Travel in city Lisbon

From air traffic control strikes to extreme weather, last year saw millions of passengers face flight delays across Europe.

If you’re an American traveler, you’ve likely done this sort of calendar math, spotting where all the paid holidays fall this year and figuring out how to combine them with your own limited paid time off (PTO). 

Visit Portugal celebrated the New Year launching a new campaign that was presented in Lisbon. #It’s not tourism. It’s futourism, is the motto for this campaign that sets 12 New Year’s resolutions for the tourist of the future.

TAP Air Portugal is celebrating the new year with a new flight sale offering trips to Europe and beyond starting as low as $379 round-trip.

Following a pilot boutique at Montréal Trudeau Airport in Canada, travel retailer Aer Rianta International (ARI) has opened another luxury vintage fashion and accessories store at Lisbon Airport called Preloved – Fashion in Full Circle.

My trip to Morocco started with spending 10 hours in the terminal in Casablanca airport. I got bumped from my flight from Lisbon to Marrakesh and the ensuing wait was an exercise in patience and acceptance, an exercise I failed parlously. 

According to professional travel organisation, European Best Destinations, the Portuguese island of Madeira is the best place to see the annual New Year’s Eve fireworks display. The travel experts polled a panel of 11,963 travellers from 112 countries, mainly from the United Kingdom (22,42%) and the United States (18,91%) and found the top destination to count down the 2024 New Year is Madeira, followed by Marbella (Spain) with London ranking number three. Here are the top ten.

The marigold façade of the Pousada Convento in Tavira, a town on Portugal's southern coast, gleams in the late-afternoon sun. Refreshing as it is to sip chilled pineapple juice in the Algarve heat, it's not the promise of shade that leads me into its cloisters. The tranquil courtyard, flanked by cheery yellow walls and weathered colonnades, is a portal to the 16th century, when the structure was built for an order of Augustinian nuns.

You might be tempted to plan your next train adventure around the many new train routes popping up across Europe.

Whether you plan on spending the last few days of the year relaxing in front of the screen for some well-deserved rest, or plotting out your next travel adventure for 2024, there’s nothing like some armchair traveling to get you inspired. 

For a packed calendar of traditional celebrations, decadent food festivals, outdoor concerts and many other events, head to Portugal. Summer is the time to catch the biggest range of activities, but in truth, there’s always something happening here. 

Looking for the perfect winter holiday? From festive light displays to powdery ski slopes, Europe has no shortage of enticing options.

Aviation investors will have to wait a little bit longer to get a piece of TAP Air Portugal. The carrier’s long-awaited privatization is delayed up to a year following the recent sudden resignation of Portugal’s prime minister.

Sunset descends like a dream in Kenya’s Lamu archipelago: Each evening, the channel separating the islands of Manda and Lamu is anointed in a hazy veil of golden light as dhows pirouette in the water, triangle sails billowing overhead. I gazed out over a carousel of boats from my perch on the deck of Taqwa, delighting in the snatches of American hip-hop, Afrobeats, and Bollywood bangers emanating from them as they passed by. At some point, Taqwa sailed in tandem with a smaller vessel boasting the best playlist on the water. As we floated together companionably, a romantic Swahili tune filled the air—and for a moment, the weather, landscape, and music came together in a sublime alchemy that left me breathless.

“Bella want look at world,” says Bella Baxter early on in Poor Things. Bella, played by Emma Stone, has the physical appearance of a fully-grown woman but the brain and insolence of, it seems, a small child. She’s spent her life up to this point safe within the grand London townhouse of her creator, mad scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter, whom she calls “God" (played by William Dafoe). She has long played a game on the floor of his study with a stack of atlases, wherein she closes her eyes and drops an index finger down like a rocketon a random point—her playmate must then tell her about wherever it is she’s ‘landed.’ Eventually her curiosity must be quenched by experience.

The Algarve in southern Portugal reveals some exciting NEW attractions, hotel openings and flight routes for the year ahead.

Global market research company Euromonitor International has released its annual rankings of city destinations based on tourism, sustainability and economic performance. Europe dominates the field. Paris was crowned the most attractive city destination in the world in the Top 100 City Destinations Index 2023, with seven European destinations landing in the top 10 and the continent owning 63 spots in the top 100 overall. Nadejda Popova, Senior Manager (Loyalty) at Euromonitor International, said: “Paris has retained the title of the world's leading city following exceptional performance across the Tourism Policy and Attractiveness, Tourism Infrastructure and Tourism Performance pillars.” Paris was followed by Dubai in second place, Madrid in third, Tokyo in fourth and Amsterdam in fifth. The top 10 was rounded out by Berlin (6), Rome (7), New York (8), Barcleona (9) and London (10).  

Emigrating from your home country to a new one can be a pretty big gamble. There are a host of questions that run through your head when buying that one-way ticket. Will you love your new home just the same as the old one? How will your habits change? Will you make any friends? I should know. I did it myself in 2021, emigrating from the United States to Portugal to finish my Ph.D. While life in Lisbon has been nothing short of spectacular thus far, there are other destinations around the world where my fellow expats are apparently even happier. 

Cities around the world manage every year to turn the end-of-year festive mood spotlight on one of the holiday’s most revered symbols, the Christmas tree.

When you’d like a break from meandering the hilly, cobblestoned streets of Lisbon, head to one of these six destinations for a great day trip.

As 2023 rolls to a close, don’t let your mileage and points balances wane. These December travel deals will come in handy, whether you’re traveling for the holidays or staying cozy at home. Now is the time to add to your accounts, use them for maximum travel benefits—for now or later—or simply keep them alive with extra activity. (Remember: A lot of mileage programs have it set up where your miles expire if you don’t earn any new miles, so be sure to keep track.)