The budget for the new 35 miles long Borders Railway in Scotland did not run to a celebratory golden spike to secure the last sections of rail, the traditionally flamboyant final touch on the transcontinental railroads in North America, when track-laying work was completed this month (February 2015). But if the Scottish tourist authorities do… Continue reading
Browsing Category Travel Blog
La Compagnie means business class, as it opens London-New York route
What does it cost for a return business class ticket from London to New York? Many corporate passengers may not know the astronomical amount, or don’t need to because their firm’s finance department pays the bill. But Frantz Yvelin, CEO and co-founder of new business class-only La Compagnie does know the answer. It is around… Continue reading →
By BA to Turkey’s new premier holiday destination
When do tourism destinations achieve the industry’s equivalent of a football club’s promotion to the Premier League? The simple answer could be, looking at this from a UK perspective, is when British Airways starts flying there. It’s been a remarkable transformation for the holiday industry of South West Turkey. I first went there in 1987…. Continue reading →
Significant ceramics – on the trail of Europe’s finest pottery cities
There’s a new and very distinguished international cultural itinerary through five countries, on the trail of an item that has seduced us for centuries. The ultimate thrill would be to spend a week, or more reasonably two, following the invisible thread running from Limoges in France, down to Faenza, Italy; then up to Germany for Höhr-Grenzhausen… Continue reading →
High-fly wi-fi York bids to be UK’s best online tourist destination
Could the guidebook and the tourist leaflet become obsolete, before too long, at least in town and city centres? Using ubiquitous, and free, Wi-Fi, tourists may never again need to look up the height of that steeple, the age of that ancient market cross, the architect of that building. That’s the reality in York. And… Continue reading →
Berlin without its Wall – 25 years on
On 10 November 1989, BBC reporter Olenka Frenkiel walked into the Newsnight Berlin studio, unannounced, with a chunk of the Berlin Wall, which she had appropriated just as bulldozers began to demolish the structure that had defined the deep fissure between East and West for a generation. She put it down on the table in… Continue reading →