Category Archives: Travel

‘Devastated’ Phuket in race to vaccinate 70% of islanders in time for holiday season

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Thai region hopes jabs and ‘sandbox’ scheme will allow tourists to return and rejuvenate economy

In normal times, the convention centre at Phuket’s Angsana Laguna resort hosts extravagant weddings and luxury business summits. Since April, it has served as one of seven centres on the frontline of the island’s Covid vaccination campaign. Behind the room’s white satin curtains, medical staff in hair nets and blue aprons administer 1,800 doses each day.

The island is racing to vaccinate as many people as possible in the hope that, if 70% of the population are vaccinated before 1 July, Phuket will become the first Thai destination to reopen to foreign tourists.

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Where is everyone? Covid and Brexit empty France’s north coast resorts

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The resort of Saint-Valery on the Bay of the Somme normally sees thousands of British and Belgian visitors, but this year its restaurants and hotels are half-empty

With the approach of the summer holidays, the two French seaside towns of Saint-Valery-sur-Somme and Le Crotoy would normally be gearing up for the annual wave of tourists from neighbouring Belgium and, above all, from the UK.

The resorts sit opposite each other across the majestic Bay of the Somme, a wetland of shifting sands and tides where the tranquil river suddenly expands into a spectacular estuary opening up into the Channel. The bay is a popular stop-off for British travellers heading to Paris and the south of France, as well as a place of pilgrimage for its war memorials, museums, cemeteries and battle sites.

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UK excluded again from EU’s Covid-safe travel list, but US added

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British tourists face continued restrictions as bloc opens up to other vaccinated travellers

British tourists face continued restrictions on travelling to the EU this summer even as the bloc opens up to others, including residents of the United States.

Eight countries are to be added to a list of countries from where the EU says non-essential travel is safe, but the UK has not been included.

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What is bivvying? How to have a night of adventure – without a tent

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Armed with long experience, our writer gives the lowdown on getting there, the best equipment and picking your spot for a great night in the wild

When I bivvy I’m not in search of sleep. I know I’ll wake up frequently, feeling restricted by my sleeping bag. Bivvying is camping at its simplest: sleeping outside without a tent and minimal gear.

It isn’t about a comfortable night’s rest. It’s about squeezing an adventure into a humdrum week; it’s about being in nature, hearing hedgehogs snuffling and waking to the dawn chorus. It’s a short, sharp dose of escapism that has become even more restorative in the past 15 months. And, while I’ve bivvyed on Dartmoor, on Scotland’s west coast and in places in-between, most of the time I’ve been within 10 miles of my home in Bournemouth.

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No more emails: why I’m walking from Land’s End to John o’Groats

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As a government civil servant, I was burnt out from working on Brexit and Covid and needed a change of scene. Trekking the length of Britain is just the tonic

It’s 7.30pm on 29 April and I’m standing alone on the highest hill in this part of Cornwall. The sun is bright and eager, dancing with dainty flashes on the waves west towards Newquay. But I’m wrapped in everything I have – two pairs of thick socks, leggings, trousers, T-shirt, two long-sleeved T-shirts, jumper, fleece, jacket, snood, hat – and still the wind reaches its long fingers down my neck to grip my spine. It is one degree above freezing; in less than a week it will snow on Dartmoor.

In fact, this is more than a hill. This is Castle an Dinas, one of those iron age forts to which schoolchildren are taken to be underwhelmed by ditches and mounds. The dog walkers who came up earlier weren’t cowed by antiquity: each allowed their charges to mess, tongues wagging. Watching the deposits stirs in me something I was repressing. For the four days I’ve been on the road, public toilets have been there when needed. A threshold is about to be crossed. I’m going wild.

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‘Americans are heaven for us’: the surge in US visitors throwing Greece a lifeline

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Country confounds post-Covid predictions as transatlantic holidaymakers flood in ready to spend

A fresh wind blows down Adrianou. Seated in front of his rug store on the street that cuts through the heart of ancient Athens, Theo Iliadis takes in the scene. At 47, he’s seen “a lot of bad stuff” in recent years. The global pandemic couldn’t have come at a worse time for Greece, already gutted by prolonged economic crisis.

But barely a month after the tourist-dependent country opened its doors, the entrepreneur is in ebullient mood. There’s a glint in his eye and a lightness in the air of the carpet-stacked cavern behind him. “Americans are in town,” he smiles. “Business is good, the loom is good and I’ve got drinks on ice.”

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‘The city is buzzing again’: Marseille reduces curfew hours after winter lockdown

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In a Mediterranean city where summer is lived outdoors, residents delight in revelling in the streets once more

In a city as boisterous as Marseille, a summer curfew can be considered something of an affront. Summer is when the Marseillais live outdoors. From May to September, a post-work apéro can easily stretch well into the night. And at the weekend anything goes. As the days became sunnier, France’s second city began to chafe under an early evening curfew that had been in place since October. But on Wednesday there was some respite, with the nightly national curfew moved from 9pm to 11pm.

The city centre squares where the Marseillais come to play – Cours d’Estienne d’Orves, Cours Julien and La Plaine – heaved with revellers delighted to be out beyond sunset. Around the Old Port of Marseille, happy crowds converged on bars, shisha cafes and restaurants. On the corniche, joggers took advantage of the cooler twilight air. The Maghreb-inflected rap for which the city is famous drifted from passing cars.

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Voluntourism: new book explores how volunteer trips harm rather than help

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‘Don’t do as we did,’ says Pippa Biddle, who highlights colonial structure of industry where unqualified Western tourists pay to volunteer abroad

Seven years ago, Pippa Biddle wrote a blog post about volunteering abroad. She recounted her struggles speaking Spanish to children living with HIV in the Dominican Republic and how local people in Tanzania would spend all night redoing the construction work she and her classmates had done poorly.

“Taking part in international aid where you aren’t particularly helpful is not benign,” Biddle wrote. “It’s detrimental.”

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‘I found a snake in the toilet!’: Guardian readers on their holiday disasters

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Holidays, especially abroad, are off the cards for many this summer. So it’s good to remember they aren’t always the idyllic break we dream of. Here are our readers worst experiences

We went on holiday for Christmas to a friend’s parents house in Marlo – a village in Victoria, Australia. We got there on Christmas Eve to find the only shop was pretty bare – so Christmas lunch was a frozen turkey roll, Fanta, chips and some frozen peas. I made a Christmas tree out of a stick and some toilet rolls, determined to be cheerful. On Christmas morning, I woke up and went outside. It was nice and hot – yay, beach day! Then I stepped on a very large brown snake on the doorstep and screamed. I found another snake in the lounge room, one in the toilet, and others all around the house. It was my idea of hell. I had no idea whether they were poisonous but it didn’t matter. I was terrified. Lesley Podesta, retired, Australia

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‘We were deceived’: hundreds protest in Venice at return of giant cruise ships

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Ban on huge vessels passing St Mark’s Square proves to be temporary after liner docks in city for first time in 17 months

Anti-cruise ship campaigners in Venice claim they were “deceived” by the Italian government as hundreds protested against huge vessels docking in the historic city’s port on Saturday.

Residents were caught by surprise on Thursday when a cruise liner sailed into the lagoon city for the first time since the pandemic began, despite prime minister Mario Draghi’s government declaring that the ships would be banned from the historic centre. The 92,000 tonne ship MSC Orchestra collected 650 passengers before leaving for Bari, in southern Italy, on Saturday.

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Holidays abroad: many Britons plan to press on despite government advice

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Tui says half of its passengers booked to visit Portugal in June are still planning to travel

As recriminations continue over the UK government’s decision to remove Portugal from the travel green list, many Britons have decided to press ahead with overseas holiday plans, even if that means going against official advice.

At 4.45pm on Sunday 6 June, Pont-Aven, one of Brittany Ferries’ flagship cruise liners, will leave Plymouth for Santander in Spain – the company’s first sailing on that route for eight months. The UK government says people should not travel to amber list locations such as Spain and advises against all but essential travel to the country – but that has not stopped the company, or the more than 800 people making the trip.

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Tour groups and airlines shed more than £2bn after Portugal downgrade

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EasyJet boss Johan Lundgren accuses government of tearing up ‘its own rulebook’ as tourism industry feels pain

Tour operators and airlines lost more than £2bn in value after the government removed Portugal from the “green list” of countries exempt from significant travel restrictions, prompting dismay and anger within the hard-hit tourism industry.

Less than a month after Portugal became the first big destination to be granted green list status, prompting a much-needed boom in holiday sales, the government reversed the decision.

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‘Safety first’: Grant Shapps on Portugal’s removal from travel ‘green list’ – video

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Portugal has been removed from the government’s ‘green list’ of destinations from which people can return to England without having to quarantine, and no extra countries have been added.

The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, raised concerns of a new coronavirus mutation and rising cases in Portugal, adding the UK had to put ‘safety first’ ahead of a national reopening on 21 June

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Portugal removed from ‘green list’ of Covid travel destinations

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No countries added to England’s quarantine-free holiday register as seven moved from amber to red

Portugal has been taken off the UK’s “green list” of destinations from which people can return to England without having to quarantine. The government has said the threat of new Covid-19 variants means that less restricted travel could jeopardise domestic unlocking.

No countries were added to the green list, but seven more – Afghanistan, Bahrain, Costa Rica, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and Trinidad and Tobago – were moved from the amber list to the red list of nations to which almost all travel is barred, the Department for Transport said.

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Work is where your laptop is: meet the globetrotting digital nomads

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Worldwide shift to flexible and home working in pandemic has led to rise of new kind of backpacker

Samantha Scott does not miss her daily commutes in London, particularly “the dread of having to wake up and get on the tube, and heading into work sweaty and flustered. I’m still waking up at 6 or 7am, but I’m able to go for a walk on the beach before I start work.”

When she and her partner Chris Cerra arrive with their luggage in a new city, they can easily be mistaken for tourists. But they are part of a new generation of “digital nomads” who hop from country to country to live and work.

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Outback camel trek: one woman’s 5,000km journey across Australia

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After working with camels for five years, 32-year-old Sophie Matterson decided to embark on an epic trek across Australia, with nothing but the animals she had come to love for company. She trained five of them to carry her provisions before beginning a 5,000km coast-to-coast walk from Australia’s western-most point in Shark Bay, Western Australia, to the eastern-most point in Byron Bay, New South Wales

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Britons should not be holidaying in Spain yet, says UK minister

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Anne-Marie Trevelyan urges people not to travel to country on coronavirus amber list ‘unless you have to’

Britons have been urged not to travel to Spain after the country opened its doors to tourists from the UK.

Spain has lifted its restrictions on holidaymakers from the UK but the business minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan has urged people not to go there unless there is an urgent reason.

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It’s cold and wet, but Scarborough is a beacon of normality for families

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The weather couldn’t dampen spirits as the Yorkshire resort’s hoteliers and guests celebrated the return of domestic travel

The sky was overcast, a chill wind blew in from the sea, and everyone was wearing coats. But for four-year-old Caitlin and two-year-old Jim, there was little to complain about – they were on a beach and they were building sandcastles.

For their parents, Lindsay and Jim Roger, a week’s holiday in the North Yorkshire seaside town of Scarborough was a blessed relief. Lindsay is a nurse who has been working on Covid wards, while Jim works in construction. As key workers with young children, lockdown has been difficult but they were “really pleased” to be able to travel again. “It’s just nice to get out and nice to see the sea,” Jim said. “It makes such a change from the house and the garden.”

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Down at heel Black Sea resort pins its hopes on Russian staycations

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The seaside town of Anapa hopes foreign travel ban will bring holidaymakers back

It is not yet peak season on Anapa’s Black Sea coast so there is still space to spread out on its sandy beach, the pride of a resort town that may be one of the best chances many Russians get to visit the seaside this year.

Wander through the streets beyond the waterfront and you’ll find a sprawl of knick-knack shops, amusement and water parks, shashlik stands and carnival games that make up what is, this year, Russia’s resort of last resort.

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Spain to drop Covid restrictions on British visitors from 24 May

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Spanish PM says negative test not needed even as Boris Johnson warns against travel to amber list countries

Spain will allow British holidaymakers into the country without the need to provide a negative Covid test from 24 May.

In a move aimed at restarting the country’s battered tourist industry, the Spanish government has announced that visitors from the UK will be free to enter Spain “without restrictions and without health requirements”. The same applies to visitors from Japan. All arrivals are still required to fill out a health form.

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