Across Kazakhstan by rail – a photo essay

Photographer Mario Heller spent three weeks crossing the steppe by train. Here is his journey through the stories of the passengers, the history of the country and the romance of the railway The monotonous rattling of the train accompanies us through the steppe of Central Asia. The air that travels with us smells of cooked food and the exhalations of dozens of passengers. Sounds drift over to me from various corners of the wagon: a sawing snore, children’s cries, folk music and a hyperactive radio voice. Lying in my upper bunk, I seek body contact with the cooling plastic wall because of the summer heat. I am in a twilight state between shallow sleep and nervous glances at my mobile phone: still no reception. I am trapped in the here and now. It is shortly after 3am. It is the beginning of my almost three-week train journey across the endless expanses of Kazakhstan. Above, in the mornings, borrowed bedding is neatly folded and handed over to the train crew. Right, children play on board Continue reading...

TUI Is Pitching Remote Work Holidays as the Next Employee Benefit

Global tour operator TUI may have a captive audience for its new remote work holiday packages, which it is pitching to companies. Most organizations haven’t yet definitively decided how remote they’ll go after the pandemic, but many are introducing policies that formally give staff the chance of working somewhere else for an extended period each […]

‘An explosion of red and gold’: readers’ favourite spots for UK autumn colour

From the Falls of Clyde to a South Downs forest our tipsters marvel at the vibrant hues of the season Follow in the footsteps of Wordsworth, Coleridge and Turner to enjoy the power and romanticism of the Falls of Clyde. Spectacular at any time of year, this walk reaches its golden, amber and feuille morte peak in the autumn months, especially after heavy rain. About 30 miles south-east of Glasgow, it’s home to badgers, otters and kingfishers on a trail that begins at the Unesco world heritage site of New Lanark (drop in to the visitor centre to find out all about the millowner and philanthropist Robert Owen) and leads to the 26-metre waterfall Cora Linn. You can have coffee at the Mill Café or stay at the New Lanark Hotel. A sepia and russet dream. scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk Michael Continue reading...

Scientists find rare fish trapped, and it nearly breaks their scale

The fish is nine and half feet long and scientists believe it could weigh more than 4,000 pounds.

900-year-old crusader sword found underwater

A scuba diver has found a four-foot long sword thought to belong to a crusader 900 years ago off the coast of Israel.

Hot tickets for half-term: great ways to spend the October break

Looking for half-term inspiration? From Halloween chills to safari thrills, we round up the best family-friendly activities The fifth Dark Skies festival is taking place on Exmoor with lots of family-friendly events, including wildlife safaris, owl experiences, space workshops and, of course, stargazing (22 Oct-7 Nov, some free events) The fringe festival is being held in the North York Moors and Yorkshire Dales, with self-guided planet trails, nocturnal animal treasure hunts, adventure walks and more (22-31 Oct). The North Pennines Stargazing festival is being held around the same time, and includes family astronomy sessions at Grassholme Observatory (22-31 Oct, £13 adults, £10 children). The Museum of the Moon, a touring artwork by Luke Jerram, goes on display Chichester Cathedral at half-term. There will be storytelling, craft sessions and space workshops around the seven-metre spherical sculpture, which features Nasa imagery of the moon’s surface (25 Oct-14 Nov, free). Continue reading...

Singapore Expands Quarantine-Free Arrivals Despite Record Covid Cases

Singapore welcomed on Wednesday the first travellers under an expanded quarantine-free programme, marking a big step towards the aviation hub restoring its international links, despite a sharp rise in its COVID-19 cases. Singapore Airlines flights from Amsterdam and London arrived on Wednesday under the so-called vaccinated travel lanes (VTL). “Yeah, that’s (a) perfect visit. It’s […]

A small Australian town's attempt to lure Chris Hemsworth has gone viral. Here's how the actor responded

An Australian town's mission to convince actor Chris Hemsworth to visit has paid off after the actor gave a surprise response to their creative campaign video.

Morocco to ban flights to and from UK over rising Covid rates

Suspension will take effect from 11.59pm on Wednesday and will last until further notice * Coronavirus – latest updates * See all our coronavirus coverage Morocco is banning flights to and from the UK because of rising coronavirus case rates. Airlines cancelled several flights between the countries on Wednesday before the suspension comes into effect at 11.59pm. Latest figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control show the north African country’s weekly rate of reported coronavirus cases on 14 October stood at 10.4 per 100,000 people. The UK’s comparable rate is 445.5. Continue reading...

Yamas! On the retsina trail on the Greek island of Skopelos

Hiking through lush forests, our writer follows ancient paths to witness the reinvention of Greece’s iconic wine We’re high in the mountains above Skopelos town and there’s not a single Mamma Mia! fan in sight. A warm breeze stirs the trees, filling the air with the citric scent of pine needles as we follow the Retsina Trail, one of several ancient cobbled paths (known as calderimi) that were used by the island’s resin collectors up until the 1990s when demand for the sticky substance declined. It’s early October and spike-armoured chestnuts scrunch beneath our feet as we hike through dense forest covering the spine of this lush Sporades island, just an hour’s ferry from Skiathos. Apart from the chestnuts and the occasional cluster of tiny rain-starved blackberries, there’s little else to tell us that it’s autumn; with temperatures soaring to 30C by midday we appreciate the forest’s dappled shade. As we walk, Heather Parsons, owner of hiking company Skopelos Trails, shows me how the resin collectors would tap the pines by peeling back a small strip of bark, applying a paste that stimulates the flow of sap, then attaching a bag to catch the sticky substance as it slowly leaked from the tree. Several tons of resin would then be carried – via this trail – to Skopelos on the island’s north-east coast, where it would be shipped off to the mainland for use in paints, solvents and cosmetics, and for making Greece’s iconic retsina wine. Continue reading...

Saudi Arabia to launch enormous oil themed 'extreme park'

Saudi Arabia may be trying to reduce its dependency on oil, but that hasn't stopped the Arabic kingdom from using its petroleum industry as inspiration for a brand new tourist attraction.

1 out of 4 of U.S. Remote Workers Took Extended Trips: New Skift Research Travel Tracker

The surge of the Delta variant didn’t make too much a dent to the recovering travel industry in the U.S. According to Skift Research’s newly released U.S. Travel Tracker: September 2021 Highlights report, 47 percent of Americans traveled in September, only a 1.7-percentage-point drop from a record-setting July. With declining new cases and rising vaccination […]

Japan Tourism Revenue at Risk Because of Lack of Vaccination Passports

Japan’s lack of a vaccination passport and limited testing capacity is threatening ambitions to reopen the economy at a crucial year-end period when restaurants earn up to a half of their annual revenue and travel agencies are at their busiest. This means businesses, wary of another pandemic wave through winter, are not rehiring laid-off staff […]

Hopper to Power Marriott Bonvoy’s Experiences After It Buys PlacePass

Hopper, an online travel agency and travel tech company, has acquired PlacePass, a middleman distributor of tours and activities. The companies didn’t disclose deal terms. PlacePass has disclosed raising more than $14 million, according to Crunchbase. Hopper has raised $350 million this year. PlacePass, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based startup, has been best known since late 2017 […]

Share a tip about a town or village in Portugal for a chance to win a £200 holiday voucher

Tell us about a lesser-known Portuguese city, town or village that took your breath away and you could win £200 towards a Sawday’s stay We’d love to hear about your favourite town or village in Portugal. We’d like to steer away from the huge draws like Lisbon and Porto, and focus on smaller characterful gems that dot the country – places such as the picturesque little hilltop village of Obidos with its winding cobblestone lanes and majestic medieval castle; or the Atlantic ocean seaside town of Nazaré with its stunning beaches and pilgrims church; or the main port wine-producing town Pinhão, in the Douro Valley. Tell us what you saw and did that made it special – maybe it was a lovely place to stay, a brilliant family restaurant, the architecture or a local festival – with websites and prices where appropriate. Continue reading...

Barry Sternlicht Faces Tough Investor Climate for Hotel Bargains Despite Earlier Boasts

Starwood Capital’s recently announced $10 billion fund targeting distressed real estate assets faces a hard time finding significant opportunity in the hotel sector.  The Urban Land Institute, one of the real estate industry’s largest think tanks, and PwC released their annual Emerging Trends in Real Estate report this month. The real estate industry views the […]

Singapore Airlines to fly A380 on 60-minute flight

The Airbus A380 is designed for long-haul flying, thanks to its hefty size and famously quiet inflight experience.

In Kenya, your next coffee could be a 'camel-ccino'

While tea may be Kenya's largest export, a new beverage is brewing in central Nairobi: cappuccinos made with a splash of camel's milk.

When your home becomes a tourist attraction

Have you ever looked at a beautiful little mews house in London and thought "it must be so amazing to live there?"

The United States has a reopening date. Here's what travelers need to know

The United States' new international travel policies are just weeks away from going into effect.

581 Days Later, It’s Time To Travel

581 days ago, I wrote this essay on how March 14, 2020 will forever be remembered in history books as the day the world stopped traveling. Now, 581 days later, as the United States last Friday announced November 8 as the date when anyone in the vaccinated world is welcome to come through our borders, it is safe […]

Reviving Cape Verde Tourism Is Key Issue in West African Achipelago’s Election

The West African archipelago nation of Cape Verde, one of the continent’s most stable democracies, voted on Sunday for a new president who faces the task of stabilising its tourism-driven economy after the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Seven candidates are vying to replace Jorge Carlo Fonseca, who has reached the end of his two-term […]

Regenerative travel is protecting Colombia's coral reefs

San Andres is one of Colombia's most popular beach destinations in the country. Meet the local entrepreneur and diver who has been spearheading the island's regenerative tourism efforts since 2013.

10 of Britain’s most peaceful retreats

Feel like getting away from it all? Here’s where to seek splendid isolation No phone or television signals, no neighbours. This cottage in Eskdale is reached along a track that even a 4WD would struggle with. There’s no proper bathroom in the former cow byre, but it is surrounded by enormous beauty, with uninterrupted views down the valley and around Scafell Pike and Hardknott Pass. The cottage has electricity, open fires and two bedrooms. From £214 for two nights, nationaltrust.org.uk Continue reading...

Greek revival: how Corfu’s 14th-century ghost village came back to life

Old Perithia was abandoned by its inhabitants in the 1960s. Now they are back, thanks to a unique project that has turned it into a spellbinding attraction The corniche road that winds along Corfu’s north-eastern coast takes me past forested coves and dreamy beaches that draw thousands of tourists each year. But while most visitors base themselves in one of the numerous coastal resorts, I follow a lonely and sinuous road up into the mountains. My destination is Old Perithia – an atmospheric former ghost village – and Mark and Saskia Hendriksen, the couple who have helped revive it and turn it into one of Corfu’s most spellbinding attractions. As I climb higher, the air cools, the olive trees turn to pines and I wonder whether I have taken a wrong turn, until suddenly the village appears, as if hidden until the final moment. “Of course that’s intentional,” says Mark Hendriksen as I meet him by the entrance. “The village was built in such a way as to see but not be seen,” he adds. Continue reading...

Trump Close to Offloading D.C. Hotel and 8 Other Top Travel Stories This Week

Throughout the week we are posting original stories night and day covering news and travel trends, including on the impact of coronavirus. Every weekend we will offer you a chance to read the most essential stories again in case you missed them earlier. Standard Hotels Parent Elevates President Amber Asher to CEO: Incoming Standard International […]

Former Boeing Official Pleads Not Guilty to Deceiving the FAA About 737 Max

A former Boeing Co chief technical pilot, accused of deceiving federal regulators evaluating the company’s 737 MAX jet, was charged with fraud on Friday, pleaded not guilty and was released, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in northern Texas said. Mark Forkner, 49, was indicted by a grand jury in Texas on six counts of scheming to […]

Russian Tourism Authority Wants You to Travel Like a Putin

Russians will be able to retrace President Vladimir Putin’s footsteps in his beloved Siberian holiday spots under plans being developed by the state travel agency Rostourism. In response to public demand, the agency said travel companies are putting together an itinerary covering several Siberian regions where Putin has relaxed over the years. His wilderness leisure […]

A local’s guide to Perugia, Italy: five great things to do

The ancient walls, papal fortress and creative quarter of Umbria’s 2,500-year-old capital make a happy haunt for flâneur Gianluigi Bettin A writer and walking guide living in Perugia for 12 years, Gianluigi Bettin is co-author of the Via di Francesco guidebook (Terre di Mezzo, €20). Continue reading...

Jump in and chill out: 10 of Britain’s best affordable retreats

From an ice-cold plunge to a Finnish sauna, treat yourself to massages, steam rooms and scrubs The “banya” is the Russian cousin of the Finnish sauna and Turkish hammam, and the one at The Bath House, opposite Buckingham Palace, is a great place for a day off. Warm up in steam rooms decorated with mosaics of traditional banya scenes, cool down in an ice-cold plunge pool or under tipping buckets, then enjoy a treatment. The menu includes parenie (a leaf and steam massage) and there are scrubs, wraps and massages. After, nibble on homemade Russian morsels such as Siberian dumplings in the restaurant – and there’s vodka, if you’re here to celebrate. Treatments from £45, russianbanya.co.uk Continue reading...

TripActions Bags $275 Million to Grow Expense Management: Travel Startup Funding This Week

This week, travel startups announced more than $279 million in funding. >>TripActions, a business travel management startup, raised $275 million in a Series F round at a post-money valuation of $7.25 billion. Greenoaks led the round. Other investors included Elad Gil and Base Partners. The Palo Alto startup previously raised a $155 million round of financing […]

Italy reveals its new national airline

They've long dominated the food and fashion worlds, this year they've dominated sports, and now they're aiming for the skies.

$80M superyacht concept has a 'gaping hole'

Previous offerings include a yacht in the form of a swan and another devised to resemble a shark, but Lazzarini Design Studio's latest superyacht concept may be one of its most daring yet.

A great walk to a great pub: The Wallace Arms, Rowfoot, North Pennines

A walk through an area once populated by murderous clans leading to a cosy pub in rural Northumbria Start The Wallace Arms, Rowfoot, Haltwhistle Distance 4½ miles Time 3½ hours Elevation gain 215 metres Difficulty Moderate and potentially muddy The connection between William Wallace and Tynedale is as gory as a Sam Peckinpah movie. In 1297, Braveheart and his warriors tore through the Tyne Gap, ransacked churches, razed three priories and, in Hexham, burned a class of schoolboys alive (proof, if any more were needed, that you should never trust Mel Gibson). That the locals chose to name a pub after this bloody villain is proof of the grisly streak that runs through the Northumbrian sense of humour and the historic love of a good scrap. Continue reading...

Travellers to England able to take lateral flow Covid tests from 24 October

Requirements for a PCR test will be dropped for vaccinated people arriving from non-red list countries * Coronavirus – latest updates * See all our coronavirus coverage Fully vaccinated international passengers arriving in England from countries not on the red list can take a cheaper and quicker lateral flow test from 24 October instead of the PCR version, the government has announced. Those who have been vaccinated, and most under-18s, can take a lateral flow test on or before day two of their arrival into the UK. Continue reading...

Southwest Airlines canceled her entire family's flights and they missed her wedding day

What was supposed to be a special day over the weekend instead became an emotional roller coaster for a bride whose family couldn't attend her wedding after Southwest Airlines canceled thousands of flights around the country.

Here's who will be able to get into the US more easily -- and whose trip just got harder

Another bit of welcome news for travelers clamoring to get into the United States came Tuesday with the announcement that land borders with Canada and Mexico will reopen to fully vaccinated visitors in November.

Europeans were enjoying blue cheese and beer 2,700 years ago, ancient poop shows

Iron Age Europeans enjoyed foods that are still part of our diet today -- like blue cheese and beer -- new research studying ancient poop has shown.

‘Beautiful buildings wherever you look’: Germany’s best towns and villages, by readers

Monastery brews, medieval squares and castles loom large among our readers’ picks from Bavaria to the North Sea We arrived in Görlitz, Germany’s most easterly town, to find it packed with peasants swilling beer from pewter mugs and devouring sausages to a background of drums and pipes. It was the annual medieval festival, and they take the past seriously here. That’s understandable: Görlitz is jammed with arcaded squares, ancient towers and magnificent churches that have bedazzled film-makers from Tarantino to Wes Anderson. We lucked into the building that served as the Grand Budapest Hotel – actually an art nouveau department store. We went to Poland for a beer – the town of Zgorzelec is just over the River Neisse – before returning to Görlitz for carousing, 15th-century style. David Ellis Continue reading...

Offa’s Dyke Path at 50: an ancient earthwork still shrouded in mystery

This mighty monument, running 177 miles along the England-Wales border, offers breathtaking views and walks that entice you to keep going We come up a steep hillside, stepping past twisted trees laden with lichen and scarlet berries, all dripping with rain. A mob of ravens clack overhead. Then, as we come out on the top, I understand at last what the fuss is about. Ahead is a bracken-covered rampart as tall as a house, curving forward into the mist, its steeper face turned west towards hills and valleys that are dimly visible through sheets of rain and cloud. “This is it!” shouts Rob above the noise of the downpour. “Look how it follows the contours, how they built it to impress anyone coming up from the west.” I knew, of course, about Offa’s Dyke. I’d seen the photographs. It was the faint remains of an earthwork, like the wrinkled lip of England, running along the border between it and Wales, built by some medieval megalomaniac with a silly name. I had not expected this massive fortification, barging its way across the broad shoulders of Llanfair Hill, a few miles north of Knighton. Continue reading...

Refugee-Led Tours Fight Pandemic Struggles to Expand Trips for Locals

Tours led by refugees were, prior to the pandemic, emerging as a popular way for tourists in certain cities to experience those destinations. Although most commonly associated with Berlin, refugees have also given tours in cities like Vienna, Philadelphia, and Amsterdam. But like most inbound tour operators, organizations that run refugee-led tours have been battered […]

EU says it will recognise NHS Covid pass ‘soon’

Constant Covid testing when travelling from the UK to countries such as the Netherlands should soon be a thing of the past Trips to Europe over October half-term could become easier for British travellers after Brussels said a technical tie-up with the EU ensuring the NHS Covid pass is recognised across over 40 countries would be “going live soon”. In some European countries, such as the Netherlands, tourists from the UK have faced constant Covid tests as the NHS app proving full vaccination status is not recognised at the Dutch border or in its bars, restaurants and museums. Continue reading...

‘A Narnia-esque portal to another world’ – a hike on the Ulster Way

Our writer tackles a spectacular stretch of Northern Ireland’s Ulster Way revamped and re-mapped to mark its 75th anniversary Back when I had no children and, consequently, the seesaw of life’s energy still tipped towards surplus rather than shortfall, I got into the habit of long, early morning runs. I was living in a built-up suburb of east Belfast, but one of the unappreciated and beguiling features of that complex city is the easy access to the beautiful and diverse countryside that rings it. Keen to get off pavement and away from traffic, my heels took to the hills, following no particular route other than a vague plan to keep ascending. To my great delight I found a network of rough paths connecting glens, grassy hills, fields, pockets of woodland and quieter country roads, all within half an hour of jogging up from the city. Continue reading...

How Italy's high-speed trains helped kill Alitalia

Alitalia takes to the skies for the last time on October 14. Did Italy's status as the only country in the world with two competing high-speed rail networks play a part in its national airline's fall?

Inside Burj Al Arab's $25,000-a-night Royal Suite

Once, only the super rich could glimpse the luxury of the Royal Suite at Dubai's Burj Al Arab. Now the hotel is offering butler-led guided tours.

Hut parade: cool Scandi cabins on the Kent coast

The Romney Marsh coast is peppered with striking designer huts – and a new complex of cabins makes the perfect base for exploring Dungeness and Camber Sands “That one’s cool,” my son George points out. “The big dusty pink one in the sand dunes?” I say. “Yeah, I’d call that acid-washed burgundy,” he says. We’re cabin-spotting on the Kent/East Sussex coast, and this blushing example on Camber Sands is the most striking example we’ve seen so far, with an asymmetrical design that complements the funky colour. As we walk closer, we see it’s only half-built and the size of a large detached house rather than a cabin. Continue reading...

Cider harvesting in Herefordshire: ‘the fruit is always in charge’

In the county synonymous with cider apples, volunteers can enjoy a mini-break while helping with the autumn harvest The first rule of cider-making? The fruit is always in charge. That’s what Susanna Forbes tells me as we look out from her kitchen to windswept trees and moody skies. When apples are ready they must be picked. But are there, I ask – pulling on waterproofs and wellies – any conditions in which you just wouldn’t? “A deluge,” she says, “for reasons of practicality and sanity. Though if it was a really special tree…” This early October day is merely damp, and there’s certainly not enough of a deluge to defy Mother Nature. Plus I’m not here to chat over coffee, as lovely as that might be (Susanna is warm, expert and engaging). No, I’ve joined the co-founder of craft cider and perry pioneer Little Pomona to lend a hand. Continue reading...

All back to Mahón: a return to Menorca

Rustling palms, hooting owls, pintxos and sangria … After a lockdown-enforced hiatus, a writer revisits the quiet Balearic to revel in joys old and new A peal of bells marks the start. Then comes a beating of drums. A barely perceptible breeze carries the scent of hay. Collectively, a crowd of thousands holds its breath, shoulder to shoulder in the plaza principal. Among them, standing tall, is a single rider, frock-coated on a glossy black stallion. He is the first caixer (horseman) leading a cavalcade that will dance through the vein-like village streets, as the bolder members of the throng – hyped on local Xoriguer gin and Fanta limón (pomada) – touch the horses’ hearts for luck. This is the jaleo. This is Menorca. The scene plays out all summer along the easternmost and sleepiest Balearic, lower-key and less crowded than Mallorca and Ibiza. It is also the greenest island, growing cautiously, a Unesco biosphere reserve for almost 30 years. But under Menorca’s slow, siesta-dazed surface is an intensity most keenly felt at its fiestas. Continue reading...

Ten amazing UK escapes for art-lovers

From bronzes in Somerset to ceramics at Chatsworth House and an art deco hotel in Gateshead, combine seeing great art with a stylish stay Questions of identity and power structures underpin Thomas J Price’s multidisciplinary inaugural show for Hauser & Wirth Somerset. Entitled Thomas J Price Thoughts Unseen, it includes film and towering figurative bronzes (until 3 January 2022). Stay at Number One Bruton, a 12th-century forge on the high street of this creative hub of a Somerset town. The 12-bedroom hotel is peppered with art by local artists, decor is low-key and achingly tasteful, and the leather key fobs are by Bill Amberg. Rooms from £150, including a farmhouse breakfast in the Michelin-starred Osip, the old ironmonger’s shop, numberonebruton.com Continue reading...

‘Sleepy, leafy and lusciously bucolic’: France’s best towns and villages by readers

Our tipsters go beyond the expected names to hail the charms, cultural and culinary delights of places from Pas-de-Calais to Provence I really loved the peacefulness of Saint-Nectaire. The local cheese is enough to put it on any list but it also has woodland trails, grottos, a spa and an 11th-century hilltop church. It’s also a wonderful base for exploring the Puys but you can’t beat taking a picnic (remember the cheese!) to nearby Lac Chambon and enjoying the crystal clear waters surrounded by ancient volcanic hills. We stayed at the family run Hotel Regina (doubles from €65 B&B) where our bathroom was in a turret. Anthony T Continue reading...