran a ‘Big Idiot’ seat sale. Wonderful. It’s not surprising The Economist suggested Ryanair might be the world’s most successful airline.
Then, at the other end of the cost spectrum, there’s Remote Travel. Now I have never taken a Remote Travel trip, but I’m on their mailing list and their trips often look fantastic. And often look absurd! Check their 15-day Everest Base Camp trip, a mere US$29,000 out of Kathmandu. I’ve done the Everest Base Camp trip and had a wonderful time, but certainly not in the comfort Remote Travel can offer. Take their trip and if at some point along the route up to the base camp your feet get a bit tired you snap your fingers and a helicopter pops down to save you walking for the rest of the afternoon. Even if you’re not in the market for helicopter hiking check their website, the pictures are terrific.
I was briefly in Northern Ireland in June 2025 for a family wedding – Maureen’s family – there was one in 2024 as well. My plan to walk the spectacular Gobbins Cliff Path, north of Belfast, while I was there fell through because the walk was closed due to a 'recent ro...
Every year there are some great views I glimpse out of an airplane window and as usual, when I look back on a previous year’s travels, I’ll quote Joan Didion ‘the most beautiful things I had ever seen had all been seen from airplanes.’ ▲ Hard to beat this one and t...
My trip through the Mustang region of Nepal up to Lo Manthang – part 1 and part 2 – was bookended by stays in the Kathmandu Valley and a brief stop in Pokhara. I wasn’t planning or expecting to see anything new, my visit was just a reminder of familiar places and inte...
In Mustang in Nepal – Part 1 – I followed the Kali Gandaki north to Lo Manthang, now I’m there ... ▲ In the centre of Lo Manthang the 1448 Jampa Gompa has amazing outer passages around the inner core and upstairs is pretty damn impressive as well. This big gompa is...
Despite the arrival of the road to Lo Manthang and on to the China/Tibet border Mustang remains an exotic destination in the north of Nepal. For many years Lo Manthang, the ‘capital’ of the district, played a role as a trading junction between Tibet and India. The inv...
In the two months from mid-August to mid-October I travelled to a number of countries – Seychelles, Mauritius, Algeria (north coast and south Sahara) – and to one French colony – Reunion. In fact I started that little circuit with a longer visit to Nepal, that will be...
I’d not really thought about Réunion, until I was heading for Mauritius, but it’s only 200km to the west so why not pop over for a few days? Réunion is in fact much closer to Mauritius than Rodrigues, the second island of Mauritius. In area it’s slightly larger (2512 ...
▲ A serious Mauritian sunset from the west coast resort beach strip of Flic-en-Flac. What a great name – ‘Flic-en-Flac’ most likely means ‘Free and Flat Land’, a name derived from an Old Dutch phrase ‘Fried Landt Flaak’ that reflects the area's historically open and l...
▲ Like the Maldives, east across the Indian Ocean – the 115 islands of the Seychelles archipelago are holiday islands. Love the Seychelles? Lots of people do. I wasn’t in the Seychelles long – for me it was a stepping stone from Dubai to Mauritius – and I only visited...
Having spent a week exploring the coast and north of Algeria – Algiers, east to Constantine and Setif, west to Oran, a number of Roman ruins sites – some of my group now head south to the Sahara. We’re going to spend five days trekking and camping through the Sahara, ...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013