Latest Time Out worldwide features

Few sensations beat plunging into a massive outdoor pool, the sky looming big and bright and blue above. Even if you’re bang in the middle of the city, even if you’re surrounded by dozens of other swimmers, you can’t help but feel like you’ve found a place of peace: a calming and energising escape from the frenetic outside world. And as a big ol’ splashy bonus, it helps that public pools and lidos can also be really damn beautiful. This means that not only do you get the thrill of that first plunge – you also get the constant excitement of looking up and being totally bowled over by your surroundings. Looking to branch out and do your laps somewhere new? You could do much worse than hit up one of the many beautiful pools that feature in ‘Lido: A Dip into Outdoor Swimming Pools’. This new book by author Christopher Beanland is both a history of pool architecture and a travel guide for super-keen swimmers, filled with top destinations from Slovakia to Hong Kong via Sydney. So, where should be top of your bucket(-of-water) list? To help you out, we asked Beanland to pick out seven pools and lidos that are genuinely worth crossing international borders for – from manmade lidos done out properly palatially to icy natural pools overlooked by snow-capped mountains. Go ahead and dive in.

In London a mass of revellers gyrate to thumping bass music. In Johannesburg a thrift market throngs with bargain-hunters. And in Miami a solitary figure contemplates the skyline as the sun sets over her home city. What do all these scenes have in common? They all celebrate life in our cities at its fullest – overflowing with soul and vitality. (And after a year of lockdown, it’s what we’re longing for a return to.) Modern urban living can be chaotic and loud and very often lonely. But it can also be pretty damn glorious. And that should be the overriding impression you get from this selection of images taken by street photographers in some of the world’s greatest cities, from Rio de Janeiro to Hong Kong via Madrid. Some were taken by pros with all the gear, others were smartphone snappers with brilliant Instagram accounts. We asked them all to pick a single shot that truly sums up street life in their city (and provide a brief explanation why). Vibrant or empty, jubilant or downcast, the results are a buoyant celebration of streetlife worldwide – in all its glory and contradictions. Why would you ever want to leave?

When you're visiting a new-to-you city, it's always tempting to pack your itinerary with reservations at the best restaurants in town. But more rewarding still is getting to know the local cuisine and culture through street food, which almost always offers a more authentic experience. And now – as our cities spring back to life and travel ramps up once again – it's never been more important to support the talented cooks behind these mobile kitchens. Hungry yet? Good, because we asked some of the world's best chefs to share their all-time favorite street eats – the bites they can't stop thinking about, even years later. Their picks offer a food-fueled itinerary that spans the globe, from saucy tteokbokki in Seoul, and smoked jerk pork in Jamaica to deep-fried pastel in Brazil. Plan your next getaway around one of these chef-approved street food staples. Craving more insider insight from the world's best chefs? You're in the right place. Talk to the Chef! is a weekly food series that will tap into the minds of culinary leaders around the globe. The conversation changes just as often, and we'll chat with chefs about everything from podcasts and kitchen equipment to travel and trends.

One of the universal truth of the pandemic might be that we all came out of it with a lot more plants than when we went in. If, like us, you treat your tiny apartment like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, you might want to consider a little garden inspiration when booking your post-vaccine vacation this summer. Behold, the best botanical gardens in the world. At these drop-dead gorgeous botanical gardens around the world, you can fill your mind with facts as well as filling your camera roll. Step aside, macramé plant hangers; it’s time to discover cherry blossoms in Brooklyn and cacti in Colombia with our list of the world’s best botanical gardens. RECOMMENDED: Why spending time outdoors is so damn good for you

What makes a golden stretch one of the best beaches in the world? Pristine sand and clean water, for starters. The rest depends on your fondness for wildlife, water sports, creature comforts and G-strings, or your threshold for doing absolutely nothing at all. Ours is not an exhaustive list, but we think it has something for every kind of bum – from a textbook tropical paradise in the Seychelles to a surprisingly empty strip of sand in France. So start checking for flights (check travel restrictons first, of course), then, get ready to feel the best sand in the world between your toes this summer. RECOMMENDED: Full guide to the best things to do in the world

We're calling it: 2021 is going to be another summer of the great outdoors. As the United States and the United Kingdom slowly emerge from lockdown, its residents are looking to the national parks, local green spaces, and far-afield wilderness spots that have helped us keep our sanity over the past year.  But here's the catch: the outdoors is far from accessible to everyone, and not just anyone feels comfortable getting outside (even when the alternative is just more time spent in lockdown). Even seemingly simple activities like hiking can feel exclusionary to anyone who's not able-bodied, white, male, and heteronormative. And that's a hell of a lot of people.  Thankfully, there are a lot of groups out there who are trying to make the outdoors a safe space for all. We're highlighting just three of these communities making space for everyone to feel free to be themselves in an outdoor setting. Hopefully they inspire you to find your own group, and get outside this summer — it really is so damn good for you. 

As the world slowly emerges from lockdown and more countries open to tourists, 50 percent of our headspace is devoted to imagining where we'll travel first. Typically, it's a toss-up between a white-sand beach and a lively city centre somewhere far, far away. (We could go on for hours.) If you need some travel inspiration to kickstart your wanderlust, we've got just the thing. We tapped some of the world's best chefs to share the top destinations on their 2021 travel bucket lists. Unsurprisingly, many of their plans involve food – including devouring beignets in New Orleans, visiting izakayas in Japan and noshing on crepes in Paris. Ready to build your travel wish list? Take a look at where chefs are heading to first. Craving more insider insight from the world's best chefs? You're in the right place. Talk to the Chef! is a weekly food series that will tap into the minds of culinary leaders around the globe. The conversation changes just as often, and we'll chat with chefs about everything from podcasts and kitchen equipment to travel and trends.

They get a bad rap from snobs, but don’t mess with action movies—they’re pumped up, loaded with ammo and in your face like Arnold Schwarzenegger on a bad day. Truth be told, no one can live solely on Martin Scorsese movies or animation alone. We need explosions periodically. Big ones. Preferably accompanied by catchphrases and squealing electric guitars. With crucial contributions from Hong Kong and France, the genre has a global richness that sneaks up on you like a swarthy henchman with a knife clenched between his teeth. And when we arrived at action’s ’80s movies heyday, when Hollywood stars ruled the roost, our research was euphoric. We’ve polled over 50 experts in the field, from essential directors like Die Hard’s John McTiernan to the actual folks in the line of fire, such as Machete himself, Danny Trejo. Critics and experts have weighed in, too. And if we’ve missed something, drop a bomb in our comments. RECOMMENDED: Full guide to the 100 best movies of all time

When we go to stay somewhere wild, it is not just the enchanting, curious and quirky dwellings that we go for. We go because these are beautiful spaces nested within beautiful places, man-made lodgings in nature-made havens. We go because when we stay somewhere wild, we get up close and personal with both the absolute best of thoughtful human design – which helps us disconnect, unwind and relax – and with nature’s intrinsic restorative and healing benefits. Luckily for us – or, perhaps more accurately, as a function of our innate evolutionary connection to the rest of nature – the benefit of time spent in and around the great outdoors can be felt with little effort or exertion on our part. You might choose to sit outside quietly, go for an aimless wander, or close your eyes and listen to the sounds of wildlife and weather. Some of my most memorable and uplifting times outside have been when I have done nothing more than observe the beauty around me, felt my own glorious smallness, and enjoyed simply being. While there will be additional gains taken from a concerted effort to be outside doing immersive activities, the research is clear that we can experience the physical and mental health benefits of natural places even by viewing them through a well-placed window. Although many of us intuitively know the power of time spent outside, the empirical study of nature’s healing potential is still relatively new. But one well-documented area of analysis is the impact of forest bathi

This year hasn’t gone quite to plan so far. Just when we thought we were very much in the ‘de-escalation’ phase of lockdown, for many of us, everything seems to be heading in the wrong direction again – especially when it comes to travel. Borders are closed and travel restrictions still in place all over the world. Moving freely from one country to another feels almost like a thing of the past. Now there is even talk of needing ‘vaccine passports’ to get into certain destinations. So the question is: when will we actually be able to get out there and explore the world again? Well – for some of us at least – right now in fact. Governments across the world may still be advising their citizens to stay put, but many countries are still opening up in an effort draw visitors over the coming months. Nations across the Mediterranean were among the first to welcome tourists again in May 2020, while destinations across the Caribbean and Asia also lifted travel restrictions and allowed commercial flights to resume at fuller service through the summer and autumn. (Note that other destinations, including Bali and Australia, are yet to reopen at all, with the latter saying it might not welcome international visitors until the end of 2021.) So, want to know where you can travel and go on holiday right now? Here’s the lowdown on all the countries that have already reopened – and all those that are planning to soon – along with information on testing and vaccination requirements for traveller