Travel Industry news

• Summer on the Slovenian Riviera

  11-07-2026 08:00
  The country’s coastline is one of the shortest in Europe, but it packs a punch with unspoilt nature reserves, vibrant Venetian towns and a thriving foodie scene I’m riding a salt-coloured horse through the Dragonja valley, deep in the green hills of Slovenian Istria. Electric-blue dragonflies zip over the river as we gallop past olive trees and vineyards. The landscape rises steeply in a series of grassy terraces, and at the top of the hill we rein in the sweating horses to take in t
  
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• Where tourists seldom tread, part 21: two northern powerhouses on the rise once more

  16-07-2026 08:00
  Preston and St Helens were heartbeats of the industrial age, but their power faded. In the last of our series, we discover how their legacy is finally being celebratedWhere tourists seldom tread, parts 1-20This double act of “Lancashire” locations is my final celebration of Britain’s bypassed towns. My native county has dominated my life of late, and one key question asked in these columns has been: can you holiday right at home?The French author Xavier de Maistre believed you
  
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• Sail away to the Côte d’Opale: a watery adventure in northern France

  15-07-2026 08:00
  A catamaran service from Dover to Boulogne is the perfect start to a trip exploring the Pas-de-Calais and marshes of Saint-Omer by bike, boat and kayak“It’s all about tuning into the culture of the sea,” helmsman Chris O’Brien tells me, scanning the rippling cobalt horizon from the wheel of a catamaran. “People find the water, and the meditative experience of sailing, healing.” Meditative isn’t a word that usually comes to mind when talking about cross-C
  
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• A family group walking holiday in Exmoor: steam trains, tree climbing and lashings of ice-cream

  14-07-2026 08:00
  Would walking buddies convince reluctant children that hiking can be fun? A group trip with an Enid Blyton vibe proved a hit with the whole family“I’m not going to wake her up,” I hiss at my 12-year-old son who’s standing half naked in a dark corridor of a Victorian house. “Please, Mum. She said we could come at any time! I don’t want to get Lyme disease,” he begs.This is not the kind of drama I was expecting when I signed up to a family walking holiday
  
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• Share a tip on a book that inspired you to travel

  13-07-2026 16:05
  Tell us about a favourite read that led you to visit a new place or go on an adventure – the best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays breakA great novel can transport you to places you’ve never been, take you on imaginary adventures across the globe and, just occasionally, inspire you to visit a literary location in real life. We’d love to hear about a book you’ve read that led to one of your favourite trips, whether it was somewhere far-flung or close to home.The bes
  
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• My search for the perfect ruin bar in Budapest

  13-07-2026 08:00
  These cool, cheap bars in old abandoned buildings became popular in the 2000s – and then tourists moved in. I went hunting for the bohemian spirit of the originals‘Many ruin bars seem to be just tourist traps now,” says artist István, standing outside Instant-Fogas complex, which calls itself Europe’s biggest ruin pub, but looks more like a mammoth nightclub with several dancefloors.“These bars were a hot topic 20 years ago, but many have become really c
  
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• Denmark’s ‘Cold Hawaii’: the artfully cool surf zone on the Jutland coast

  12-07-2026 08:00
  Surfers nicknamed it in the 90s, but this rugged coastline is becoming a hotspot for contemporary art lovers tooThe North Sea wind is buffeting my body and face, shaking me awake after a six-hour journey from Copenhagen on buses and trains to this rugged stretch of the Danish coast. From my high vantage point on the grassy dunes, overlooking what feels like an endless sea, there is hardly another soul to be seen, save for the specks of a few surfers who are trying their luck on the crashing wave
  
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• ‘As if I was on a Greek island, but without the stifling heat’: readers’ favourite cooler European coasts

  10-07-2026 08:00
  From the Fanad peninsula in Ireland to the forested beaches of Finland, these are your favourite escapes without the fear of getting frazzled
  • Tell us about your favourite food festival – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucherSaulkrasti’s long beaches and scented pine forests are an hour from Riga on the frequent local train. The forests come right down to the long, long sandy beach and the relaxing and well-marked trail takes you the 4km from Saulkrasti station through
  
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• A brilliant and bonkers day out: how art and spectacle transformed a former Durham mining town

  09-07-2026 08:00
  
  Bishop Auckland is abuzz with culture and family fun, thanks to the vision of Auckland Palace’s owners – and the new Kynren show featuring birds of prey, Viking raids and mythical beasts, which opens next weekBooming Hans Zimmer-style cinematic music reaches a crescendo, shaking my bones. Two turquoise macaws swoop within an inch of my hair and join a sky filled with nearly 250 birds. Hawks, kites, pelicans, and an owl soar and swoop around a pagan-looking wooden circle. Peacocks fus
  
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• Walking in France’s ‘garden of Eden’: a new route in the gorgeous Gorges du Tarn

  08-07-2026 08:00
  Europe’s longest and most dramatic canyon is replete with exotic wildlife, including kingfishers and beavers, ruined castles and architectural odditiesWe’re sipping chestnut kir on a terrace overlooking the Tarn River in southern France when we hear excited voices from the table beside us: “Regards! C’est un castor!” Below us, a beaver the length of my leg is languidly swimming upstream. We don’t need our binoculars because the Tarn is so clean that almost eve
  
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• Not just for weekenders: the new Wiltshire country hotel that’s a hit with the locals

  07-07-2026 08:00
  The owners of Teffont House are aiming for modern rural hospitality that puts guests at the heart of village lifeWalking into the Orangery at Teffont House during the golden hour, the restaurant is glowing. Sunlight falls across cocktails the colour of spun sugar, spills on to a terrace trailing constellations of fleabane, and bounces off spoons sinking into raspberry trifles. What really gives the room its sparkle is none of these things, however, but the fact it’s packed with local peopl
  
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• Tell us about a favourite food festival

  06-07-2026 16:35
  Share a tip on your favourite food festival in Europe, including the UK – the best wins £200 towards a Coolstays breakEnjoying the local produce is one of the great pleasures of travel – and a trip that coincides with a food festival is a win-win. We’d love to hear about foodie festivals you’ve discovered on holiday in Europe or the UK – from tiny village affairs to well-established events that draw the crowds, tell us where you went, what you ate and why it w
  
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• Crete treats: a chef’s tour of her favourite Greek island

  06-07-2026 08:00
  
  The island has a culinary tradition as old as its ancient olive trees. Our writer savours its family-run tavernas, village bakeries and local produceAs someone with Cypriot roots and distant Greek heritage, I’m often asked the question: which is the best island? People lean in, expecting a secret – some tiny, untouched haven, known only to locals. My answer is always the same: Crete. With its fiercely proud identity, warm communities and exceptional food, it feels both deeply Greek a
  
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• Walk in the footsteps of gods, heroes and monsters: five trips to mythical Greece

  05-07-2026 06:00
  Discover where supplicants consulted Apollo in Delphi, the infant Hermes hid stolen cattle and where Poseidon created a love nest for a sea nymphSome stories never get old. The poems and songs from Greek mythology – tales of tragedy, love and loss, war and revenge, jealous gods, magic and monsters – have been retold through the ages for good reason. Like all stories that really resonate, they deal in the flawed nature of humankind.To the ancients, though, they were far more than lege
  
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• My very own Greek Odyssey: a sailing trip to the island of Ithaca

  04-07-2026 08:00
  
  A quest for the settings that inspired Homer – and Hollywood’s latest blockbuster – turned into a personal voyage of discoverySwimming ashore from the boat I can see a narrow shingle beach covered in driftwood. There are logs, bamboo canes and the sundried planks of an old shipwreck. The steep climb up the hill behind is not easy. I skirt thick clumps of thorn and abandoned ancient olive trees, scrambling over jagged outcrops of limestone. Every time I curl my fingers into a ro
  
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• ‘The clearest seas I’ve ever swum in’: readers’ favourite holidays to Greece

  03-07-2026 08:00
  Beach-hopping, gorge hikes and awesome archaeological sites feature in your best memories of Greece• Tell us about a family day out in the UK – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucherWe first noticed Milos as we travelled home from Crete, flying directly above it and deciding that was where we must go next. It didn’t disappoint. The island was calm, peaceful and strikingly beautiful. Milos isn’t well known, but it should be; the true home of the Aphrodite of Melos,
  
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• Cycling Scotland’s lost highways and byways: a two-wheel odyssey in the wilds of Sutherland

  02-07-2026 08:00
  In his new book, Jack Thurston cycles the quieter roads and forgotten hill tracks of Scotland, exploring Britain’s most remote and rugged terrainThere aren’t many roads in Britain where you can pull over to cook breakfast and finish it without seeing a single car. While my friend Ben got the stove going, I wandered around the ruins of Dun Dornaigil, an iron age broch (stone roundhouse) more than 2,000 years old. Above us, low cloud drifted across the dark cliffs of Ben Hope. This was
  
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• Salzburg bans tourists from driving into historic centre over summer

  01-07-2026 14:26
  Day trippers face fines for entering Austrian city’s old town during July and August to curb ‘chaotic traffic situations’Europe live – latest updatesSalzburg has begun enforcing a summer ban on visitors driving into its historic centre, picking up a policy modelled by other car-choked European cities plagued by overtourism.Authorities in Austria’s fourth largest municipal area said they hoped the “less traffic, more city” restrictions in July and August
  
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• ‘The landscape offers the same russet and ochre hues as the Bayeux tapestry’: walking the 1066 trail in East Sussex

  01-07-2026 08:00
  
  With the British Museum’s blockbuster Bayeux tapestry exhibition opening soon, we follow in the footsteps of William the Conqueror and King Harold’s armies around Battle and Rye‘Uh oh, look at these!” I call to my friends, Annie and Mike. “Ominous,” remarks Annie. Mike raises an eyebrow. We’re hiking the Pevensey Levels, marshland first drained in 772, home now to sheep and cattle, but also water spiders, living underwater in air-filled webs. The ground
  
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• Six of the best long-distance European trails to walk in summer

  30-06-2026 08:00
  From a less-crowded camino and the Slovenian Alps to a stunning river trail and Ireland’s remote Beara peninsula Distance up to 74 miles
  Duration 3-9 days Continue reading...
  
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• Share a tip on a great summer family day out in the UK

  29-06-2026 15:14
  Tell us about your favourite family day trip – the best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays breakSchool’s (almost) out … and with a long summer stretching ahead, we want you to share fun activities that will help others fill the family diary. We’d love to hear about your favourite summer days out and adventures in the UK. Perhaps it’s a trip to an outdoor sculpture park or gallery, a great picnic spot by a river, a small theme park or coastal hike to a quiet co
  
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• Holidaymakers warned over social media scams for fake accommodation

  29-06-2026 09:00
  Research suggests travel scams are on rise as experts advise doing some detective work to make sure holidays are realHolidaymakers have been advised to carry out amateur detective work to ensure they do not book into fake accommodation this summer, as research showed a third of travellers had seen an increase in potential travel scams on social media.Consumer experts have urged holidaymakers to do a reverse image search on photographs of holiday homes and check their locations on an online map t
  
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• Trekking through a living mountain culture: Spain’s Picos de Europa

  29-06-2026 08:00
  
  A landscape of forbidding peaks west of Bilbao plays host to an improbable world full of wild flowers, animals and resilient cheesemakersHalfway across the first glacial depression, I leave the footpath to stand on a snow patch, disturbing a spider that runs off across the frozen crystals. A few yards farther along, the mountainside is awash with colour: tiny Alpine flowers alive with bees and crickets in a world surrounded by jagged peaks. A pair of chamois watch from a crag, the
  
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• ‘Hearty fare, red gingham tablecloths and chalkboard menus’: my search for the perfect bouchon in Lyon

  28-06-2026 08:00
  
  These traditional restaurants are the culinary backbone of this gastronomic capital, but finding the real deal means tackling offal – and red wine – for breakfastI first went to a bouchon as a 20-year-old Erasmus student. I’d accidentally ended up spending a semester of my year abroad in the Auvergne countryside, which meant every weekend I’d thumb a ride to the nearest big city – Lyon. I didn’t know much about Lyon, except that it was famous for its food &nda
  
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• Copenhagen on a plate: eat and drink your way around with our expert picks

  27-06-2026 15:00
  Insider knowledge of the Danish capital’s food scene: four chefs (and our head of food) share their favourite spotsWhere Copenhagen leads, the food world still followsIt has to be Københavns Bageri; they upgrade beloved Danish classics using the best ingredients. The cardamom buns are second to none, but the “potato cake” – that’s a choux bun filled with vanilla custard and topped with a cocoa-dusted marzipan disc to resemble a potato – might be my favo
  
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• Where Copenhagen leads, the food world still follows

  27-06-2026 08:00
  Two decades after chefs rewrote the rules at Noma, Copenhagen’s food scene still flies the flag for seasonality and innovation – progressive, sustainable and uniquely DanishI didn’t realise I was a fussy eater until I left Denmark. During 12 years of living Danishly, with regular trips to the capital, I just … liked most things. Danes specialise in high-quality, organic produce, eaten as close to its natural state as possible. Denmark has very specific, diverse climatic
  
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• Incredible panoramas, wildflower meadows and the odd wild horse: readers’ favourite walks in Europe

  26-06-2026 08:00
  From cliffside views of Lake Garda to post-hike saunas in Sweden, you share your most memorable walking trips• Tell us about a cooler European coast – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucherIf you have a head for heights, then you can “walk with the gods” on the Sentiero degli Dei. It’s cut into the vertiginous hillside high above the Amalfi coast, offering heavenly views all the way to Capri and beyond. Ten breathtaking kilometres later, you’ll rejoin t
  
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• Art trails, swimming spots and punt safaris, all easily accessible from Cambridge’s new train station

  25-06-2026 08:00
  With Cambridge South about to welcome its first passengers, it’s an ideal time to explore some of the university city’s lesser-known treasures on foot or by public transportFlat fields of poppies and ox-eye daisies stretch out to a wide horizon. There are butterflies, vetches, salad burnet. Skylarks sing overhead and a cuckoo calls from the trees near the river. Legend has it that the poet Lord Byron swam here as a Cambridge undergraduate and, 20 years later, Charles Darwin surveyed
  
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• The ultimate beach hike: Portugal’s Fishermen’s Trail reveals the Algarve’s wild side

  24-06-2026 08:00
  This long-distance coastal trek takes in towering rock faces, isolated beaches and tasty pitstopsThe fluorescent green gaiters seemed a ridiculous suggestion, but prove a godsend as we plod across the sand. “I bet you’re glad I told you to get a pair of these bad boys now, aren’t you?” my friend Luke jokes. We’re marching across a wide, crescent-shaped, honeyed beach. The sun is high in the sky and slivers of light flicker through a thick sea fog, as 6ft waves crash
  
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• I see nothing but hills, ridges and sea: a breathtaking five-day walk around Ireland’s south-westernmost headland

  23-06-2026 08:00
  The creators of County Cork’s Sheep’s Head Way had to win over hundreds of landowners to complete the ambitious project, but the result is a gloriously unspoilt trailThe Sheep’s Head peninsula is clearly a good place to be a skylark. They seem to warble overhead at every turn, singing their little hearts out – and who could blame them? The hills here are high and heathery, the sea breeze is warmed by the Gulf Stream and the edge-of-the-world scenery is a realm of wild gre
  
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