Long-form travel writing from the BugBitten community.
Overlanding looks effortless on Instagram and it is anything but. Here are the six things we wish someone had told us before we shipped a Hilux to Cape Town.

Güiria sits at the very tip of Venezuela's Paria Peninsula — the closest mainland point to Trinidad and a quiet base for some of the country's least-trampled coast.

A guide to the Atacama Desert in northern Chile — the famous Mano del Desierto sculpture, the town of San Pedro, the salt flats and altiplano lagoons, and the astronomy that makes the Atacama the world's premier observatory site.

Queenstown is the adventure capital of New Zealand year-round, but in winter — June to September — it doubles in size and becomes one of the great Southern Hemisphere ski destinations. A guide to the four nearby ski fields, the town in winter, and the long evenings on Lake Wakatipu.

Güiria is the Venezuelan port from which travellers used to ferry across to Trinidad. The ferry has been on and off for years. Here is what the route looks like in 2026, the current alternatives, and what Güiria itself is like for a stopover.