Kenya Will Be Visa-Free for Travelers From 2024

Experiential travel as a motive for a holiday has increased by 8 percentage points globally since 2019, with motivations to visit Europe following a similar pattern.

There’s plenty of evidence that 2024 will be a watershed year for luxury travel.

Smartwatches can be a traveler’s best friend. Monitoring their sleep, managing their stress, delivering messages and calls right to their wrist. There isn’t much to not love. And with Apple halting online sales of their Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra Series 2 today, it’s time to put a spotlight on some of the other great smartwatches on the market.

The U.S. State Department will expand its policy of waiving in-person interviews for select visa applicants next year, a spokesperson confirmed to Skift. The policy was set to expire on December 31, and the travel industry had been pushing for an extension.

Now that the northern hemisphere is firmly in the cooler months of the year—and it’s only getting colder—it’s time to talk fleece. For bitter winter chills, fleece is hard to beat because the fabric is made to be both lightweight and incredibly insulating. And in recent years, fleece technology has improved so much that the variety on offer is now immense both in quality, style, and price. If you thought that Colorado bros have the market cornered with their Patagonia zip-ups, it’s time to reconsider the category altogether.I was previously super hesitant about fleece because, for most of my life, I assumed its pieces all looked the same. But while shopping in Manchester last year, I came upon a button-up fleece chore jacket with a rounded collar from UK-based Universal Works that changed my mind about what fleece could look like. But in speaking with Universal Works design director and co-founder David Keyte about the material, I learned that the name is actually a catchall that could mean different things depending on where you are. “There really are so many different fleeces,” Keyte says. “It’s an amazing technical invention that replaced knitted wools and cottons to become a flexible layer of clothing that moves with the body and is warm. Fleece became the modern version of those traditional fabrics, but it’s made of synthetic fibers that hold warmth and are lightweight.”My jacket is a wool-blend fleece (that almost looks like boiled wool), which Keyte says is great for heat regulation. I use it from fall on; either on its own or layered underneath a heavier coat when it gets bitingly cold out. But regardless of which brand or style you go for, that’s kind of the benefit of fleece when it comes to outerwear or as a shirt or sweater: They offer enough warmth when worn on their own, but most are light enough to be another protective layer to partner with heavier items for harsher winter days. Here, you'll find our picks for 28 fleece items that will serve you well from now through spring.

Travelers looking to plan international trips in the New Year got some good news this week: Passport renewal will no longer take months on end. Processing times for US passports have finally returned to what they were before the pandemic, according to an update from the State Department.

Cunard has unveiled new shore excursions for travelers sailing aboard Queen Anne, the cruise line’s newest ship.

An estimated one to four million people will travel to see next year’s total solar eclipse, according to a report made by Great American Eclipse. 

Destinations worldwide have increasingly moved to lift visa requirements as part of their strategy to increase visitor numbers — visa processing delays are a major obstacle to the industry’s full recovery.

There’s already is a tug of war between corporations that want their employees back into the office full-time, and workers who don’t want to give up working from home or as digital nomads.

The port of Gustavia in St. Barths is getting crowded this holiday season as the legendary superyacht showdown begins. The season started early, with the wealthiest men in the world and their celebrity friends anchored outside of Gustavia and neighboring St. Maarten and Antigua. Many will stay throughout Christmas, taking glamorous day trips to nearby islands, and then party with the traditional fireworks show above St. Barths Fort Oscar on New Year's Eve.

Finding the best walking shoes for travel can be tough. You want something comfortable enough to get you through a full day of wandering around, but not so comfortable that it screams “I'm a tourist!” And since nobody wants to tote around a bag (checked or otherwise) filled with shoes, the ones that do make the packing list cut need to be versatile enough to wear with multiple outfits.