The Travel Wire: best travel reads #49

The Travel Wire is a weekly newsletter of the best travel reads from around the web.

Travel reads

• Notes on Bac Ninh: The booming manufacturing powerhouse near Hanoi [Nomadic Notes]

"On the railway to China, the hidden ancient citadel, and visiting the Koreatown and Chinatown in this booming manufacturing hub of Northern Vietnam."

• The lost art of hitchhiking: What we can still learn from travel's most radical mode? [BBC Travel]

• Looking for adventure? Try this hill-tribe trek in Vietnam [National Geographic]

"A fledgling community tourism project with northern Vietnam’s White Thai people offers a quiet alternative to hill-tribe trekking in busy Sapa."

• You’ve probably been traveling wrong your whole life [Scott Monaco]

"All those stories about group tours, hostel friends, and the magic of getting lost in conversation? Great for some people. Terrible for others."

• I spent a month solo hiking in the Himalayas. I recommend it to everyone. [Afar]

"As cliché as it sounds, sometimes you have to lose yourself to find yourself."

• Slow travel in Essaouira [Travel Doorways]

"Two weeks in a Moroccan port city filled with history, charm, and delightful experiences."

• Backpacking Eel Pie Island [Nomadic Backpacker]

"Eel Pie Island is an 8.9-acre island in the River Thames at Twickenham in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames."

• A taste of Swedish island life – but on the mainland, near Stockholm [The Guardian]

"Stockholm’s 30,000-strong archipelago is rightly famous, but the sandy beaches and cabins just down the coast are more accessible and full of local flavour."

• Seven habits of highly effective travelers (part II) [Souvenirs]

• Walking Hakodate. Part 1. Cape Tachimachi, Mount Hakodate, historical district, Hakodate Marina and Oomori Beach. June 2025. [Hungry for travel by Igor]

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James Clark (@nomadicnotes)