Ryanair will charge you for 10kg hand luggage from November August 24, 2018 Ryanair passengers will have to make do with one item of carry-on baggage from November – unless they want to pay. The reason behind the move is "to eliminate boarding/flight delays", according to the budget airline. Nevertheless, passengers will have to pay £6 to add a 10kg cabin bag to their carry-on, with tickets otherwise [...]
British Airways suspends flights to and from Iran August 23, 2018 British Airways has confirmed its intention to suspend flights to and from Iran, becoming the latest western firm to cut ties with the country in the face of US sanctions. Saying its London to Tehran service is “currently not commercially viable”, the company’s last outbound flight from Heathrow airport will be on 22 September, and [...]
Tips for travellers when shopping for a currency card August 23, 2018 Travellers cheques. Remember them? Cue confused expressions from anyone under 25. You may be surprised to hear that some banks still offer these cheques, which can be exchanged when you go abroad for hard currency (though you’re limited to just six of the major currencies). Fortunately, this outdated mode of currency exchange has now been [...]
Fontelunga Hotel & Villas review: A beautifully renovated Tuscan guest house, nestled in the quiet hillsides surrounding Cortona August 13, 2018 Tuscany is wonderful. There are maybe only three or four places in the world that are more beautiful than Tuscany, but none of them are so damningly near to our own bleak, grey island. In Tuscany, tall cypress trees stand in long lines like great leafy quills, jabbed into the rolling green countryside by some [...]
High up in the Himalayas, a brave Laura Ivill undergoes yoga’s most drastic cleansing routine… August 13, 2018 In the foothills of the Indian Himalayas, high above the Ganges, I’m sitting with yogi Sandeep Agarwalla. We both have our fingers in our ears and are making the sound of a bee – a practice called brahmari. Around us, butterflies and birds are flitting from tree to tree in the warm winter sunshine. It’s [...]
Safari From Above: We take to the skies over Botswana for a whole new perspective on African safari July 20, 2018 Viewed from above, an elephant is a curious sight. Longer and considerably heavier than the light aircraft I was flying in, each member of the herd was unperturbed by the fact that our descent onto the dirt airstrip was only a few tens of metres above their heads. In fact, the only one who was [...]
Day by day, Donald Trump is reshaping America. We travel the west coast from Canada to Mexico speaking to people about their hopes and fears, and how their lives are changing July 11, 2018 The Seattle skyline, with the iconic Space Needle against the backdrop of Mt Rainier, may be familiar from TV series including Frasier and Grey’s Anatomy, but it’s the city’s music scene that sent ripples across the world, through Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Jimi Hendrix. “The music scene helped build Seattle’s liberal values,” says Nick, a [...]
A land of conquest, casinos and copious wine, Georgia is perhaps Europe’s most surprising destination July 5, 2018 It has been said that Georgians ‘think with European minds and feel with Asian hearts’. Their nation, clamped between Russia and Turkey, is neither fully European nor Asian but rather in a category all of its own. If one symbol encapsulates the Georgian psyche it is the Kartlis Deda “Mother of Georgia” statue, which towers [...]
Beirut survived 15 years of civil war, and now Lebanon’s once-beleaguered capital is a highlight of the club scene June 22, 2018 It’s barely nine o’clock in the evening, and I’m uncomfortably close to my first brush with death. Or, to be more precise, Death, a lethal-sounding concoction made with gin, vodka, cognac, sherry, lemon, orange and cinnamon, stored in a bottle featuring a skull and crossbones on the front. It’s the creation of a small, dapper, [...]
Beirut survived 15 years of civil war, and now Lebanon’s once-beleaguered capital is a highlight of the club scene June 22, 2018 It’s barely nine o’clock in the evening, and I’m uncomfortably close to my first brush with death. Or, to be more precise, Death, a lethal-sounding concoction made with gin, vodka, cognac, sherry, lemon, orange and cinnamon, stored in a bottle featuring a skull and crossbones on the front. It’s the creation of a small, dapper, [...]