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Disney is to overhaul its Jungle Cruise theme park attraction to remove what it describes as “negative depictions of native peoples” and to “reflect and value the diversity of the world around us”. The changes were outlined in a blogpost on its Disney Parks website, which included concept art for the redesigned attraction, a simulated […]

Saga, the travel and insurance company for the over-50s, has reported a rise in holiday interest as the first wave of customers who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 look to “travel in great numbers and live life to the full”. The company said that despite the pandemic, customer retention levels have been high and an […]

The path to the water is treacherous. The snow has covered the ice making it slippery underfoot. It is 7.45 am and dark, but my friend Vicky and I have head torches and the moon is bright. Our walk – prior to lockdown 2021 – is through the woods and down the path to the […]

We are among the many people still struggling to get a refund for Covid-cancelled flights booked though Lastminute.com. Our son’s flight from America in May was cancelled by Austrian Airlines in April and, after very many emails, we got a reply from Lastminute.com in June, offering a refund of £517. No payment was received. In […]

Boris Johnson is expected to sign off sweeping new quarantine rules for travellers in airport hotels on Tuesday as cabinet ministers rebuffed pressure from Tory MPs to set out a timetable for the easing of lockdown. In what Downing Street said was a more cautious approach since England’s third lockdown, a No 10 source said: […]

In early 2006 I arrived in Tijuana, Mexico, on a circuitous route from New York to Rio de Janeiro by bicycle. To the south lay the 1,000-mile-long Baja California peninsula, protruding between the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez. Lugging a heavy bicycle through a desert peninsula has its moments. Searing heat, countless cactus-induced […]

The dust jacket is long gone and the title-embossed spine flaps free. Naturally, many of the pages are sauce-stained: honourable marks of our stove-side adventures together. New British Classics by Gary Rhodes may be more than 20 years old, but the marks of battle are clear. It remains one of my most consulted cookbooks. When […]

SOUTH-WEST Deepdean the Cockerel, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire Visitors staying in this converted 17th-century barn may spot some unusual other guests in the grounds, including zebras, meerkats and alpacas. The owner runs a private animal sanctuary, and the income from the holiday lets (there are also two one-bedroom cottages) is invested in the animals. Another […]

Vaccine passports must become essential travel documents in order to restart international tourism. The recommendation comes from the Global Tourism Crisis Committee, which met in Madrid this week to discuss measures to ensure the safe resumption of international travel. It called for international health and travel bodies to step up the coordination of a standardised […]

Tour guides across the world are being taught about rewilding as part of a new training programme that aims to create economic opportunities within wilder landscapes. The training is run by not-for-profit organisation Rewilding Europe, which is working to return nature to a wilder state across eight regions of Europe by removing human management and […]

A few years ago I spent a winter on Upernavik, a rocky island of 1,000 inhabitants off the north-west coast of Greenland. I’d been invited to Baffin Bay as part of a programme for international writers and artists to create new work about climate at one of the most northerly museums in the world. The […]

People tell you that they travel for the culture – that they saw this great Picasso exhibition and the cathedral at Chartres was am-az-ing – and that being inside the Vatican was exciting, even after queuing for four hours and craning your neck above the crowds to see the mosaics. They’ll show you bad photos […]

Song For My Father by Horace Silver I’m a Kiwi who’s lived in London since 1991 and the pandemic made me both yearn for and fear for my family, so far away. To calm my huge angst, especially when my father’s health collapsed in March, I listened to music constantly, obsessively, jazz serving as a […]

Winning tip: ‘I could be the person I am meant to be’ This is about my autistic daughter’s hobby. She’s nine, and since last March has become an avid birdspotter and photographer. It’s been great to be outside finding nature in the city, and to see her thrive and grow, walking to and exploring local […]

Saga has become the first UK tour operator to tell cruise and holiday customers that they must be vaccinated to travel with them this summer. The over-50s travel firm, which has reported a surge in bookings since the vaccination programme was announced, is taking reservations on condition that customers are fully inoculated, with two shots […]

Every year my mother would make a bowl of Japanese New Year’s Eve noodles for my American father and me. “Just this one tradition,” she would entreat; she didn’t like American New Year, and longed for Japanese-style festivities. One year, I found one of my noodles tied in a knot, which she assured me was […]

Across Cumbria local communities, businesses and grassroots organisations are being mobilised to map out ways that they hope will help it become the UK’s first carbon-neutral county. The county has targeted 2037 to decarbonise, an ambition initially supported by £2.5m of national lottery funding, which was awarded last August and will be drip-fed over the […]

A 1950s highway, bleached to sepia by the Caribbean sun, leads from Cuba’s Santa María beaches through palm and hibiscus. It passes close to the fishing village of Cojímar, crests a small rise and there is Havana, sweeping frontage wounded but upright against the turbulent waters of the Florida Straits. During Havana’s first centuries, its […]

Rewilding centres The idea of rewilding – moving away from current forestry and agricultural techniques and allowing nature to thrive – is gaining ground. One exciting new project is Wild Ken Hill in north Norfolk, where alongside pioneering regenerative farming and traditional conservation practices, a 400-hectare (1,000-acre) area is being returned to the wild, with […]

Berenjak, berenjakbazaar.com. Meal kits £25-£45 Pizarro, josenationwide.slerp.com. Tapas £3.50-£9.50; larger dishes £18-£37; desserts £4-£15 A single red onion has been delivered to me. It arrives in a brown paper bag alongside taut-skinned tomatoes, a lemon and some plastic gloves. I am instructed to slice up the onion, then dress it with the juice of half […]

It started with a chance comment from York hotelier Simon Cowton during an interview. “I was getting depressed in lockdown,” he said. “I realised I had to have a project.” Simon’s solution was to start a building project. He set about redesigning his hotel garden as a magical support bubble-friendly outdoor restaurant. When I got […]