The Grand is a hotel with its twisted corners, the Cluedo board: an art deco ballroom, a carpeted, sprung dance floor, a library for community events that leads to a vast dining room, and in another wing, a billiards room. Everything in this Folkestone landmark is a bit chaotic: spare tables and chairs pushed to… Read More »
Locked behind bars, almost 1,000 screaming macaques are on a feverish rampage. Gangs of former street macaques have spotted their upcoming feast and are jockeying for prime position. After a few minutes, the keepers come in and the screaming animals are swarmed. Like herding rats, they climb over each other to get their rewards; within… Read More »
Even for the most seasoned traveller, embarking on your first trip as a new family can be a daunting prospect. I spent ten years as a travel journalist, so I have a fair amount of experience under my belt – but when it came to flying for the first time with my daughter, I was… Read More »
A top public health advisor has warned that the climate emergency poses a “real risk” to Spain’s traditional mass tourism model, as rising temperatures and more frequent heatwaves hit the country’s most popular coastal areas. Héctor Tejero, head of health and climate change at Spain’s Health Ministry, said the increasingly obvious physical impacts of the… Read More »
In many ways, Heathrow needs no introduction. It is Britain’s main international airport. And the planet’s second-busiest passenger airport, handling 80 million passengers a year, each passing through one of four significantly sized terminals. But a little helpful guidance never goes amiss. And if you’re hoping to fly from one of its runways in the… Read More »
Friday is expected to be the busiest day this weekend, with up to 3.2 million journeys expected on the roads alongside commuters. A further 3.6 million journeys are expected on Saturday, followed by 2.9 million on Sunday. Another four million trips are expected between Friday and Sunday. Alice Simpson, from the RAC, said: “Our research… Read More »
On the eve of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, the city has become a harrowing obstacle course for Parisians and tourists. Police have locked down the entire centre of the French capital, along the banks of the Seine River. Where I live outside the Olympic security zone in the eastern 11th arrondissement, the… Read More »
Kenneth Grange, who has died aged 95, was the leading British product designer of the second half of the 20th century. Even if they don’t know his name, most people in Britain are familiar with his products: the Kenwood Chef food mixer, the Kodak Instamatic camera, the Ronson Rio hair dryer, the Morphy Richards iron.… Read More »
Thousands of passengers travelling from London to Paris faced serious disruption on the day of the Olympic Games’ opening ceremony following a suspected coordinated attack on the French rail network. Signalling systems on railway tracks in northern France were set on fire overnight, with cables cut and set on fire, sources close to the investigation… Read More »
It’s easy to feel nostalgic about long summer vacations from school. Once upon a time, that meant getting lost on bike rides with friends until the sun went down, or setting up makeshift camps in the garden with a hastily prepared picnic of buttered bread, orange squash and the fixings from the snack drawer. But… Read More »