Chase the cormorants to find new havens: What Rachel Lopez learnt about travel in 2024
A weekend at a museum, a place of blissful nothing... there are secrets waiting, and sometimes brand new designer wear, if you go where the Reels don’t.
Instagram influencers would have you believe there’s no place left unexplored. That every town can have its secrets listed in under 10 seconds. This is precisely why putting away the phone makes sense when you’re planning a break. Here’s how to beat the bots on holiday.

* Go local
I went to Jamnagar, a town in Gujarat best known for oil refineries (and more recently for Rihanna’s appearance at a pre-wedding party), for a long weekend. An hour’s drive away (follow the cormorants) is Narara Island, which holds a reef and marine sanctuary so desolate and forgotten, it’s exactly why I picked this region.
No one (other than birders) visits Narara. At one point, as we sloshed through ankle-deep seawater at low tide, we found ourselves with a 360-degree view of the horizon, and nothing in view but ourselves.
There was plenty of other company: octopuses, puffer fish, sea slugs, sea cucumbers and countless marine creatures that might not survive the coast’s next wave of development. But fellow tourists? Signs of civilisation? A tout or ticket window? Nope. Just the gift of nothingness.
Jamnagar is a delight as well. The only visitors are from the diaspora, who don’t seem to do much sightseeing. So the manmade Lakhota Lake, at the centre of the town, is empty. The fort-turned-museum in the centre of the lake is pristine. In the winter, tens of thousands of Rosy Starlings wintering in the area carry out elaborate murmurations over the Lake.
This is the luxury we dream of when we’re weaving through sweaty crowds in Europe.
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* Go slow
Few people visit Patna. And almost no one goes expressly to see a museum.
I turned it into a weekend trip, and spent the whole day among its fabulous treasures.

Bihar Museum is always full, so a leisurely visit is exactly how to do it. No rushing through the exhibits. No jostling with the other jostlers. Keep time to closely examine a 3rd-century terracotta figurine of a dancing girl, and watch every visitor do a double-take as they first encounter the voluptuous, luminous Didarganj Yakshi.
No need to step out for lunch, either. There’s an outlet of the popular Bihari-cuisine restaurant chain Potbelly on the premises. This is where Champaran-mutton dreams come true.
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* Go off-season
Who goes to Moscow in December? Only the brave. But they’re rewarded with a much-less-crowded capital, snow-dusted carousels, picturesque ice-skating rinks, and Christmas fairs. See the sights, by all means: The Moskva river is magical at night; there’s no bad side to St Basil’s Cathedral. But for a different view, go literally deeper. The city’s underground metro system is extensive. Its stations are impossibly grand. Take in the vaulted ceilings, Stalin mosaics, Art Deco lamps and Soviet-era motifs. It’s safe. It’s fully heated. It cost me 55 roubles (about ₹50) for a whole afternoon.
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* Go hunting
Of course, every destination has its Top 5s (things to see, eat, do). That’s where all the tourists are, waiting in the same queues, to take the same photos.
Head off the lists for a more memorable time. In Zurich, set a day aside just to browse in its Brockies or rambling second-hand stores. You’d be amazed at what a nation with a per-capita income of more than $90,000 is willing to give away: Designer heels with the tags still on, calf-leather jackets with no signs of wear, Japanese knife sets.

In little Hoi An, Vietnam, tour buses typically roll in at sunset so visitors can enjoy the riverside bars and restaurants. Drive in at 9 am instead, just as the shops were opening, to have the little streets and 150-year-old houses all to yourself.
In Pune, I found an archery school run by a South Korean, Chae Hong Gi, who will also arrange a four-course Korean meal on prior booking. (Everything hit the spot, except my arrow!) And no matter how glitzy Dubai seems, its great quality is that it is cosmopolitan. All the better to try foods one never otherwise will. There’s an African quarter with restaurants serving the spicy Ethiopian doro wat stew, and more than one place serving Kazakh cuisine (expect a lot of mutton).
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* Go nuts
Turns out, I have a bucket list too. It was hiding in my wallet all along. I realised, this year, that I’ve been to every monument featured on the backs of our currency notes, except for the Vittala temple in Hampi from the ₹50 one. So that’s next. (I’m not counting those big pink ₹2,000 notes that feature our Mars orbiter. That one’s just out of reach.)
(To reach Rachel Lopez, email rachel.lopez@htlive.com)
