Holidays
The joy of hiring an old banger
There is always much to look forward to on a holiday with friends in France (the day one supermarket sweep,…
I’m a holidaymaker… get me out of here!
Reading about all the travel chaos, I began to regret my summer holiday plans. Wouldn’t it have been more sensible…
Why we pick the wrong holiday destinations
Having returned from a fortnight’s break, I wonder if we get holidays all wrong. In northern Europe, the custom is…
Travel quarantine scrapped for double-jabbed
International travel rules will be relaxed on 19 June as part of the wider scrapping of social distancing rules and masks.…
Am I really paying £3,000 for six days in Wales?
Has it ever been more difficult to plan a family holiday? At the time of writing, it is illegal to…
Bring back the great British holiday camp
The old-fashioned charm of holiday camps
How did my children become more middle class than me?
In a café in Norfolk last week, my seven-year-old son uttered words that mortified me. No, he didn’t comment loudly…
Frightful flights, a falling pound: why would you go anywhere but Britain for your summer holiday?
The epiphany came when I was standing in the oxymoron of a speedy boarding queue at Gatwick, waiting to have…
The UK’s best beaches – according to Spectator writers
Tom HollandTrevone, Cornwall Pretty much every summer, my family and my cousins head for a farm in north Cornwall,…
Why have I bought a car I don’t actually like?
I am currently in Brittany with the family, having made the 11-hour drive from London on Monday. It sounds like…
Hunt-the-iPhone was the highlight of my hols
For years, Caroline and I have been squabbling over where to spend our summer holidays. Her ideal is a family-friendly…
Barometer
Out with a whimper Usain Bolt managed only a bronze in his last appearance in the 100 metres at the…
I have seen the future of tourism, and it’s designed to keep you out
We’re going to ruin every perfect place – unless we find ways to reserve them for a fortunate few
Dear Mary: How can I make a conversation-stopping gaffe go away?
Q. What should a host do when a guest says something so embarrassing in front of the assembled company that…
Anglesey: la dolce vita in north Wales
We teased our friends by saying that our holiday would be on a far-away island. The Maldives, perhaps? No, Anglesey,…
Adventures on the isle that seduced Odysseus
Gozo — Malta’s tiny island neighbour — was once rather a crucial spot in the Mediterranean. The Knights of Malta…
The wonders of the Muslim world that my children will never get to see
I celebrated Eid in a sandy bay in Sri Lanka, watching from the warm, shallow sea as gaggles of local…
Please come on holiday to poor, broken Greece. It needs you
At the weekend, I tried — and failed — to get some money out of an empty cashpoint near Omonia…
Antwerp: the compact, charming capital of a country that doesn’t quite exist yet
Napoleon didn’t think much of Antwerp. ‘Scarcely a European city at all,’ he scoffed. If only he could see it…
Tourists are trickling back to Egypt – to beat the crowds, go now
Egypt’s revolution of 2011 didn’t just get rid of President Mubarak: it did a pretty good job of clearing out…
The charming little airport that ruins thousands of holidays
The charming little airport that ruins thousands of skiing holidays
Onsen: dive into another side of Japan
Kate Crockett wallows happily in the natural hot baths of Kyushu
The hotels trying to turn Cornwall into Kensington
Mousehole is a charming name; it is almost a charming place. It is a fishing village on Mount’s Bay, Cornwall,…
A buffet in an Egyptian tomb
Atlantico is a vast buffet inside the Lopesan Costa Meloneras Resort Spa and Casino in Gran Canaria. The Lopesan Costa…
You can still book your flight to Mars
Space to dream Richard Branson’s dream of commercial space flights has suffered a setback after a prototype craft crashed. But…
