Travel & Culture

  • Which countries are likely to be added to the green list?

    The next update is expected on 24 June

  • Travel bosses call for major expansion of green list destinations

    Travel bosses have called for a major expansion of the green list of foreign destinations with no quarantine requirements after official data showed just one in 200 passengers returning from amber countries tested positive for Covid. The Government is next due to review its traffic light categories on June 28 with just 11 countries currently rated green and most major European holiday hot spots still classed as amber.

  • Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Cinderella is all fairy-tale romance, zero sexual frisson

    After marking its post-pandemic rebirth with a less-than-enthralling triple bill of new work, Birmingham Royal Ballet settles down with a revival of Sir David Bintley’s 2010 production of Cinderella. Although it’s a visually attractive crowd-pleaser that will draw families back to the live theatre, not a lot more can be said for it. Bintley tweaks the familiar fairy-tale plot without adding much force or originality. Its most striking image is the one that opens the show: to Prokofiev’s haunting

  • Al fresco eating: The best restaurants with outdoor seating in London

    With social distancing still in play, countless spots are having to reduce the number of tables indoors and with the government recommending venues use all the outdoor space they can (and allowing certain streets to be pedestrianised), many are boosting their terrace game this year. Whether you’re looking to make the most of the mini-heatwave or are just feeling a bit safety-first in these uncertain times, outdoor dining is the order of the summer: here's where to get your al fresco fix. Not only has the Knightsbridge hotel boosted its post-lockdown al fresco seating, it's dedicated an entire new restaurant to it.

  • The Drawing Room: A little-known gem (and a place to bag a bargain)

    This tiny London institution dedicated to drawing deserves to be much better-known

  • Number of flights hits new high since March 2020

    Could this signal a restart for international aviation?

  • 9 best air beds that are comfortable and great for camping

    You’ll be a happy camper this year with one of these in your kit

  • Flexible train season tickets go on sale in overhaul after Covid pandemic

    Train passengers in England can buy flexible season tickets from Monday as part of an overhaul of rail travel. Two-days-a-week commuters using flexible season tickets could save more than £260 travelling from Woking to London £230 from Liverpool to Manchester, and £170 from Stafford to Birmingham according to Department for Transport (DfT) analysis. Passengers can use an updated season ticket calculator at www.nationalrail.co.uk to find out which ticket they should purchase based on their route and working pattern.

  • The countries that could go green, amber and red this week

    Another week, another traffic light update. We’re all used to it, by now. As per the Government’s own timeline for the opening up of travel (a separate roadmap to all other national restrictions), we can expect to hear from the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps this Thursday. If previous weeks are anything to go by, at some point on Thursday afternoon the Government will reveal what changes (if any) will be made to our holiday traffic lights. The changes will then come into effect from Tuesday 4a

  • You can keep Stonehenge – its Welsh 'birthplace' is where the real magic lies

    Archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson’s claim that he had unearthed the original site of Stonehenge in the wild hinterland of West Wales in the BBC documentary Stonehenge: The Lost Circle Revealed, which aired earlier this year, wowed the world, but probably came as little surprise to those in his inner circle. For centuries, experts have speculated and hypothesized that the 5,000-year-old monument hailed from Pembrokeshire’s Preseli Hills – a place few had heard of let alone visited. But the dig at

  • Bill Granger: 'I predict a regional town explosion, with great, creative restaurants'

    Adapting to the cultures of a country 9,500 miles from home would be challenging for any new arrival. Even if you speak the same language, there are some habits which are hard to translate. For Australian chef Bill Granger, it was the mealtimes that troubled him most. “When I first came to London, people would have dinner parties from 8pm and we wouldn’t eat the first course until 10,” recalls the easy-going restaurateur and cookbook writer, who lives in the capital with his wife, Natalie Elliot

  • UK green list: Will more countries be added in the next travel review?

    Everything you need to know about the latest travel announcements

  • Aer Lingus cuts cabin baggage allowance

    Irish airline says the move is about ‘improving overall customer experience’

  • Pressure to relax holiday rules as fewer than one in 200 amber list travellers have Covid

    The government is under mounting pressure to relax rules on overseas holidays as figures reveal fewer than one in 200 travellers from amber list countries are testing positive for coronavirus. Furthermore not a single variant of concern was found among such passengers, according to NHS Test and Trace data. Only 89 out of 23,465 people who arrived in the UK from amber list countries between May 20 and June 9 had the virus, The Times reports.

  • Happy holiday memories of Portrush: the world feels expansive here

    Happy holiday memories of Portrush: the world feels expansive here. The draw is the Antrim coastline and its stunning beaches, but now the seaside town that serves them is getting a long overdue facelift

  • Flexible rail season ticket: How much can travellers save?

    Discounts on monthly season tickets range from over 50 per cent to just 20 per cent, The Independent has found

  • Can Hawaii reset its stressed out tourism industry after the pandemic?

    Can Hawaii reset its stressed out tourism industry after the pandemic?The islands has been feeling the weight of a tourism industry that has ballooned to what many believe is beyond the islands’ capacity Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, on 22 October. Hawaii reopens with coronavirus traveler testing program. Photograph: Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times/REX/Shutterstock

  • Nevermind Covid, where to go on holiday has always been a minefield for LGBT travellers

    Whenever gay and lesbian tourists want to go on holiday, we have to carry out our own risk assessments

  • Bruce Springsteen fans with AstraZeneca vaccine to be turned away from New York theatre shows

    Vaccine is currently not approved by the FDA in the US

  • Does Pixar’s Luca do a better job at being Studio Ghibli than Ghibli?

    Does Pixar’s Luca do a better job at being Studio Ghibli than Ghibli?The lush and vibrant new animation recalls Hayao Miyazaki’s famed studio, a sign of how far his sensibilities have spread through film Ghibli a break ... Luca. Photograph: Disney