#WhenWeTravelAgain: a post lockdown bucket list

With lockdown extended, the Lifestyle team are busy living rich travel lives — in their minds — with fantastical plots for epic adventures when it’s over. Here are some of our wildest-dream escapes:

FINLAND

My travel fantasy involves my partner and me snuggled up in snow-clad Finish Lapland with views of the Northern Lights. Top of the accommodation bucket list is Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort, whose glass igloos call to me. Sheltered in a forest, the glass domes have their own shower and toilet and can be booked throughout the Northern Lights season from the end of August to the end of April each year.

When you're not admiring the swirls of yellow, green and blue at night, you can steam up in a smoke sauna or go ice dipping in water that's clean enough to drink. You can also visit Santa's house; go cross-country skiing or embark on a husky, reindeer or snowmobile safari. As far as winter wonderlands go, this one leaves me starry eyed. — Sanet Oberholzer, Features writer

LISBON

I went into the deepest Netflix hole with a show called Somebody Feed Phil. It tracks Everybody Loves Raymond creator Phil Rosenthal as he travels and eats all the things. Before the show, Copenhagen was top of my list, then Phil went to Lisbon. It has most of what you want when you visit other cities — trams like San Francisco, a statue of Jesus like Rio, fountains like Rome. It also has quite a few culinary magicians — gelato, pizza and sausages with sauerkraut sold on the streets. Never mind all the bakeries where you can eat as many pastéis de nata as your heart desires. — Jennifer Platt, Books editor

THE GRAND CANYON

For years, I've travelled the world with my friends. I've seen the balconies of designer hotels, wandered the streets of European towns and spied the ocean through cocktail glasses — all with a touch of envy. Instagram's a bitch! Now we're all stuck in the same movie — Lockdown: The Sequel.

My end-of-lockdown fantasy doesn't feature any of the places in those pictures. When I get out of pokey what I want to do most is walk — away from stuff-filled shops and traffic-clogged streets. I want to be in my own head, walking in my own direction, just one foot in front of the other, not conscious of anything but the wonder in front of my eyes. I want to lose contact with time, space and direction, the conceits of commerce and status and hierarchy.

I want to be alone, damn it, walking the Bright Angel Trail on the remote North Rim of the Grand Canyon across a tapestry of ridges running high above deep valleys and the rushing Colorado River. It will be a walk towards the song of my own heart. — Andrea Nagel, Lifestyle editor

MEXICO

Frida Kahlo started it. A teenage infatuation with the artist segued into a décor obsession with Talavera tiles and cobalt-blue walls, and Mexico is still the queen of my wish list.

I'd spend days exploring Mexico City, from La Casa Azul, where Frida was born, to the Unesco-listed city centre, with its myriad reminders of its Aztec origins and Spanish colonial architecture.

Then I'd head for the little towns. Merida with its bright buildings and a cathedral built from Mayan bricks; Oxaca, the unofficial foodie capital; and Tulum, a hippie seaside town with Mayan ruins nearby.

As for wide open spaces, Mexico has 67 national parks - so wherever the wind takes me. Though it sounds like US tourist hell, I must stop in Cancun to see the Underwater Museum - 500 sculptures slowly succumbing to nature on the sea bed.

In weeks of wandering (weeks, I tell you!), I'd taste all the mezcal, cheer on the luchadores and stuff suitcases with all the garish textiles I could manage. Just before my exit, timed for November, I'd celebrate everyone's return to the land of the living on the nation's most flamboyant holiday: the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). — Elizabeth Sleith, Travel editor

PARIS

I have never been and it's always been a dream. I was due to go there this year but ... that's off. I even have a Pinterest board full of the landmarks I would love to visit, such as the Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, Grand Palais and Pont Alexandre III.

It also holds mood boards of the outfits I would wear (cue classic tourist-issue red Parisian beret), the skincare products I would buy and the food I would eat. Who wouldn't want pain au chocolat, croissants and the best macaroons of your life with a coffee from a quaint café to be your first post-lockdown memory? — Nokubonga Thusi, Beauty editor

THE US

I'd be going on the holiday I did have booked for the end of April: a road trip in the States. We'd be driving from New Orleans to Memphis, Nashville and then the Smoky Mountains. It's my dream excursion — the food of Nolo, the jazz, the blues, the rock 'n roll, Graceland, weird little towns on the Mississippi Delta and Dollywood. Oh Dollywood! Anyhow, if British Airways finally get back to me with my voucher for travel at a later date, perhaps I'll still get to jump in an old Mustang and speed down the interstate. — Sarah Buitendach, Wanted editor

THREE SISTERS

I'm going to persuade my brother and his son to join me on a motorbike trip into the heart of the Karoo. We'll leave in September and spend a night in Three Sisters. It's the perfect mythical gateway for a journey into what still matters, what still stands in a land boiled down to bare essentials.

We'll drink beer (lots of it), eat the best lamb chops in the world and conspire with them to ride all the roads that seem to go nowhere but never do. There'll be hard days, for sure, but there'll be others when the road will stretch out before us like one big expanse of forever.

There will be nights, too, when we sit around huge fires telling stories and watching our laughter unravel into the night like sparks. The three of them, the three of us ... what could go wrong? — Stephen Haw, Lifestyle content editor

SKOPELOS

Thirty years ago my husband and I hopscotched through a trio of islands — Skiathos, Skopelos and Alonissos in the Aegean sea. I yearn to go back — especially to Skopelos.

Hopefully the strains of Abba (Mamma Mia! was filmed there 16 years ago) have gone quiet. I promise I'm NOT doing the Mamma Mia! tour. Instead, it's the undulating rocky coastline of the island that makes getting to the port tricky — and probably why the island has not become as over-touristed as the others.

Of course, the pull is that warm, aquamarine sea, those white buildings and the promise of exploring by scooter or on foot. Here the tavernas offer the freshest ingredients, like freshly caught calamari, simply prepared over a fire with a splash of olive oil, fresh lemon, lots of garlic and salt and pepper and salads without lettuce. Breakfast is the thickest sheep-milk yoghurt drizzled with honey and sprinkled with nuts. — Hilary Biller, Food editor

MONTENEGRO

Confinement has made me want to see the interesting parts of the world, the bits you only ever hear about in global sports competitions, like Montenegro.

Tucked away in the Balkans, this Eastern European gem looks like a fun place to go for those who are interested in something off the beaten path. It is relatively cheap, prettier than Beyoncé mucking about with baby oil and more unique than going to NYC.

It may sound like a dicey proposition for those of us with deliciously high melanin levels, but according to some folks on Tripadvisor, people are more likely to be curious than overtly racist. Basically you may be better off there than you would be in parts of SA.

If you're not convinced, that's fine. I don't need to get to Podgorica and bump into a whole bunch of South Africans who would end up snitching when they met a bunch of Montenegrins who thought, for some reason, that I was Nelson Mandela's favourite grandson. — Yolisa Mkele, Features writer