Grand tours… price of average package holiday is edging towards £1,000. Gulp!

Not all summer holidays have to be hot! Discover some of the coolest destinations to beat the heat this August

FREE walking tours are booming. In the Old Town in Riga, Latvia, 70 tourists have turned up outside St Peter’s Church for the 10am walk. Last year in Tirana, Albania, 200 visitors had showed up for the 6pm walkabout the city. That was just one walk. They also had tours scheduled in the morning and afternoon every day of the week throughout the summer months. One reason they are so popular is because they are free - but you join in on the understanding you’ll pay a tip of £10-£20 at the end. Another reason is that you might just learn something as you carry a coffee around. Guides walk and talk you through thousands of years of history in just a few hours. You get the back story, where the plotline is today and what battles they face in the future. Then they point you in the direction of the best museum if you want a deeper dive. They are also a safe space - no question is too stoopid. Let’s be honest most travellers don't know the ins and outs of the history or politics of another nation other than their own. They’re fun, and can be funny and sad too with personal tales of how life was for the guide's parents or grandparents under Communism (in Albania) or in the old USSR (in Latvia). And best of all, there will be recommendations on what to eat, where to eat it, and where to have a drink with a great view. More importantly, what they achieve is to make you feel welcome and if you’ve just arrived that’s always a good place to start. In other news, did you see Chalkmarks written in the sand (see below). Bluddy tourists! Quick, here's the travel headlines for August!

Have you packed yet?

What to buy this month: This is a siren call! Ryanair flight prices are falling. At the moment, tickets feel like a Katy Perry song this year. They go up, and come back down again. It’s not easy to keep up. But boss Michael O’Leary said flight prices would be “materially lower” after seeing a fall in its quarterly profits. Even though passenger numbers are rising, they just want to get bums on seats. The average cost of a flight is £35. The FT predicts a price war. In contrast, a couple of days later, easyJet said its profits were up. But it does offer package holidays as well as flights.

What’s new: The Labour government is considering plans for a third runway at Heathrow. Chancellor Rachel Reeves said that economic growth was their focus, adding: ‘The ball is in Heathrow’s court. If another submission is received it will be assessed in line with our stated aim of boosting economic growth, as long as it is also compatible with strict environmental standards.’ The Daily Mail has more.

This too: Virgin announced it’s buying seven new fuel-efficient planes to replace older models. The Airbus A330-900s are expected to arrive in 2027. Business Traveller has the details.

And this: Wizz Air said it has 47 new planes arriving next year, which they predict will cut the cost of travelling to the Middle East compared with rivals Emirates and Etihad. From 2025, they’ll be adding Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait to their flight list. They already serve Tel Aviv and Amman in Jordan. Their new Airbus A321XLR’s are built like narrow, short-haul aircraft but carry more fuel to travel longer distances. The airline’s UK boss Marion Geoffroy said: “If you take for example, Luton to Amman, when we entered the market we were three or four times cheaper compared to the incumbent carriers. So that would probably be the scale.” She added: “It would be the same simple product as we currently offer. We have the lowest cost in Europe at the moment so that wouldn’t change.” AeroTime has more.

But: The airline watchdog, the Civil Aviation Authority, is drafting plans for airlines to disclose the CO2 impact for each passenger when they book a flight. Tim Johnson at the CAA said: “Providing consumers with accessible, transparent, and accurate environmental information is essential to making more informed travel choices.” The Guardian has more.

No second thoughts: A third of Britons are planning an overseas holiday – plus a staycay trip this summer. According to American Express, holidaymakers will spend £2,804 on an away trip and £1,754 on a holiday at home. Younger people are more inclined to travel in the UK, with visits to London, Manchester, and Edinburgh on the agenda.

And now to a sunny beach: If you’re a beer and beach kinda person, Puglia, Italy (£1.74), the Algarve in Portugal (£2.04) and Sunny Beach in Bulgaria (£2.04) are where you’ll find the cheapest bottles of booze according to the Post Office. They drank all the beer in Europe, kept their receipts, and once sober, put out their annual findings. They also found that Sunny Beach was rated the best value for families and Ibiza the most expensive. The Telegraph has the story.

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!

Walkers paradise: The first glimpse of Rila National Park is unbeatable. We’d just stepped off the cable car and wow, what a view! It’s an Insta hit. It surprises us because we were 1,600m (5,249ft) above sea level in Bulgaria’s highest mountain range – much higher than Scotland’s Ben Nevis, which peaks at 1,345m (4,413 ft). We were expecting a raw and rocky landscape but the panorama is garden-green meadows. This gorgeous geography is home to the Seven Rila Lakes – a series of crystal-clear glacial lakes. Our trek to the top of the lakes is here.

Who wears the crown: In July we heard how much money the royal family spends on travel and also where they went last year. Between them, they made 27 journeys home and away. They didn’t go to Benidorm or Mallorca, oh no – but to Dubai, Kuwait, Singapore, Kenya, and Sri Lanka, spending in total £4.2 million. We won’t bullet point everywhere they went but their most expensive trip was the King and Queen Camilla’s state visit to Kenya, costing £166,557. Mind you, they did take staff, and Chalkmarks doesn’t have staff. Charles and Camilla also went to Paris and Bordeaux for three days, costing £117,942. (To Bordeaux? Really?) Chalkmarks went to Bordeaux on a three-day trip in February and the whole thing – flights and a hotel on Rue Sainte Catherine – cost £368. In the UK, royals covered Pickering in Yorkshire (costing £52,013), and Liverpool (£23,596). If we had all that money we’d go too. Look out for our GoFundMe page!

Taliban wish you were there! After years of conflict, Afghanistan is becoming a tourist hotspot. Visitor numbers have been creeping up from just 691 in 2021 to more than 7,000 last year, according to AP, with more tour guides and drivers being trained in hospitality. Traveller Sascha Heeney told the BBC: “It is just raw. You don’t get much rawer than there. That can be attractive – if you want to see real life.”

Cruel summer: Economists have blamed Taylor Swift’s June gigs for the UK’s flat inflation in May and June, which didn’t rise but stayed at 2 per cent. It could have dropped to 1.9 per cent if it weren’t for the superstar’s Eras Tour rolling into town which saw hotel prices soar by 8.8 per cent. It was only this time last year that her concerts for London and Cardiff went on sale and sold out almost immediately. ITV News tries to explain the phenomenon.

No bad blood: If you’re heading overseas for the school summer holidays, there’s great news. The pound is doing pretty well against the US dollar and even the euro. £1 now buys €1.18 (previously €1.16) or the US dollar at $1.30 (previously $1.27)! It’s the highest it’s been this year. This is all to do with inflation. If you have a Revolut card, bank some currency! That means we can buy lots more ice cream when away. Here it is in The Times.

Well paid: Venice’s €5 (£4.29) tourist tax for day-trippers to reduce overcrowding is over. The pilot scheme came to an end in July, but it could return next year, costing double at €10 (£8.40). As authorities mull over the pros and cons of the scheme, they have hinted at increasing the charge in 2025. In May, Venice became the first city in the world to charge an entrance fee. While they’ve made £1.7 million, critics have branded it a total failure saying €5 had totally failed to deter daytrippers. On some days, they had more visitors than the same time in 2023. Residents say the Access Fee and QR code system turned their home city into a museum. On X, someone suggested putting the fee at €500. Now, that would keep people away! The Telegraph has more.

Move on: If 2024 is about anything, it’s queuing. Here in the UK, we’re turning them into the place to be! First, Wimbledon turned the four-hour wait (if you’re lucky) into a destination where you could eat free strawberries and ice cream and drink £5 Evian water. Now it’s the Natural History Museum. A £25 million project has transformed its five-acre lawn into two gardens covering urban nature, scientific research, and education, featuring a bronze cast of Dippy the dinosaur. Visitors will be able to walk through this “outdoor gallery” for free on their way into the free museum. Here it is in The Times.

When travel meets politics: After being warned many times to expect new border rules between the UK and EU, it seems they will come into force this autumn. According to the Daily Mail, the new Labour government has been told the Entry-Exit System (EES) could cause queues at airports and ports, four-times longer than they are now, as Britons will have their picture taken, give their finger prints and answer a series of questions before entering an EU country. Instead of 30 seconds, it could take a minimum of two minutes per person. Aviation bosses fear long queues in crowded arrivals halls which could leave passengers stuck on planes unable to disembark – and that in turn would mean flights delayed or cancelled. The warning even mentioned it could impact children meeting Santa in Lapland. There are also worries that many smaller regional airports won’t have the technology installed in time. The scheme has already been delayed many times and there’s hope it will be kicked into 2025. Is there a queue opportunity here?

Another airport annoyance: Those airport so-and-sos have gone and put up the cost of dropping holidaymakers off at the airport by £1. The RAC reported that drivers can pay up to £7 to simply take the suitcases out the boot and give a hug goodbye before having to run within a 10-minute danger-zone window. Rod Dennis at the RAC said: “It’s depressing. To have to pay £5, £6 or even £7 for the briefest of stops to simply open the boot and take some luggage out for a friend or loved one is bordering on the ridiculous.” Just scroll on X for the real reaction. The BBC has more.

Ad wars: Adventure cruise company Hurtigruten Expeditions has been rapped on the knuckles for claiming its trips are sustainable. Its ad in March read: “Selected Svalbard cruises with free flight… Since 1896, we’ve been the leaders in sustainable expeditions.” The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said customers would need to take a flight to join the cruise and that was not sustainable travel. Hurtigruten said customers would understand that the sustainability referred to its expeditions, which are more environmentally friendly than planes and other cruise ships. The ASA had none of it. The ad has been banned. Travel Weekly reported on the row.

Retro’s back: For those born last century the airline Pan Am might vaguely ring a bell. It’s full name was Pan American World Airways and became America’s first international airline in the 1920s flying to the Caribbean islands and South America, and then to Europe. It had a reputation for its high-end service. It stopped flying in 1991, not long after the Pan Am Lockerbie disaster in 1988 when terrorists blew up a plane as it flew over Lockerbie, southwest Scotland. It’s taken its time, but we heard it’s back. After 33 years away it will return in 2025 operating a very expensive jet tour called Tracing the Transatlantic Voyage – following old flying boat routes with stops in Bermuda, Lisbon, Marseille and London. There will only be 50 seats onboard a Boeing 747 from 20 years ago. A ticket for the 12-day trip costs £46,200 for two (note: it is not half this price for one). Boss Craig Carter announced the comeback on Insta saying: “Relaunching Pan Am requires a careful balance of honouring its storied past while innovating for the future, so that it resonates with both our longtime fans and new customers.” Simon Calder has more on this one.

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!

Blink city: High up in the 360 Bar, the view of Baku is unmissable and unstoppable. The three skyscraper Flame Towers with their curvy flicks at their highest point dwarf everything else around. They are one of the latest in Azerbaijan.  At night they are ablaze – lit up like a burning fire in a light display that changes to giant men waving the Azeri flag and then to the national colours blue, red and green. It’s this radical transformation that’s making this city the new must-see capital. 

Where next in the UK: The experts at Which? have once again named Bamburgh, Northumberland, the number one seaside town in Britain for its unspoilt beaches. It’s taken the top spot for the fourth year in a row. Bournemouth and Cornish beaches didn’t make the top 10. In their annual travel survey Portmeirion in Gwynedd came second and St Andrews in Fife, third. Bangor, North Wales, famous for Garth Pier and views out to the Menai Strait and Anglesey came last. 

What do you call a sad strawberry*? A Glaswegian hotel is seeking a breakfast banter butler to warm up Edinburgh Fringe-goers before they head out to the shows, which start on 2nd August. The AC Hotel by Marriott ad says: “Are you a laugh-a-minute lady? A witty wise guy? A rib-tickling rebel? A banter merchant? A comedian, in other words? Then your dream role may be just a scroll away”. Comedian Jason Manford said the biggest joke was the cost of hotels in Edinburgh. Best stay in Glasgow! *A blueberry. Call us! The Stage has more.

Want to travel more? We do! Chalkmarks tuned in to listen to the luckiest man in Britain, Simon Calder, talk about his 30 years in travel working at the Independent. On Tuesday night he told us how he had started working at Gatwick as a cleaner and in security for Laker Airways. He then mysteriously transitioned into writing guidebooks and in 1994 he joined the Independent newspaper and became a breakout travel star. Billed as an exclusive event to hear about Simon’s journeys, via a virtual sofa on Zoom, it was a bizarre mix of his two colleagues asking him where they should go on holiday and then jumping in with audience questions. In between, though, he landed a few stories on an incredible three decades of travel. Simon it seems likes to see an entire country and challenges himself to cross it in a small amount of time – and loves to hitchhike. He once travelled from southern Switzerland across the Alps to reach the north. Another time, in 2006 he spent a month travelling around the world, starting in London, ticking off Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore, Darwin, Sydney, New Zealand, Easter Island, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay Morocco, Spain, Paris and landing back in Shoreham. That trip, he said, cost around £2,000. He also reflected how 30 years ago his annual travel bill cost around £10,000 but today travel with low-cost flights and cheap hotels he now spends around £5,000 a year. He calls himself the man who pays his way but when you, no doubt, have the Independent picking up your expenses and paying your wage, he really is the luckiest man in Britain. He reveals he’s a traditional traveller, taking two credit cards and a lot of cash. He packs a change of clothes, a toothbrush and favours using guidebooks and physical maps, instead of relying on Google. He also talked about when is best to book a long-haul flight or what to do if the passenger in front of you reclines their chair. Where does he recommend? To avoid 40C summer meltdowns in the Med and Southern Europe, he suggests Northern Europe – especially the Baltics (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) because they are cheaper than the Scandinavian nations (Sweden, Norway, Denmark) – where you need to be a millionaire to have just a sandwich and a small beer. What’s next on his agenda? He’s off to Paris and then to cross Canada. We’d love to read about all these adventures but instead Simon reports on travel news. Maybe he’s working on a book.

Memo to all! According to the package holiday firm Jet2 prices have risen to £830 with “modest” increases expected this summer. They don’t say if £830 is for a week away or two. Jet2 also added there is a trend of holidaymakers leaving it later before booking. But don’t leave it too late. Are package holidays a code word for expensive? Are they becoming the most costly trips to book? When prices soar like this it’s time to spend some time looking elsewhere. Chalkmarks suggests checking the cost of booking separate flights and hotels to see what you save. Go on, give it a Google. The FT has more.

Eat like a pro: When overseas, pronouncing food dishes can catch us off guard. In Spain, do you say pie-el-la or pie-eeya (the sound is hard to capture in English spelling but the double ll in paella sounds like a ya). The new one catching many out is the delicious Vietnamese dish Pho. If you can say it correctly you get to eat it, if you can’t you don’t. According to a poll by Hotukdeals this is a key sign of spotting a seasoned traveller. Other clues include having a well-stamped passport, having backpacking tales to dine out on and being able to use chopsticks. Take the test, MailOnline has more.

Tables turned: A couple who took on British Airways after their flight from London to Milan was cancelled because the pilot had called in sick have won their case to claim £220 compensation in the Supreme Court. The airline had said they didn’t need to payout because it had been an extraordinary circumstance, outside of its control. But five judges disagreed and said staff calling in sick was part of everyday, normal business and therefore not extraordinary at all. This ruling means thousands can come forward to claim compensation for delays. Big thanks to that couple Kenneth and Linda Lipton. Sky News has the good news.

The crystal kingdom: For your next road trip visit the southeast corner of Germany for a drive along the ancient Glass Road. This iconic 155-mile touring route winds through the towns and villages in the depths of the Bavarian Forest taking in an emporium of glassmaking factories. For hundreds of years this has been a kingdom of fine crystal glass blowing and today many still use the traditional method. Drop into and shop at the world’s finest glass manufactures including Theresienthal, Eisch and Schott. Taking three-to-four days, stop to see the “Glass Forest”, the biggest glass pyramid in the world and the Glassmaker’s Village in Frauenau. If you haven’t discovered it you can explore it here. 

Then there’s the Sekt: A perfect start to any weekend away in Germany is with a glass of fizz. We always thought there were just three choices when it came to bubbles: Champagne, Prosecco and Cava. Who knew the Germans had their own version? Pronounced as sect, this is crisp, fruity, golden and winey miracle can be found in the romantic Rhineland – an area of vineyards, castles and river cruises. Best enjoyed after long day, making a historic speech in the Bundestag. Read all about it!

Highland magic: If ever there was an excuse for a wee dram this is it. Our must-try recommendation in Scotland is Glen Garioch. It was at this distillery, in the whisky-producing region Speyside, we tasted a single malt straight from the barrel. Before this, we thought all whisky tasted of petrol – but there we picked up the vanilla, spice and even sweetness. We now understand why Robert Burns became a poet! 

Always packed!