Travel

Oh, we still love to be beside the seaside … The UK has more traditional kiss-me-quick resorts than you can shake a rock at, and as holidaying at home becomes more popular, many towns are being rejuvenated in an attempt to bring back visitors. Folkestone’s seafront has been transformed by …

We arrive by night, the wind and rain battering Svolvaer harbour, the last stop on a 3½-hour ferry journey from mainland Bodø through the ink-black Arctic waters of northernmost Norway to the Lofoten Islands. My girlfriend and I have come here to kayak in some of the world’s most dramatic …

The name and logo are familiar to the hundreds of thousands of people who visit every year to climb the peaks, explore the fast-flowing streams and rivers and unwind in the towns and villages. But from Monday the Brecon Beacons national park is dropping its English language name and scrapping …

Málaga, Picasso’s birthplace Picasso would often tell his children, “I want Málaga to have a large museum with my works” and his wish came true, for balmy sea-facing Málaga now has a splendid museum, soon to stage an exhibition focusing on the body as an instrument of the artist. The …

When the Orient Express began operating in the 19th century, passports were optional – the only paperwork required by British travellers was a copy of the Thomas Cook Continental Timetable. But Brexit and 21st-century biometric checks are killing off the romance of crossing borders for modern passengers looking for the …

Zagori, Pindus mountains The Zagori region, in the remote north-west of mainland Greece, is dominated by the lush Pindus mountains, home to alpine lakes, the world’s deepest gorge and pristine river pools. The area is also famed for its mountain villages, or Zagorochoria, built around splendid plane-tree-lined squares and connected …

Winning tip: Ideal island retreat, Gulf of Corinth Trizonia, in the Gulf of Corinth is a small island visited mainly by Greek families and “yachties”. We spent time there while sailing round the Med, from our home on the Isle of Skye. Filled with olive groves and wildflowers, Trizonia is …

Why are some towns so disconnected from their railway stations? That’s what I often ponder at Diss in south Norfolk: the most direct walking route into its historic centre is a fiddly manoeuvre through 1960s cul-de-sacs which would be so much more visitor-friendly if it were clearly signposted. But upon …

Set against the backdrop of the Tweed Valley in the Scottish Borders, our home for the weekend is whitewashed Tweedford Cottage, in a section of wilderness as bewitching as ever we needed. Although only an hour from Edinburgh, this rugged landscape of vertiginous hills feels remote. With an abundance of …

What started as a drunken 2am eBay bid for a dilapidated 1960s Maltese public bus has ended up with Johnny Vegas – and his longsuffering assistant Bev – filling a field in Derbyshire with an accidental army of once-forgotten, magnificently repurposed vehicles and creating what must be the UK’s quirkiest …