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Russian rub-down, London 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 […]

Start The Wallace Arms, Rowfoot, HaltwhistleDistance 4½ milesTime 3½ hoursElevation gain 215 metresDifficulty 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 […]

Senior government science advisers from the UK, Europe and Canada have called on countries around the world to offer vaccination certificates to volunteers on Covid jab trials so they can travel internationally. The UK has led the way in granting vaccine certificates to trial participants, but many countries have failed to follow suit and refuse […]

Chris Ayres was 66 when he moved aboard his yacht “with a circumnavigation in mind”. He had read about people setting off on adventures. “I thought, let’s try it. I liked the idea that you could just get on a boat and head off.” He was ready to sail when the friend who was to […]

Winning tip: A ‘film set’ close to the Polish border 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 […]

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 […]

The NHS app that lets people prove their vaccine status is not working for some users, a problem that could cause havoc for those trying to use it for travel. An error message when people try to access their Covid pass says: “Please try again later.” NHS Digital confirmed there was an issue in a […]

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 […]

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 […]

Eighteen months ago, before Covid struck, I booked a large house in Scotland for a summer holiday for 17 friends and family. For obvious reasons it had to be postponed until this July. Unique Cottages, the lettings agent, rang me less than two weeks before the start date to inform us that the property had […]

“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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Hauser & Wirth, Somerset 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 […]

Fadiga, 71 Berwick Street, London W1F 8TB (020 3609 5536). Starters £8-£12, mains £9-£18, desserts £8-£9, wines from £25 I knew there was a point to my ludicrous hair. It’s this review. Because without my midlife crisis expressed through the medium of glossy tresses, I would not have been introduced to Fadiga. It describes itself […]

Art entrepreneur Johann König has been living in the German capital for 20 years. In 2002, he set up his influential König Galerie , which today is housed in a brutalist former church in Kreuzberg. Food For German cuisine, my favourite spot is Nobelhart and Schmutzig at the Kreuzberg end of Friedrichstrasse. It’s a Michelin-starred […]

Safari-style lodges, North Yorkshire Glamping is an understatement for these two spacious, well-equipped forest boltholes: one lodge and one safari tent, surrounded by woodland on the edge of the North York Moors at Thimbleby. Coulter – the tent – boasts reclaimed wood floors and walls, with a log burner in the kitchen-living room, while Lark […]

Start The Ship, DunwichDistance 9 milesTime 5 hoursAscent 100 metresDifficulty moderate Dunwich is a village with a handful of cottages, a ruined friary, a church, a small museum, and a pub. But in the 12th century, it was an internationally important port with a thriving fishing industry; it had a dozen inns, several churches and […]

The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, said he wants to scrap costly PCR tests for international travellers returning to England in time for the October half-term holiday, in a boost to airlines and the broader industry. The tests, which cost about £75 each on average, would be replaced by cheaper lateral flow tests. The move to […]

Bibi is a new high-end opening in the capital, of which there is currently no shortage. “High-end” is a coy way that hospitality people communicate the notion of imported chandeliers, four-ply loo roll, complex cocktails, teensy portions on beautiful tableware and, outside, a Mercedes-AMG wagon being clamped by Westminster council. These restaurants have survived the […]

“Important bit of history that,” a warm West Country voice says over my shoulder as we look at the plaque outside the Seven Stars pub, a 17th-century landmark of the abolition movement. If you block out the posters for the band “Kunts” adorned with a large image of Boris Johnson, and instead focus on the […]

England’s decision to maintain strict Covid travel rules for seven South American and Caribbean countries has prompted further fury and confusion in the nations which remain on the “red list”. Ministers announced on Thursday that restrictions would be lifted for 47 countries – including Brazil, South Africa and Thailand – allowing travellers to enter England […]

From green lakes to the blue Adriatic coast to massive mountains in the north, Montenegro’s has a definite wow factor. People come here looking for untouched nature and to escape the crowds and, apart from certain spots along the coast, this is easy to do. On Lake Skadar, one of the largest lakes in southern […]