Norwegian Airline Flyr in Critical Situation After Failing to Raise Cash

Norwegian airline Flyr's unsuccessful attempts to raise investment funds will see the budget carrier make operational cuts. This survival move is unlikely to see its summer season plans go the distance. -Selene Brophy

Albania’s Coastal Airport and Tourism Project Meets Resistance

The government's airport, near the Adriatic coast, is designed to bring in more tourists. But like many destinations recovering after the pandemic, there's a balance to be struck between local communities. Environmentalists aren't happy. -Matthew Parsons

Vacasa Slashes Workforce and Other Top Stories This Week

In Skift's top stories this week, Vacasa makes another round of layoffs, Accor's CEO defends its major corporate overhaul, and more Americans plan to cut travel spending. -Sherry Sun

Paddling calendar: the best places to kayak and canoe in Australia, every month of the year

With a coastline that stretches thousands of kilometres, Australia is an all seasons, bucket list destination for on-water adventures * Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email When it comes to paddling destinations, Australia has an embarrassment of riches: there’s a coastline that stretches for about 34,000 km, easily accessible waterways for beginners and world-class rapids for thrill-seekers. Rohan Klopfer, head instructor for Melbourne-based East Coast Kayaking, says Australia is a “bucket list destination” for international paddlers. And whether you’re canoeing, kayaking or rafting, travelling on the water allows you to load up with more gear than hikers or cyclists, making multi-day trips significantly more comfortable. Continue reading...

‘Prepare to be blown away – literally’: readers’ favourite trips in Ireland

Our tipsters confirm that the Emerald Isle’s pubs, cafes and literary hotspots offer brilliant backup for its huge variety of outdoor adventures. Scroll down to see the winner I was fortunate to spend a few days in the seaside village of Portnoo, which made a great jumping-off point for exploring the multitude of white sand beaches – many of which wouldn’t have looked out of place in southern Italy. Dooey beach was a particular highlight and, other than a few surfers, was all but empty during my visit. The challenging but rewarding Wild Atlantic Way stretches along the coast and can be tackled in short stages. Proper pubs are abundant but Nancy’s in Ardara had the combination of excellent beers, food and craic. Michael Continue reading...

A Bavarian fairytale: hiking, frosty peaks and an ivory castle

The tale of a starry-eyed monarch’s fantasy fortress provides the backdrop to a dazzling walking holiday in Germany’s far south In a clearing at the foot of the Bavarian Alps, a stoat breaks cover. The little creature flows quickly across the grass, its eyes set ahead, the ice white of its fur broken only by the black tip of its tail. The dazzle of its winter coat provides zero camouflage on this cold, mid-January morning – all the snow is further up the slopes – but its button nose and exquisite colouring are a vision all the same, a cartoon come to life in Germany’s far south. The stoat isn’t the only thing to have fallen from a Disney animation. Minutes away, set against a frost-dusted cragscape of dark peaks, a hilltop palace spears into the sky. It is spectacular and preposterous, an ivory fortress that seems to have been formed in a dream. Turrets zoom up towards the clouds, asymmetric balconies gaze out across the land, statues of knights stand on pinnacles. This is Neuschwanstein Castle – the most flamboyant of many such creations here in the hills – and the story behind it is every bit as bonkers as its design. Continue reading...

Chinese Tourists Throng Macau for Lunar New Year Break

As the return of Chinese tourists helps Macau register the highest single day record since the pandemic, we wonder if these tourists would be able to do the same for other destinations. -Peden Doma Bhutia

Next stop, Twatt! My tour of Britain’s fantastically filthy placenames

The UK is full of extremely rude-sounding towns and villages. But what’s it like to live in them? Some locals can’t wait to change the names, while others embrace the quirk – even selling signpost souvenirs On the road to Twatt, a message arrives from a resident there. Am I making the pilgrimage up through Scotland to this hamlet on the island of Orkney only to admire its notorious, unwittingly rude road sign? If so, don’t bother. “Our council was so frustrated by that sign being stolen, they have now not replaced it,” says Judith Glue, who runs a gift shop selling pictures of the old Twatt sign to tourists who might otherwise leave the region disappointed. Grateful for her warning, I thank Glue and read over a list I’ve made of those other dwelling places in the UK that through some quirk of linguistic evolution have found themselves with fantastic, filthy-sounding names. At Cock Bridge, in Aberdeenshire, they have the same trouble as in Twatt. “Our sign is constantly being pinched,” says Geva Blackett, a councillor for the region. “People have been taking them away as mementoes. Why do they do it?” It’s an early lesson from my road trip around these towns, villages, parishes, hamlets and farms, many of which are irresistible to Insta-tourists and sign thieves – always phone ahead. One autumn day, I drive for over an hour to visit an Ass Hill in Dorset, just to find it’s an unremarkable and uninhabited lane between hedgerows. The village of Shitterton, about 20 miles away, is much more interesting. Residents here are quite accustomed to hobby-horse types like me wandering through to have a nose around and ask questions. Most are proud, even defiant about this startling name of theirs, which derives from the fact that about 1,000 years ago the site was an open sewer. Continue reading...

Edinburgh’s dark corners: a walking tour of the city’s hidden stories

Invisible Cities’ tours take visitors to the Scottish capital’s juiciest and least-known stories – and with guides who have known homelessness, they are rooted in real experience Edinburgh is a city that wears “dreich” weather well. The gloomy, overcast greys and short, damp days of winter suit the brooding architecture, and the Scottish capital’s often murky, deviant past. These are the streets that were bombarded during the wars of Scottish independence, giving Edinburgh’s centrepiece the claim of being Europe’s most-besieged castle. It’s where cages once had to be introduced over graves to stop bodies being dug up and sold to the medical school, and where, round the corner, tightly packed tenements hosted peasants and poets, philosophers and kings. The city is, as the poet Hugh MacDiarmid wrote, “a mad God’s dream”. Continue reading...

Townhouse retreats: 10 chic town and city hotels in the UK

These great little weekend getaways combine history, atmospheric surroundings and buzzing central locations An ideal weekend retreat, the Eastbury was originally designed as an 18th-century “gentleman’s residence”, and now houses 27 individually styled bedrooms, with designs inspired by the herbs, flowers and trees in the hotel’s award-winning walled garden. The garden is also home to the hotel’s spa, which boasts an outdoor hot tub as well as two treatment rooms. Upmarket dinners come with live music on Friday and Saturday nights, while the Pod, a glass sphere in the garden seating up to four, is ideal for a special occasion. Doubles from £235 B&B, theeastburyhotel.co.uk Continue reading...

‘We really need this space’: a holistic retreat for black women

Wellness tourism is almost exclusively a white domain. But one lifestyle coach has made it her mission to challenge that status quo. We join her Essex retreat I had reached the ripe old age of 42 without ever having been on a retreat. But my partner and children were going to remain at home while I, freed from my frantic routine of ferrying the kids around and thinking up healthy meals, was to spend four days trying to relax. Yet, days before departure, I find myself worrying about the backlog of “to dos” I’ll have waiting for me on my return. Rather than ease into the much-needed rest, I start telling myself I can’t afford so much time away. To quell the rising panic, I text Abi Osho, holistic lifestyle coach and creator of Soul Melanin Reconnect Freedom Sista Retreats for black women, warning her that I might not last the full long weekend. Continue reading...

Travel Industry Recovery on Track for 2023

Today’s edition of Skift’s daily podcast looks at travel’s recovery path, Twitter’s increasing irrelevance for tourism, and Banff’s overtourism battles. -Jason Clampet

Jonathan Raban: his travel writing could pierce your heart

Author Philip Marsden on how Raban, who has died aged 80, brought us his darkly comic and sardonic view of the world * Jonathan Raban, travel writer and novelist, dies aged 80 Jonathan Raban, who has died this week at the age of 80, was one of a generation of writers who helped to drag travel writing away from its hotel-reviewing, holiday-brochure corridor and into the halls of literature. Colin Thubron, Paul Theroux, Redmond O’Hanlon and Bruce Chatwin were among those (almost all men) who in the late 1970s and early 1980s resurrected the journey as one of the great narrative structures. They produced books that celebrate big ideas, remote places and the endless and ageless diversity of our planet. In Raban’s case, he did it with a view of the world that was both darkly comic and sardonic, delivered in prose that can pierce your heart with its accuracy. As well as his travel books, Raban wrote dazzling essays and criticism, spotting writers’ weaknesses but always relishing success when he saw it on the page. John Updike “comes to grip with the contrary fabric of things with a kind of intelligent wonder”. Byron “had a genius for turning his entire life into a grand retrospective exhibition”. Continue reading...

Lidos live again: UK braces for outdoor swimming pool revival

Renaissance for open-air swimming as communities restore derelict sites and campaign for new pools This year is set to be the “year of the lido”, with three new or revamped outdoor baths due to open in England in 2023 and more communities across the UK agitating for the opportunity to swim in the open. What campaigners are dubbing the “lido revolution” has been given extra impetus following the National Lottery Heritage Fund awarding £99,800 to a project aimed at helping people bring their local pools back to life. Continue reading...

Send us a tip on a break in Ireland – you could win a holiday voucher!

Whether it was a hiking epic or a giant pub crawl, share details of a trip to the Emerald Isle – the best tip wins £200 towards a Sawday’s stay “The beauty that surrounded me as I drove was a hazard – I found it hard to keep my eyes on the road.” So writes author Kathleen MacMahon about a road trip through Connemara in the west of Ireland. Ireland is a country bejewelled with natural beauty – from the Ring of Kerry to the Cliffs of Moher; swathes of stunning coastline from Bundoran to Inchydoney; megaliths and castles; buzzing cities and backcountry villages; and not forgetting some of the best pubs on the planet. We’d like to hear about your favourite discoveries on the Emerald Isle. If you have a relevant photo, do send it in – but it’s your words that will be judged for the competition. Continue reading...

A new start after 60: ‘I was such a chicken – until I spent seven weeks travelling alone’

When Nooraini Mydin was approaching her 60th birthday, she was determined to pursue her dreams. So, despite her fears of loneliness, she boarded a train, bound for Kuala Lumpur Nooraini Mydin’s 50th birthday passed without much of a marker, so she was determined to do something memorable for her 60th. She had always been curious about the Trans-Siberian railway but thought “how about I make it really exciting and get the train from London all the way to Kuala Lumpur?” she says. “I am such a chicken, or I was at that time. I used to get very lonely when I travelled alone.” But in August 2016 she set off with two suitcases – containing her laptop, to write about the journey, and several packets of instant ramen noodles, for comfort and economy reasons – for the seven-week journey. She had had a varied life up to that point. She had been a journalist in Malaysia, but moved to the UK in the 80s, where she had a difficult, short-lived marriage. She worked as a council press officer, in the bakery at Harrods and in admin at a hospital. “Then I started collecting degrees,” she says. She studied law, but didn’t become a lawyer, instead working in the law department of University College London. Continue reading...

Head for the hygge: the UK’s best Scandi-style escapes

Get away from the stress and strain of everyday life at one of these stylish boltholes With the Norman stronghold of Bamburgh Castle looming impressively over Northumberland’s spectacular coast, this is the place to pair blustery seaside walks with cosy afternoons in front of the fire in this light, airy lodge designed with clean Scandinavian lines. Floor-to-ceiling windows in the open-plan kitchen-diner and sleek lounge bring vibrant natural colours into the cream-and-grey rooms, while upstairs the bedrooms have a soothing, sanctuary-like feel with soft hues, woollen throws and rugs, and polished wood floors. Sleeps 6; a week costs from £880; crabtreeandcrabtree.com Continue reading...

U.S. Lawmakers Demand Answers From FAA After Massive Flight Disruption

By not providing clarity about the cause of the massive flight disruption, the Federal Aviation Administration just opened itself up to potential Congressional micromanaging. -Dawit Habtemariam

Skift’s 2023 Megatrends and Other Top Stories This Week

In Skift's top stories this week, we unveil our 16 Megatrends for 2023, India is poised to become the world's largest outbound travel market, and Sonder eliminates cleaning fees for guests. -Sherry Sun

UK review of gender recognition list risks ‘trans travel ban’

Campaigners condemn government plan to update list of countries whose GR certificates are automatically recognised Rishi Sunak has been told he risks “re-toxifying” his government’s record on LGBTQ+ rights and introducing “an effective trans travel ban” after the equalities minister announced a review of countries whose process for changing gender on legal documents is recognised by the UK. Kemi Badenoch notified the Commons on Monday of plans to update the list of approved countries and territories whose systems for gender recognition allow individuals with certificates obtained there to use the fast-track process when seeking a gender recognition certificate (GRC) in the UK. Continue reading...

‘This cure works for all’: readers’ favourite trips to banish winter blues

Winter walks by day and night, remote hideaways, French riviera rail trips and Turin’s hot chocolate are among our tipsters’ remedies for dark January days Scroll down to see the winner Nothing beats an impromptu road trip when it comes to an exciting journey to somewhere new at the darkest and dullest time of year. To the south of Glencoe village, Glencoe Mountain Resort (microlodges for two from £75 a night) provides accessible sledging and skiing, and lovely winter walks – a near-Scandi experience for those on a budget. Breathing the bracing Scottish air and enjoying the stunning landscapes are the tonics we all need to keep us going until spring. Sleeping in a cosy microlodge adds to the adventure and makes the best of this short getaway. Claire Renton Continue reading...

‘We’re dreaming of white sands and skyscapes’: readers’ holiday plans for 2023

From Morecambe to Marrakech, our tipsters reveal their UK, European and no-fly holiday dreams for 2023. Scroll down to see the winner I am planning my dream holiday to the Alps for spring. Environmentally friendly transport is important to me and Chamonix can be reached by train from London (allowing for a quick sightseeing stop in Paris). I plan to spend my days hiking, climbing, trail running and exploring the breathtaking trails and peaks of Mont Blanc. The Alps are a dream destination for anyone looking to embrace their adventurous side or simply indulge in the rich hot chocolate of the region. Eleanor Warren Continue reading...

Tell us about a brilliant wellbeing break – you could win a holiday voucher

Share details of a wellness trip in Europe including the UK – the best tip wins £200 towards a Sawday’s stay In challenging times it’s important to look after our wellbeing – whether that means booking a yoga weekend or escaping to a cabin in the wild. We want to find out about your top tips for a wellness break – maybe it’s an off-grid retreat in rural France, a back-to-basics spa in Baden-Baden, or a meditation holiday with sea views. It could be an organised retreat or something more DIY. We’re looking for ideas that are affordable and offer a chance to recalibrate without a hefty price tag. Share your tips to win a voucher for a break of your own. Continue reading...

Asia’s Struggling Tourism Businesses Geared Up for Return of Chinese Travelers

China's pre-Covid annual tourism spend was an estimated $255 billion. It now offers a lifeline to hard-hit businesses in Asia, who believe the rewards far outweigh the risks, as the Chinese traveler returns. -Selene Brophy

‘Artists are moving here from Brooklyn’: Empire of Light puts Margate’s magic in the picture

The east Kent seaside setting for Sam Mendes’ latest film is now home to stylish restaurants and bars, and world-class artists “The skinheads had come to Margate to fight,” wrote Paul Theroux in The Kingdom by the Sea. His journey around the English coast in 1982 began in Margate, but he didn’t stay long. “They gathered across the promenade from an amusement arcade called Dreamland.” Theroux’s Eliot-inspired account is grim; a sad window into Thatcher’s Britain and the decay of its once-prospering littoral. On the surface, Margate is unchanged: deco Dreamland and brutalist Arlington House still dominate the main strip; the old town’s Georgian muddle adds chipped charm. It was the location for the filming of Sam Mendes’ new, 1980s-set flick, Empire of Light (out this week). “Margate really lends itself to being a filmic piece,” says production designer Mark Tildesley. “It’s superbly contained – almost like the backlot of a film studio.” Continue reading...

Inside the Hilton Park Lane – a photo essay

A look behind the scenes at one of London’s most celebrated hotels Hosting more than 200,000 guests a year, the Hilton hotel on Park Lane is one of London’s landmarks. It was here in 1967 that the Beatles met their guru, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. A decade later, two people lost their lives and many more were injured when the Hilton was rocked by an IRA bomb, and in 2012, the International Olympic Committee set up residence during the London Games. The first skyscraper hotel to be built in the capital, it will celebrate 60 eventful years this coming April. Behind the £1,500-a-night rooms and extravagant banquets is a small army of staff who keep the vast operation going. Continue reading...