Travel Industry news

• Exploring Rabat, Morocco – this year’s Unesco World Book Capital

  01-08-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Rabat is a gorgeous seaside city with great food and culture, but for book lovers there’s an added incentive to go this yearThe first book I read willingly was Bridget Jones’s Diary. I was 19. Up to that point, I hadn’t been much of a reader. I’d been more into football, or Baywatch, or Robin Budd in the year above – anything really. Given the choice between reading a book and staring at a wall, I would have plumped for the latter.After finishing my A-levels, I work
  
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• ‘Living proof damaged landscapes can recover’: exploring a vast restored forest in southern Sweden

  13-08-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Söderåsen national park is one of Europe’s largest protected broadleaf woods, offering wild swimming, spectacular hiking trails and an inspiring story of regenerationFrom the bus window, the ridge looks like a giant slumbering beast stretched deep green across the flat farmland. “It feels alive,” I say to the woman beside me. “Yes,” she answers. “It is where you would run for safety, don’t you think?”I am in southern Sweden to explore S&
  
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• Katendrecht: Rotterdam’s sailors’ quarter reinvented as cultural hub

  12-08-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  The regeneration of historic warehouses has transformed this former red-light district into one of the port city’s most vibrant areasA thin peninsula just south of Rotterdam’s centre, Katendrecht was once at the heart of the world’s busiest port, home to continental Europe’s first Chinatown and a lively sailors’ quarter. Its later reputation as a red light district has been shrugged off – part of the city’s wider reinvention in the aftermath of extensive
  
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• In the footsteps of the Victorians on the Isle of Man

  11-08-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Steam trains, horse-drawn trams and glorious coastal paths are all part of the adventure on a new self-guided walking tour of the islandOn the shores of Douglas Bay, I could barely see the sand. Crammed on to the beach, on every available inch, were tourists bustling for the best spot. Luckily, I wasn’t there at the same time. I was looking at a black and white photograph taken some 135 years earlier, displayed in the Manx Museum in Douglas, the Isle of Man’s capital. When I’d
  
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• Tell us about your favourite lesser-known European island

  10-08-2026 16:50 via theguardian.com
  Share a travel tip on an island escape – the best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays breakFor a true sense of getting away from it all, few things rival an island escape. We’d love to hear about your favourite under-the-radar islands in Europe, whether it’s a remote Scandinavian archipelago or an airport-free Mediterranean outpost that’s managed to avoid the package holiday crowds.The best tip of the week, chosen by Tom Hall of Lonely Planet wins a £200 voucher
  
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• A slow, boozy bus tour of Hungary’s secret vineyards

  10-08-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The spa town of Balatonfüred is a bucolic gem for sailors, hikers … and wine lovers. A new hop-on, hop-off bus tour offers a chance to get a taste of its little-known wineriesThe 90-minute train journey south-west from Budapest to the spa town of Balatonfüred unveils a landscape that segues from gritty industrial compounds to long sweeps of golden sunflowers and fields of pale grain. The carriage is pleasingly retro, with thick velour upholstery; windows that open, awkwardly, wi
  
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• ‘I lose all sense of time in the hypnotic flow’: five writers on their favourite British rivers

  09-08-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  From the source to the sea, our writers share their favourite ways to immerse themselves in nature by paddleboarding, canoeing, camping, walking and fishingIt’s early afternoon on an unusually hot and sunny Yorkshire day. I’m standing on my paddleboard on the tidal section of the River Esk, near Whitby’s New Bridge, as cars stream across. The 28-mile-long Esk is special, as it is the only major river in Yorkshire that flows directly into the North Sea. Continue readin
  
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• ‘I haven’t felt this present for months’: sail back in time on a Thames barge in Essex

  08-08-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  You don’t have to be a sailor to cruise the estuaries of Essex on this historic craft. The skipper will show you the ropes – or just sit back and enjoy the rideIn a darkened room in Maldon, Essex, a ship’s lantern illuminates the laundry drying on a web of ropes suspended from the ceiling. Between piles of sailing memorabilia, 86-year-old Barry Pearce is flipping through a yellowing logbook, watched by his mongrel, Winkle. It feels more like a ship’s cabin than a terrace
  
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• How to explore Britain and Ireland’s most beautiful rivers on foot, bike or boat: readers’ travel tips

  07-08-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Our rivers may be running low at the moment, but they still offer an abundance of adventure and nature to explore. Here are your favourites, from the Tees to the Shannon
  • Tell us about a favourite holiday in the UK – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucherLast summer, I enjoyed a six-mile walk along the fast-flowing River Wharfe from Ilkley to Bolton Abbey, with calming vistas of the Yorkshire Dales every step of the way. I set out at Ilkley’s Riverside Gardens on the so
  
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• Summer on the Baltic: a laidback coastal adventure in Lithuania

  06-08-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  With great beaches, culture and nature, the resort town of Palanga and the wild Curonian Spit offer an affordable – and cooler – alternative to the MedThe water off Palanga’s sandy white beach is tinged pale green – the colour of the feathery clouds of Furcellaria lumbricalis that occasionally brush against my calves. Underfoot, the Baltic seabed is ridged, the sea so clear and shallow that every ripple is visible. The water deepens very gradually – making it ideal
  
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• Catch of the day: a seafood safari on France’s culinary coast

  05-08-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  From Calais to Le Touquet, the Côte d’Opale is home to thriving fishing ports, grand old seaside resorts and restaurants serving the freshest seafoodStellio Lestienne, chef at La Matelote in Boulogne’s harbour, shows me his shopping list as we browse the city’s daily morning fish market. He wants to pick up some crab and sole, which are in season, but his usual lobster fisher is still out on his boat, so he’ll have to wait a bit for that. Although I’ve been a
  
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• The Scottish explorer who fancied an adventure closer to home: hiking the Highlands’ Affric Kintail Way

  04-08-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Globetrotter and TV presenter Alice Morrison trades in her camels and backup team for wild camping in one of Scotland’s most beautiful glens‘I miss my camels. I miss the sun. I miss the vast emptiness of the desert plains …” These are my thoughts as I trudge through thick conifer plantations and my fifth consecutive hour of rain at the start of the Affric Kintail Way in the Scottish Highlands.My last big adventure was a world first. I became the first recorded person to
  
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• Tell us about your favourite UK holiday

  03-08-2026 16:18 via theguardian.com
  Share a travel tip on a great break you’ve had in the UK – the best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays breakYou don’t always have to travel far from home to have an adventure or a truly memorable break. We want to hear about your favourite holiday in the UK – particularly in more under-the-radar destinations, such as less-visited beach resort, a town that deserves to be noticed or in a remote area of coutryside. Or perhaps it involved a fun or unusual activity that h
  
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• 10 of Britain’s best piers for dining, nightlife and good old seaside fun

  03-08-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  From Blackpool to Bournemouth, these quintessentially British institutionscelebrate a lot more than fish and chips and amusement arcadesPerched in our glass-fronted eyrie, 300 metres out to sea, we watch a murmuration of starlings rise and fall and swoop around us. When the show is over, we turn our attention to the food. I have a bespoke vegan menu based on the best early summer ingredients: jersey royals, asparagus, strawberries. My boyfriend orders off the weekly changing à la carte: s
  
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• ‘Poirot’s hotel was the place to stay in Istanbul’: the book that inspired my travels

  02-08-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Falling in love with a novel motivated these five travel writers to immerse themselves in locations from the Yukon and Kyrgyzstan to the Côte d’AzurInspired by Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express Continue reading...
  
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• Literary escapes: your favourite trips inspired by books

  31-07-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  From Dervla Murphy’s Northern Ireland to Elena Ferrante’s Naples, readers share the stories that inspired them to travel
  • Tell us about a trip to Europe’s lakes and mountains – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucherInspired by Dervla Murphy’s A Place Apart Continue reading...
  
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• My slow Swedish summer on the tranquil islands of Östergötland

  30-07-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Small boats and kayaks connect the sparse communities and flourishing wildlife living on the thousands of islets on the Baltic coastAt 5am on Arkösund bay, it is so light it could be midday. I slip out of the pretty clapboard Arkösunds hotell, opened in 1895, as a small boat putters into the Baltic Sea, the sun sparkling on its calm waters. A wooden boardwalk invites me on to a string of tiny islets as geese arrow overhead and a mother swan coaxes her fluffy cygnets into a nook under a
  
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• San Lorenzo: Rome’s rebel neighbourhood shaped by resistance, art and students

  29-07-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  This overlooked quarter swaps the grandeur of tourist-saturated central Rome for murals, graffiti, cheap eateries and a working-class rhythmOne of Europe’s hotspots, central Rome has increasingly come to resemble a tube station during rush hour: stifling, overpacked and claustrophobia-inducing. Last year, the Eternal City welcomed a record number of tourists, driven in part by the 2025 Vatican Jubilee - 22.9 million arrivals stayed in the city, almost 10 times the number of residents. Cont
  
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• A family tour de France: cycling and camping in Normandy with two toddlers

  28-07-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Ebikes with child seats – plus idyllic campsites and pit stops en route – turn a five-day ride on the car-free Véloscénic into a wonderful family holiday“Are you mad?” says a fellow guest over dinner at our campsite. “I heard you’re here on a long-distance cycle ride with your toddlers.”I am in Orne, a region in Normandy, with my sister Issy and our three-year-old sons, Sid and Ralph. The landscape folds around us in green-over-green &ndash
  
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• Tell us about a trip to the lakes and mountains of Europe

  27-07-2026 15:01 via theguardian.com
  Share a tip on your favourite mountain or lakeside summer break in Europe – the best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays breakEurope’s lakes and mountains have seen a huge surge in summer tourism in recent years, as holidaymakers look for alternatives to the crowded coastal resorts of the Med. Whether it’s a walking holiday in the Tirol, a lakeside cabin stay in Scandinavia, or a spectacular train journey through the Alps, we’d love to hear about your favourite experi
  
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• In search of Valencia’s ‘white gold’: my hunt for the perfect horchatería

  27-07-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Horchata, the revered creamy drink made from tiger nuts, is still served in grand Valencian parlours – always accompanied by sugar-glazed pastriesIt was a glimpse of an old couple sharing a tender moment in the bustling horchatería that drew me into one of Valencia’s most storied culinary traditions. As he sipped his milky horchata de chufa and a white crescent moon appeared on his coiffed moustache, they shared a soft laugh and she dabbed it away from his upper lip.“The
  
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• ‘It’s like bringing the kitchen into the piazza’: seven of the best Italian village food festivals

  26-07-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Sagre – the historic local events that pop up in villages across the country in summer – are the perfect way to get a taste of regional cuisine and cultureI cannot remember a summer when at least one evening hasn’t been spent following signs to a local sagra. Not quite a food market and not quite a village fete, a sagra is like a village moving its kitchen outdoors for a few nights.When I think back to those nights from childhood, the first image that comes to mind is of a
  
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• ‘We can see the boats that supply the restaurant’s lobsters from our seats’: a culinary tour of Gower, Wales

  25-07-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  On a coastline brimming with seafood shacks, crab sandwiches and hyperlocal flavour, our food writer is happy to be distracted from the stunning sceneryIf we take it as read that the better the view, the worse the cooking, then by rights south Wales’s Gower peninsula should be a culinary desert. The first time I visited almost 15 years ago, I was unprepared for its loveliness – back in 1956, Gower (never the Gower, as locals were quick to correct me) was the first place in the UK to
  
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• Burnham urged to lobby EU leaders directly to waive EES border controls

  24-07-2026 14:14 via theguardian.com
  Lib Dems call on PM to push for suspension of ‘bungled, malfunctioning’ system as overseas holiday travel peaksAndy Burnham has been urged to lobby EU leaders directly to suspend the new entry-exit system, EES, as the peak weekend for overseas holidays begins.About 2.2 million British holidaymakers are expected to head abroad between Friday and Monday, the majority to Europe, with all schools in the UK now on their summer break. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘Full of zesty colour and flavour’: readers’ favourite food festivals in Europe

  24-07-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  From the Tiramisù World Cup in Italy to street food ‘battles’ in Newcastle, your culinary highlights range from the sublime to the delicious
  • Tell us about a book that inspired you to travel – the best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays break
  The town of Menton on the French Riviera is beautiful at any time of the year but becomes even more of a treat during the annual Lemon festival (Fête du Citron, 10-28 February 2027). Its microclimate, courtesy of th
  
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• Why Scotland’s cinematic Moray coast made it a perfect location to shoot The Odyssey

  23-07-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  ‘Legends cling like barnacles to these shores,’ says our local writer, who reveals how the lore of these craggy cliffs and beaches resonates with the Homeric classicThe incoming tide has made a labyrinth of the beach. As silvery rivulets spread across Culbin Sands to meet the mudflats, my walk becomes increasingly circuitous: weaving inland towards the pine forest, backtracking closer to the waves, skirting tidal pools and scaling dunes constantly resculpted by the North Sea breeze.I
  
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• ‘Humans are designed to connect outdoors’: community hiking in Slovakia’s High Tatras

  22-07-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  A walking holiday with a group of strangers to the highest range in the Carpathians promises adventure, stunning views and camaraderieWe are giddy as we reach the summit, breathless with exertion and a guileless, childlike joy. In every direction the jagged peaks of Slovakia’s High Tatras stretch out into the distance, nubs on a colossal spine, glittering lakes embedded like shards of glass far below the rocky, ice-streaked slopes. An eagle wheels above. Somewhere on the lunar landscape a
  
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• Exploring Germany’s East Frisian islands: mudflats, marshes and millions of birds

  21-07-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The seven inhabited isles off the North Sea coast, part of a Unesco world heritage site, are a sanctuary for wildlife – with great hotels and restaurants too‘Can you hear that?” my guide Andrea Wellmeyer asks as I sink a little deeper into the wet ground, cold mud seeping between my toes. When the wind drops, I detect a faint but distinct crackling, similar to the rustle of a sweet wrapper or the bubbling of sparkling water. “That’s the Wattknistern,” she says
  
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• Tell us about your favourite river or canal in the UK or Ireland

  20-07-2026 16:33 via theguardian.com
  Share your tip on a fun or fabulous waterway activity – the best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays breakThere are few pastimes more relaxing than messing about on the river. Whether it’s paddling along an urban waterway, navigating a historic canal in a narrowboat, spotting the wildlife on an estuary walk, or a towpath bike ride, we’d love to hear how you like to spend time on your favourite river or canal in the UK or Ireland.The best tip of the week, chosen by Tom Hall
  
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• A Canterbury trail: my pilgrimage from the cathedral to the white cliffs of Dover

  20-07-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  After exploring the cathedral city, I battled the heatwave while walking to the Kent coast on the Via FrancigenaCanterbury for Evensong. Is there a more delightful cluster of syllables in the English language? Old English, I should say, as æfensang comes from that tongue, an update on the Latin-derived “vespers”. But whatever you call the service, Canterbury Cathedral does it in style. How beautiful the singing from the choristers in their white and purple. How beautiful the li
  
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