A “sprawling” estuarine reserve in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, the Bhitarkanika National Park is home to the country’s second-largest mangrove forest and no fewer than 1,825 saltwater crocodiles (the world’s largest reptile).
I explored it on one of the four luxury catamarans – each with just two “teak-floored” guest suites – that were introduced here last year by Delhi-based Antara Cruises, said Sneha Thomas in DestinAsian. The meals served on board were good (including some terrific local dishes).
We went on guided walks and motorboat trips deep into the “dense” forest, and also visited a village on the park’s fringes. Conservation efforts have brought the park’s crocodiles back from the brink of extinction, but there is much other wildlife to see, including spotted deer, fishing cats, cobras and more than 200 bird species.
A three-day cruise costs from £790 per person (antaracruises.com).
The Blytonesque charm of St Martin’s
Of the five inhabited Scilly Isles, none is more enchanting than St Martin’s, said Paul Miles in The Telegraph. Situated in the north of the archipelago, it is a “Famous Five” sort of place that has barely changed since the 1950s. Home to just 140 people, it lacks the “upmarket” shops and holiday lets of Tresco (more popular with “well-heeled” tourists). But it has seductive beaches of “almost-white” sand, lovely walking paths, and with the island’s mild climate, it “feels like a garden”, peppered with exotic species such as “tall” echiums and blue-and-white agapanthus. It’s worth hiring a kayak to visit the uninhabited islands nearby, and dropping in at the community observatory, with its two telescopes: on clear nights, the skies here are “tar-black” and full of stars.
A wild mountain railway in France
Climbing from Nice into the Alpes-Azur mountains, the aptly named Train des Merveilles (Train of Wonders) plies one of Europe’s most “spectacular” railways, said Annabelle Thorpe in The Guardian. Built between 1883 and 1929, it reopened in December following a year-long, €73 million (£63 million) renovation. The line crosses more than 100 bridges and viaducts, climbing 1,000 metres in 100km on its way to Tende, a town set amid the “jagged” peaks of the Mercantour National Park. The landscape is so wild and the little medieval towns along the way so unspoiled that the two-hour journey seems to take you back in time. Make a day of it if you can, and stop at Sospel, with its 13th-century bridge and “crumbling” baroque churches, and La Brigue, to see the huge and “vivid” 15th-century frescoes by Giovanni Canavesio in the Chapel of our Lady of Fountains, two miles outside town.