Category Archives: Travel & leisure

Blow for French ski resorts as Covid rules hit holiday season

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Government says restrictions likely to remain in place through vital half-term period

French ski resorts have been warned they are unlikely to be allowed to fully reopen in time for the half-term school holidays, normally one of the busiest times of the year.

The government has announced that lifts and cable cars must remain closed due to the continuing Covid-19 spread. Ski resorts had been hoping to restart the lifts on 1 February in time for what are known as the winter sports holidays, when they are usually packed.

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Holiday bookings surge as Covid vaccinations increase travel hopes

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People high on list for jabs in UK ready to make 2021 and 2022 bookings

Holiday companies have reported an increase in bookings as the UK’s coronavirus vaccine rollout gives people hope that they will soon be able to travel overseas again.

Despite a series of negative travel announcements in recent days, including the closure of air corridors and words of caution from ministers over foreign holidays, there are signs that those among the first in line for the vaccinations are starting to plan trips, and that consumers are hopeful about taking a break later this year.

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South African game reserves forced to cull animals as Covid halts tourism

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Tourist lodges run out of cash to feed and care for the animals on their land and thousands of villagers lose their jobs

Impala run through the thorn bush, ibis fly above the lake and lightning forks over the horizon as a storm rolls in from the Drakensberg mountains.

The visitors driven across the 10,000 or more hectares of the Nambiti game reserve in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province see what they think is an unchanged, and unchanging natural landscape.

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Blueprint for Biden? How a struggling Irish town gambled on its links to JFK

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New Ross reinvented itself as a shrine to the Kennedy clan. Can towns linked to Biden, the most Irish American president since JFK, do the same?

After its factories died and its port withered, New Ross, a town perched by the River Barrow in south-east Ireland, decided in the 1990s to tap a unique asset: John F Kennedy.

The US president’s great-grandfather had sailed from the quays of New Ross to America during the 1840s famine, leaving behind a modest homestead that JFK twice visited, including a few months before his assassination in 1963. Like many Americans, not least the current US president-elect, Joe Biden, Kennedy was proud of his Irish connections and keen to re-emphasise the links.

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UK ski holiday firms in limbo as Covid restrictions and Brexit bite

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British tourists, chalet owners and resort staff wait for winter season decisions across Europe

British holidaymakers, chalet owners and resort staff are in limbo as countries across Europe decide whether or not this winter’s ski season will go ahead.

This week, Britain’s biggest ski operator Crystal Ski Holidays was forced to cancel all its French ski trips in December after President Macron ordered the nation’s resorts to stay shut until the new year.

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A decade in the building, Madrid’s showpiece hotel has everything … except guests

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Spain’s tourist sector – including the new Four Seasons hotel – is bearing the brunt of Covid, with the capital’s occupancy rates at 15%

Madrid’s first new grand hotel in almost half a century has more than enough to recommend it to even the most discerning and demanding of visitors.

As well as a presidential suite for VIPs and their bodyguards, there is a spa, a handy branch of Hermès, and a restaurant by the three Michelin-starred chef Dani García, whose rooftop terrace appears to float high above the busy streets of the city centre.

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Singapore launches Covid-secure luxury cruises … to nowhere

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City state follows Qantas in offering jaunts with no destination with ships half full and masks mandatory

Singapore is launching Covid-secure cruise holidays to nowhere, in the latest attempt to offer a long-distance travel experience with no stops.

Australian airline Qantas drew criticism from environmental groups last month after advertising a seven-hour round trip from Sydney including fly-pasts of famous sights including Uluru and the Great Barrier Reef.

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Stonehaven train crash report calls for tighter heavy rain restrictions

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Local route managers and signallers will be given more power to cut speeds or close lines

Heavy rain could lead to more trains being cancelled or told to travel at low speed in future, following the Stonehaven crash that killed three people in Aberdeenshire last month.

An interim report by Network Rail into the tragedy spelled out strengthened procedures that could hasten line closures in bad weather, pending safety inspections.

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Race to track 200 people on flight after officials fail to tell airline of Covid cases

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Exclusive: Wizz Air left in dark after eight teenagers travelling from Crete to London Luton test positive

Health officials are scrambling to contact more than 200 British holidaymakers on a flight from Crete last week after authorities failed to alert the airline that eight passengers had tested positive for coronavirus.

The teenagers, from Hampshire, were diagnosed after returning to the UK on a Wizz Air flight to London Luton airport on 25 August. The positive tests should have triggered an urgent response to track down the other 204 passengers on board, but Wizz Air said it had not been made aware of the cases until contacted by the Guardian.

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Coronavirus: ‘selfish covidiots’ on flight to UK from Greek island criticised

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Tui launches investigation after almost 200 passengers told to isolate after outbreak

A flight from the Greek island of Zante was “full of selfish ‘covidiots’ and an inept crew”, according to a passenger among the almost 200 onboard who have been told to self-isolate after a coronavirus outbreak.

Tui said it had launched an investigation after 16 people tested positive for Covid-19 linked to its flight to Cardiff on 25 August, including seven passengers who were infectious or potentially infectious on the plane.

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Belgium set to be added to England’s coronavirus quarantine list

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Department for Transport officials said to be finalising announcement of the move

Belgium is set to be added to England’s quarantine list after a rise in Covid-19 cases, meaning arrivals from the country will have to isolate for 14 days.

The Guardian understands that officials at the Department for Transport (DfT) are finalising the announcement of the move and the current plan is that the measures are not due to come into effect until the weekend.

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Landmark ruling sees Ugandan poacher jailed for killing Rafiki the gorilla

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Six-year sentence following death of one of country’s best-known silverback mountain gorillas is first of its kind

In the first conviction of its kind, a court in Uganda has jailed a poacher for six years after he admitted killing one of the country’s best-known silverback mountain gorillas in a national park.

Felix Byamukama, from Murole in the south-west district of Kisoro, pleaded guilty to illegal entry into a protected area and killing the gorilla named Rakifi and a duiker antelope. Byamukama had said earlier that he killed the animal in self-defence after he was attacked. It is the first time Uganda, home to 50% of the world’s mountain gorillas, has jailed someone for such an offence and the sentence has been widely welcomed by wildlife groups.

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Spain or the UK: where are you safer from coronavirus?

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Spain has criticised the UK’s restrictions on the grounds parts of Spain have low infection rates. What do the figures say?

Sudden changes to travel guidelines between the UK and Spain have provoked criticism from the Spanish government and upended travel plans between the two countries for thousands of travellers. Here are some of the key figures that indicate how Covid-19 is being managed in the UK and Spain.

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UK extends Spain non-essential travel advice to holiday islands

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Thousands more holidays to be cancelled in latest coronavirus blow to tourism industry

Thousands more holidays are set to be cancelled after the UK government’s recommendation against all but essential travel to mainland Spain was extended to include the Canary and Balearic islands.

The news will come as a further blow to the tourism industry and the Spanish government, which had lobbied hard for the removal of quarantine restrictions for tourists returning from the islands.

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UK could impose more ‘handbrake restrictions’ on arrivals beyond Spain

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Quarantine measures for people travelling from Spain may be applied to other countries

Holidaymakers have been warned the government could impose “handbrake restrictions” on more countries beyond Spain in order to stop the spread of coronavirus – with travellers unlikely to be given much warning if further quarantine measures need to be enforced.

The restrictions on travellers returning from Spain after the measures were announced overnight threw summer holiday plans into disarray for British tourists, and will raise fears among those travelling to other European countries that they could face a similar turnaround at a moment’s notice.

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‘I have to work’: arrivals from Spain vent anger at quarantine decision

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People arriving in Stansted tell of their surprise at having to now self-isolate for two weeks

People flying into Britain from Spain have attacked the government’s decision to impose a 14-day quarantine on people returning from the country, saying they were given no warning and that they felt safer in Spain.

As flights from Jerez, Alicante, Valencia and Palma landed in quick succession on Sunday afternoon at Stansted airport, passengers found themselves faced with the realisation that they were about to enter into an unexpected period of self-isolation.

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‘It’s a ghost town’: tourism crisis hits British cities from Edinburgh to Bath

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The effects of coronavirus on both international and domestic visitor numbers have left former hotspots fearing for the future

On a typical July day, restaurateur Paul Wedgwood would see hundreds of people with wheelie suitcases – airline tags still attached – walking past the window of his restaurant on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile. This Thursday, he has seen just two. “We would normally look outside and you wouldn’t be able to see any tarmac – now it’s bare,” he said. “It’s just a ghost town.”

Like other British cities which usually attract high numbers of international tourists throughout the summer, Edinburgh is quiet, and businesses are suffering. August’s festival had already been cancelled when news came last week that December’s Hogmanay party will not go ahead as usual.

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‘We’re desperate to dance’: Britons in Mallorca express relief over quarantine easing

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Tourists slowly returning to Spain’s Balearic Islands after months-long coronavirus lockdown

Sunbathing on a deserted beach in Mallorca, Nicola Brett says she is having the “best holiday ever”.

The 31-year-old gym sales executive from York arrived on the Spanish island on a Ryanair flight on Sunday, hours after the government changed its advice against all but essential foreign travel. She was flying back at midnight on Thursday, just as the rules requiring those arriving in the UK to quarantine for 14 days were lifted.

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BA, easyJet and Ryanair begin court action over UK quarantine rules

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Airlines seeking urgent judicial review of policy that they say could cost thousands of jobs

Britain’s three biggest airlines have filed papers in the high court to seek an urgent judicial review of the government’s quarantine laws, which they say are having a devastating effect on tourism and the wider economy.

British Airways, easyJet and Ryanair say the rules, which came into effect on Monday and require passengers arriving from abroad to self-isolate at a single address for 14 days, are flawed and will cost thousands of jobs.

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