Inspiring Travel Writing from Isabella Tree
Isabella Tree was born in 1964. For two years she worked as senior travel correspondent for London's Evening Standard. In 1991 the UK's Society of Authors awarded her a grant to write about Papua New Guinea. The resulting book, Islands in the Clouds, published by Lonely Planet in 1996, was shortlisted for The Thomas Cook Travel Book Award.
In 1997 she won the Travelex Travel Writers' Award for Best National Sunday Newspaper Feature, for an article on Tzotzil Indians in Chiapas, Mexico; and in 1999 was Overall Winner in the same awards for an article on the Living Goddess in Kathmandu.
Her latest book, Sliced Iguana: travels in Mexico, was published by Hamish Hamilton in 2001 and a travel recollection about her childhood on the island of Spetses in Greece featured in The Best American Travel Writing 2002.
Isabella is also author of The Bird Man: the extraordinary story of John Gould which was republished by Ebury Press in 2003. She is currently working on a novel set in Kathmandu.
In 1997 she won the Travelex Travel Writers' Award for Best National Sunday Newspaper Feature, for an article on Tzotzil Indians in Chiapas, Mexico; and in 1999 was Overall Winner in the same awards for an article on the Living Goddess in Kathmandu.
Her latest book, Sliced Iguana: travels in Mexico, was published by Hamish Hamilton in 2001 and a travel recollection about her childhood on the island of Spetses in Greece featured in The Best American Travel Writing 2002.
Isabella is also author of The Bird Man: the extraordinary story of John Gould which was republished by Ebury Press in 2003. She is currently working on a novel set in Kathmandu.
Articles by Isabella Tree
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Before You Die: Manhattan of the Ancient Maya
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Isabella Tree
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Guatemala
Tikal, Guatemala: the Manhattan of the ancient Mayan cities; temple skyscrapers towering above the jungle that, to my mind, equal any of the great man-made wonders of the world. Sunrise from top of Temple IV and sunset from Temple III are incredible...
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Before You Die: Papua New Guinea Highland Show
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Isabella Tree
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Papua New Guinea
The Papua New Guinea: The Highland Show is an annual event held in July/August and alternating between Mt Hagen and Goroka. A fantastic, fiesty display of traditional tribal finery and modern innovation (the ‘black and white’ dancers...
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Before You Die: Galapagos
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Isabella Tree
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Ecuador
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Galapagos Islands
Galapagos Islands - for a spectacular adventure into the geology of the planet, the origins of life, and nature ‘red in tooth and claw’. Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick, likened the Galapagos to ‘heaps of cinders dumped here...
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Before You Die: Monarch Butterflies
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Isabella Tree
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Mexico
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Central Mexico
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Morelia
Morelia, Mexico: No one knows why or how 35 million monarch butterflies fly all the way from the Great Lakes in Canada, down the entire length of the United States, to over-winter in one small pine forest at 12,000 feet a few hours’ drive from...
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Souks and the Single Girl
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Isabella Tree
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Morocco
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Marrakech Region
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Marrakech
The hammam was not how I imagined. I had pictured something bustling and sociable, a traditional courtyard thronged with women in towels like a scene from Steaming. It would be comfortable, reassuring, relaxing, indulgent. But not like this. I had...
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Culture Shock
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Isabella Tree
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Papua New Guinea
In the Trobriand Islands the annual yam festival is more than just ordinary. Nick burst out laughing when I told him I was heading for the Trobriand Islands. “I hope you know how to bite off a man’s eyebrows,” he said. He saw the...
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Kathmandu – Valley of the Gods
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Isabella Tree
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Nepal
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Kathmandu Region
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Kathmandu
The lure of the Himalayas is irresistible to the traveller in Nepal. If you’re lucky, you’ve been intoxicated by your first glimpse of the mighty retreat of the gods before you’ve even landed in the country, your plane flying...
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Cowboy Kids: Ski-School in Jackson Hole
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Isabella Tree
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United States
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Wyoming
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Jackson Hole
“Whoa, there, pardners”, hollered Andy, an old hand Jackson Hole ski instructor, at the little disappearing figures of my son and his seven-year-old cousin, “Hey, cowboys! You’re heading for the back country!” I watched in amazement as Ned led Milo...
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Strolling through Cuba's Greatest Gardens
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Isabella Tree
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Cuba
Everything is beginning to look like a fish - every patch of weed, every rock, every shimmer of water. It is high noon and we have been wading around the mangroves, in the turtle-grass flats, for well over four hours. Ahead of me, Koki, arguably the...
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A Whole View of Africa from the Loo
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Isabella Tree
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Kenya
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Coastal Kenya
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Tana Delta
The wise man builds his house on rock; the foolish man builds four cottages, an open-air dining pavilion and a freshwater swimming-pool on top of a 100ft sand dune. The lunacy of Tana Delta Camp, you could say, is in-built. There is no earthly...