Hannah Fry’s smart travel guide: The science and secrets behind the world’s most fascinating destinations
Mathematician and broadcaster Professor Hannah Fry is bringing us a very different celebrity travelogue...
Lucy Thackray - 11 November 2025
From pearl-diving to flamenco music, Professor Hannah Fry’s pleasingly nerdy new travel series digs into the science and sociology of destinations including Iceland, Spain, South Korea and Greece. We asked the mathematician and broadcaster for her advice…
FOR THE OUTDOORS
Visit Ireland
“On a sunny day, Ireland is up there with the most beautiful places in the world. Along the Wild Atlantic Way, the scenery is so dramatic: rock formations cascading down into the ocean, and beautiful beaches with the most crystal-clear water – you could easily be in the Caribbean. One surprise was going surfing in Donegal. Big-wave surfing is really taking off in this part of Ireland, because of the structure of the coastline: they get these huge waves coming in from the Atlantic, where big storms start off up by Greenland and the first place they make landfall is north-west Ireland. It was freezing but so beautiful.”
“If you’re a mathematician or history fan, few places scratch that academic itch like Athens. The Parthenon is just one example of how unbelievably smart the ancient Greeks were. It’s built on this curved surface, so the corners sort of curve away, and the columns slightly point into the centre, but it looks perfectly straight. They knew that if they built it perpendicular to the ground, it would look strange. So they built it leaning in, and our eyes basically correct it. Phenomenal.”
“Everything we ate was absolutely extraordinary. I’d go to a streetside cafe and find this incredibly fresh food; or we’d be in the middle of nowhere and there’d be a shack with cold coconuts, where a guy would cut the top off and put a straw in. In Vietnamese food, there’s lots of nourishing bone broth, delicate spices and beautiful flavours, and also this hangover from the French days, so you get great baguettes and pastries, too.”
“South Korea was mind-blowing. I went up to the Demilitarized Zone, expecting it to be a bit of a tense day – but it’s like a tourist attraction! It’s the strangest place. There are higher points where you can see over into North Korea: you look south and see tower blocks, motorways and dense populations; then north and see someone on a bicycle, and a little thatched hut with smoke coming from it. One of the things that most stuck in my mind was Seoul’s pedestrian traffic lights. They’re in the pavement rather than above your head – because these days, people are more likely to be looking down at their phones. I found that pretty dystopian.”
“Go to southern Iceland for the most incredible views. My highlight was Diamond Beach, where a glacier is slowly melting into a lagoon. This ice arrived as snow many, many thousands of years ago, and hasn’t seen the light of day since, and now here it is, emerging as huge chunks of ice that break apart in the lagoon and get washed out to sea. It creates these crystals of ancient, frozen water set against jet-black volcanic sand – hence the name. It’s simply the most glorious sight.”
FOR THE OUTDOORS
Visit Ireland
“On a sunny day, Ireland is up there with the most beautiful places in the world. Along the Wild Atlantic Way, the scenery is so dramatic: rock formations cascading down into the ocean, and beautiful beaches with the most crystal-clear water – you could easily be in the Caribbean. One surprise was going surfing in Donegal. Big-wave surfing is really taking off in this part of Ireland, because of the structure of the coastline: they get these huge waves coming in from the Atlantic, where big storms start off up by Greenland and the first place they make landfall is north-west Ireland. It was freezing but so beautiful.”
FOR HISTORY
Visit Greece
“If you’re a mathematician or history fan, few places scratch that academic itch like Athens. The Parthenon is just one example of how unbelievably smart the ancient Greeks were. It’s built on this curved surface, so the corners sort of curve away, and the columns slightly point into the centre, but it looks perfectly straight. They knew that if they built it perpendicular to the ground, it would look strange. So they built it leaning in, and our eyes basically correct it. Phenomenal.”
FOR FOOD
Visit Vietnam
“Everything we ate was absolutely extraordinary. I’d go to a streetside cafe and find this incredibly fresh food; or we’d be in the middle of nowhere and there’d be a shack with cold coconuts, where a guy would cut the top off and put a straw in. In Vietnamese food, there’s lots of nourishing bone broth, delicate spices and beautiful flavours, and also this hangover from the French days, so you get great baguettes and pastries, too.”
FOR SURPRISES
Visit South Korea
“South Korea was mind-blowing. I went up to the Demilitarized Zone, expecting it to be a bit of a tense day – but it’s like a tourist attraction! It’s the strangest place. There are higher points where you can see over into North Korea: you look south and see tower blocks, motorways and dense populations; then north and see someone on a bicycle, and a little thatched hut with smoke coming from it. One of the things that most stuck in my mind was Seoul’s pedestrian traffic lights. They’re in the pavement rather than above your head – because these days, people are more likely to be looking down at their phones. I found that pretty dystopian.”
FOR NATURAL BEAUTY
Visit Iceland
“Go to southern Iceland for the most incredible views. My highlight was Diamond Beach, where a glacier is slowly melting into a lagoon. This ice arrived as snow many, many thousands of years ago, and hasn’t seen the light of day since, and now here it is, emerging as huge chunks of ice that break apart in the lagoon and get washed out to sea. It creates these crystals of ancient, frozen water set against jet-black volcanic sand – hence the name. It’s simply the most glorious sight.”
The Infinite Explorer with Hannah Fry
Monday 8pm, National Geographic