War tips

There are many reasons to head to France in 2024—the Olympic Games in Paris, the Euro 2024 football competition or an Impressionist festival—but many will be heading to Normandy to commemorate the 160,000 Allied troops who landed on its beaches in World War Two in the biggest military seaborne invasion in history.

The dramatic underground bomb shelters of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini have been renovated and are now open to the public. The network of fortified bunkers was constructed over 80 years ago to protect him and his family from Allied bombing.

Asian and Pacific Islander people have played a profoundly significant role in shaping American history, contributing to the rich heritage of the United States in countless ways.

As far as states go, Virginia was at the front of the line when they were handing out amazing attractions. From the Chesapeake shores to the Blue Ridge peaks, this gorgeous land harbors major historic sites, up-and-coming cities, romantic valleys, pre-Revolutionary villages and wine-tasting drives.

Impressionism, the movement that forever marked the history of art, is now 150 years old, almost to the day. To celebrate the anniversary, the Musee d’Orsay in Paris together with the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., just opened a very anticipated exhibition, Paris 1874 Inventing impressionism,where spectators have the chance to feel as if they were there for the movement’s birth.

The 2023 worldwide release of the movie Narvik on streaming service Netflix brought this small industrial city in Northern Norway to the world’s attention.

For a truly memorable visit to London, you can stay in the former office of Winston Churchill, Lawrence of Arabia and the infamous John Profumo. The Old War Office was where Richard Haldane, Britain’s first secretary of war, was a key player in the founding of MI5 and MI6 in 1909. Tread the same hallways as Ian Fleming when he worked in intelligence during WWII and the spies (both men and women) who inspired his famous character James “007” Bond. The building has been used in various Bond films, as the MI6 headquarters in Octopussy (1983), A View to a Kill (1985), Licence to Kill (1989), Skyfall (2002) and Spectre (2015).

Finland has done it again. The 2024 World Happiness Report is out, and for the seventh year in a row, Finland has been named the happiest country in the world.

Most Americans recognize the popular and longest running public service announcement, “Only you can prevent wildfires”, Smokey Bear’s signature catchphrase. Today this motto still rings true, 80 years later, as climate change, extreme weather, drought, and the overall health of our forest ecosystems have made disastrous wildfires more widespread.

Some call it a war, others a capture operation or an exile effort. In any case, an excess of wild rabbits in Paris has convinced the authorities to lose them.

Kosovo is one of our Best Places to Go in Europe for 2024, part of our global guide to the Best Places to Go in 2024—find more travel inspiration here.

When Clare Stone’s local bus service was abruptly axed in 2022, she “got quite cross” and co-founded protest group Buses4Us. In the early 20th century, daytrippers used to come by train to see the displays of wild daffodils that carpet the forests and meadows of the so-called “golden triangle” on the Gloucestershire–Herefordshire border. The railway (now long gone) became known as the Daffodil Line. Clare’s group channelled the spirit of the early Victorian investors who had raised the funds to build the railway: “They wanted the railway so they decided to get on and do it themselves,” she tells me. Buses4Us raised money from councils, businesses and individuals and in April 2023 launched a bus called the Daffodil Line (AKA bus 232 or simply “the Daff”).

In Paris, the splendid 1728 mansion of an American and French war hero is now Lafayette’s restaurant helmed by Michelin star chef Mory Sacko, where he is twisting brasserie staples with his signature Senegalese flair.

Despite the ongoing war with Hamas, Israel's ministry of tourism reports that in January, the country reached 34% of the number of North American tourists it had during the same month of 2023.

The birdcage was perfected in communist Hungary. In 1972, István Haraszty outfitted a parakeet dwelling with a sophisticated surveillance system that opened the door when the inhabitant was idle and shut it if she moved to escape.

Global hospitality heavyweights are investing in the British capital with new hotels, and they're betting big. Raffles repurposed the landmark Old War Office—Churchill's erstwhile HQ—while the Peninsula broke new ground just opposite the Buckingham Palace garden, both brands staking claims in prime London real estate. Waldorf Astoria and Six Senses will soon follow suit with their own local debuts, while Rosewood and Mandarin Oriental plan to open second properties. But don't let the big names drown out boutique newcomers like the whimsical Broadwick Soho, a glittering reminder of the homegrown English charisma that makes London a must-visit in the first place.

United Airlines is set to resume Israel service early next month.

United Airlines will resume flights to Israel this spring for the first time in months, becoming the first major carrier in the United States to do so since the start of the war in Israel and the Gaza Strip.

United will resume flying to Israel in early March, making it the first U.S. airline to return to Israel since the war between Israel and Hamas began on Oct. 7.

Global travel retailer Gebr. Heinemann made an important acquisition at the end of January at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, named after Israel’s first prime minister. The Hamburg-based company bought the shares of James Richardson in the duty-free joint venture retail business JR/Duty Free, which was established in 2017.

Oscar-winning filmmaker and artist Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave, Shame, Hunger) shows us in his engrossing new documentary, Occupied City, how the not so distant past events of the second world war still haunt present day Amsterdam. His film, made with his historian wife, Bianca Stigter, evokes the ghosts of the past, felt everywhere in the city, inside buildings where often harrowing things happened but the film also leaves us with the positive reminder that “the Nazis didn’t win.”