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British Muslim travel companies have said they face going out of business, with travellers potentially losing thousands of pounds, after Saudi Arabia launched a new system for applying for the hajj pilgrimage. The Saudi government announced this month that pilgrims from Europe, the US and Australia could no longer book through travel agencies and would […]

Rewilding retreat, Cairngorms Discover the richness of Scotland’s wildlife on a week-long tour, focusing on the rewilding programmes that are opening up across the Highlands. The trip offers the chance to see red kites – recently reintroduced to the region – bottlenose dolphins and ospreys, as well as watching pine martens from a private hide. […]

Sargasso, Margate Harbour Arm, Stone Pier, Margate CT9 1AP (01843 229270). Small plates £7-£11, large plates £9-£19, desserts £6, wines from £25 It is the simplest of dishes: half a dozen fat Calabrian anchovies, the colour of well-varnished teak, lie in a pool of deep green olive oil, dotted with sparkling droplets of what turns […]

Civilisation comes in many sizes and, for Dr Samuel Johnson, compiler of A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), his home town of Lichfield was a microcosm of educated and ordered society. He once wrote of a visit to the Staffordshire city with his trusty biographer James Boswell: “I lately took my friend and showed […]

A lot of us have been rather surprised to discover how much we like being in nature and all that outdoorsy stuff over the past couple of years. Of course, we all still love our city breaks – nothing like an exhilarating weekend in Madrid, Barcelona or Valencia to pep us up – but Spain […]

It was by accident, more or less, that we visited Castlerigg stone circle on 21 December 2016 – the day of the winter solstice. My partner and I were holed up in the Lake District for a few days after an exhausting year, beset by work stress and political upheavals. The weather was mostly foul […]

Castle Rising castle. Once you say it, there’s no obvious place to stop: “Castle-Rising-castle-rising … castle … rising … castle.” This chant would come, without fail, from the back of the car as we headed past fields of lavender, between high hedgerows, down narrow lanes leading to nowhere except, yes, Castle Rising: the tiny village […]

Rivers are marked in blue on maps, but close up, they often disappoint, their water an opaque mud-brown. But chalk streams look like rivers in a child’s picture book, sparkling and shallow, with gravel beds and lush water weed bathed in sunlight shining through limpid water. They owe their resemblance to a stiff G&T to […]

Winning tip: Isla Canela beach, Huelva Not well known among British visitors, the 7km of Isla Canela beach’s golden sands on the western tip of the Costa de la Luz are an indulgent joy. This is where the Spanish go to holiday, usually in the intense heat of July and August, but these golden sands […]

This was supposed to be a glorious summer. With Covid largely diminished, it was going to be the first year since 2019 where we would all get to pack our suitcases and jet off to warmer climes. Clearly, that hasn’t happened. There are several factors at play here. The cost of living crisis in the […]

It’s 2003 and my boyfriend and I are hovering nervously at a hotel reception in Woodbridge, Suffolk. We can sense the frosty contempt of the fiftysomething male at the desk when we ask for a double, not a twin room. After we check in, we’re both tetchy: I’m annoyed at how we’ve been treated, while […]

Passengers with a disability or reduced mobility are legally entitled to special assistance when travelling by air, with airports and airlines required to provide help and assistance free of charge. Recent experiences of disabled passengers, however, suggests that this support is not always available and cannot be relied on. ‘Traumatised and humiliated’ Suzanne Croft, a […]

Passengers with a disability or reduced mobility are legally entitled to special assistance when travelling by air, with airports and airlines required to provide help and assistance free of charge. Recent experiences of disabled passengers, however, suggests that this support is not always available and cannot be relied on. ‘Traumatised and humiliated’ Suzanne Croft, a […]

I hired a car from Goldcar for a holiday in France. I already had an annual insurance policy to cover the excess due on any claim, so did not need to buy the extra cover that staff at the collection desk at Marseille airport tried to sell me. Instead, I offered my credit card to […]

Düsseldorf’s residents call their home “the 10-minute city”, because it rarely takes longer than that to get wherever you want to go. That’s a big claim for somewhere that boasts no fewer than 50 stadtteile (mini districts), but it’s backed up by a transit system of U-Bahns and S-Bahns that gets you around easily. And […]

Flying certainly isn’t as glamorous as it once was, but that doesn’t mean it has been as painful as it is right now. Airlines charge customers for small comforts – such as sitting next to the person you booked the flight with – and that’s if your flight even gets off the ground. Many customers […]

EasyJet cabin crew unions in Spain have called nine days of strikes in July, threatening to add to a summer of disruption for airline passengers. News of the planned walkout by the Spanish USO union came the day after easyJet announced it would be cutting an estimated 11,000 flights from its summer schedules, partly in […]

The wind is fierce, making it weather to move fast in, but Louise Hollinrake and I are moving as slowly as we can along the deserted Bay of Furrowend on the island of Shapinsay. I say deserted, but now that we’re doing virtually nothing, save concentrating on our slow walking (a Buddhist meditative tool, says […]

The wind is fierce, making it weather to move fast in, but Louise Hollinrake and I are moving as slowly as we can along the deserted Bay of Furrowend on the island of Shapinsay. I say deserted, but now that we’re doing virtually nothing, save concentrating on our slow walking (a Buddhist meditative tool, says […]

The chaos at UK airports intensified on Monday as easyJet cut thousands of flights over the summer to minimise the risk of disruption, while passengers at Heathrow faced cancellations caused by caused by a “baggage mountain” . Meanwhile, airports capping flights could face legal challenges from service companies to recover the costs of recruiting staff […]

More than 40,000 staff from Network rail and 13 train operators are expected to take part in walkouts on 21, 23 and 25 June. A special timetable will be in operation from 20 to 26 June. We would like to hear about the lengths people are going to get around the train strikes this week. […]