Category Archives: Travel

No icy lager, no sundowners: could you handle a sober holiday?

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For many of us, a getaway means sun, sea, sand and… alcohol. But what if you drink so much at home that a break is a chance to go booze-free?

A couple of years ago, before a two-week holiday to the Algarve, I decided I wouldn’t drink. I thought it would be difficult. There would be no more vinho verde to wash down a charcoal-grilled bream. It would be adeus to the icy Sagres lager that goes so perfectly with those fat, yellow Portuguese chips. Aside from the gustatory pleasures, I worried about being the sober one. Drinking is part of the routine of the British holiday. If I didn’t participate, it might endanger everyone else’s fun, too.

Besides, it was part of my “personal brand”. It wasn’t that I was an alcoholic, but I did think that being gregarious, and generally up for a good time and a pint in the sun, was part of the reason people wanted to go on holiday with me. At 32, I worried that I risked projecting Big Midlife Crisis Energy years before my time.

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‘No one comes here any more’: the human cost as Covid wipes out tourism

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From Bolivia’s Lake Titicaca to wildlife tourism in Nepal, we find out how the crisis has affected people in four travel hotspots – and whether or not they want the tourists to return

In March last year, it was predicted that the global travel shutdown would cause international arrivals to plummet by 20 to 30% by the end of 2020.

Six weeks later, the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) revised their warning: international arrivals could fall by up to 80% – equating to a billion fewer tourists and the worst crisis in the history of the industry.

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Africa’s park tourism crash is a wake-up call. Can we find new ways to finance conservation? | Peter Muiruri

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As Covid continues to curb visits to see our iconic wildlife, now is the time to move away from western-led funding models

That African governments have failed to mobilise funds to conserve their vast protected areas is not in doubt. Countries were just about managing to pay basic salaries to rangers who barely had enough to put fuel in their patrol vehicles. Covid has exacerbated this already dire situation, with the loss of income from foreign tourism.

The continent has more than 8,500 protected areas, described by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as government-led national parks, areas jointly governed by state agencies, communities, privately owned wildlife reserves, and public-private partnerships between governments, companies and NGOs. Included too, are what the IUCN calls “indigenous peoples and communities conserved territories and areas”.

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Spanish village tells tourists to suck up roosters and braying donkeys

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Posters in Ribadesella warn visitors unhappy about reality of rural life they ‘may not be in the right place’

Some called in to complain about braying donkeys. Other tourists dialled up officials in the northern Spanish village of Ribadesella, population 5,700, to notify them of the mess left behind by wandering cows.

“Last week we had a lady who called us three or four times over a rooster that was waking her up at 5am,” said Ramón Canal, Ribadesella’s mayor. “She told us that we had to do something.”

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Unholy row erupts over Larry Landtrain taking visitors on Lindisfarne

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Council scraps four-week trial of alternative to existing shuttlebus after swift and fierce opposition

For centuries, pilgrims have walked in the footsteps of monks who once inhabited Lindisfarne, connected by a tidal causeway to the ancient kingdom of Northumbria.

They have marvelled at the birthplace of the Lindisfarne gospels, one of the most celebrated illuminated manuscripts in the world, admired the castle that towers over crashing waves and the ruins of the ancient priory, and watched thousands of grey seals basking on the sand banks.

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And relax! From gong baths to mindful drinking: how to really unwind on a holiday at home

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With the pandemic scrambling travel plans, many of us are staying put this summer. But can your own house ever be as restful a vacation setting as flopping on a sunlounger? One writer spends a week finding out

My family and I are deep into our second summer of staycations, and, given that a weekend in a static caravan in Filey now costs more than a month on Mustique, we’re having the proper, stay-at-home kind. But how can you relax when assailed by tedious life admin, dirty laundry and the ominous damp patch on the wall, without a hint of away-from-it-all exoticism to get you in the mood? I have no idea. My usual at-home “downtime” consists of scrolling through Twitter to top up my cortisol levels or staring guiltily at the garden I’m too lazy and clueless to tend. Even my chickens, usually excellent stress-busters, are embroiled in some sort of intractable avian psychodrama. I obviously need help, so I asked some experts, then tested their home relaxation tips, to find out if it really is possible to have a relaxing holiday at home.

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UK competition watchdog to look into pricing of Covid tests for travel

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CMA to investigate PCR tests market after concerns about vastly different prices being charged

The competition watchdog is to look into fees for the Covid-19 tests required for international travel after concerns about the vastly different prices being charged for them.

The Competition and Markets Authority will provide advice and intelligence on the market in PCR tests to the health secretary, Sajid Javid, to enable the government to act.

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Vaccinated Britons can travel ‘without looking over their shoulder’, says Shapps – video

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Fully vaccinated Britons will not have to quarantine on return from France and Spain for the next three weeks, bringing much needed business to the struggling tourism sector, according to the transport secretary.

But Britons will need to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 'for evermore' in order to travel between countries, Grant Shapps has predicted, suggesting that quarantine restrictions for some arrivals in England will remain in place into the autumn.

Shapps said it was vital to 'protect the domestic unlocking' after the latest changes were announced to the traffic light system that grades destinations according to their case, vaccine and variant numbers

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Why are low-risk countries on the Covid travel ‘red list’? | Letters

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Dr Peninah Murage says the unjust traffic light system penalises poor countries even though some have relatively low numbers of cases. Plus Dot Mornington-West on being under house arrest after returning from France

Can the Guardian please investigate the rationale behind the Covid travel restrictions relating to “red list” countries? Some of the countries on the red list, such as Kenya, have very low Covid cases and deaths, but are among the world’s poorest and with little influence on government policy.

Essentially, the UK government is using this list to appease the public who need to see the government doing something – but at the same time the government is assured that the backlash will be minimal because these countries have very little voice.

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Johnson dumps ‘amber watchlist’ plan as it emerges top adviser has quit

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Proposals for tougher quarantine rules for some holidaymakers killed off after cabinet revolt

Boris Johnson has ditched plans for tougher quarantine restrictions for some holidaymakers after days of chaos, as it emerged the chief of the Joint Biosecurity Centre that advises on travel rules has departed the job leaving it “rudderless”.

After a revolt in the cabinet and a backlash from the travel industry, government sources said the prime minister would not be going ahead with proposals for a new “amber watchlist” to warn travellers which countries were at risk of turning red.

Cabinet sources said the plans were killed off by the Treasury and Department for Transport, as ministers grow in confidence about the drop in cases, which fell to 21,052 on Monday.

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UK poised to end amber list quarantine for people vaccinated in US and EU

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Ministers to discuss plans, with talks also to determine if they will apply to England only or all UK nations

Plans to significantly open up international travel are expected to be announced on Wednesday, with UK ministers poised to let people who have been fully vaccinated in the US and EU avoid quarantine if arriving from amber list countries.

The move would benefit millions of people by finally letting them be reunited with family and friends based in the UK, as well as businesses in the aviation and tourism sectors that have been hit hard by the pandemic.

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Jungle Cruise review – the Rock’s Disney theme-park actioner takes predictable turns

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Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson are romancing riverboat adventurers in a ride-turned-film that quickly becomes bland

The Jungle Cruise theme-park ride is a riverboat trip that Disneyland visitors have been queuing up for since the 1950s: an old-timey craft travelling down an artificial jungle river, with a jolly captain pointing out animatronic animals lurching out of the artificial undergrowth. Now it’s been adapted into a blandly inoffensive piece of generic entertainment: screenwriters Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (who once gave us Bad Santa and I Love You Phillip Morris) have mashed up The African Queen with Raiders of the Lost Ark, and with what I admit is a surreal splash of Aguirre, Wrath of God.

It’s lively enough for the first 20 minutes. The year is 1916, and Emily Blunt plays Lily Houghton, a haughty yet idealistic British scientist, much patronised by the male establishment in London. She imperiously hires a riverboat in Brazil to find the much-rumoured “Tree of Life” somewhere in the jungle. Its captain is a cynical-with-a-heart-of-gold rogue called Frank Wolff, man-mountainishly played by Dwayne Johnson. After the traditional meet-cute, their growing romance plays off the comedy turn provided by Jack Whitehall, playing the other passenger: Lily’s foppish, neurotic younger brother MacGregor. At one stage, Whitehall’s prissy, wussy Englishman explains to Dwayne Johnson that he is gay – or rather, he says something indirect about being not as other men, and the subject is never raised again, Edwardian reticence dovetailing nicely with Disney family values. It is a stereotype that Walt himself might have recognised, while also approving of the obvious heterosexuality of Frank with his muscles, boots and sailor’s cap.

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Stay calm and look fabulous: Holiday hassle and how to avoid it

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Driving, packing, parenting while driving … yes, summer holidays are here to torment us. Handily, so are Guardian writers on how to negotiate them

My holiday road rage is directed inward – at my own failures and miscalculations – although I accept it will not feel like that if you are sitting next to me. Sometimes these episodes are all I remember of the trips in question: running out of petrol halfway across a suspension bridge; the satnav voice that switched to Italian midway through a journey; that hyena I nearly hit in the middle of a hailstorm.

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‘I had a crush on my sexy manager’: seven readers on their summers of love

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A virtual lockdown date that blossomed, an encounter on a backpackers’ bus and a school trip to Spain – readers share their most memorable summer romances

After just one week of living in New York, the city locked down, and a summer of love seemed unlikely. I did go on a series of virtual dates, with around 20 guys over four months; some were funny, kind and smart, and some were a little weird. One or two of them became my friends. Then, I finally got a call from Mr Right on the long weekend of 4 July. We started talking and he was everything I’d hoped for – except he was in Michigan, hundreds of miles away. In early August, he casually mentioned he’d be coming to NYC to meet me, and the next day he drove for 10 hours to take me for dinner.

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Sun, swimming, smoking and seagulls: a day in the life of beach hut Britain

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Across the UK, there are long waiting lists for a beach hut – and prices go up and up. A day on Hove promenade reveals why they are so popular and the problems that persist (mainly locks)

Everyone who meets Bonny Holland says the same thing: she really loves beach huts. “Bonny posts in our Facebook group about four times a day,” says the Hove and Portslade councillor Robert Nemeth, who founded the Hove Beach Hut Association. “I have to approve the posts.”

Inside Holland’s beach hut, the 62-year-old retired headteacher keeps a double-ring stove, a frying pan, a griddle pan, graffiti removal wipes, and, best of all, a loo. “You sit on this,” Holland says merrily, unfolding a portable toilet seat for my benefit, “and go in here.”

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Europe’s unluckiest train station gets new lease of life as hotel

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Once-grand Canfranc was known as the Titanic of the mountains, but fell into disrepair thanks to fire, derailment and war

It earned the nickname “Titanic of the mountains”, but now the monumental and ill-fated train station at Canfranc is to get a new life as a five-star hotel, 51 years after the international rail link across the Pyrenees closed.

The story of Canfranc, a village more than 1,000 metres (3,280ft) above sea level on the Franco-Spanish frontier, is one of vainglorious ambition and abject failure, of incompetence and corruption, of intrigue, smuggling and a century-long run of bad luck.

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10 of Croatia’s best crowd-free places in for a

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With Croatia set to go on to the green list, we pick quiet islands and beaches for a post-lockdown escape


Last summer, visitors who managed to make it to Croatia had a taste of what the country was like before the days of mass tourism. And it tasted good. But while honeypots such as Dubrovnik were unrecognisably quiet, there have always been parts of the country where you don’t have to wade through crowds.

Places where things move at a less hurried pace, where Croatian life can be savoured, where you get a flavour of what the Dalmatians call fjaka – the art of doing nothing. These islands and mainland destinations are what you want in a post-lockdown escape: peace, beauty and the chance to discover why Croatia is such an enticing country.

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Balearic Islands to be added to England’s Covid amber list

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Change means some people will have to quarantine when arriving in England from Monday, as red and green lists also updated

Ministers have performed a U-turn on the Balearic Islands by removing the Spanish holiday destination from the UK’s quarantine-free “green list” after only two weeks, in a move which will force holidaymakers to cancel plans or self-isolate for up to 10 days upon return.

However, summer holidays to budget holiday destination Bulgaria looked more likely after it was upgraded to the green list alongside Hong Kong. Croatia and Taiwan will be placed on the green watchlist – designed to give people some notice a country might be downgraded.

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Irish people in Britain to get green light to visit friends and family

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Europe’s strictest border controls to be relaxed as Ireland prepares to allow visits for essential reasons

Up to 400,000 Irish people in Britain are to be given the green light to visit family and friends at home for the first time in six months as Ireland prepares to lift the strictest border controls in Europe.

Only those with essential reasons such as haulage, health or funeral attendance have been allowed to enter the country since the border restrictions were imposed in January.

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