Tourism

Fairytale pretty: the island of Monte Isola

The world is about to discover the wonders of Lake Iseo

16 January 2016 9:00 am

If you’ve never heard of Lake Iseo, you’re not alone. Nestling shyly between chocolate-box Como and glamorous Garda, the smallest…

The micro-businesses that give me hope for Belfast

21 November 2015 9:00 am

At Stormont on Saturday, we observed a minute’s silence for the dead of Paris. Our conference group of Brits and…

Islamic State is making its threats a reality

14 November 2015 9:00 am

Isis could be on the brink of creating a terrifying new world order

Max Hastings’s diary: How sporting tourists play into Nicola Sturgeon’s hands

12 September 2015 9:00 am

During our annual odyssey around the Scottish Highlands, I read Tears of the Rajas, Ferdinand Mount’s eloquent indictment of imperial…

Tristram Hunt’s diary: The rainy glories of Devon – and a cold political climate

5 September 2015 9:00 am

‘Devon, Devon, Devon/ Where it rains six days out of seven.’ Nothing beats a British seaside holiday. And north Devon…

Escape Antigua’s tourists (but be ready to confront some grim secrets)

22 August 2015 9:00 am

‘Tourism, tourism and tourism,’ said my Antiguan cab driver, when I asked what the country’s main industries were. Still, it’s…

Prue Leith’s diary: When did weddings stop being for parents?

8 August 2015 9:00 am

My Cambodian daughter and her husband have just got married again. Wedding One was a Buddhist affair in our drawing…

The wonders of the Muslim world that my children will never get to see

1 August 2015 9:00 am

I celebrated Eid in a sandy bay in Sri Lanka, watching from the warm, shallow sea as gaggles of local…

Please don’t faint: Florence at sunset

The first things you should do in Florence

25 July 2015 9:00 am

The British have always been in love with Florence. First visits cannot disappoint. One friend recalls being herded around as…

Venetian restaurants know I’m English from the back

25 July 2015 9:00 am

The Gatto Nero — or ‘Black Cat’ — is in Burano, a tiny island in the Venetian lagoon. It is…

Tides of wealth: Polzeath beach

Would Betjeman recognise anything about today’s north Cornwall?

11 July 2015 9:00 am

In a documentary filmed at the end of his life, Sir John Betjeman, who lived in the village of Trebetherick…

Calling all British tourists — Ukraine needs you!

23 May 2015 9:00 am

 Kiev ‘What the hell’s going to happen to your poor country?’ I ask the man in the flea market not…

Guild houses in the Grote Markt, Antwerp

Antwerp: the compact, charming capital of a country that doesn’t quite exist yet

23 May 2015 9:00 am

Napoleon didn’t think much of Antwerp. ‘Scarcely a European city at all,’ he scoffed. If only he could see it…

A stormy day in Hastings, Barbados

The swankier the hotel, the sulkier the tourists

9 May 2015 9:00 am

Unusually, I didn’t leave the British Isles until I was 35, when I went to the Maldives for a fortnight.…

(Photo: Liavittone)

The Portrait restaurant: a secret glade of stone and brick, suspended above Trafalgar Square

2 May 2015 9:00 am

The Portrait Restaurant lives at the top of the National Portrait Gallery, London. It is fiercely modern, but likeable. You…

English cities don’t have quarters – whatever the executives say

2 May 2015 9:00 am

‘No quarter given,’ yelled my husband as he stabbed at a cushion with his stick, spoiling the cavalier effect a…

Preparations are already under way

Introducing the first Spectator readers’ cruise

11 April 2015 9:00 am

It’s a complete recipe for disaster of course. By which I mean being trapped at sea with The Spectator’s ‘Low…

Letter from Cuba: The tourists are coming – but don’t expect Walmart just yet

4 April 2015 9:00 am

Sloppy Joe’s — which starred in the film of Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana — was always likely to…

The writing on the wall: some of the well-preserved hieroglyphs at Karnak

Tourists are trickling back to Egypt – to beat the crowds, go now

4 April 2015 9:00 am

Egypt’s revolution of 2011 didn’t just get rid of President Mubarak: it did a pretty good job of clearing out…

A cemetery with cocktails: La Coupole and the spirit of the brasserie

4 April 2015 8:00 am

La Coupole, Montparnasse, is the grandest and most famous of the old pre-war Parisian brasseries; that is, if you have…

Let there be light: Saint Peter’s at dawn

Rise early to see the Vatican at its best

28 March 2015 9:00 am

The sun has only just risen in Rome and we are standing bleary-eyed in a short queue outside the Vatican.…

Calm and colourful: Burano

How to walk along canals in Venice without feeling like a tourist

7 February 2015 9:00 am

I arrived in Venice believing it would reek of sewage. It didn’t. The walk into the centre went through cobbled…

The hotels trying to turn Cornwall into Kensington

29 November 2014 9:00 am

Mousehole is a charming name; it is almost a charming place. It is a fishing village on Mount’s Bay, Cornwall,…

The National Trust is spoiling beautiful places in the name of people who’ll never visit them

15 November 2014 9:00 am

Why do we ruin beautiful places to make them appeal to those who’ll never visit anyway?

L’Escargot is Soho as Soho sees itself

9 August 2014 9:00 am

L’Escargot, or the Snail, is a famous restaurant on Greek Street, Soho, opposite the old Establishment club; the oldest French…