Richard Branson travel tips

Soon, you’ll be able to fly from New York to London in about three hours—again. An ambitious group of enthusiasts, engineers, and financiers announced a plan to build a new supersonic transport (SST) aptly named “Boom.” The trade press reports that a half-scale demonstrator and test vehicle, called the XB-1, will fly sometime next year. Presumably, a production version will fly within a few more years, and a lot sooner than the typical timetable for big-plane development at Airbus and Boeing would dictate.

Pool season isn’t over just yet. Ahead of harvest, conditions are starting to heat up for grapes in wine countries throughout the Northern Hemisphere. The fruit is beginning to mature, sweeten, and change color—a process known as verasion. And if you’re feeling the heat, too, why not imbibe with a leisurely pool day in wine country?

Richard Branson’s Virgin Experience Days is betting on a thriving experiences economy, and Americans wanting to spend more time doing meaningful things together, by expanding its U.K. brand across the pond.

Didn’t COVID-19 kill the jumbo jet? Not so fast.

According to the just-released Airline Quality Rating study, Virgin America is the country’s best airline. Of the 13 airlines ranked in the study, Alaska Airlines was rated fifth.

The ban on electronic devices carried onboard flights to the U.S. and U.K. from select African and Middle Eastern countries has been anything but uncontroversial. While the response at the level of companies and organizations has been mostly muted, travelers on such sites as FlyerTalk and InsideFlyer have expressed considerable skepticism as to both the ban’s underlying motives and its efficacy.

For many vacationers, Acapulco means sun and fun. For one major cruise line, it means the potential for violence and mayhem from Mexico’s spreading drug wars. And while travelers seem mostly oblivious to the danger, the cruise company is acting on its concerns.

This morning, my inbox and social-media feed were chock full of messages from and about Virgin America. And they had nothing to do with the airline’s rumored merger with JetBlue or Alaska Airlines, a developing story that concerns the company’s very existence.

Bigger is better.

Perhaps no other airline merger has raised more questions than Alaska Airlines’ acquisition of Virgin America. Two certifiably fine airlines, with very different corporate cultures and products. Oil and water. How would they mix?

Sir Richard Branson’s latest trending project isn’t galactic space travel, it’s hotels. The 66-year old mogul has dabbled in the hospitality industry before with his Virgin Limited Edition business, but now he’s bringing the Virgin brand stateside with a handful of Virgin Hotel properties. The first of these is Virgin Hotels Chicago, which I was able to experience in person on a recent trip to Chicago.

Extraterrestrial travel has been a dream for decades, ever since the space-race era of the 50s and 60s. But actual space tourism remained exactly that: A dream, just out of reach, too expensive and impractical to come true.

Virgin Galactic has officially achieved its first space flight. The private tourism company founded by Richard Branson achieved an altitude of 51.4 miles on a test flight this week with astronauts on board, surpassing the 50-mile mark the U.S. government recognizes as the official boundary of outer space .

I’ve been traveling regularly for the past eight years, and never been on a cruise. It was no accident. Either from arrogance or ignorance, I thought I knew exactly who cruising was for: The retired octogenarian looking for an easy, low-excitement vacation surrounded by other octogenarians, and parents with a masochistic urge to be trapped with their kids on a floating hotel for five days. Certainly not my demographic. So when I decided to sail on a Virgin Voyages adult-only cruise from the US, I was breaking character.

Rough Guides writer Lucy Pierce explores the best runs, off-piste skiing and touring in Verbier’s 4 Valleys, Switzerland.