An intelligent mix of culture, style, travel, food and property, as well as where to go and what to see.
Birds eye shots of Aston Martins cruising along hairpin roads, steamy scenes on chalk-white beaches: the choice of James Bond filming locations has the power to put new holiday destinations on the map. Here we round up the best places to visit from No Time To Die – and rediscover old favourites from the archive.
Armed with a US passport, I fly to New York for just two days to interview John McWhorter, an African American professor of linguistics at Columbia University. He is America’s fast-rising star of the anti-woke movement and I am there to talk to him about his brave and funny new book, Woke Racism. I zip
Travel abroad is now possible, but is less fun than it was. There’s the litany of Covid paperwork. Tests must be ordered from companies with odd-sounding names that seem always to end with an ‘X’. Once abroad, there is the constant worry that you may test positive for the dreaded virus and find yourself banged
The mist starts circling in, just dusting the hills with a soft, downy quilt. You can see for miles from my balcony, the tracks of the vineyards, the clusters of trees, the rooftops in the distance. This is Piedmont, laid out below me, all its undulating splendour, rich with wine, truffles and winding roads leading
Sprawled out across the kerb, exhausted and inebriated as we split boxes of 20 McDonalds chicken nuggets with old friends and new drinking partners, our faces dancing with the coloured florescent lights of the strip and hair streaked with sickly-sweet flecks of alcohol. That’s how I remember my first time in Magaluf, celebrating my A-level
James Herriot’s story about a country vet, with scene-stealing backdrops and a coterie of country characters first instilled the Yorkshire Dales into the popular imagination back in 1972. The beauty of Yorkshire wasn’t lost on Herriot, whose real name was Alf Wright: ‘At times it seemed unfair that I should be paid for my work,’ he
‘Pub with rooms’ used to mean ‘backpackers’ hostel’, the sort of place with three bunk beds to a dorm and a pound deposit on your towel. But recently the capital’s pubs have realised that by raising their game, they could steal a decent chunk of the London hotel market. In a city where £400 a
Italy’s relaxation of its travel restrictions for double-vaccinated Brits has many of us eyeing up the options for an autumn getaway. And why not? Come September, cities like Venice are no longer tourist traps (Dolce & Gabbana fashion shows aside) and yet the balmy weather remains. Many visitors head to Italy for Venice alone but they
Now travel restrictions are finally easing off, there’s never been a better time to visit Europe’s greatest galleries. Sightseers won’t be back en masse for a good while yet, I reckon. in the meantime, you’ll be able to wander round these places in comparative peace and quiet. I was back in Berlin last month, and
You’re never going to see Venice quite like this again. Usually swarming with tourists – not to mention the enormous cruise ships that dock in its waters – the city has been given a serious breather by the coronavirus pandemic. Those lengthy queues to get into its most famous hotspots have disappeared; the picturesque back
Benedict Cumberbatch’s turn as Greville Wynne – the British engineer who helped MI6 smuggle secret intel out of Soviet Russia – in The Courier has shone a light on London’s Cold War past. While the USSR and KGB might be gone, our capital still has a few souvenirs from the era – not to mention
The French Riviera is one of the world’s most legendary travel destinations. Just a mention of the Côte d’Azur can conjure up glamorous images of yachts bobbing in the Vieux Port of Saint-Tropez, sun-splashed beaches studded with striped parasols and endless bottles of pale pink Provençal rosé. Now that France is on the Amber List,
Among the glorious shores of these islands, there is one of the best-kept secrets of sailing. It’s a ragged and rocky coastline that is blessed with the sort of idyllic, empty sandy beaches stretching on for miles that would make Tom Hanks’s castaway shake from method acting-induced PTSD. Here the blue waters are scattered with islands
August 28 hails the great British getaway as people look to make the most of the looser restrictions and three day weekend. But you’ll have to travel far to escape the crowds this Bank Holiday. Follow our guide to the best, most far flung places. North Norfolk The white-gold beaches of North Norfolk feature regularly
After a fraught summer of changing restrictions, it seems likely that staycaytioning is here to, er, stay. The good news for food-lovers is that Britain is now home to a growing number of boutique breaks that are centred around eating. Our weather may be unpredictable but the top-notch dishes at these destinations will more than compensate for
Europe is opening up again, and it feels great to be back in Switzerland, my favourite holiday destination. Most Britons think of it purely as a place for winter sports, but midsummer here is glorious. I’ve come here virtually every year for the last 20 years, and although it’s gorgeous in winter I like it
With so many of us forced to holiday at home this year, that most English of institutions, the country house hotel, has been experiencing something of a renaissance. The number of guests desperate for a slice of upper crust hospitality after months of slumming it at home has rocketed so you may struggle to book
If you’re still feeling sceptical about traffic light holiday chaos, or – along with the estimated five million other UK citizens – are stuck with a Covishield jab and concerned a European escape might end at the border, never fear – Blighty has your back. Only a car (or train) journey away are sun-dazzled shores
If you’ve tried to buy a second-hand van any time in the last 12 months, you might have noticed that the popularity of these humble commercial vehicles has travelled from the tradesman’s entrance right around to the front door. The word on the street is that ‘pre-loved’ vans have become highly sought-after for two principal
One of the most striking features of the second Covid summer has been the soaring prices of holiday cottages. How dare the owners of static homes in the vicinity of the coast be charging quite so much for the uneven pleasures of a week in a caravan park? Well, get used to it because as
The long-delayed 2020 Olympic Games finally kicked off on July 23 in Tokyo. Events are being held without spectators after a spike in coronavirus cases locally. Even so, the breathtaking feats of athletic prowess will be enough to inspire many people to get off their sofas and into the great outdoors. Here are the best
I’m standing in a farmyard in Somerset, drinking in the clear country air, soaking up the summer sunshine and marvelling at the lovely view. However this view is rather different from the sort of thing you tend to see on most farms. I’m here to see some modern art, stuff my face and enjoy a
If the prospect of keeping an eye on transport secretary Grant Shapps’s Twitter feed doesn’t fill you with much joy, there’s only one option for a holiday this year: a staycation. So where is the best place in Britain to find good weather? Of course, no holiday in the UK can be guaranteed to be
Croatia is officially on the green list! With speedy, direct flights to Dubrovnik (running under three hours from many UK destinations), plus plenty of sought-after sunshine, this jewel of the Adriatic just became the hottest destination to visit this summer. Here’s our guide to the top places to stay… Lopud 1483 The little-known island of Lopud may
We are in the midst of a camping boom. Faced with travel restrictions and uncertainties around jetting off into the sun, taking your family out for a few nights under canvas is an increasingly attractive prospect, and the wealth and depth of the British landscape lends itself well to a stay under the stars. Of course,
We may be a small nation geographically, but what we lack in size we more than make up for in diversity and range of landscape to explore. With restrictions on travel meaning the UK is our best bet now when it comes to getting away, why not try some of Britain’s most stunning accessible walks? It’s
Before its elevation to the undeniably slim Green List, the isolated windswept, wave-lashed archipelago of volcanic rock in the North Atlantic Ocean known as the Faroe Islands was not on many people’s radars. With direct flights from the UK recommencing on July 1, no doubt its popularity will surge in the coming months. Even before
While weddings have been given the green light to go ahead with (some) degree of normality, overseas holidays have not. This means that soon-to-be newlyweds dreaming of jetting away somewhere exotic after the ceremony will have to make alternative plans. Fortunately there are plenty of very romantic honeymoon spots dotted around the UK. Here’s our pick
When my wife suggested a holiday in Ibiza, I thought she must be bonkers. I’d always hated clubbing, and now we had a baby and a toddler in tow. Shows how much I know. We went, we had a great time and the only clubbers we encountered were in the kids’ club at our hotel. That
