French food off the menu in favour of Italian and Spanish!
Ibiza, Morocco and Turkey revealed as cheapest last-minute summer holiday destinations
THERE are three days left to getaway on holiday – that’s before the polls open. How to put this… buckle up and get out. In case you are living under a rock there’s a general election in the diary for Thursday 4th July. It’s dishy Rishi v Sir softy Starmer. Vote for the sea, sun and sangria instead. The Chalkmarks manifesto is… first relax, then have an ice cream but no fighting on the beaches. Get in touch if you don’t know where to go. Just anywhere. Have you been up north to Sweden, try Albania this year, or cycling around Umbria, Italy. Either we create our own cheer this summer or we all lose out. Why stick around for that? Set your reminders. Here’s July’s travel headlines.
YOU HAD ME AT HOLIDAY!
The Eiffel Tower of news: A survey by the French tourist board found that holidaymakers prefer Spanish and Italian food over French gastronomy. Oh tres bien! We’ve all been whispering it. It’s gonna hurt though especially when the standard in the UK is cold baked beans straight out of the tin (spoon or fork?). Guidebook writer Philippe Gloaguen blamed tour operators for taking tourists to all the wrong restaurants, while Caroline Leboucher, of Atout France (le French tourist board), suggested it wasn’t really the cooking that was the problem, but French hospitality. Le Parisien summed it up: “It’s difficult to make the French friendly with the stroke of a magic wand.” Oof! There was no escape from the punches, the poll of 28,844 eaters across 30 countries, also ranked France below its neighbours for sightseeing and cultural wealth. Tricolour attack! And an own goal too. This was in The Times but they decided not to X it, so no link.
Holidays are coming? It’s a few days before the general election – and if you still haven’t got a holiday booked, Which? has come to the rescue. They looked at 3,500 package holidays to find the cheapest last-minute escapes. Get a pen – these are Agadir and Taghazout in Morocco, Ibiza, and Dalaman in Turkey.
Sorry for the inconvenience: You know, straight away, when you arrive at an airport and see a queue outside the terminal, it’s going to be a bad day. All you can do is get in line and shuffle along. This was the fate of thousands of passengers arriving at Manchester Airport. More than 100 flights were cancelled when the lights went out due to a dodgy cable in the early hours of the morning. Pictures on X showed the impact of the two-minute power outage with crowds of passengers and suitcases piling up. Worse news was to come though as those who lost their flights, also missed out on their whole holiday, with no compensation. It’s not the airline’s responsibility to compensate passengers when there’s a powercut, which is considered an extraordinary event. A reminder to readers: before you put your feet up after booking your holiday, get travel insurance. The BBC had the story.
We’re not done: A few days later, there were more tears, this time, at Heathrow Airport after a glitch with its baggage system. It meant British Airways passengers flew off without their luggage while others arrived in London without their bags. It was the usual nightmare. PA Media reported on the chaos.
More fresh hell: Nevermind trying to catch a flight or find your luggage, Heathrow has launched a live-music stage in terminal 5 for emerging talent. This is the latest in airport one-upmanship. Can’t they just get our flights off on time? Tbh though they could get big audiences if the aggro continues – and who knows maybe music execs will be impressed. The next shows are on July 12 and 24. It’s on the BBC.
If you do get away on holiday: You’ll be spending £250 on extras per week, according to HSBC. The banking giant asked 2,000 people what they splash out on when out of the country. Turns out we all like to have a good time and splurge on eating out, live events, clothes and transport. Behavioural psychologist Jo Hemmings put it down to a “holiday mentality”, which means cos’ we are out of our usual routines, we’re more relaxed and spend more… and we all deserve a little treat. We’ve all been there! STV has the data.
Carrying on: Following on with the surveys, Barclays went further. It found that over the next four months – between June and September – we’ll each be spending £1,520 on holidays. That’s broken down as £906 on overseas trips and £615 on staycations. Their research revealed we’re spending more money on activities and experiences rather than goods which don’t give us the same satisfaction. They also revealed that travel spending has risen by 11.6 per cent on last year.
And there’s more: Of course, Mastercard then put out its survey which found that 63 per cent of Britons were planning to spend money on travel this year. Who knew? No one ever mentions it! Chief economist Natalia Lechmanova said: “Excitement driven by prominent events such as global sporting competitions, music artist tours and international film festivals coming to Europe this year are likely to keep the spend on experiences high.”
Airbnb booked: The pitter patter of holidaymakers arriving in Spain is no longer welcome. As sunseekers turn red so do residents – with rage. First it was Spanish islands and now it’s the mainland. Bit awks if you’re heading there this summer tbh. Barcelona mayor Jaume Collboni says he’s looking to ban Airbnbs from the city by 2029, and hand the flats back to locals. Being a tourist is a dirty word in 2024. You’ve got to keep your head down. MailOnline has more.
Sunbathers paradise: If you think summer holidays are best on the Med think again. Varna is the bluest and most beautiful beach resort on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast. It’s everything you’d find on the Côte d’Azur or on the Costa del Sol but it’s also packed with history and culture. They even use merci as thank you and chau as goodbye. Very handy! Varna is an extremely pretty and leafy seaside port with a huge landscaped park on the waterfront with a mile-long stretch of glamorous bars, restaurants and clubs to go with it. There are sofas, beanbags, and brightly painted wooden arm chairs down on the sand. As well as being a sunbathers paradise, further along the coast are the popular resorts of Sunny Beach, Golden Sands and Sunny Day – popular with Britons on two-week packaged holidays. Hear more here.
Have you seen our pictures: Our fantastic travel photos, which capture some of our favourite destinations around the world, are now available for sale on Alamy. Woohoo!
In-flight entertainment: The latest social media trend when on a long-haul flight is to just sit there… and do absolutely nothing. Yep, it’s called rawdogging. You don’t watch a film, you don’t read a book and you don’t listen to a podcast. You just look forward and stare at the map. But you are allowed to record yourself and then post about it on TikTok. How entertaining. If you want to take it to another level, you don’t even eat the in-flight meal! Anything to become an influencer! MailOnline has more.
Taken for a ride: A fleet of luxury coaches should be paid for by the government to take us away on UK mini-breaks in a bid to boost tourism and reduce private car journeys and carbon emissions. Charity Possible also called on the government to create 300 miles of bus lanes on motorways by 2030. Possible co-director Max Wakefield said: “It’s time to replace those traffic jams with a new fleet of luxury, electric coaches zipping to and from our most beautiful destinations.” What a request! But, who knows, anything is possible!
Postcard from Dover: If you’re planning a road trip to visit England’s great White Cliffs of Dover, you’ll discover the cost of parking will go up £1 from £5 to £6 from today (Monday 1st July). Kent Online has the scandal. If only there was a free electric coach!
The Italian job: It’s 40C+ in Sicily which is why B&Bs are turning tourists away. Water on the island is being rationed. With an African anticyclone heading towards the Mediterranean, holidaymakers in Agrigento, famous for the ancient Valley of the Temples, are being turned away because there’s not enough water for agriculture, let alone for showers or drinking reports The Times. With temperatures across Italy set to rise this summer, Rome has planted palm trees at bus stops for shade and shelter.
Wear sunscreen! If we could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The effectiveness of two cheap, supermarket sunscreens has been proven to be the best by Which? magazine. Lidl’s Cien Sun Spray SPF30, at £3.29, “triumphed” in passing all the SPF and UVA checks as did Aldi’s Lacura SPF30 Sun Lotion at £2.49. Three big brands though did not perform. They wouldn’t cover the tip of an iceberg apparently. Whichever you buy, put it on, and often!
Plane mischief: Just Stop Oil eco-activists ripped into the fence at Stansted Airport and sprayed paint two private jets orange. They were hoping to vandalise Tay Tay Swift’s private plane, which had landed earlier ahead of her Eras Tour in London, but it turned out it wasn’t there. Two women, protesting for an end to the use of fossil fuels by 2030, were arrested. The airport seemed quiet on the security of the airport and how two people were able to easily gain access to the airfield. The Guardian had the story.
Postcard from Bali: We write to you watching a volcano erupting on Bali. I’m on Gili Trawangan, which is the next island along, sitting on a sandy beach looking across at the smoking gun of Mount Agung. The weather is gorgeous. It’s early December and the sun is beating down. The Indian Ocean dazzles pale blue and the water’s so shallow you can walk far out and it still doesn’t reach your knees. Behind us, wild palm trees blow in the breeze and the bars and restaurants are playing music. Beyond that there’s the sound of hoofs and bells from the horse-drawn carriages – the only transport on the island. We look at Agung. It looks at us. It could go bang any second now. A volcano won’t spoil our holiday. It’s gonna be a blast. Wish you were here.
Take the ‘train’ to the Lake District… by bus! Train firm Avanti West Coast has added a bus service between Penrith and Keswick – its former station closed in 1972 – to boost car-free journeys. The 30-minute bus journey being operated by Stagecoach costs an extra £2, and can be bought when buying your train ticket. Gill Haigh from Cumbria Tourism, said the transfer will deliver tourists “right into the heart of the town”. Rail Business UK has the details.
You be the prince: A £369 million renovation of the gloomy and dated east wing at Buckingham Palace is ready to reopen to the public on Monday 15th July. Some 190 miles of electrical cables and 40,000 floorboards have been replaced in a six-year refurbishment. The East Wing is famous for facing the Mall, where the Royal Family waves at crowds from the balcony. Tickets have already sold out. A royal source told the Daily Mail: “The King wants it to be ‘the people’s palace’. He is very keen to open it up to the public through garden parties, tours and the extended summer opening, and we will continue to find more ways to do this.”
To the polls: Post Office Travel Money calculated that many of us bust the budget while on holiday by £155, up from £135 last year. They didn’t say if that was over a weekend, a week, or two weeks! It seems we get caught out by the cost of restaurant meals, supermarket food and drink, and sightseeing trips. They also revealed the average budget per person is £334. So, how not to blow the budget? Expect to blow the budget! The FT covered this story.
Where holidaymakers fear: Passengers have been pictured having to wait in the rain to get through security at Birmingham Airport. The headlines blamed the government’s u-turn on the 100ml liquid rule. It’s true, the rule where passengers take out their 100ml mini cosmetics, which must fit into a plastic bag, was due to ease as new super-scanners can detect liquids inside suitcases. But the government has requested, that for a while, it wants passengers to keep taking them out for inspection particularly at regional airports. Birmingham Airport said this was causing the huge queues, but there weren’t queues outside other airports? inews discovered that Birmingham Airport is also going through a £50 million refurb of its security hall, which is still under construction. So until that’s ready, expect to wait outside in queues. BBC News and Sky News had the story.
Why has the government back tracked? Travel expert Simon Calder has a theory. He thinks that due to the Euros in Germany and the busy holiday period in general, large numbers of people are now travelling – and so it remains smoother if passengers remove their mini liquids because the high-tech scanners (known as next-generation security checkpoints) are mis-identifying items, especially sunscreen as dangerous and rejecting bags for inspection. This is what creates the long delays. Examining lots of suitcases takes much longer than passengers removing their plastic bags.
Jet-setters are back: Heathrow saw an uptick to 81.5 million passengers in the year to May. That was an increase from 71.6 million the year before. Boss Thomas Woldbye said ‘we have put Covid firmly behind us’. The Independent had the story.
Reviews are in! Again, Wizz Air has taken the crown for the longest delays from UK airports. Every year, the Civil Aviation Authority puts these figures out, and almost every year, Wizz Air wins… or loses! This is the third year in a row. On average, their flights took off 31 minutes and 36 seconds behind schedule in 2023, which is better than the 46 minutes and 6 seconds in 2022. Turkish Airlines came second with an average delay of 28 minutes and 36 seconds, followed by Tui being 28 minutes and 24 seconds late. Wizz Air said: “While we saw significant improvements in 2023, there is still work to be done.” PA Media has the scoop!
Stop bugging: Holidaymakers heading to Europe this summer, are being warned about rising cases of dengue fever spread by mosquitoes. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said climate change has caused cases to rise in recent years. In most cases dengue fever isn’t serious. It’s a viral infection that causes fever, which can be relieved with painkillers, keeping hydrated and resting. But if symptoms are more severe, you might need a trip to hospital to be put on a drip – eek! To keep safe they recommend covering up so you don’t get bitten and using mozzy spray. The BBC has more.
Then this: Travellers have also been warned to look out for scams on X. The BBC discovered that when an airline passenger sends a message for booking help they are increasingly being responded to by scammers using fake accounts. They are often asked for a mobile phone number so they can be contacted directly but it’s a ruse. Don’t do it. Check the reply has come from the correct account. All major airlines have been targeted and they urged customers not to share any personal info on social media.
Don’t stop me now: We’ve having such a good time, We’re on a golf buggy. We’re having a ball. Welcome to Isla Mujeres. I’m driving around this absolute gem of a Caribbean island at 12mph. By rights it’s a hideous idea that we’re cruising along the Rueda Medina Malecon past wide, sandy beaches on this golf cart. But everyone’s doing it too. It’s not a super car but it’s a super idea. These pocket rockets will get you up to North Beach in no time. And with North Beach ranked among the 10 best in the world, we want to get up there for sunset. There are hundreds of these buggies on this tiny Mexican island and they’re super easy to find – the minute you step off the ferry from Cancún. Is it safe? Not when we’re around. Where to go if you don’t know!
To the continent: The Pound has boomed against the euro after president Emmanuel Macron announced a snap election in France. £1 was buying around €1.15 but now it’s worth €1.18. Woohoo! That adds up to an extra ice cream. Disclaimer: maffs is not Chalkmarks’ strong point!
One to watch: Sticking with the French tourist board, they have also put out a video to help welcome Britons during the Olympics with some small-talk tips. They advise not to talk to us about politics or the royals. Surely sport, esp football, would be important to avoid. But, they can bring up the weather with us. Maybe we could discuss French cuisine and Chalkmarks suggests pouring baked beans over steak frites or into a boeuf bourguignon? Et volia, good chat, merci! This was also in The Times.
Let’s talk France: Bored-oh? Never! Chalkmarks doesn’t agree that French food is pap. A must-see is the bustling city of Nantes for its art, gardens and the famous Les Machines de l’île, which reopened this month. And for an adventure, head west into the Loire-Atlantique filled with port towns from Le Croisic in Brittany down to Saint Gilles in the Vendee. For food, there’s everything you’d expect from French cuisine – with cheese, plenty of good wine (top tip: don’t miss the Crémant!!).
Vote green: Willie Walsh, head of IATA (an association of airlines), has been in Dubai saying there needs to be more investment in sustainable fuel to reach to net zero by 2050. He also said western countries focusing on limiting air travel to tackle climate change was a European issue. He said: “I think we’re quite arrogant actually to believe that the rest of the world should follow what Europe is doing. The rest of the world wants to have the benefit that Europeans have had.” But he added: “I’m sorry to say but the transition to net zero will require customers to pay. The costs can’t be borne by the industry given the wafer thin margins we have.” The Guardian has more.
The thin wafer: The aviation industry is expected to make £24 billion in profit this year carrying 4.96 billion travellers across the world, figs from the IATA conference revealed. Flight prices though will continue to rise it says due to worldwide inflation, fuel costs, airlines having to use older planes – which burn more fuel – due to the delay of new planes, and also the higher cost of using sustainable fuel which is only chip-fat oil!
Gulp: Sir Tim Clarke, boss of Emirates, had a go at Heathrow calling it was a Second World War airport. Oof! Speaking specifically about terminal 3, its London base, he said it “looks like a utilitarian structure, post-Second World War… It’s an old airport and, all around, new airports are built employing the latest technologies to streamline their processes, whether it be security, check in, immigration or whatever, and making the whole thing a lot easier.” A wounded Heathrow said it was investing to improve facilities but that its hands were tied by the regulator. Sky News had the news.
Glass half empty: Doctors warned us that if we enjoy a tipple during our flight and then take a nap, we risk dying due to the affect of cabin pressure. Booze and sleeping on a plane are a deadly combo of low oxygen and a raised heart rate. Do what Chalkmarks does and pop your mini gin (get the ginger ale too) into your bag and crack it open on arrival in celebration of being alive. For more exclusive drinking-while-flying tips, tune in next week! The research team from the Institute of Aerospace Medicine in Germany said: “It may be beneficial to consider altering regulations to restrict the access to alcoholic beverages on board aeroplanes.” What do we think about that then? All the papers ran this one. Here it is in The Telegraph.
Decked out: Cunard’s Queen Anne glided into the Mersey for its glam naming ceremony. The event was hosted by ex-Busted singer Matt Willis and his TV presenter wife Emma. Spice Girl Melanie C aka Sporty Spice was also among the celebs who smashed the Champagne against the side. Tenor Andrea Bocelli sang, Craig Charles hit the decks, fireworks went off, and thousands watched from the cruise terminal. Kathy Taylor at Cruise Lowdown was there. And here it is from Cunard. On board there’s 14-decks, luxury cabins, a putting green, a pickleball court, and the usual pools, fancy restaurants and West-End shows. Look out for the Queen Anne as its first sailing is around the British Isles. Maybe Chalkmarks will jump aboard.
The big rail headline: The orange paper rail tickets we all know and love could be gone within five years as most of us now prefer having tickets on our phones, or even using our bank cards to tap in and out at gates as we do on the London chube. The orange tickets have been around since 1825 but could be gone by 2030 Northern Rail predicted. “At the current rate of decline and with an ever-greater focus on digital and paper alternatives, ‘magstripes’ are definitely nearing the end of the line. They could be something of a museum exhibit within five years,” it said. This exclusive came from Chalkmarks’ friend Environment Editor Colin Fernandez at the Daily Mail (psst: thanks for X-ing)
YOU’VE REACHED YOUR DESTINATION!
