From developing our brains to keeping us healthy: the positive effects of art

Traveling by train in Europe is as easy as pie. You can go across France in half a day, you can get from London to Amsterdam in just four hours, or even travel between Austria and Hungary for less than $10. Even in Scandinavia, the rail network is extensive, providing rail transport to and from large cities, small towns, neighboring countries, and even in the far reaches of the Arctic.

The luxury hotel brand Rocco Forte Hotels recently combined its world-class hospitality with sustainable slow travel to create a modern-day “Grand Tour” of European cities by rail. The scenic vacation train package connects two of the most romantic cities in Europe: Edinburgh, Scotland, and Palermo, Sicily. It’s designed to let travelers indulge in an inter-rail experience while taking a deep dive into local cultural experiences at each stop.

This spring, a first-of-its-kind tour is kicking off in Austin, Texas at SXSW Festival, a tour designed to showcase the power of small businesses in hospitality through cinema. Using a mobile pop-up vehicle and projector, hospitality software company eviivo Collective plans to spotlight “10 of the world’s best independent properties,” on outdoor screens through eight global cities: Austin, Belfast, Canterbury, London, Dusseldorf, Amsterdam, Brussels and Belgium via the eviivo Collective 2.0 World Tour.

The best luxury hotels obsess over just about everything: The sheets, coffee, temperature, and lighting. The fresh flowers each day.

Back in the days when I was a student living in Venice, before Google Maps and GPS systems, getting lost was a frequent occurrence. I’d often find myself wandering around the picturesque waterways, stumbling across tiny squares, crumbling bridges and hidden, narrow walkways, in the quest to find somewhere. One minute, I could be a piazza teaming with tourists and, next, it was not uncommon to suddenly find myself in a narrow calle, with no one around, hearing the echoes of my footsteps against the lapping of the green-hued canal water. Coming from London and knowing my way around that vast city, this, at first, felt like a painful start to becoming a resident here. Yet, quickly, this feeling was superseded by a sense of joy, especially when discovering hidden treasures off the beaten track. Going off the tourist paths is the fastest way to discover the real sense of this ancient city.

On Saturday night, a Virgin Atlantic aircraft took off from Washington, D.C.'s Dulles International Airport (IAD) at 10:45, bound for London's Heathrow Airport (LHR).

A recent British Fashion Council report confirms the fashion industry’s significant contribution to the UK economy. In 2021, the estimated £28.9 billion gross value added contribution to the economy was similar in size to that made by the car industry. And the driving force behind the industry has been London Fashion Week, the semi-annual event that just celebrated its 40th anniversary this month.

On the Kent coast, where the North Sea meets the English Channel, the historic town of Deal was at one time the busiest port in England. Today, though, it’s less dockyard and more seaside resort, popular with day-trippers and weekenders from London and beyond, who come for the pebble beach and pretty castle and stay for the town’s growing culinary scene.

Tourism Tasmania is attending IMM on 19 and 20 February in London, representing all that the anti-ordinary Australian island state has to offer.

A man boarded a plane without a ticket at the UK's second-busiest airport, a second such incident in under two months at London airports.

Our family of five travels fairly frequently. We've been to Iceland, Amsterdam, Portugal, Hawaii, London, and more with our kids as they’ve grown. One of the best ways we’ve managed to make the trips enjoyable for all of us and to stay connected to our kids while on vacation is to schedule “home days.” 

In 1958, when Mary Pat Laffey Inman became a stewardess — as they were then called — for Northwest Airlines, she was 20 years old and the clock was already ticking. At 32, she would be forced to retire. That is, if she didn’t marry, get pregnant or even gain too much weight before that: All were grounds for termination. It was the golden age of aviation for everyone except, perhaps, the women serving in-flight meals to the nattily dressed passengers.