A thief got into our hotel room, extended our stay and charged over $1,000 to our bill

Greece is set to introduce a new tax for cruise ship passengers visiting the popular islands of Santorini and Mykonos during the summer’s peak season, in an effort to mitigate the effects of overtourism. 

Contiki, the renowned travel brand catering to 18-35-year-olds, has announced the launch of its most extensive collection of European trips in over 60 years, along with two new budget-friendly adventures in Peru.

Rome is looking to clamp down on overcrowding and tourist misbehavior at the Trevi Fountain, one of the world’s most iconic and popular attractions, with a reservation system.

Icelandic airline Play is making family travel easier by offering $2 fares for kids when an adult books a trip to Europe.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Tuesday, September 10, and here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

For me, the best part of traveling with points and miles is the planning. I love choosing a place I want to go and then carefully selecting cards with rewards that can take me there.

Hotel earnings season has ended, so Skift reviewed what executives at hotel companies belonging to the Skift Travel 200 (ST200) said. We looked at companies beyond the half-dozen largest hotel groups.

Tourists may no longer be able to see Rome’s iconic Trevi Fountain whenever they want or for free.

It is hard to believe, but fall—and the best points and miles deals for September—is here already, which means it’s time to begin planning trips for the holidays and get a head start on using those hotel points, airline miles, and credit card benefits for your next trip. To do that, however, you need a healthy stash of loyalty currencies to get you there. These are the latest promotions and credit card benefits to know for September.

Koji, the mold that transforms soy beans and wheat into soy sauce and rice into sake, is so beloved in Japan that it has its own holiday. And lately, chefs have been finding new uses for the fungus, which has a fruity aroma and an ability to make “anything it touches better,” says Jeremy Umansky, 41, the owner of Larder deli in Cleveland. He uses koji for almost everything: to cure pastrami; to ferment Chinese-style black beans, which are ground and swirled into chocolate babka to embolden the chocolate; and to sprinkle over salads and fries in the form of what the restaurant calls Special K, a seasoning of dried ground koji. “It’s a harmonizer,” he says. Bartenders, too, are taking note. At Nancy’s Hustle in Houston, the bar manager, Zach Hornberger, 32, adds it to the nonalcoholic Silver Brining cocktail, a sweet-sour-salty mix of pickle brine, grapefruit and lime juices, koji and tonic. “It brings this umami background to beverages, and it plays well with citrus, taming the high acid notes and rounding the drink as a whole,” he says. At the restaurant Fête in Honolulu, the bar manager, Fabrice McCarthy, 41, infuses rum with shio koji (a slurry of koji, water and salt) and shakes it into a mai tai to add salinity — the effect, he says, is similar to how salted peanuts make you want to drink more beer. Ryan Chetiyawardana, 40, the owner of the bar Lyaness in London, experiments with koji in multiple forms — for one cocktail, he ferments parsnips with koji, which he says unlocks the sweetness and delivers “a huge tropical brightness.” While koji often plays a supporting role, at Paradiso in Barcelona, it wraps around the entire lip of the glass used for the Fleming, named for Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin, another influential mold. For this fungus-inspired cocktail, which includes grapefruit, tequila and miso, the manager of Paradiso’s research lab, Matteo Ciarpaglini, 30, one-upped a classic salt rim with a fluffy cloud of koji, its floral fragrance accompanying every taste. —

Protesters staging hunger strikes against tourism developments. Local officials threatening to cut off water to illegal vacation rentals. Residents spraying tourists with water pistols.

Athens, Greece, has been one of the fastest-growing tourist destinations in Europe. Last year, the city had a record 7 million tourists.