The Best Fleece Layers for Winter: Essential Zip-Ups, Vests, & Pullovers for Travelers

Rather than a city with a single, unified style, London is a collection of distinct neighborhoods, each with their own unique character. One walk around the British capital and you’ll discover the distinction is marked by the architecture of each—from the pastel flat facades of Notting Hill to the stately, stark white townhouses of Kensington to the 19th century, industrial brick buildings of the South Bank.

The last (or first) hill in England is a modest 198 metres above sea level. Hillock more than hill, Chapel Carn Brea is certainly no Munro: it’s a final unpromising, bracken-brown bump in the Cornish landscape, before a sheer drop into the sea at Land’s End. Not all walks need guidebooks and Nordic poles; some are coy, cloaking their secrets in the hope that power walkers will power on by.

Fittingly shaped like a tropical fish, St Kitts packs a lot to see and do in its lush and historical expanse.

Veganuary was inititated by a UK non-profit organisation ten years ago to encourage people worldwide to try vegan for January and beyond. Millions of people have signed up to their one-month vegan pledge since 2014 and the number of vegan food products continues to grow. To make things easier, the organisation offers to send anyone willing to take the challenge their celebrity cookbook, meal plans and recipes – all for free. And here are 15 new food and drink products recommended for anyone going vegan this month and beyond.

Exploring Yorkshire’s coastline on two wheels is about to get a whole lot easier. Route YC, the organisation which promotes the Yorkshire coast, has teamed up with leading adventure cyclists to launch a series of new cycle routes in January. Ranging from nine to 260 miles, the routes are designed to help visitors of all abilities get off the beaten track on gravel, touring and road bikes.

£28, Hardie GrantThe second cookbook from food writer Dina Begum is a love letter to Bangladesh. Alongside the selection of tempting recipes are detailed ingredient notes, explanations of distinctive spice blends and advice on traditional preparation and serving, all accompanied by evocative photography of busy street-sellers, verdant landscapes and market produce. Some recipes do feature fish and vegetables native to Bangladesh that might be harder to find in the UK, but the author suggests accessible substitutions for those unable to find a Bangladeshi grocery store.

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.

British skies dazzle when the sun sinks, and there are a handful of dark sky reserves and discovery sites where the lack of light pollution can help stargazing enthusiasts feel that bit closer to the universe. Take a winter stomp across freezing moors or a late-night summer drive up to a remote hilltop to find a sky full of stars with distant planets glittering overhead on clear nights. Often, there’s no need for a telescope either — star clusters such as Pleiades and Hyades, the Milky Way, nebulae and shooting stars can often be seen with the naked eye or with the help of a pair of cheap binoculars and stargazing apps such as Stellarium Mobile.

Vibrant orange and black wings fill the skies above coastal California each winter as thousands of western monarchs take flight. But these iconic butterflies are disappearing. A new trail brings attention to their decline and invites travelers to help protect them. 

If, somehow, you’re still looking for a spot to spend Christmas or the final week of 2023, the personal-finance website WalletHub’s latest report has some important insights for you. It reviewed data on the nation’s 100 largest cities to find out which are simultaneously the most festive and affordable for celebratory getaways this Christmas season.

It’s believed that the Norwegians invented modern skiing as we know it, and the first destination ski resort was Switzerland’s St. Moritz around 1864—more than half a century before the oldest operating mountain in the U.S. opened. It was the ski loving but mountain-challenged British that popularized the very notion of the ski vacation, traveling to the Alps for food, fun and skiing.

If we adopted a child’s-eye view of the world, how would we choose to have fun? It’s likely to be about more than the usual incentives, such as an ice cream, suggests research from Nature Communications. According to the journal, children as young as four seek experiences that deliver positive results, guide action, answer questions about the world — and are just plain fun. Whether it’s getting up-close with crustaceans on a rockpooling adventure, diving into a good book at a literature festival, learning to surf, taking to the stage or gazing at the stars, these 12 UK-based experiences deliver hands-on learning and creativity.