Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, August 30, and here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
19.08.2024 - 21:41 / lonelyplanet.com
Aug 16, 2024 • 7 min read
With its grand castle and famous festival, Edinburgh is a tourist magnet. But Scotland’s capital isn’t just a collection of big-ticket sights. Set on a series of extinct volcanoes and blessed with chasm-like medieval alleys and grand civic squares, Edinburgh is a stunner with substance.
There’s history around every sandstone-hewn corner, of course, but you’ll also find vibrant life in its parks, pubs and suburbs. Edinburgh isn’t just worth visiting, it’s worth throwing yourself into. Here’s what you need to know before you dive in: when to go, what to pack, the slang, the smells and the banknotes.
Edinburgh's airport is 8 miles (13km) away. Buses (cheaper), trams (quicker when the roads are busy) and taxis (good for door-to-door drop-offs) connect the terminal with the city center.
Train passengers roll into Edinburgh Waverley – travelers coming from England will get gorgeous coastal views on the way up. Buses arrive at St Andrew’s Square in the New Town, just north of the center.
Summer, when the days are long and bright and the winds are generally docile, will suit most visitors best. But if you don’t mind a spot of dreich (dismal) weather, come in the colder months, when you can mix warm pubs and museums with bracing strolls along atmospheric streets.
The world’s biggest arts festival, the Edinburgh International Festival, takes over the city every August. If you’re going, book your accommodation months in advance and be ready to book the biggest shows early too. If you’re not, avoid August. Things also get pretty busy around Hogmanay (the run-up to New Year), but the madness is shorter-lived.
The earlier you book your accommodation the better, especially during festival time. The biggest shows, including the Tattoo, should be booked well in advance too. The Edinburgh City Pass is worth a look if you’re also going to hit attractions such as the Castle and Leith’s Royal Yacht Britannia – it includes access to the fun city bus tours too.
Beyond that, booking online a day or so before you go is a good idea for the castle – you can save money and waiting time.
You’ll need a jacket whenever you’re visiting. Edinburgh rarely gets that cold, but it can change from bright sunshine to rain-lashed darkness in a heartbeat. You’re likely to do a fair bit of walking, so a pair of comfy shoes is important. There’s no need to pack anything particularly formal.
Central Edinburgh is a city divided. But it’s not any ill feeling that keeps the city apart – instead a valley containing the elegant Princes Street Gardens and Waverly Station separates the Old and New Towns. The Old Town is the medieval quarter, where packed tenements rise high and cobbled streets and wynds (alleys) stretch down from the
Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, August 30, and here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
Aug 29, 2024 • 5 min read
Scotland will be getting its first tourist tax, a levy in Edinburgh, but the local tourism industry is concerned it will make the destination less competitive.
A few years ago, when flight prices were awfully expensive, I saw an Amtrak ticket from California to Washington, DC, for just $250 and snapped it up.
Aug 28, 2024 • 7 min read
In October of 2021, I booked a round-trip ride between New York City and Miami on Amtrak's overnight sleeper train. In total, I spent 60 hours on the rails.
Visit Florida made its first public comment Wednesday about the removal of its “LGTBQ Travel” page, after more than a week of no explanation of why it was taken down.
In the past few months, wildfires in Brazil have burned through the Amazon Rainforest, Pantanal wetlands, and Cerrado tropical savanna—killing wildlife and engulfing major cities, including the nation’s capital, Brasília, in smoke. While one might assume that a 131,000-acre ecological reserve in the midst of Pantanal, the world’s largest wetland, would always be a humid and leafy haven, in recent years, the Pantanal wetlands have suffered heavily from fires, which have become increasingly harsh as climate change advances. As a result of two widespread wildfires in July and earlier this month, 80% of the area of the Panantal's Caiman hotel reserve burned down this year, forcing the property and wildlife refuge to close down its operations from August 1 to the end of September.
While technological advancements in navigation aids, such as GPS and radar beacons, have rendered most lighthouses unnecessary, they remain as symbols of security and steadfastness along nations' shores.
I worked as a flight attendant on domestic and international routes for two years, and I saw all kinds of behavior on planes.
Aug 22, 2024 • 3 min read
Aug 22, 2024 • 8 min read