‘Is it sensible, safe or even good taste to visit Turkey now?’ A local guide offers advice

A tour leader finds that, beyond the areas devastated by the earthquake, the country is open for business and keen that visitors keep coming The desperate plight of those hit by the recent earthquakes in south-east Turkey and northern Syria, where the death toll now stands close to 50,000, moved many in Britain to donate towards the rescue effort. Though such displays of foreign sympathy and generosity have been widely welcomed in Turkey, there is concern that the quakes may cause tourists to reconsider their Turkish holiday plans this year. In my own case the earthquakes occurred in theweek that I was to lead a winter tour of Istanbul and Cappadocia. Prior to the disaster, we had arranged for two of our guests to continue on a private tour that would have taken them right through the area destroyed by the earthquake. Continue reading...

Thailand Relies Even More on Tourism as Global Slowdown Hits Exports

The country's finance minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith says "tourism is our hope" but the country still has a long way to go before it reaches pre-pandemic visitor numbers. -Matthew Parsons

SAS CEO: European Airlines Desperately Need Consolidation

For now, SAS is focused on getting out of bankruptcy in clean financial shape, and hopes to be part of whatever larger European airline landscape emerges in coming years. -Rafat Ali

Bear-watching and beyond: six of the wildest adventure holidays in Europe

From donkey hikes in France to high plains drifting in the Swiss Alps, you don’t need to go long-haul to have a memorable encounter with nature A six-and-a-half-hour train ride from Helsinki, the town of Kajaani is the unofficial capital of Finland’s Lakeland region. The number of perfectly serene bodies of water here, ripe for paddleboarding, kayaking and myriad watersports, easily outnumber the settlements dotted between them. Continue reading...

‘Tourism can offer us hope’: Bosnia and Herzegovina’s staggering scenery and beautiful towns

With its wild horses, varied activities and rich history, the small Balkan country embraces a bright new future of sustainable travel As our Jeep crests the hill we see them, gathering around a nearby waterhole, drinking, grazing, play-fighting. The vast Kruzi plateau stretches before us, edged by the foothills of Mount Cincar, an untamed landscape of scrub and limestone karst in south-west Bosnia and Herzegovina. “Look, here come more,” says Matej, our safari guide, and sure enough a herd of wild horses gallops past, a whirlwind of manes and clattering hooves. Dozens of horses, once used for farming and transport, were set free more than 50 years ago and replaced by machines. Today they number upwards of 700, living in the mountains high above the village of Livno. It’s a magical sight, and another surprise on my tour. Continue reading...

Albania sets its sights on high-end eco tourism

Albania is recasting itself as a destination for alternative travel, with its spectacular landscapes away from the coast, and friendly farm stays Albania, one of Europe’s fastest-growing travel destinations, will focus on alternative rather than mass tourism in a move that government officials hope will help set it apart from competitors. The tiny Balkan state, once hermetically sealed from the outside world, has soared in popularity on the back of a reputation increasingly seen as both trendy and exotic. Last year it attracted 7.5 million visitors, more than twice its population and up from a record 6.4 million in 2019. “It’s another country compared with 10 years ago,” says the Albanian minister of tourism and environment, Mirela Kumbaro, noting that the nation has more than made up for losses incurred since the outbreak of Covid-19. “Things are changing so quickly … the Albania of 2023 is full of positive energy.” Continue reading...

Remade in Paris: new life for capital’s abandoned buildings

Across the French capital, old stations, factories and a university campus are being transformed into artists’ studios, theatres and some of the city’s hottest clubbing venues An enormous art nouveau greenhouse rises from the Meudon forest, its front made entirely of glass. Inside, suspended from the ceiling, is a 21-metre-long shiny, inflatable zeppelin, which looks as though any minute it might burst through the facade’s central circular pane. The airship is a permanent, site-specific artwork by Korean artist Lee Bul, designed to draw attention to and define the huge space: this is Hangar Y, the world’s first airship manufacturing hangar, built in 1878. Less than 10 miles south-west of Paris, it churned out airships and hot-air balloons until the end of the first world war. After a brief spell as an aeronautics museum, it was abandoned and left empty for 40 years. Continue reading...

Kenya Tourism Targets Other African Countries With Marketing

Kenya wants to double its tourism earnings in the next four years, but it faces considerable infrastructure challenges that could hinder potential growth for the East African nation. -Selene Brophy

Hikes, hot tubs and proper snow? Our family ski trip in Slovakia is a revelation

The protected summits and valleys of the Tatras offer a return to the pleasures of traditional winter holidays – this time with all mod cons The Tatra mountains in Slovakia had been touted as a great destination for a family skiing holiday. But as we stumbled out of the sleeper train from Prague at Poprad station at 6am, we were more anxious than excited. From the station we could see the jagged peaks of the High Tatras rising like black and white knives with a luminous pre-dawn glow against a pale blue night sky. Across Europe the news had been dominated by the lack of snow, that climate change was bringing about the end of the skiing industry as we know it. As the mountain railway from Poprad climbed up through the foothills and wound its way through forests of spruce and larch, stopping at several mountain villages before arriving at the main resort of Tatranská Lomnica, we were slowly reassured. The snow was not deep, but deep enough, and above us we could see the sweep of pistes beneath the peaks and the lights of the snow tractors crawling about their tasks. Continue reading...

A South Carolina Community Debates the Merits of Heritage Tourism

Today’s edition of Skift’s daily podcast looks at a tourism debate in South Carolina, Airbus and Boeing delays, and North Dakota’s new marketing campaign. -Jason Clampet

Immersed in sea, snow, sand and silence: a winter break in Lithuania

A 60-mile sandbar dotted with forests and icy lagoons, the Curonian Spit’s buried villages, elk and elemental beauty attracted Sartre and De Beauvoir Small icebergs bob on the waves. The beach is grey and frozen. To the north are the Dead Dunes, and to the south – past the Valley of Death – is the forested peninsula that marks the Russian border. Squeezed between a freshwater lagoon and the roaring Baltic Sea, the shifting sand beneath my feet has swallowed villages, occasionally spitting out bones from abandoned cemeteries. It is, perhaps, an unlikely destination for a winter holiday. But everything about Lithuania’s Curonian Spit is unlikely, and this is the secret of its stark, unreal beauty. A 61-mile-long sandbar that arcs alongside the Baltic coast, half in Lithuania and half in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, its unique ecology has gained it Unesco world heritage site status. A landmass formed from enormous dunes that rose from the sea 5,000 years ago – legend says they were created by a giantess called Neringa – the spit became densely forested with birch, oak and pine. Continue reading...

How to save money when booking a summer holiday

Bagging a great-value break is still possible despite rising prices – but it does involve research and planning, says our cheap holiday expert Recent headlines have not been kind to those of us who like a bargain getaway. With the price of hotels, self-catering and package holidays all rising, there’s been a barrage of bad news, putting a dampener on our summer holiday plans even before we’ve started looking. But just how hopeless is the situation? I have made it my profession to search out cheap holidays, so I’m not prepared to throw in the towel just yet. True, I would be in denial if I refused to acknowledge current climbing costs, but I also think these straitened times give us an opportunity to hone our holiday booking skills while embracing one of my favourite things about travel: trying something new. Continue reading...

The best Baltic beach holidays: where to go for summer, sea and sand

With culture and beautiful sands aplenty, the coastal towns of Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia make for a break with a difference Gdańsk is one of the most interesting cities in Europe. Birthplace of philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, author Günter Grass (when it was still known as Danzig) and the Solidarity movement, the old town, artfully rebuilt after the second world war, thrives with hotels and a buzzy bar scene (a standout is the Red Light pub, with comfy armchairs and vodka cocktails). The city has two superb museums, the European Solidarity Centre and the immersive Museum of the Second World War. Continue reading...

Wyndham’s Recovery in Hotel Room Rates May Plateau This Year

Middle-income U.S. consumers have yet to let price hikes or declining savings get in the way of booking travel. Wyndham benefited in the fourth quarter. Yet the world's largest hotel franchisor expects rate gains to plateau in 2023. -Sean O'Neill

Tripadvisor’s Generative AI Worries

Today’s edition of Skift’s daily podcast looks at Tripadvisor's AI worries, targeting older travelers, and Intrepid's big animal welfare decision. -Jason Clampet

Looking for an affordable beach holiday? Head to eastern Europe

The Balkan countries of Croatia, Bulgaria, Albania and Montenegro have warm sunshine and great prices in the shoulder season of June and September When picturing Bulgaria’s 235-mile Black Sea coastline, most people think of the big party resorts such as Sunny Beach and Sozopol. But head further north towards the Romanian border and past the port of Varna, and the coast is less busy side. Until 2016, the town of Kavarna used to throb to the sound of heavy metal every summer during the Kavarna Rock Fest, but it’s now an agreeably laid-back place with a long town beach and a large nature reserve practically on its doorstep. Hike up the cliff to Chirakman to get glorious views of the coast, as well as a look at the ruins of the Byzantine Bison Fortress. Continue reading...

By the light of the silvery moon: night walking in Wales’ Brecon Beacons

The hike to the Garn Coch iron age fort may be pretty by day, but a new guided full-moon walk offers a whole other experience I’m under the moonlight, the serious moonlight, and my imagination’s running riot. Surrounded by vast mounds of rocks – the chaotic remains of 2,000-year-old ramparts – I picture families clad in animal skins huddled around their roundhouse hearths, secure from the savage winter chill, howling wolves and marauding Celtic tribes. My overactive mind’s excusable. The potent combination of a dazzling snow moon and enigmatic hilltop ruin is guaranteed to stir the senses. It’s exactly what Carmarthenshire walking guide Lisa Denison hoped for when she launched a new series of full-moon hikes exploring Garn Goch, an iron age fort on the western fringe of Brecon Beacons national park in south Wales. Continue reading...

JetBlue Forced to Reconsider American Airlines Alliance

Today’s edition of Skift’s daily podcast looks at the JetBlue-Spirit merger, inbound international visitation to the U.S., and an untraditional hotel in Verona, Italy. -Jason Clampet

A world of wonders and catastrophes: discovering Vermeer and his hometown

As the biggest ever show of the artist’s work is unveiled in Amsterdam, we retrace the enigmatic painter’s footsteps in Delft and also The Hague Dodging the oncoming bikes, I climb a low mound a few feet above water level and look across at the city. It is a clear evening: the horizon holds a delicate tang of orange that ascends, becoming royal blue, then indigo. In front of me is a quay where a few boats are moored; beyond that, an expanse of water, and then the city itself, a smudge of bare trees, steep gables and church spires. It’s pleasant, but scarcely dramatic, and yet I think that this view changed the way my brain is wired. In about 1660 an artist came down here and painted what he saw. Johannes Vermeer was not a famous man then, nor would he be for more than 200 years, but that picture, View of Delft, would prove pivotal in art history. Delft is a small Dutch city of about 100,000 people, just 40 miles south-west of Amsterdam. It was carved out of low-lying land in the 13th century, then grew into a centre for printing, pottery and, by the early 17th century, fine art. Perhaps it was the light that inspired the painters: those big northern skies reflected in the canals and the contrasting shady interiors filled with men in black hats and women with pale, enigmatic faces. Continue reading...

This Hotel Asset Manager Wants the Industry to Rethink How Hotels Run

Michelle Russo knows hotel operations inside and out. She has some changes she'd like the sector to make. -Sean O'Neill

Air India Seals Record Orders for About 500 Jets: Sources

If the reports are true, Air India will massively upgrade its fleet while piling on debt. The airline's new owner, Tata, must think it can boost the carrier's market share to help escape a business tailspin. -Sean O'Neill

Cumbria on a plate: 10 best restaurants in and around the Lake District

Foodies should make tracks to the UK county that now boasts the most Michelin stars One of the most welcoming hotels in the Lakes, the Gilpin combines flawless service with a warm informal feel. This extends to Gilpin, the hotel’s Michelin-starred restaurant, helmed by Ollie Bridgewater, formerly of Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck. The cooking is note-perfect, from charcoal-roasted cauliflower steak with black garlic ketchup to roast cod with saffron compote and vermouth emulsion. There is also an à la carte option if the tasting menu feels a little daunting. Paired wines add to the experience and the optional extra cheese course should not be missed. Tasting menu £120pp; doubles from £285 B&B; thegilpin.co.uk Continue reading...

The Era of Radical Innovation In Travel Booking Has Arrived

For years, we at Skift have talked about messaging & voice search being two potential new interfaces that help change travel booking, but not much has happened. Conversational AI is very likely going to change that. -Rafat Ali

Dolly Parton, Visa Delays, AI for Expenses and More Travel News

For this weekend's roundup of top travel stories we look at a few Super Bowl ads, the U.S. tourist visa backlog, Hilton and Expedia's earnings, and more news from this week. -Jason Clampet

Six of Europe’s best slow, scenic rail journeys

The views are better from a slow train, says our rail expert, who recommends six leisurely routes across some of Europe’s most captivating landscapes Few pleasures compete with relaxing on a comfortable train and watching the landscape slip by beyond the window. Here are six of my favourite routes, ranging from under four to over nine hours, so easily completed in a day. Interrail passes are valid on all these journeys, although a small supplement (€1.50 to €4) is payable by passholders on the French, Polish and Spanish routes. Continue reading...

Holidaymakers planning to visit Turkey told to travel with caution

While Istanbul, Ankara and the Aegean coast are operating as normal, tourists are advised to avoid the immediate vicinity of the earthquake • Turkey and Syria earthquake: follow latest updates Holidaymakers are being urged to be cautious when travelling to Turkey following the two earthquakes that hit the south-east of the country, as well as neighbouring Syria, on Monday. Continue reading...

The best hotels near 10 of Europe’s major rail hubs

These stylish places to stay, eat and drink have city centre locations and are within walking distance of the station – just the ticket for an easy break Terminus Nord hotel, opposite Gare du Nord, Paris’s Eurostar terminal, is inspired by the multicultural inhabitants of the surrounding 10th arrondissement. The reception is reminiscent of a French kiosk, there are street art murals in the communal areas, and the individually designed, colourful rooms are themed on Africa and Asia. The Neni restaurant serves Israeli-Mediterranean dishes and the bar is dimly lit, with inviting leather armchairs. In the Jogging Corner, guests wanting to explore the city on foot can find maps and route suggestions. Bike hire and guided cycle tours are also available. Doubles from €143 room-only, 25hours-hotels.com Continue reading...

Jungles, jackfruit and community tourism: this is Sri Lanka at its best

Our author and her family are wowed by an ethical travel break, meeting local schoolchildren and visiting eco resorts set in verdant countryside and by pristine beaches There is a moment of absolute stillness – the battered football whizzing through the air, all eyes following it, before it crashes down into the glass case and tiny gasps escape little mouths. Thankfully, it rolls off, leaving the glass and the encased Buddha statue unharmed. We are playing football on a dusty, sunbaked escarpment with a group of farm children, and amid the excitement I almost destroy the village’s religious relic. But the game goes on, with limbs flying everywhere, toes (mine) getting stamped on and the football continuing to fly skywards. Continue reading...

5G Upgrade Delays Could Disrupt U.S. Airline Summer Schedules

The International Air Transport Association is concerned many airlines won't be able to retrofit their planes to handle new 5G wireless technology in time for the peak summer travel season. The amount of revenue at risk should be incentive enough to speed things up. -Matthew Parsons

U.S. Hotel Hiring Surges

Today’s edition of Skift’s daily podcast looks at hotel hirings in the U.S., tourism adverts on streaming services, and Icelandair's quarterly earnings. -Jason Clampet

10 of the best new hotels in Britain

Countryside havens, Jacobean houses, beach hangouts and a converted chapel are among our pick of openings and revamps in 2023 Boys Hall, a gorgeous Jacobean house in Ashford, Kent, has been restored as a restaurant with rooms. There are five suites with original four-poster beds, window seats and roll-top baths; three doubles with en suite bathrooms; and two smaller doubles with shower rooms. The oak-beamed dining room looks out on to the walled garden and serves dishes inspired by classic British comfort food: fillet of venison with spinach and smoked garlic (£32), say, followed by beef suet sticky toffee pudding (£9). There is also a wood-panelled pub serving Kentish ales and posh bar snacks such as confit duck eclairs. The Grade II-listed hall, built in 1616, has more than a hectare of landscaped grounds; treatment rooms and luxury cabins around the pond are in the pipeline. Doubles from £160 B&B, boys-hall.com Continue reading...

Tin mines, art and subtropical gardens: a car-free break in west Cornwall

A shoreline-hugging bus route from Penzance and a cross-country one to St Ives come into their own in this exploration of the county’s historic, cultural and natural riches The fields ahead are yellow with daffodils and a soft ocean breeze smells of seaweed and smoked fish. I’m on an open-topped bus above Newlyn harbour near Penzance, where I arrived by train this morning. Through window of that train, I passed a frozen wonderland of icy floods and frosty trees, but west Cornwall feels like another country: lush ferns, palm trees and bright pink camellias flourish in coastal gardens. There are ancient crosses where green lanes meet, and Cornwall’s tallest still-standing stones, the Pipers, cast afternoon shadows like a giant sundial. Just beyond them, there’s a perfect top-deck view of the Merry Maidens stone circle. It may seem counterintuitive to explore by bus in a county known for twisty lanes and summer traffic jams, but it proves reliable and cheap as well ass sustainable. One of many remarkable things about this spectacular three-hour journey on the Land’s End Coaster, which runs round the tip of Cornwall to St Ives and then cross-country back to Penzance, is that it costs just £2. The bus is part of an ongoing scheme across England, capping many single fares until 31 March. Even when the scheme ends, a day ticket in Cornwall will be just £5 for unlimited travel across the county on buses run by any company. The circular Land’s End Coaster route helps cut down on traffic at honeypot sites and – as a year-round service – it’s useful for local transport. Several people get on and off with shopping bags, and three walkers with dogs climb on board at the saffron-walled Gurnard’s Head Inn. Continue reading...

Rhodes less travelled: finding peace on the Greek island

Away from the tourist hotspots, this popular Aegean island still has plenty of magic Lunchtime in Apollona, a small village situated in the khaki-tinged hinterland of Rhodes, and all is quiet – save for one terrace set on a small side road above the houses. Here, a mix of locals and visitors sit around wooden tables, on which half-drunk carafes of wine, platters of roasted meats and feta-freckled salads are placed next to bowls of homemade bread. Between the tables, a stout man in an apron bustles around, explaining dishes, telling stories and pouring the wine he sources from friends’ vineyards on the island. This is Giannis, owner and creator of the taverna, Paraga, and a man consumed by a passion for the rich foodie heritage of Rhodes. Lunch begins with three types of bread and an aubergine dip thick with sesame and yoghurt. Many of Paraga’s recipes have been handed down through the generations. Our main course, a rich beef stifado, has been cooked in clay since the morning, giving Giannis a wonderfully theatrical moment of gently cracking open the ceramic pot to reveal an unctuous stew, served alongside succulent, stock-soaked potatoes. We eat gluttonously, gazing out over the lush green hills, holm oaks and Italian cypress popping up between the silvery-grey olive groves and spindly vineyard lines. Continue reading...

10 of Ireland’s most charming villages

Some of the quirkiest, most picturesque villages are nestled in the outer reaches of the Irish countryside, which has helped preserve their character Ireland’s most beautiful and well known villages are easy to love. Even their names – Doolin, Adare, Dingle, Kenmare – roll off the tongue in a smooth syllable or two, as if they are part of a jingle or the end word of a rhyming couplet. Some of them rocketed to fame when they caught the eye of a film crew – such as Cong in The Quiet Man (1952) or Trim in Braveheart (1995), while more places grew in prominence because of their proximity to large cities or popular attractions. Yet dig a little deeper and you’ll discover some of the most charming in the more remote areas of the Irish countryside, where the past sits more comfortably with the present. Their obscurity – perhaps because of a limited bus service or their narrow country roads – has preserved their wonderfully idiosyncratic character. They might even be more beautiful than their high-profile counterparts yet perhaps less appreciated by tourists, because they are not as accessible. But, for me, that just adds to their allure. Continue reading...

‘There’s a savage beauty to the place’: the dark mystery of Ireland’s Connemara region

The setting for Kathleen MacMahon’s new novel, The Home Scar, is a haunting expanse of lakes, bogs, heathland and mountains in County Galway It starts at the top of a mountain. Not the novel itself, but the idea for the novel. The mountain is Errisbeg, on the coast of Connemara in County Galway. It’s an ugly lump of a thing, pocked with prickly yellow gorse and patches of swampy bog, but the landscape it commands is magnificent. The face of the mountain looks directly down on the back-to-back beaches of Dog’s Bay and Gurteen Strand. To the east is the lovely village of Roundstone. The Ballyconeely and Erislannan peninsulas are to the north-west, and beyond them lie the beginnings of the Atlantic, dotted with small islands. So far, so normal. It’s only when you turn away from the sea and cast your eye inland that things get a little strange. The view travels across an expanse of desolation that stretches as far as the Twelve Bens mountain range in the distance. Not a thing lies between, only bog and scrub and pockets of water and the shadows of clouds travelling over the land. There’s a savage beauty to the place, but there’s also the feeling of something missing. This is a landscape strangely bereft of trees. Continue reading...

‘We’re like an island’: inside Florence’s secret neighbourhood

Only minutes from the centre of one of Italy’s most visited cities, the Sant’Ambrogio district has managed to stay under the tourist radar. Locals in market square tell us what makes it so special The Florentine neighbourhood of Sant’Ambrogio may only be 10 minutes’ walk east from the landmark Duomo and Palazzo Vecchio, but this part of the Tuscan capital has a distinctive character far removed from the tourist pizza traps and overpriced gelato. It’s a tight-knit community that is still genuinely Florentine but also multi-ethnic. It’s a food nirvana and a favourite student haunt. The crowds thronging the historical centre quickly thin out as I pass into Sant’Ambrogio and the tranquil gardens of Piazza dei Ciompi. It is noon on Friday, and while Giotto’s bell tower may be chiming back in the Piazza del Duomo, the noise that greets me in the piazza is the muezzin’s call to prayer. Crowds of Muslims unroll their prayer mats in the middle of Piazza dei Ciompi, home to the Masjid Al-Taqwa, Florence’s principal mosque. Continue reading...

Murderous moors: a hike in Yorkshire’s Happy Valley

Our writer dons his waterproof trousers for an 11-mile stroll along the towpaths and moortops of Happy Valley country, from Halifax to Todmorden Come spring, chances are there’ll be driving tours in fake panda cars along the A646 between Halifax and Todmorden, with overnight stays in dodgy-looking farmhouses. Happy Valley has done for Calderdale what Peaky Blinders did for Birmingham, and dark telly tourism is all about ticking off locations and looking the part (though I’m not sure hi-vis tabards will catch on). But there are three better, more active ways to explore the Calder valley. Two of these use the Calderdale Way, either the northern section or the southern, both of which involve hill climbs and traverses across fields, hedgerows, stiles – the usual argy-bargy of agricultural rambling. The third, easier option is the towpath of the Rochdale canal – and that is what I did, or at least how I began, getting off the train at Sowerby Bridge and heading west. Canals are flat and sometimes circuitous, but they require no navigation skills. You can look around as you amble. As they were built for industry, they take walkers close to the action – people, places, buildings – and there’s plenty to see along this valley. Continue reading...

Extreme adventure from Afghanistan to Ecuador: the Banff Mountain Film Festival returns

Shortly to tour the UK, this festival of exhilarating documentaries expands our notions of human possibility – and focuses attention on inequality and the environment The Banff Mountain film festival opens the door to the inspiring stories of people who simultaneously confront their physical and mental limits and the elements. And with this year’s festival featuring films on a lawyer running ultra marathons to help women in Afghanistan, a mountain-biking family living with disability, and the first woman to kayak down a 30-metre waterfall, there’s more than a hint of activism over environmental and equality concerns. The festival, which began in 1976, celebrates and showcases the best of mountain culture, sports, and adventure. Over 2023, it will tour the world, with in-person and online screenings taking place in more than 40 countries, including more than 50 cities in the UK and Ireland. Rafael Bridi in Walking On Clouds Continue reading...