The favelas are Brazil's gloomily famous shanty towns. Once a shelter for war veterans and freedmen, they have now become the symbol of social and economic inequalities in the country. A guided tour of these communities represents a unique opportunity to understand the locals' living conditions, their challenges and their daily struggles. If you have the chance, visit the famous favela named Rocinha to discover a whole different side of Rio de Janeiro. Visits are only recommended as part of a supervised guided tour and may be unsafe to do on one's own.

Step back in time at the wartime air-raid shelters and experience the sights and sounds of Britain’s Home Front. Visitors can walk through original tunnels, carefully re-equipped to show what daily life was like during the 1940s, and follow the stories of locals through clear, well-curated displays and an audio guide. First opened in 1939, the shelters were the largest purpose-built civilian air-raid shelters in the country, originally designed for 3,850 people and later expanded during 1940–41 to hold up to 6,500. Cut directly into the sandstone cliffs beneath the town centre, the mile-long network offers a rare look at wartime engineering and civilian life. The site reopened in 1996 as a visitor attraction after restoration by Stockport Council and has since become one of the town’s most important museums. Today, it works as both a memorial and an educational space, giving a direct sense of how communities lived through the air raids.

The great outdoors is just around the corner, and the Lake District National Park in Cumbria is England’s largest national park. The Lake District offers some of the best scenery and outdoor pursuits in one of England’s few mountainous regions. With more than 3,500 kilometres of walking and hiking routes through the lakes, there’s a trail to suit everyone. For the daredevils, there is also hang gliding, paragliding, kayaking, canoeing, water skiing, rock scrambling, abseiling, hot-air ballooning, paintballing, and much more.

The Grand Bassin, Ganga Talao, is a crater lake in a secluded mountain area in the heart of Mauritius. Visited by many pilgrims during the festival Maha Shivaratri, it is of religious importance for the Hindu faith in God Shiva, and since 2007, Shiva itself towers over the impressive lake, pictured as a giant statue as another goddess, Durga, does since 2017.