Tourism

How cartomania captivated even Queen Victoria

13 July 2024 9:00 am

The craze for photographic cartes de visite that swept Victorian Britain was further boosted by the Queen’s own enthusiasm for the format

Tourists are the new pariahs

8 June 2024 9:00 am

Think of Majorca and what do you picture? Maybe it is elegant tapas bars in the Gothic quarter of Palma,…

How dangerous is it to fly by helicopter?

25 May 2024 9:00 am

Crime without borders How many nations are signed up to the International Criminal Court? – 124 signed the Rome Statute…

The perils of Prague: Parasol Against the Axe, by Helen Oyeyemi, reviewed

10 February 2024 9:00 am

Three women with a criminal past meet for a weekend hen party – but any hopes of enjoying themselves are soon dashed

How Monte Carlo went to hell

30 July 2022 9:00 am

I now find resorts more fun out of season. Civilised tourists are as rare as an intelligent Hollywood movie, so…

Scotland is open – and desperate for English tourists

29 May 2021 9:00 am

Scotland is open – and desperate for English tourists

Mother Nature is giving us her middle finger

27 March 2021 9:00 am

Gstaad I have never experienced such a long, continuous blizzard, and I’ve been coming here for 63 years. The ski…

I found a confused elderly man in my bedroom

5 December 2020 9:00 am

There are several cave houses built into the cliff. Ours is the highest and can be reached only by a…

An elegy for Vienna

13 June 2020 9:00 am

Vienna Somebody once described Vienna as a top opera performed by understudies. The remark was unquestionably witty, but utterly false…

How often has a general election been held on a Monday?

7 September 2019 9:00 am

A Monday poll? The government was considering a general election on 14 October — a Monday. This raised eyebrows because…

The UK’s best beaches – according to Spectator writers

10 August 2019 9:00 am

Tom HollandTrevone, Cornwall   Pretty much every summer, my family and my cousins head for a farm in north Cornwall,…

How to be a tourist in Europe

7 April 2018 9:00 am

Last week, I was in the Florence Baptistery by 8.30 a.m. That used to be early enough to avoid the…

Superfood: Salty shellfish straight from the sea

The salty charms of Leigh-on-Sea

27 January 2018 9:00 am

I have fallen in love with the c2c, a whisker of a train that is never delayed. It operates between…

Wild life

7 October 2017 9:00 am

Laikipia Ripping up the black cotton soil on the farm’s high savannah I get a sense of what it must…

Low life

23 September 2017 9:00 am

I got off the plane at Changi still pleasantly sedated by Xanax, passed through the ‘nothing to declare’ channel, and…

Star attraction: A detail from Banksy’s mural

Dover

16 September 2017 9:00 am

When people come to Dover, it’s usually to pass through. The magnificent castle on the cliffs may be a tourist…

High life

16 September 2017 9:00 am

I’m in Venice for the film festival that just ended and, as an American humorist once wired his paper: ‘Streets…

Holidays with Hitler

12 August 2017 9:00 am

We don’t usually think of Hitler’s hated henchman Heinrich Himmler, architect of the Holocaust of European Jewry, as a comic…

Exodus from Gambia

26 November 2016 9:00 am

A ticket to paradise comes very cheap in Gambia — as long as you’re headed in the right direction. Thomas…

Warning: there’s a plague of fake blue plaques

4 June 2016 9:00 am

One of the great distinctions and pleasures of British life has been devalued by cheap imitations

What on earth was the girl from Taiwan doing in my bedroom?

28 May 2016 9:00 am

After a tense two week stand-off, the Balham Airbnb Crisis has been resolved. My upstairs neighbour and I have drawn…

I have seen the future of tourism, and it’s designed to keep you out

16 April 2016 9:00 am

We’re going to ruin every perfect place – unless we find ways to reserve them for a fortunate few

Is this LA?: Dilapidated deco in Downtown

The heart of Los Angeles feels like somewhere else entirely

9 April 2016 9:00 am

There’s a certain kind of Englishman who falls hard for Los Angeles. Men such as Graham Nash, who swapped the…

The price of a cathedral – and how deans pay it

26 March 2016 9:00 am

Deans are facing tough decisions to keep their beautiful buildings in good order

High mountains, deep pockets

Courchevel – from pickled cockles to the height of luxury

5 March 2016 9:00 am

The last time I stayed in Courchevel it was in a tatty roadside chalet a long way down the mountain.…