Minor miracles of travel 2025, from Melbourne to Chandigarh

The Man Who Pays His Way: Not everything goes right, but sometimes journeys deliver unexpected wonders

Old ruin – and, in the background, the Temple of Bacchus in Baalbek, Lebanon (Charlotte Hindle)

Time to wrap up a year of adventures in which flights have been cancelled, attractions were unexpectedly closed and I made decisions that turned out to be wrong or expensive – usually both.

But travel can also deliver small wonders that enhance the experience. As fortune would have it, miracles have come along at a helpfully regular rate of one a month. Some of these revelations were unexpectedly unfolding events, others are open to everyone.

January: Miracle of Melbourne

There was nothing miraculous about British Airways cancelling the Airbus A380 flight to Singapore at the gate because of a technical issue. BA staff rebooked me on Singapore Airlines, which delivered me to the city state in time for my onward connection to Melbourne. Once again, though, the Jetstar flight was cancelled at the gate – this time due to pilot sickness.

The business class flight on Emirates to get me to the big travel event I was attending was a disappointing “distress purchase”, not least because it arrived late. But getting from inside the plane to inside a taxi driving away from Melbourne airport in nine minutes was a miracle, and I reached the venue just in time for the speeches.

February: Miracle of Reggio di Calabria

Here’s a miracle you can experience yourself. Take a plane or train to Reggio di Calabria at the toe of Italy: a handsome, end-of-the-line city that totters down in terraces to the Mediterranean. Visit the National Archaeological Museum, spend three minutes in a dehumidifying airlock and step out to meet “A” and “B”, as these two life-size sculptures of naked males are prosaically named. These are the Riace Bronzes: created by the Greeks 2,500 years ago and found in the sea bed off the Calabrian coast by a passing fisherman in 1972. They are the most powerful figures from the past I have ever seen.

Past lives: Riace Bronzes in Reggio di Calabria (Simon Calder)

March: Miracle of Lisbon

Sometimes you guess right about a hotel being right, but on this visit to the Portuguese capital the room was characterless and uncomfortable. But I bumped into a British couple who said, “We’ve just checked out of a beautiful apartment – here’s the owner’s card.” It was an urban dream: colourful, elegant and welcoming.

April: Miracle of Croatia

When I booked the first Sail Croatia departure of the season from Split, I had no idea that the big boat with 40 berths would turn out to be a private yacht experience. The nine excellent crew were only slightly outnumbered by the 11 guests; myself and an American were in turn outnumbered by nine Australians, who turned out to be the best possible company.

Sight sea: Sailing the islands of Croatia (Charlotte Hindle)

May: Miracle of Long Island

Hitchhiking around the Hamptons (Long Island at its poshest) is better than you might expect. A delightful Russian-American couple picked me up from the Gilded Age mansion of Planting Fields and took me to the railway station. “Go to Coney Island,” they recommended. So I did, and felt back on the Black Sea.

June: Miracle of Warsaw

Tucked into a corner of the Polish capital between the Old Town and the river is the Warsaw University library. It is crowned by not so much a roof garden but an entire elevated park punctuated by windows shedding light on the learned world below: an urban oasis in midsummer or midwinter.

Window on Warsaw: the University Library (Charlotte Hindle)

July: Miracle of Le Marche

My friends Charlotte and Julian invited me to stay at a beautiful villa in the middle of Italy. More specifically, the location is the very definition of the middle of nowhere. A plane to Perugia, bus to Assisi, two trains, a bus and a sequence of lifts delivered me there on the dot of the appointed hour, 6pm.

August: Miracle of Red Rocks

I felt it was fairly miraculous finding a peak season British Airways flight from Heathrow to Denver, Colorado, and back for £620 return. The Red Rocks Amphitheatre was the crowning glory: where the Rockies and humanity converge.

September: Miracle of Ostrava

Katowice in southern Poland has plenty of intriguing industrial archaeology. But I had heard rumours of more dramatic cityscapes south of the Czech border. A FlixBus delivered me to the eastern Czech city of Ostrava, where the skeleton of the Dolni Vitkovice ironworks has been recast as a giant adventure playground.

October: Miracle of Tyre

The Foreign Office advises against all travel to Tyre, Lebanon’s imposing harbour city just 12 miles north of the border with Israel. I didn’t ignore the warning impetuously. The highly professional travel company with whom I had booked a week’s adventure assured me it would be safe – despite repeated Israeli incursions. After exploring the spectacular Roman ruins with no other tourists in sight, our small group enjoyed a fresh and delicious lunch on the waterfront. For that brief spell, all seemed right with the world.

Tyre: where you have history to yourself (Charlotte Hindle)

November: Miracle of Heilbronn

I have written about how the small city of Heilbronn in southwest Germany invites self-service tourism: allowing you literally to unlock a city landmark. The Hafenmarktturm (Hafenmarkt tower) soared above the Old Town, a study in red sandstone to match the deepening afternoon. I had the key and could explore at will. I salute a city that allows visitors to clamber through its monuments unaccompanied.

This was miraculous enough, but it had been made possible only by the chain of events that saw my Ryanair flight from Stansted to Baden-Baden arrive 20 minutes early; the frontier officials being swift and helpful; two cabin crew who were clocking off allowing me to share the only taxi as far as the town of Rastatt; and, as I sprinted to the platform three minutes after the train I should not have been able to catch was due to depart, a small delay and a kind conductor allowing me on board.

December: Miracle of Chandigarh

Making plans as you go along is a reasonable strategy, but it does sometimes mean that you miss out on strictly timetabled activities. In the northwest Indian city of Chandigarh, the big attraction is the architecture of Le Corbusier, who brought his vision of the city of the future to the foothills of the Himalayas.

At the Le Corbusier Centre, the manager mentioned a guided tour was about to start of the government buildings that make such a mark. Unfortunately, it was right over on the other side of town. A call to his friend, the tour leader, plus a super-speedy rickshaw driver, secured a place on an amazing trip that roamed from the entrails to the roof terrace of the modernist marvels.