Category Archives: Travel

Jetstar flights cancelled, leaving 4,000 passengers stranded overseas for up to a week

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Travellers in Bali have run out of medication and been offered tortuous routes home

Mass flight cancellations have left 4,000 Jetstar passengers stranded or forced to cancel trips, with the carrier only able to offer flights a week later in many cases.

Many have reported being left in Bali well beyond their planned return date without access to medication, or being forced to lose wages because they could not return home in time to work.

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Athens ranked cheapest location in Europe for city break

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Prices have fallen and a weekend in the Greek capital costs £207, compared with £218 in runner-up Lisbon

Athens has been ranked the cheapest location for a city break on the continent, ahead of traditional budget-friendly eastern European destinations.

Analysis of a dozen typical tourist costs for UK visitors in 20 popular cities by Post Office Travel Money found prices in the Greek capital have fallen by 15% since 2021.

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Wizz Air named worst airline for UK-departing flight delays

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Flights found to run more than 14 minutes late on average as UK plans to reduce compensation

The budget airline Wizz Air was the worst performer for UK flight delays among its peers last year, according to analysis that has raised fresh concerns about government plans to slash customer compensation schemes.

The Hungarian carrier – which operates short-haul flights from 10 UK airports including Belfast International, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Gatwick and Luton – was found to have flights running an average of 14 minutes and 24 second behind schedule in 2021, months before the latest travel chaos took hold.

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British travellers left struggling to board flights after NHS Covid pass down

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Users trying to check in for flights were left unable to access proof of their vaccination status for several hours on Thursday night

British travellers were left struggling to board flights after the NHS Covid Pass system went down for several hours on Thursday night.

Users trying to access proof of their vaccination status via the NHS app and website found that the service was unavailable, with the app telling users: “We are sorry the NHS Covid Pass is currently unavailable.

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‘Very good for tourists’: Thailand aims for high season with U-turn on cannabis

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The once-banned drug is now on sale at market stalls, beach clubs and even hotel receptions. But the laws in this ‘pot paradise’ are blurry

A distinctive sweet smell wafts through Fisherman’s Village night market on the Thai island of Koh Samui, drifting up between the sticky mango rice stalls and bucket cocktail vans. The Samui Grower cannabis stall is doing swift business tonight. A table is laid with glass jars, each displaying a different flowering green bud, with labels saying things like ‘‘Road Dawg’ hybrid THC25% 850TBH/gram”.

Elsewhere on the island, at Chi beach club, tourists lie on couches puffing ready-rolled joints and munching pizzas topped with green cannabis leaves. On Instagram, the Green Shop Samui offers a marijuana menu of fantastically named buds: Truffle Cream, Banana Kush and Sour Diesel, alongside hemp cookies and cannabis herbal soap.

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EU under pressure to ban Russian tourists from Europe

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Ukrainian president says Russians ‘should live in their own world until they change their philosophy’

The EU has been urged to introduce a travel ban on Russian tourists with some member states saying visiting Europe was “a privilege, not a human right” for holidaymakers.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview with the Washington Post that the “most important sanction” was to “close the borders, because the Russians are taking away someone else’s land”. Russians should “live in their own world until they change their philosophy”, he said.

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New Zealand borders fully reopened as last Covid restrictions lifted

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Cruise ships, international students and visitors from China and India among those who will be able to once again travel to New Zealand

New Zealand’s borders are fully open for the first time since they abruptly snapped shut to keep Covid-19 out in March 2020.

The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said the nation was “open for business” after the final stage of the phased reopening, which began in April, was completed on Sunday night.

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BA owner IAG returns to profit for first time since start of Covid pandemic

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Airline group says demand is strong despite ‘historic challenges’ at Heathrow and elsewhere

British Airways has returned to profit for the first time since the start of the pandemic, with its owner International Airlines Group saying demand was strong despite “historic challenges” still facing the industry.

IAG said that there was no sign of bookings tailing off in the autumn and beyond – in the face of pessimistic forecasts from its main airport base, Heathrow – and that demand for the most lucrative transatlantic routes was continuing to grow.

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Making a comeback: rewilding in Europe gets a £4m funding boost

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Native wildlife will be reintroduced across Europe in a bid to reduce atmospheric carbon and promote tourism

A European environmental organisation is looking to expand its number of rewilding landscapes – areas where endangered wildlife is reintroduced and protected – after being awarded a grant of £4.1m.

The grant has been pledged to Rewilding Europe in the hope of scaling up rewilding efforts throughout several parts of the European continent.

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Train strikes: millions across Britain face rail disruption as union action begins – live

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Some 40,000 workers from 14 train companies and Network Rail are striking in an ongoing dispute over pay, jobs and conditions

Here’s the latest TfL update:

Bakerloo — Part suspended. There is no service between Queen’s Park and Harrow & Wealdstone.

I’m looking at banning strikes by different unions in the same workplace within a set period. We should also place an absolute limit of six pickets at points of Critical National Infrastructure, irrespective of the number of unions involved, and outlaw intimidatory language.

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Cruise passengers shuttled into Venice by motor boat to dodge big ships ban

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Move by Norwegian Cruise authorised by city’s port authority despite plans to curb daytrippers

A cruise company has circumvented a ban on its ships entering the Venice lagoon by shuttling passengers into the famous city centre on small motor boats.

Norwegian Gem, a vessel of just under 300 metres long and owned by Norwegian Cruise, anchored outside the Venice Lido early on Saturday morning. It then launched several motor boats which between them dropped about 1,500 passengers off in St Mark’s Square before picking them up again in the evening.

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Dover ferry passengers advised to arrive early amid fears of summer-long disruption

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Cross-Channel ferry passengers told to arrive in good time for border checks after weekend of delays

Cross-Channel ferry passengers were being told to arrive in good time at Dover as queues built at the Port of Dover amid fears the severe disruption of recent days could return to Kent throughout the summer.

The ferry operator DFDS told passengers there were queues of about an hour for French border checks on Monday morning and to “allow a minimum of 120 minutes before your departure to complete all controls”.

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Travel chaos is ‘the new normal’ after Brexit, British tourists are warned

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Anger over lack of cash for Dover upgrade as Tory candidates vie to blame France for delays

Long summer queues at the border risk becoming the “new normal” after Brexit, holidaymakers have been warned, as a fierce diplomatic row erupted with France over the lengthy tailbacks affecting Dover.

Both Tory leadership candidates rushed to blame a shortage of French border staff for delays that saw some travellers waiting for hours. Former chancellor Rishi Sunak said the French “need to stop blaming Brexit and start getting the staff required to match demand”. Foreign secretary Liz Truss said she was in touch with her French counterparts, blaming a “lack of resources at the border”.

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France says it is ‘not responsible for Brexit’ amid row over Dover travel chaos – as it happened

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French transport minister hits back at Liz Truss’s suggestion that France needed to fix the ‘avoidable and unacceptable’ situation

Authorities in Kent have declared a “major incident” due to traffic jams in and around Dover, with officials saying the disruption could be worse than on Friday.

There are currently 3,000 lorries parked on the M20 and traffic is building at the port.

We are operating in a post-Brexit environment which does mean that passports need to be checked, they need to be stamped and indeed the capable people that do man the booths – police aux frontieres – they’re doing their job that they need to do now.

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‘Nudity on the beach is normal’: how Sardinia is tapping into the naturist revival

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The island’s plans also include special hotels, hiking trails and a village resort, but not all the locals are in favour

Sergio Cossu’s nude awakening came in 1972, when, at the age of 16 and needing a getaway from his family, he ventured to Santa Teresa Gallura, whose stretch of wild, pristine coastline in northern Sardinia was a mecca for hippies from across Europe.

“It was my first solo holiday away from the traditional family setting,” he said. “There was this feeling of an immense connection with nature; from that point on it was impossible to wear a costume on a beach again. There was less of a taboo about nudity back then but, paradoxically, naturism diminished in the 1990s with the explosion of gyms and this focus on having the perfect body. But over the last 20 years, there has been a revival.”

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Heathrow cancels 60 flights and warns it may have to axe more

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Airport asks airlines including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Air France to remove flights

Heathrow airport cancelled more than 60 flights on Monday and warned that it may have to ask airlines to remove more as it struggles to cope with the rebound in travel demand after the pandemic.

The flights were spread across Terminals 3 and 5, with British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Air France among the airlines affected.

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Holidaymakers warned of rising coronavirus cases at European destinations

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Increases reported in countries including Greece, Spain, France and Germany as Omicron variant BA.5 spreads

Holidaymakers heading to and from the European mainland are being warned of a growing incidence of coronavirus, especially in tourist hotspots, which risks hampering travel plans.

Health officials are calling in some cases for a reintroduction of face masks and other measures, and are urging travellers to exercise personal responsibility, warning that an escalation of the virus could lead to the swift return of restrictions.

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Australia to dump Covid vaccine requirements and travel exemptions for international arrivals

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People arriving in the country will no longer need to use the digital passenger declaration under changes to come into effect next week

People arriving in Australia will no longer have to declare their Covid vaccination status or obtain a travel exemption under changes to come into effect this week.

The home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, announced on Sunday that the government would dump the restrictions that have been in place since the country’s borders reopened late last year, with the changes to the Biosecurity Act made following advice from the chief medical officer, Paul Kelly.

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Ryanair strike threat set to add to summer airport chaos in Europe

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Planned action by the airline’s Spain-based cabin crew over working conditions will increase disruption for holidaymakers

British holidaymakers are braced for fresh travel chaos across Europe this summer with staff at Ryanair on Saturday becoming the latest to threaten strike action.

As striking airport workers in Paris forced the cancellation of dozens of flights on Saturday and promised more industrial action later in July, Spain-based cabin crew at Ryanair revealed they now plan to strike for 12 days in July.

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Airport staff checks sped up amid ‘disaster movie’ scenes at Heathrow

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Department for Transport says accreditation for aviation workers being processed in under 10 days

Ministers battling to dampen the chaos at airports claim security tests for new workers are being completed in record times as passengers criticised “disaster movie” scenes.

The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, is trying to alleviate flight disruption this summer to avert the mayhem seen over the Easter and jubilee holidays.

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