Travel guide to Wallonia, Belgium

Antwerp's modern reputation as a progressive design hub rests on the shoulders of the Antwerp Six, the fashion avant-gardists who rose to prominence in the 1980s. But Belgium's largest city has been a hotbed for boundary pushers since Christophe Plantin established the world's biggest book-publishing workshop there in the 16th century. Its openness is due both to its port, Europe's second largest, and to its multiculturalism (more than 170 nationalities represented). The atmosphere is why Antwerp Six member Dries Van Noten has kept his label's headquarters in his village-like hometown. Now a new wave of cutting-edge creatives are behind buzzy hotels, renewed cultural icons, and an ascendant food-and-drink scene. 

Squeezed in between France, Belgium and Germany, tiny Luxembourg (pop. 655,000) is something of an oddity, yet is arguably also the most European of the continent’s many nations.

At airports around Europe, particularly those with flights to and from Istanbul, it’s not uncommon to see men, their heads freshly shaved — some wearing caps intended to cover red scabs, others wearing forehead bands to prevent postoperative swelling — and all showing the unmistakable signs of recent hair transplant operations.

It’s a country pub in a city. That’s my thinking as bartender Michael O’Donovan lets my pint of Murphy’s settle on the counter, pausing for an intuitive amount of time before topping off the stout’s creamy crown. There are licks of flame in a tiled fireplace nearby. The wood spits and crackles as the conversation eases into gear.

The classic travel guide is being overtaken on online marketplaces like Amazon by completely generic, AI-written ones — but there are a couple of ways to tell if the guide you're looking at is a fake.

Last month I traveled by train from London to Berlin and back.

The drama and beauty of Luxembourg’s capital often comes as a surprise to the first-time visitor. The Grand Duchy – the world’s only sovereign nation whose head of state is a Grand Duke – emerged in 963 AD when Count Siegfried built a castle on top of the Bock cliffs. Today the Bock and Old Quarter – a UNESCO World Heritage site – perch on a sandstone plateau high above the Alzette and Pétrusse rivers, and wandering its upper and lower cities is like strolling through history.

Nestled in the north-west corner of Ireland, the city of Derry-Londonderry (Northern Ireland) and the county of Donegal (Republic of Ireland) sit snugly side by side. Taken together, this pair have every ingredient you could want from a short break: a dollop of history, a splash of culture and immeasurable quantities of nature and adventure. Better yet, it’s a combination that few have yet to put together.

For somewhere as fabled as the ‘birthplace of British tourism’, the narrow, steep lane leading to Symonds Yat’s waterfront was remarkably quiet. In fact, it almost felt like a dead end until I turned a tight corner and there was the River Wye, spread out before me in all its glory.

With every terror attack that grips the world, we all pause to reflect. World travelers and frequent flyers, however, likely react a little differently: People with upcoming adventures abroad tend to follow the news more closely, start researching travel insurance, and keep tabs on safety alerts.

Getting old has few benefits, but the occasional senior travel discount is one of them. Senior travelers can enjoy a wide range of discounts, but both availability and value vary substantially among different travel sectors and in different parts of the globe.

Travel to Europe is going to get slightly more complicated in 2021. Starting that year, visitors from the U.S. will need to get an ETIAS (European Travel Information and Authorization System) approval before entering countries in the Schengen zone. According to the delegation of the European Union to the U.S., the measure is not a Europe visa, but an authorization that “will enable us to get more comprehensive information from travelers coming from visa-exempt, third-country [nations] arriving at the Schengen external borders.”