Travel

Cumbernauld In the 1996 essay Tierra del Fuego – New York, French cultural theorist Jean Baudrillard juxtaposes Ushuaïa with Manhattan. “After the ends of the earth, the centre of the earth,” he writes. “But each gives the impression of being on another planet.” The UK’s forgotten towns have an analogous …

Woodlands and glades across the UK are currently spangled with white anemones, the yellows of primroses and celandines and deep pink of campion, but from this week these will pale into insignificance as swathes of bluebells begin to flower, remaining in bloom until mid-May. Tell us the best places in …

North Devon has long been a mecca for British surfers, drawn to the variety of waves that break along its golden beaches. However, last week, it gained international recognition when it was declared a World Surfing Reserve, one of just 12 places on the planet. It shares the title with …

A gleaming adventure playground where smaller visitors can hurl themselves down a super-size coal chute. Gentle shire horses. An old-fashioned sweet shop… Blists Hill Victorian town, the open-air museum in Shropshire, easily captures my sons’ attention, but it’s a different exhibit that makes me pause. In a hangar-like space I …

Hotel Chocolat Easter Workshop, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire Treat the kids to a sticky-fingered, mouthwatering morning at Blenheim Palace with one of the many hour-long chocolate workshops, run by Hotel Chocolat, that take place in the Palace’s walled gardens (12-18 April). Grand designs: decorate a slab of chocolate at Blenheim Palace …

Food The Valencia region is well known for its citrus fruit, seafood and rice, but “gastronomy” has grown fast here in recent years. Compared with my girlfriend’s home town in France, though, a great meal isn’t madly expensive. A huge shellfish fideuà – a Valencian paella made with pasta instead …

It’s now more than two years since Italy was the first western country to declare a nationwide lockdown. After travel started again, some Italophiles were surprised to find a country with a very un-British attitude to queues and personal space suddenly distant and obedient. Even now there is noticeably less …

A trip to the Cambridgeshire riverside village of Hemingford Grey, on the outskirts of St Ives, feels like wandering into a fairytale land of creeper-covered manor houses and thatched cottages with roses around the door. One of my favourite walks runs through the village, following paths through woods and flowering …

Airlines and cross-Channel services are braced for their busiest weekend since the start of the pandemic, with outbound and returning holidaymakers set to swell numbers at ports that are already struggling to cope with surging demand. With all areas of the UK now on Easter holidays, passengers have been told …

The Spanish tourist board in London has performed a U-turn on its announcement that the country will open its borders to unvaccinated British holidaymakers. The tourist office first told travellers that Spain would open up to all Britons, regardless of vaccine status, as long as they could provide a negative …