Travel Industry news

• Empty beaches guaranteed: a wintry weekend break in north Devon

  26-11-2025 07:00
  With stunning beaches, cosy cafes and a lot fewer people, the unspoilt surfing village of Croyde has just as much to offer out of seasonIt’s been a while since I’ve struggled into damp neoprene of a morning. It’s the second day of a wintry weekend in Croyde, north-west Devon; I’m stiff from an hour in the sea the previous afternoon, and the upper part of the super-thick wetsuit won’t budge past my elbows. Together, my husband, Mark, and I jiggle and pull and yank it
  
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• Hebridean high: joy, tears and camaraderie on a 100km trek for charity across the Isle of Skye

  03-01-2026 08:00
  A 100km hike to raise funds and awareness for breast cancer proves uplifting and challenging in equal measure, with friends made for lifeThe day starts with a gentle trek. We clamber up from Flodigarry to circle under the black cliffs of the Quiraing where clouds flood around the bizarre rock formations. At the pass, we meet a howling wind and force our way down with shrieks of laughter.I’m walking on the Isle of Skye, specifically a section of the Trotternish Ridge for Copp
  
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• From climbing Kilimanjaro to cycling the Tour de France route … readers’ favourite organised challenges

  02-01-2026 08:00
  Whether it’s for the satisfaction of completing a tough physical challenge or to raise money for charity, our readers select their most memorable adventures
  • Tell us about your favourite beach in Europe – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucherWhen tackling a big cycling challenge, choose an event with strong support – it makes all the difference. Riding the full Tour de France route with Ride Le Loop was tough, but the incredible staff turned it into an unforgetta
  
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• Hull’s maritime history thrusts city into world’s top places to visit in 2026

  01-01-2026 17:00
  Historic trawler and floating lighthouse among East Yorkshire city’s attractions as it gears up for tourism boostA combination of a world record-breaking trawler, a floating lighthouse and a dizzying array of maritime objects that include a stuffed polar bear called Erik are all helping to make Hull one of the top 25 places in the world to visit in 2026.The East Yorkshire city is on the verge of completing an ambitious £70m transformation, which, supporters believe, will propel it in
  
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• 10 of the best learning holidays in Europe for 2026

  01-01-2026 08:00
  From rock climbing in the Peak District to honing your creative writing skills in Crete, why not take a break with like minds and fellow learners this year?Even complete beginners will soon be scaling sheltered Peak District crags on this two-day course with Pure Outdoor. Participants will master tying in, belaying and several climbing techniques, as well as abseiling down. With a maximum of six learners to one instructor, there is a lot individual attention and personalised targets. The course
  
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• ‘It’s bigger than Hogmanay’: Shetland’s Up Helly Aa Viking fire festival

  31-12-2025 08:00
  The raucous celebration of the new year and the islands’ Nordic heritage culminates in the ritual burning of a longship – and much drinkingBeyond a misty veil, dawn breaks above Shetland – sort of. The days feel as if they never quite get going here at this time of year, and it’s important, as the long nights of winter drag on, to have a hobby. Here in Lerwick, the capital of the archipelago, the locals have divined a unique way of passing the time, while honouring the de
  
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• Saunas, electronica and air guitar: Oulu, Finland’s tech city, is European Capital of Culture 2026

  30-12-2025 08:00
  This Nordic city and digital hub is having its moment in the (midnight) sun, offering cultural, arty events and pleasingly eclectic sillinessA floating community sauna on frozen Lake Oulu seemed as good a place as any to ask Finnish locals what they think of the European Capital of Culture bandwagon that will be rolling into their city in 2026. Two women sweltering on the top bench seemed to sweat more over my question than over the clouds of sauna steam – the result of a beefy Finn ladlin
  
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• ‘A watery gold sunrise lights the turbulent water’: the wild beauty of the Suffolk coast

  29-12-2025 08:00
  Coastal erosion may threaten the area around Southwold, but a new ‘movable’ cabin makes a great base for exploring its windswept beaches, remote marshes and welcoming innsThe crumbling cliff edge is just metres away. An automatic blind, which I can operate without getting out of bed, rises to reveal an ocean view: the dramatic storm-surging North Sea with great black-backed gulls circling nearby and a distant ship on the horizon. A watery gold sunrise lights the clouds and turbulent
  
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• 11 of the UK’s best winter walks – all ending at a cosy pub

  27-12-2025 08:00
  Too much turkey and Baileys? Blow away the Christmas cobwebs on one of our rambles. And if that doesn’t work, they all end at a pub for a hair of the dogDistance 7 miles
  Duration 5 hours
  Start/finish Ditchling village car park Continue reading...
  
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• ‘Emerge from misty woods above a sea of clouds’: readers’ favourite UK winter walks

  26-12-2025 08:00
  Readers revel in winter light, wildlife spectacles and cosy pubs from Norfolk to Northumberland
  • Tell us about your favourite European beach – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucherWho needs the Swiss Alps when you have Macclesfield Forest on your doorstep? Walking from Trentabank car park, the 506-metre peak of Shutlingsloe is the gift that keeps on giving. The panoramic views from its summit, dubbed Cheshire’s mini Matterhorn, are breathtaking at any time of year. But
  
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• Around the world in 50 countries: the globe-trotting Christmas travel quiz

  25-12-2025 07:00
  From the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World to Donald Trump’s territorial wishlist, test your travel knowledge. Every answer is the name of a countryName the six countries or territories Donald Trump has said or suggested he would like to annex, acquire or take control of. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘It’s a social hub more than a pub’: Scottish community reopens its local inn just in time for Christmas

  24-12-2025 08:00
  As pubs nationwide buckle under soaring costs, one Argyll village spent three years buying and restoring theirs – and has ambitious plans for the futureIt’s opening night at Scotland’s newest community pub, Oakbank Inn, which sits on the Holy Loch in the village of Sandbank, Argyll. It’s a clear, cold night, and the inn couldn’t look more welcoming: a cosy glow from within the historic building, the Cowal hills beyond. The Christmas lights are twinkling, the glasses
  
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• ‘An unsung alternative to the Cotswolds‘: exploring Leicestershire’s Welland valley

  23-12-2025 08:00
  This hidden gem has country inns, canalside walks, a stunning viaduct, the historic town of Market Harborough – and not a tour bus in sightIt was a chilly Sunday in November 2000 when the gods chose to smile on Ken Wallace. The retired teacher was sweeping his metal detector across a hillside in Leicestershire’s Welland valley when a series of beeps brought him up short. Digging down, he found a cache of buried coins almost two millennia old. He had chanced upon one of the UK’s
  
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• Stargazing in the Lake District: a new forest observatory opens in Grizedale

  22-12-2025 08:00
  There’s no shortage of stunning scenery and daytime activities in the Lakes. Now, an observatory is offering stellar nocturnal events tooA tawny owl screeches nearby in the dark and her mate replies, hooting eerily from the forest below. A white dome floats in the gloaming above a plain black doorway outlined with red light, like a portal to another dimension. I’m in Grizedale Forest, far from any light-polluting cities, to visit the Lake District’s first public observator
  
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• Come on in, all ye faithful: 18 of the UK’s best mass swims for Christmas, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day

  21-12-2025 08:00
  Festive sea swims are pure joy – and also blow away the cobwebs, unite communities and raise money for charity. Here are some old (and new) favouritesFelixstowe, Suffolk
  A proper community affair, with hundreds of participants resplendent in festive finery racing into the North Sea at 10am sharp while much of the town gathers along the promenade to watch. The event raises funds for St Elizabeth Hospice, and every year brings new tales of heroics and even romance (there’s been the odd
  
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• I took my kids to Lapland on the Santa Claus Express – but would the big man deliver?

  20-12-2025 08:00
  If meeting Santa is on your family wishlist, this trip on a festive sleeper train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi, with reindeer and huskies thrown in, is Christmas with jingle bells onChristmas was only a few days away and the Finnish capital of Helsinki was ringing with festive cheer as we explored the Tuomaan Markkinat in Senate Square, sipping from mugs of hot, spicy glögi (mulled wine), and biting into joulutorttu (jam-filled puff pastries shaped like catherine wheels). A cold front had bro
  
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• ‘You can’t beat a wintry walk on a crisp, bright day’: readers’ favourite UK winter activities

  19-12-2025 09:00
  From rockpooling in Somerset to stargazing in Northumberland, our readers share their favourite seasonal outdoor activities
  • Tell us about a beach holiday – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucherArrive at Fowlmere RSPB reserve, 10 miles south-west of Cambridge, an hour before nightfall to allow yourself time to find a good vantage point to enjoy the spectacle of the murmuration. Starlings gather and swirl in fluid Spirograph shapes, framed by shadowy trees against sunset reds
  
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• Why west Cornwall is the perfect place to mark the winter solstice

  18-12-2025 08:00
  With ancient standing stones and modern midwinter festivals, the West Penwith peninsula is a land of magic and mysteryThe light is fading fast as I stand inside Tregeseal stone circle near St Just. The granite stones of the circle are luminous in this sombre landscape, like pale, inquisitive ghosts gathered round to see what we’re up to. Above us, a sea of withered bracken and gorse rises to Carn Kenidjack, the sinister rock outcrop that dominates the naked skyline. At night, this moor is
  
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• Share a tip on your favourite beach in Europe

  17-12-2025 18:02
  Tell us about a lesser-known European beach – the best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays breakAt this time of year, thoughts turn to warmer days and dreamy holidays on sun-drenched beaches. We’d love to hear about beaches you’ve discovered on your travels in Europe (excluding the UK). We’re interested in places beyond the usual tourist haunts – coves and sandy stretches overlooked by the holiday crowds.The best tip of the week, chosen by Tom Hall of Lonely Pla
  
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• Share a tip on a favourite beach in Europe

  17-12-2025 18:02
  Tell us about your favourite lesser-known European beach – the best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays breakAt this time of year, thoughts turn to warmer days and dreamy holidays on sun-drenched beaches. We’d love to hear about favourite beaches you’ve discovered on your travels in Europe (excluding the UK). We’re interested in places beyond the usual tourist haunts – lesser-known bays, coves and sandy stretches overlooked by the holiday crowds. Tell us where i
  
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• A winter tour of Luxembourg’s fairytale chateaux – on the country’s free bus network

  17-12-2025 08:00
  This tiny country is awash with atmospheric castles, many of which you can stay in, making for a magical wintry break. And it won’t cost you a cent to travel between themThe top of the tower had disappeared in the mist, but its bells rang clear and true, tolling beyond the abbey gates, over the slopes of frost-fringed trees, down to the town in the valley below. Final call for morning mass. I took a seat at the back of the modern church, built when the Abbey of Saint Maurice and Saint Maur
  
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• Delizioso! Six of Italy’s tastiest local food delicacies – and where to try them

  16-12-2025 08:01
  It will come as little surprise that Italian cuisine has been added to Unesco’s cultural heritage list. Here are a select few of the country’s countless regional specialitiesLast week’s announcement that Italian cuisine has been added to Unesco’s intangible cultural heritage list came as no surprise to anyone familiar with that country’s obsession with food. Unesco called Italy’s cooking a “communal activity” in which “people of all ages and
  
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• All I want for Christmas … is to escape and go travelling

  15-12-2025 08:00
  Going away for the festive season has left me with unforgettable memories, from a boat trip with Bangladeshi fishermen to exploring Castro’s Cuban hideoutI have made a point of escaping Christmas for as long as I can remember. Not escaping for Christmas, but avoiding it altogether – the stressful buildup, consumer chaos, panic buying, the enforced jollity and parties. When the first festive gifts start appearing in the shops in September, it’s time to confirm my travel plans, i
  
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• Our 25 favourite European travel discoveries of 2025

  13-12-2025 11:41
  The most exciting places our writers came across this year, from untouched islands in Finland to an affordable ski resort in Bulgaria and the perfect Parisian bistroOn a midsummer trip to Ireland, I saw dolphins in the Irish Sea, sunset by the Liffey, and misty views of the Galtee Mountains. The half-hour train journey to Cobh (“cove”), through Cork’s island-studded harbour, was especially lovely. As the railway crossed Lough Mahon, home to thousands of seabirds, there was wate
  
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• ‘We walked in awe, gazing across the sea’: readers’ favourite travel discoveries of 2025

  12-12-2025 08:00
  From Essex to Istanbul, and from a soul music bar to a dramatic mountain pass, our tipsters share their personal travel highlights of the yearMoments after stepping off the bus, I wanted to text my friend: “What have I done to you, why did you tell me to come here?” As I weaved my way through coach-party day trippers, my initial suspicions dissipated. I came to swim, but Piran offered so much more. Venetian squares provided a delicately ornate backdrop, while cobbled passageways hous
  
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• Underground art: exploring the unique designs of London’s tube seats

  11-12-2025 08:00
  Most metros use plastic or metal, but the distinctive fabrics on London’s network are full of clues to its historyWhen I first came to London from Yorkshire in the late 1980s, I found the tube replete with bizarre novelties. Among them was the way most trains required me to sit sideways to the direction of travel, as on a fairground waltzer. Directly opposite me was another person or an empty seat, and while I knew not to stare at people, I did stare at the seats – at their woollen c
  
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• Why I love Portscatho in Cornwall – especially in winter

  10-12-2025 08:00
  It’s a far cry from the sun-kissed beaches of Cape Town where she grew up, but the simple pleasures of a seaside village in Cornwall draw the author back year after yearThe idea of the sea that I grew up with was associated with sundowners and souped-up cars and skipping classes to sunbathe with the models who took over Cape Town’s beaches each summer. As a student, long nights would end, not infrequently, with a swim at sunrise (until, one morning, the police arrived to remind us th
  
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• ‘This is the real Santa’s workshop’: a trip to Germany’s toy village

  09-12-2025 08:00
  You don’t have to be a child to enjoy Seiffen, the magical ‘home of Christmas’ where they’ve been making traditional wooden toys for hundreds of yearsI feel terrible … I’ve left the children at home and Seiffen, nicknamed Spielzeugdorf (The Toy Village), is literally a Christmas wonderland. Every street is alive with sparkling fairy lights and soft candlelight. There are thousands of tiny wooden figurines, train sets and toy animals displayed in shop windows,
  
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• ‘When the church door opens, it’s like a miracle’: the phone app that’s a key to Italy’s religious art

  08-12-2025 08:00
  A cultural initiative in Piedmont is unlocking a trove of priceless medieval frescoes in rural churchesThe Santa Maria di Missione chapel in Villafranca Piemonte, northern Italy, stands at the end of a long cornfield. Behind it, the mountains rise gently, their outlines caressed by the sun. The colours of autumn frame the 15th-century frescoes that embellish the structure’s interior, painted by Italian artist Aimone Duce, of the Lombard school. The chapel is the municipality’s o
  
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• Supermarché sweep: the treats we love to buy on holiday in Europe

  07-12-2025 08:00
  Italian sweets, Irish smoked fish, honey cakes in Belgium … travel writers choose the stores and local delicacies they make a beeline for when travellingI fell in love with Belgian snacks when cycling the amateur version of the Tour of Flanders some years ago. The feed stations along the route were crammed with packets of Meli honey waffles and Meli honey cake. I ate so many that I suffered withdrawal symptoms after finishing the last of them at the end of the 167-mile route. Continue rea
  
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