21 holidays that will make you a better person
July 25, 2015
I first looked through a powerful optical telescope on a stargazers’ tour around Chile, at the country’s Mamalluca Observatory in the Elqui Valley. There was Saturn and its rings, and the magical swirls of the Orion Nebula, one of the Hubble telescope’s favourite subjects. At Alma, the world’s largest astronomical project, high in the Atacama Desert, I met [...]

Wish upon a star
July 8, 2013
It is said that the Incas did not focus on the stars at night. Instead of pointing out twinkling celestial bodies and joining up the dots to make constellations, they found meaning in the dark patches of the night sky. For them, a pool of blackness immediately below the Southern Cross was the head of a snake [...]

Emptiness: the new luxury
Winter 2012
Suspecting a flat tyre, I pulled over just before the town of Palmwag. As I got out and walked around the vehicle, the puncture hissed at me like a snake. As I extracted the jack and wheel brace from the boot, it began to rain -- in one of the world’s driest countries. Swiftly, the drizzle swelled to a full-on thunderstorm, yet I smiled to myself like a small child playing outdoors. [...]

Where to Stay: Santiago
October 2008
Romantic 1920s features such as prettily-painted ceramic tiling and a marble staircase. Room service! Michelle Jana Chan chooses four of the best hotels in Chile’s buzzing capital. [...]

Easter Island : the future's not set in stone
January 26, 2008
As the first luxury hotel opens on Easter Island, Michelle Jana Chan reports from a location that's not as isolated as it was. I wondered if the pilot sighed with relief as the wedge of land emerged on the horizon. [...]

Pick the world's new wonders
June 16, 2007
An ancient list is being updated, through a modern worldwide poll. Michelle Jana Chan looks at the 21 contenders. On July 7, there will be a new version of the Seven Wonders of the World, a list that has always captured the imagination of travellers. [...]

The New Inn Crowd
May 20, 2007
Why celebrities like Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Redford and Richard Branson are getting into the hotel business. He may be more famous for directing "The Godfather" film trilogy, but Francis Ford Coppola has another trio of esteemed creations to his name: three boutique hotels hidden in the Central American jungle. [...]