Travel

Landscapes When you can gaze on the salt pans of Guérande, near Nantes, cycle through lavender fields in Drôme, in the south-east, and bask in the splendour of the Cirque de Gavarnie in the Pyrénees, you have to wonder how France got so lucky with its diverse landscapes. Most recently, …

For decades, cheap flights, nightclubs and booze made Prague one of Europe’s stag party capitals. City officials have spoken out about tourists’ drunken behaviour, but Prague remains popular among men dressed as Smurfs drinking 50 koruna (£1.70) pints of pilsner. I arrive on the train from Dresden, the German city …

Standout moments from nearly 20 years of writing about travelling and eating around France include meals in legendary restaurants and the joy of a shared dinner at a chambre d’hôtes. That said, there’s a venue that can’t be underestimated as an opportunity to enjoy France’s culinary delights: the car boot picnic. Standing …

Secret alleys and courtyards in Lyon Climbing towards the basilica from the river, we explored a zigzag of secret staircases and hidden courtyards in Lyon. These traboules are hard to follow, and so we had to look out for the metal plates that mark some of the entrances. There’s almost …

“Every day I’m here, the sky and the sea are different,” says Anastasia Kharchenko, as an incessant drizzle patters on our umbrellas. “Sometimes you can’t even see the horizon because it’s so foggy, but in certain months the colours are just breathtaking.” We’re standing on a grassy bluff above the …

Often when I’ve turned up at various yoga studios in London, the groups I’ve encountered have been overwhelmingly white, svelte and middle class. Perhaps I’ve not found the right class, but as a south Asian woman, it always felt like I was in somebody else’s space. Yoga originated in ancient …

It was an inauspicious start. Having cycled no more than a few metres, from the steps of the Angel hotel into the grounds of St Edmundsbury Cathedral, I fell off my bike. I blamed the wolf: in dismounting to take its photo, I had kicked my own pannier and sent …

In recent years the rise of slow travel has encouraged us all to think of the journey as part of the holiday – something to be savoured rather than a hurdle to be overcome to get to our destination as quickly as possible. If the journey in question involves airport …

Pondering where to go for your next trip? Why not take a cue from your favourite TV series or movie? More and more of us are getting inspiration for our travel plans from the locations where our most loved shows and films are set. In fact “set-jetting” (see what they …

Day 1: Explore Belfast Whether you’re a repeat or first-time visitor to Northern Ireland’s capital, Belfast, the city’s neighbourhoods offer so much – from the centre with its trove of shopping options and ever-evolving food scene to the cultural edge of the burgeoning Gaeltacht Quarter. For a real local vibe, …