Travel

The moon makes a silver path over Tor Bay. It’s framed by clouds of steam, glowing lilac in the train’s floodlights. This is the view from my toasty carriage on the Dartmouth Steam Railway’s Train of Lights. It’s one of many things I would have missed if I’d come in …

However fraught your journey (ours is seven hours, fretting as our electric car battery dwindles), reaching Kinloch Lodge is a joyful corrective. As you cross the bridge to Skye, it’s instantly apparent you’ve escaped the grind – soft ranges of peaks, each fainter and hazier than the last, in shades …

‘Irish Lake District’, County Fermanagh We’d come for a family wedding in County Cavan, and spent a few days exploring the “Irish Lake District” in neighbouring County Fermanagh. It was July, but the wood-burner was going ding-dust, crackling and hissing as it threw heat into the kitchen of the cottage …

It’s mid-morning on a December Saturday and Strasbourg’s rue des Orfèvres is rammed with festive shoppers. They’re gawping into patisserie shops and jewellery boutiques, snapping photos and soaking up the festive cheer on this narrow street close to the city’s mighty cathedral. Above our heads, the ancient buildings’ facades are …

Spot the heron from the 55, Tiverton-Exeter The very best bus route is Tiverton to Exeter on the 55. On leaving Tiverton it passes through the village of Bickleigh and crosses the River Exe on the Bickleigh Bridge, which has been hit and damaged by buses, lorries and cars more …

When earlier this year the Manchester DJ Luke Unabomber declared “Stockport is the new Berlin” – a tagline enthusiastically taken up in this northern town – no one was being remotely serious. But joking aside, this nonetheless confirmed that something interesting is happening in Stockport. Historically overshadowed by larger, louder …

Banning wild camping on Dartmoor could also end up affecting birdwatching and rock climbing, lawyers for the national park have said, as a landowner tries to stop people sleeping overnight in the park. The judge hearing the case, Sir Julian Flaux, the chancellor of the high court, has said he …

For the past three years, the best pizza in the world hasn’t come from Naples, but from the town of Caserta, about 20 miles north, where Francesco Martucci’s I Masanielli – on an unprepossessing main road just outside the town centre – has hung on to top billing in the …

Many countries have their own unique way of celebrating at this time of year. In Sweden, the Yule Goat is a Christmas symbol dating back to ancient pagan festivals. In Mexico a colourful religious march at the beginning of the festive season recerates the journey of Mary and Joseph to …

You might expect Europe’s 2023 train schedules to debut on 1 January 2023. They don’t. The new timetables kick in on 11 December this year, bringing myriad new travel opportunities for the year ahead. Highlights include Genoa and Dresden both securing new international night sleeper services, a new daily train …