Browsing: The Longest Way Home

Slow travel is more than a style—it’s a mindset. In a world obsessed with seeing more in less time, slow…

Long-distance travel has a way of reshaping us. Whether you’re crossing continents by air, drifting between countries on overnight buses,…

In St Petersburg’s White Nights, Europe feels like a flawless stage set—Hermitage halls, postcard canals, bohemian hotels—magnificent and a little contrived. As our rail odyssey ends in the West, we look ahead and place our bets on Asia.

Between a brass-and-mahogany museum car and a sleek bullet train, we side with slow travel: samovars, proper plates, and thick carpets—plus a babushka who decks a shirtless soldier. Speed impresses, but the old rails steal our hearts.

Visa dates two days off, no food or cups for vodka, and surrounded by smugglers far better organized than us — the border crossing between Mongolia and Russia makes us feel like true idiots abroad.

In a former KGB officers’ block off Lenina Prospekt, our “safe house” offers blast doors, cold showers, and live surveillance. Ekaterinburg—where Europe meets Asia, Romanovs fell, and Yeltsin rose—turns our tourist cover into a spy caper and early escape.

Visa dates two days off, no food or cups for vodka, and surrounded by smugglers far better organized than us — the border crossing between Mongolia and Russia makes us feel like true idiots abroad.

Visa dates two days off, no food or cups for vodka, and surrounded by smugglers far better organized than us — the border crossing between Mongolia and Russia makes us feel like true idiots abroad.

Visa dates two days off, no food or cups for vodka, and surrounded by smugglers far better organized than us — the border crossing between Mongolia and Russia makes us feel like true idiots abroad.

In Mongolia’s vast steppes, we find “Buddha’s Country”: breathtaking skies, nomads with cell phones, satellite dishes outside gers, and a revival of Buddhist culture. Modern tools blend with ancient traditions to give the countryside new strength.