Scandinavia and South America capture world’s top restaurant awards

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This week in travel news: the world’s best restaurants for 2022, the world’s most powerful passports and the worst airports for delays and cancellations this summer.

Destination inspiration

South Africa is one of only a few countries where declining Covid rates have seen it drop down a risk level this week on the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s travel advisories list. Anthony Bourdain visited Johannesburg in 2013 and spent a day in the life of a taxi driver, discovering the city’s culture and food. Listen on the “Parts Unknown” podcast.

The Caribbean island of Anguilla will be lifting its pre-arrival Covid testing requirement starting August 8. You can get there via the world’s shortest international commercial flight: It takes just 10 minutes.

If only every air travel experience were that speedy. More than half of this summer’s flights have been delayed at one North American airport. Here are the global airports where delays and cancellations are the worst right now.

Severe heat waves have been hitting Europe and the United States, and high temperatures are predicted for China in August. An airport runway in London was even damaged by the heat. So if you’re dreaming of chillier climes, here are our guides to cool travel escapes and planning an Antarctica cruise.

Restaurant news

A Copenhagen restaurant has been named the best in the world: It’s in a soccer stadium, it doesn’t serve meat, and it’s only open four days a week. Read on to learn more about the dining spots honored in this year’s World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards.

The top 50 have their own unusual qualities, but there’s only one restaurant in the world to have a dinosaur’s stamp of approval: 100 million-year-old sauropod footprints have just been discovered at an eatery in China’s Sichuan province.

And in London, renowned Ukrainian chef Yurii Kovryzhenko is set to launch a restaurant in the upscale Chelsea neighborhood, staffed by Ukrainian refugees. The bistro’s name is Mriya, Ukrainian for “dream” – and was also the name of the world’s largest cargo airplane, the Antonov An-225, which was destroyed during the invasion of Ukraine.

Top treks

From the snow-capped peaks of New Zealand’s Cascade Saddle to Papua New Guinea’s verdant and wild Kokoda Track, we’ve rounded up the world’s most dangerous hiking trails – but the challenges are worth it.

If it’s just seaside trails, spectacular beaches and crimson sunsets you’re looking for, we also recommend Sardinia’s 100 Towers Path, one of Italy’s most beautiful coastal hikes.

And in San Francisco, a new slice of federal parkland has been built right on top of a busy highway tunnel. The 14-acre Presidio Tunnel Tops was designed by the same firm as New York City’s famous High Line.

Our animal friends

Dubai opened its first camel-riding school last year and, surprisingly in a traditionally male-dominated practice, it’s a big hit with women.

Fermented horse milk is the big draw further east in Kyrgyzstan. Kumis is a traditional beverage in this former Soviet republic, but novices should be warned that milking a mare is far trickier than milking a cow.

And when it comes to wine-making in South Africa, some of the industry’s most valued employees have beaks and waddle. At Vergenoegd Löw The Wine Estate just outside Cape Town, a battalion of some 1,600 marching ducks is used to keep the vineyard free of pests.

A delicious secret

Lemon landscape: The spectacular Amalfi Coast overlooking the Mediterranean Sea is home to an extraordinary farming environment where some of the world's best lemons are cultivated.

Ancient traditions: Gigino Aceto, 87 years old, defies both his age and gravity to tend to his Amalfi lemon crops. He's one of a dwindling number of farmers upholding traditional farming methods.

Love, life, lemons: Aceto says his life revolves all around lemons, even claiming he was conceived among the citrus trees. "In my parents' old days, the lack of space and intimacy meant that love was made outdoors, underneath the citrus trees," he says.

Key ingredient: With its light-yellow color, intense fragrance, juicy texture and sweet skin -- it can be eaten sliced like an apple -- the Amalfi Sfusato lemon has become a staple ingredient in the area's traditional cuisine.

Citrus solutions: Shaping the wild cliffs overlooking the sea, the lemon groves curb some of the area's worst problems, including landslides caused by rain and wildfires.

Flying farmers: Amalfi's lemon growers have been called "flying farmers" by Italian writer Flavia Amabile because of the way they balance along wooden poles to move from treetop to treetop.

Wooden networks: Poles of local chestnut wood are used to create a scaffold around the lemon trees and allow the farmers to roam the trees for pruning, harvesting and maintenance.

A slice of history: Gigino Aceto's lemon terraces were built over a thousand years ago.

High life: Gigino Aceto transports lemon in crates weighing more than 25 kilograms (55 pounds) between gardens more than 400 meters (1,312 feet) above the ground.

Tipping the scales: One single Sfusato can weigh up to three kilograms.

Dirty job: "At 5.30 a.m., my clothes are soiled, and my knees are exhausted. It's a job that destroys you," says Salvatore Aceto.

Tricky access: Vertically arranged in layers, the lemon groves are separated by three- to seven-meter walls made of Macere -- a local limestone resistant to soil pressure and impervious to rain. Even today, the grove can only be reached on foot or by mules.

Delicious treat: The lemons are used in pasta dishes, desserts, and sauces for salads and grilled fish.

Under threat: The "Flying farmers" are among the last guardians of the Amalfi lemons, now threatened by industrialization, changes in society and climate change. The farmers are fighting a constant battle against man-made problems, not least scorching temperatures blamed on climate change.

Lemon tours: Salvatore Aceto, 57, created Lemon Tours, an agricultural tourism venture to increase awareness of the Sfusato and revitalize the traditions used to cultivate it.

Keeping traditional lemon farming alive in Italy (photos)

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“Flying” lemon farmers leap among the treetops along Italy’s steep Amalfi Coast. “Not blood, but lemon juice runs through my veins,” says one farmer whose family has been growing lemons here since the 1800s. Find out why this way of life is threatened.

In case you missed it

Three Asian countries top a list of the world’s most powerful passports for 2022.
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Thieves robbed a tourist of his watch at gunpoint – then brought it back when they realized it was fake.
They say hospitality in Naples is second to none.

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