Golf, events and bags of nostalgia at Newport’s Celtic Manor Life&Style There’s something very nostalgic about Celtic Manor. Located a few minutes down the M4 from Newport town centre, it manages to feel entirely remote, an imposing stone building nestled within some 2,000 acres of grounds. Opened in 1982 by Welsh tech tycoon Sir Terry Matthews, once the richest man in the country, Celtic Manor brings [...]
I was first aboard Explora Journey’s new cruise ship. Does it beat the competition? Life&Style A first-look at the newest luxury hotel-at-sea cruise ship concept by Explora Journeys You join me on a horizontal skyscraper in the Mediterranean. This is the newest cruise ship in the world. The paint has barely dried. Not a scuff or blemish can be found anywhere along her 268 metres and 14 storeys. She is [...]
Everyone’s welcome: The UK holiday cottages that are truly inclusive Life&Style The UK holiday cottages that are truly accessible for a wide range of guests WHAT IS ITFunctional, self-catering cottages in the Hampshire countryside. At Wallops Wood, it’s all about stress-free simplicity: sit in the garden hot-tub watching kites circle above the tree line, or take lunch in the large private grounds. Indoors in the off [...]
School’s out! 13 amazing UK holiday options to book this August August 12, 2026 Summer is drawing to a close so it’s time to book in those last remaining UK holidays. We round-up our favourite UK-based weekends away, from a city break in Bath to a luxury hotel stay at Gleneagles. Whatever you have in mind for the perfect end-of-summer break, we have you covered. Best UK holidays: our [...]
Why the Loire Valley is about so much more than fairytale castles August 8, 2026 Beyond the Loire Valley’s fairy-tale châteaux, a gentler side of this celebrated destination awaits. Lucy Daltroff dives in It takes just over an hour to fly from Stansted to Tours in the Loire Valley and soon I am eating a spectacular lunch and drinking local wine at the rooftop La Belle Vue Restaurant. Before me [...]
Why Albania’s Tirana could be the city break of the future August 3, 2026 “Tirana is like a cross between Mumbai and Las Vegas,” I was told by a teenage traveller a week before I arrived in Albania’s capital city. “I’ve never been to either place, but at least that’s how I imagine them to be.” I’m not sure if Tirana is really like either of those cities, but [...]
Skydiving in the Maldives: Why Ifuru Island is like no other July 28, 2026 If I’m honest, my first thought when someone offered me a trip to the Maldives was bling and boardwalks, with limited character or culture. But Ifuru Island, a 5km long oasis in the northern part of the famous luxury region, is so much more. Ifuru – meaning ‘blossom’ in the local Dhivehi language – is [...]
A Roman Holiday by Vespa sidecar – a whole new Rome July 27, 2026 As the world’s most beloved scooter turns 80, a former convent in the heart of Rome offers the perfect base for doing the Eternal City properly: by sidecar. The stay in Rome’s Palazzo Ripetta Palazzo Ripetta sits on one of Rome’s most storied streets, just minutes from the Spanish Steps in the Tridente district, a [...]
Beyond the Tour de France: How Girona became a cyclist’s paradise July 23, 2026 Girona quietly welcomes the world’s best cyclists – and the Tour de France. Damien Gabet rides through Spain’s bucolic countryside D’you remember the Festina scandal in 1998? The whole cycling team was caught bang to rights for doping. And because parts of it fell under French criminal law, les flics got involved and the soigneur [...]
Francis Hotel Bath: Old-world glamour meets new-school cool July 21, 2026 We braved the heatwave and the crowds to take a long weekend in Bath, a city that’s balances its ancient history with a tourist industry precision-engineered to meet the needs of the modern traveller – not least the newly renovated Francis Hotel Bath. As someone who lived in Scotland for more than a decade, it’s [...]