London’s Heathrow International Airport is built for the hungry. Heathrow’s restaurants range from classy to quick to pub. Heavy emphasis on “pub.” Like London itself, you can find pubs with traditional English bar food and beer everywhere you look in Heathrow. Which is fine and dandy, but there are also a number of high-end restaurants with fast or slow service if you’re looking for something a little different.
These are the best restaurants and bars in every terminal of Heathrow International Airport.
The Perfectionist’s Cafe: Snag one last British meal here before flying out. The food is tasty and comes out fast (there’s a grab and go option if you need it really fast) for when you don’t have long before your flight. Options include dishes like Scotch eggs made with quail eggs along with the salads, burgers, and fish and chips you’ll find all over Heathrow. Don’t sleep on the cocktail menu.
London’s Pride by Fuller’s: Drink in some classic English beers from the airport outpost of this historic brewery. There’s a special airport beer, Wingman, made special for this location, and there’s a full pub menu for eats.
Wondertree: The English diet is pretty heavy on the meats. Wondertree’s menu has clearly marked vegetarian dishes along with a solid cocktail, wine, and beer list. Meat eaters will enjoy as well with options like chorizo flatbreads, red snapper, and rump steak and chips.
The Gorgeous Kitchen: Escape the doldrums of airport life in The Gorgeous Kitchen. The sit-down restaurant has lots of open space and, dare we say it, gorgeous design. The menu rotates to include seasonal ingredients, and most dishes are on the fresh and light side.
Spuntino: A mix of Italy and Prohibition-era America with burgers, pizza, and classic cocktails with blues playing in the background. The hosts rollerskate over to you, and Spuntino is about as Instagram-friendly as an airport restaurant gets with murals and neon lights.
Oriel Grande Brasserie: Art Deco decor and classic French dishes. A long list of cocktails, beer, and wine (glass and bottle) pairs with lobster dishes, filling feasts like ribeye steak, and upscale comfort food like truffle mac ‘n’ cheese.
The Curator: Where to go when you want a good cocktail to send you off. The Curator’s menu is filled with craft cocktails and a well-curated wine and beer list.
The Darwin: One last true British pub experience before you travel to wherever you’re going, which will surely have a cliche remake of a British pub.
Comptoir Libanais: Lebanese home cooking with flatbreads and desserts. Come with a group, as most things here are for sharing. Don’t forget the mint tea.
Prince of Wales: An upscale pub with classics like chicken, ham, and leek pie, toasties, and burgers. Cocktails, beer, and a warm atmosphere make this a comforting place to relax before flying.
Fortnum & Mason: Just because you’re in an airport doesn’t mean you can’t have a fancy meal when you want one. Fortnum & Mason opens early with big breakfasts and service of indulgent lunches and dinners like salad with lobster, smoked fish platters, and seasonal British oysters. Classy wine and spirits match the food.
Gordon Ramsay’s Plane Food: Another opportunity to eat at a higher end place (at least as far as airport dining goes). Full breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus are available as well as a-la-carte ordering. The menu touches on just about everything, with options like udon noodles, a raw bar, and short rib beef burgers.
The George: British pub with pizzas, burgers, and big British breakfasts. It’s a simple pub, don’t make a fuss about it, but you’ll enjoy yourself just fine.
Life changed slowly in the beginning of 2020, and then all at once when the realities of COVID-19 set in. Restaurants and bars that were filled in February were shuttered until further notice by mid-March. Thousands of hospitality workers lost their jobs, and small-business owners had to make the tough decision to stay open for takeout, close for now, or close for good — decisions that will shape cities around the world for years to come. It’s impossible to know what’s going to happen next, but it’s pretty clear things aren’t going back to how they were.
“Things started changing in my neighborhood about a week ago,” Natalia Cardenas, the Miami brand ambassador for Woodford Reserve, says. “Slowly every day, the rules of normal engagement became more and more strict. Day after day, the freedoms that we once took for granted were slowly disappearing. The freedom to connect to friends, strangers, and bartenders.”
A new way to connect has arisen as we all embrace self-isolation: the virtual happy hour. This may seem like a very quarantine-era phenomenon, something we’ll leave behind once we’re allowed to socialize in public once again. But according to industry experts, sociologists, and menta-health experts, virtual happy hours are going to change the way we drink forever.
Virtual happy hours were once a last-resort way to spend time. The effort was too large compared to just going to your neighborhood bar, and the concept felt a little too close to an excuse to drink (somewhat) alone. If we had a virtual happy hour at all, it was with friends and family who lived far away, not with people in the same city. Yet as self-isolation and social distancing became the terms du jour, acceptance — and promotion — of virtual drinking sessions quickly grew. Publications like the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal wrote stories that quickly mainstreamed what is essentially a way to drink without guilt while chatting into the tiny camera on your phone or computer.
No, we aren’t looking at a bar-less future. But virtual happy hours are helping people learn about the value of intimate gatherings with friends and family they don’t always keep up with.
The once awkward video chat, in other words, is normalized.
Some bars across the country were quick to adapt. Bar-led virtual happy hours popped up within 24 hours of California shutting down bars and restaurants, says Rachel Potts, the Los Angeles brand ambassador for the Scotch whiskey brands Glendronach and BenRiach.
For instance, The Mermaid in Los Angeles live-streamed its regularly scheduled programming of Karaoke Sunday, Metal Music Monday, trivia, and bingo night. The winery Kendall-Jackson started virtual tastings on its social media feeds starting the last full week of March. Kingfisher, a cocktail bar in Durham, North Carolina, started video happy hours from behind the bar and held a split-screen conversation with author and spirits writer Kara Newman that was one part promotion for Newman’s latest book Nightcap, one part basic cocktail lesson, and one part virtual drinking session with the 40-45 people watching from home.
Under normal circumstances, this many people wouldn’t watch a bar’s virtual book chat happy hour (myself included) on a Saturday at 4:30 PM. But for those who like to commune over a drink, there were few other options.
“We are seeing that there is a distinct need for social interactions that is linked directly to mental health,” Potts says. “With the increase in video chat, these interactions are still happening, but on a much more intimate scale. Instead of meeting up with 20 to 30 coworkers for happy hour at the usual stomping grounds, people are sharing a drink over FaceTime with maybe two to four of their office mates. While large group gatherings will still be part of the social culture [after the pandemic], there is now more importance being associated with maintaining small, yet meaningful, relationships. Every connection in quarantine counts, and there is a feeling of urgency to reinforce those connections.”
Prioritizing intimate hangouts between a couple friends over large group gatherings likely won’t stop when the threat of COVID-19 stops. We carry the habits we build during times of crisis with us even after the crisis is over. In a recent Politico story about what the future may look like, Georgetown University professor Deborah Tannen said the question may shift from “Is there a reason to do this online?” to “Is there any good reason to do this in person?”
“Catastrophes have caused permanently altered behavior in the past,” says Viktor Sander, a counselor who specializes in human behavior.
Take the general state of excess during the Roaring ‘20s after World War I and the Spanish Influenza, for example. Sander adds that “It’s likely that COVID-19 will normalize new behaviors — virtual hangouts being one” though “there needs to be other factors in place to sustain the new behavior.” (Less travel because of climate change is one possible factor Sanders cites.)
Drinking alone, together, takes some getting used to. A recent Zoom happy hour with former co-workers and friends — who haven’t hung out as a group, or even talked in some cases, in over two years — had some awkward quiet moments and some unintelligible moments where everyone talked at once. You can’t retreat to the bar or start a side conversation that’s only interesting to a few people when only one person can talk at a time and there’s nowhere to go but the screen. Still, it’s a sense of community — and one that carries far less of a commitment than going out and meeting people IRL.
“Well, it is much better than the alternative, sitting alone somewhere staring out the window, at a wall or at a painting,” Ullom says. “You can chat, sniff, swirl, sip, and share your ideas and thoughts still in real-time. The glassware might be different, and the air around a bit different, but that is all.”
Bars could continue to build relationships with customers via video streams after this is all done. They could bring in authors like Kingfisher did for virtual book happy hours watched by people who live far from the bar’s physical location. Another thing bars may continue to do is host virtual karaokes with regulars on slow nights, or virtual bingo for bar gift cards during rough weather instead of opening and paying the overhead. In pre-COVID-19 times, these strategies might have seemed odd. Post-COVID-19, it might feel normalized.
Tonya Cross Hansel, associate professor at Tulane University School of Social Work, thinks that bars, cafes, and restaurants can’t be replaced. Still, the virtual happy hour mindset will stay with us long after the pandemic ends.
“It also provides opportunities to network and meet people that do not live in your general vicinity,” Hansel says. “Online dating has been popular for a long time and I see no reason why this cannot extend to other types of relationships.”
For those who already lived in isolated locations, or generally suffered from loneliness prior to the pandemic, the burgeoning scene of virtual happy hours — or just more frequent virtual check-ins of any kind — could be the most socialization many have had with distant friends in a while. In a post-COVID-19 world, the acceptance of virtual happy hours can help both those who live far away and those who suffer from crowd anxiety or agoraphobia. It can also serve as a reminder for normally busy, social people in major cities to check in on those friends and family more regularly.
“While the quarantine is revealing that social interaction is a necessity, these virtual engagements are allowing those who could not formerly go out to stay connected,” Potts says. “Those who are sick, older, or are not comfortable in large group settings can now engage on the same scale. While I believe that the vast majority of people will resume going out to bars and restaurants when the quarantine is over, we may see these virtual interactions remain.”
Plus, it could just be the perfect thing for anyone who doesn’t feel like getting ready after a long day of work, but still wants to unwind with friends.
“The beauty of forming these small, virtual interactions is that there is no pressure to be ‘seen,’” Potts says. “You don’t have to worry about what you wear or how your makeup is. Instead, this is a chance to see other people on a completely genuine and stripped-down level.”
No matter what, we won’t take the freedoms of connection so lightly after quarantine restrictions lift, Cardenas adds.
In an ideal world, we’ll once again return to the bars that fostered so much connection. Sitting at the bar next to strangers again may take some getting used to, and these creative ways to connect people were forced to rely on won’t disappear entirely. Regardless of what happens, though, one thing is for sure: The pandemic will change how we socialize for good.
https://travel.atspace.co.uk Life changed slowly in the beginning of 2020, and then all at once when the realities of COVID-19 set in. Restaurants and bars that were filled in February were shuttered until further notice by mid-March. Life changed slowly in the beginning of 2020, and then all at once when the realities of
Separating Hype From Emerging Tech’s Real Shortcomings Post-Crisis: New Skift Research
Conference attendee tries using the latest VR goggles in Munich, Germany Stephan Sorkin / Unsplash
Skift Take: Not all tech is worth the hype. But then again, the current crisis will likely accelerate the adoption of some worthwhile emerging technologies. It’s important to know how this will impact the travel industry. We’ve set out the most important technologies to help you burst that hype bubble.
https://travel.atspace.co.uk Conference attendee tries using the latest VR goggles in Munich, Germany Stephan Sorkin / UnsplashSkift Take: Not all tech is worth the hype. But then again, the current crisis will likely accelerate the adoption of some worthwhile emerging technologies. It’s important to know how this will impact the travel industry. Conference attendee tries using the latest VR goggles in Munich, Germany Stephan Sorkin
Just when theBlack Travel Movement was gaining so much speed, we now all find ourselves confined to our houses. While the onset of COVID-19 has put the entire world on the no-fly list, we don’t have to pass this time idly. Instead, we can use these weeks we’ll be grounded to absorb the work of the legends that paved the way for us to be able to lead our nomadic lives. If you have been previously unfamiliar with the work of black travel writers, you’re in for a treat: Black travel writers can offer a perspective on cross-culturalism that you may not find elsewhere. If you’re unsure where to start, here are 12 exceptional examples of travel memoirs and other books written by black authors.
1. Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica by Zora Neale-Hurston
As published in the Guggenheim Foundation’s annual report for 1935-36, Zora Neale-Hurston was awarded her fellowship that year for “the gathering of material for books on authentic Negro folk-life, in particular a study of magic practices among Negroes in the West Indies.” The resultant manuscript was Tell My Horse, a work that is part travelogue, part ethnography, part strict, addictive narrative.
Interestingly, she uses quite a bit of her bandwidth in this work ruminating on the existence and the validity of the black diaspora — something many of us take for granted to exist today — as if she had someone to convince of our mutual heritage and cultural touchstones. I would imagine that she would be satisfied to know that this work still resonated with contemporary black readers and that for us, those touchstones do exist.
This Nigerian-born, America-educated travel writer and photographer has had quite the storied career — one that included a stint right here at Matador Network as an editor. These days she’s based in Stockholm, and her book, Due North, is a 2018 Lowell Thomas Gold Award Winner for best travel book, and you should definitely read it if you’ve ever had a dream destination.
In this work, Akinmade Åkerström tells the origin story of her desire to see the world; of being a teenager fascinated by maps; of deciding that she would, one day, go to the north pole; and of how this elusive feat has shaped her life and travels. It is a must-read if you have a yet un-attained travel goal.
A 1985 graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, the late Lynne Duke was nominated for a Pulitzer before the decade was over with her incredible reporting from Miami Florida, about the crack epidemic that was then ravaging black neighborhoods. Though she is also well known for her depictions of post-9/11 NYC life, she is maybe most popular for her reporting from Southern Africa in the ‘90s. This book one of the results of those travels.
Mandela, Mobutu, and Me is an account of what Lynne would call, her “Africa beat” — that time in her life when she gave up everything else to tell this story, when she gave her whole self to this time and place that saw so much history: the fall of apartheid; the rise of Mandela; the spiritual and literal end of the nation of Zaire and, with it, its leader, Mobutu Sese Seko. Long hailed as one of the best reports of southern Africa in the ‘90s, it offers a perspective that navigates western ideas about the African continent while accurately depicting the corruption that existed in African politics at the time.
4. Richard Wright’s Travel Writings edited by Virginia Whatley Smith
Possibly most famous for his 1945 bestselling memoir, Black Boy, which details his life as a boy and young man, Richard Wright came a long way, literally, from Roxie, Mississippi, where he was born. Wright first relocated to Chicago, then New York, eventually fleeing the United States completely, where he famously became one of many black American expats in Paris, France in 1946.
This collection of essays details some of his travels and shows his proclivity to approach cultures as a student rather than a colonizer and vulnerably relate his awakening to the concepts of French existentialism and pan-Africanism. While now this type of immersive travel is commonplace, this was a radical approach at the time. Even now it is worth revisiting the unprecedented way he portrayed his relationship with African and black people in travel writing.
An associate professor of Journalism at Temple University, Lori L. Tharps credits her time in Spain for helping her to understand her own blackness in a global context. Born in an all-white suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, her relationship to race was colored by the experience of frequently being the only black person in school or in her neighborhood.
Kinky Gazpacho tells the story of her personal journey after moving to Spain, and how she managed to navigate Spanish ideas of blackness while simultaneously maneuvering through life in a new country. This book is a very personal tale that is so very relatable to the scores of black women who have ever left the United States hoping to escape the racism that they have endured, only to have found it again in a slightly different package. This story is not devoid of hope or optimism though — it also chronicles the author’s story of falling in love, all with the backdrop of the Iberian peninsula.
6. All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes by Maya Angelou
American author, poet, and luminary civil rights activist Maya Angelou spoke frequently, throughout her entire body of work, about her relationship to blackness, Africanness, and her conflicts with nationality and sense of belonging. This is arguably the memoir that tells this origin story.
The fifth installment in a seven-volume memoir, All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes chronicles her time living in Accra, Ghana, between 1962 and 1965. Those who are looking to explore the relationship that Africanness has to American blackness will adore this poetic work, as her famous resiliency is tempered by the idiosyncrasies of her immersion in a different culture.
Nigerian-British Noo Saro-Wiwa came to her intercontinental life by happenstance rather than choice. Born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and a member of the Ogoni — an ethnic minority in Nigeria whose traditional homeland was pillaged for its oil reserves — she is the daughter of famed revolutionary Ken Saro-Wiwa.
Ken was a poet, an academic, and, much to the chagrin of Sani Abacha and his dictatorial military regime, a radical environmental activist. Partially because of her fathers’ political leanings and the subsequent danger that could have put Noo and her mother and siblings, they moved to Surrey in 1977, leaving her father behind in Port Harcourt to continue his work with the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, the same work that precipitated his execution by military tribune in 1995.
Though Noo long vowed never to return to her native Nigeria, this work is the product of her doing exactly that. In it, she describes navigating the landscape that she finds both familiar and foreign while she oscillates between decrying and protecting Nigerian culture. If you yourself are a bi- or multicultural person, you will likely relate enormously to this dexterously crafted, humorously vulnerable book.
As one of the premier works of black travel writing in history, this book is an introduction to many of the particulars of the genre. While many are charmed by Kpomassie’s unyielding devotion to reaching Greenland, many disagree, finding the way he relates this long tale childish or naive. But maybe this work, rather than being the agent that divides people, merely shows us where we already divide ourselves as travelers: either we are inherently optimistic or we plan for the worst. This work may be perfect for you if you’d like to know which one you are.
Nordic/Nigerian/American travel writer Faith Adiele was Thailand’s first black Buddhist nun, and it was these very experiences that informed her brilliant debut, Finding Faith. More than just a travel writer, Adiele has centered her brand around recontextualizing what travel writing is by promoting a decolonized approach to navigating other cultures.
By contextualizing this pursuit within the microcosm of this one singular, though arduous, endeavor, the reader has the opportunity to learn the nuances of what it can be like to engage with people whose lifestyles may differ from your own without infantilizing their way of life. Those whose travel experiences have been inspired by works such as Heart of Darkness and Burmese Days are particularly invited to read this important work: For just as we need to decolonize travel writing, we need to begin decolonizing the way we travel.
10. Blue as the Lake: A Personal Geography by Robert Stepto
Dr. Robert B. Steptoe has had an impressive career in academia. Currently a professor of African American studies and English at Yale University, he is an alumnus of the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, Trinity College, and Stanford University where he earned his Ph.D. It is maybe this affinity for and success within this arena that informs his ethnographic memoir, Blue as the Lake.
This is a book that weaves his personal tales and travels with those of his family, thus connecting their stories to those of black culture cumulatively. Stepto achieves this with a deftness that few in the world can emulate; engaging with his work imbues the reader with the sense that they are on a journey with him, one that makes many important stops along the timeline of black American history.
A South African journalist who currently resides in Kenya, Zukiswa Wanner puts her pan-Africanness on full display in her eighth book, Hardly Working: A Travel Memoir of Sorts. In this work we see her traveling about with her partner and young son on a book tour to mark the 10th anniversary of her debut novel, The Madams.
Born of a South African father and a Zimbabwean mother in Zambia, Wanner’s relationship to African multiculturalism may be one she was never going to be able to escape. A huge part of this work is spurned from the personal responsibility she feels to pass the importance of pan-Africanism onto her son, and like James Baldwin and Tá-Nehisi Coates before her, put this pursuit in print. So much of travel writing is reserved for those going at it alone, but this work is a must-read for those who believe a family can only enrich your relationship to the wide world.
12. A Stranger in the Village edited by Farah J. Griffin and Cheryl J. Fish
If this list has seemed a bit overwhelming and you’re not sure where to start, this may be the perfect book for you. A Stranger in the Village: Two Centuries of African American Travel Writing is an anthology of short essays, memoirs, personal letters, and lectures of black American nomads spanning 200 years. This book showcases luminaries you may be familiar with, like Angela Davis and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., alongside some authors you may be surprised to learn about.
Of the pieces collected into this work, you’ll find Ntozake Shange’s take on the influence of Motown in Nicaragua in the mid-20th century; an excerpt from Matthew Henson’s 1912 book, A Negro at the North Pole; and the work of many other black nomads with which you are going to want to become familiar. Many of the tales in this collection may have been lost save for their inclusion here; maybe we all should make 2020 the year we revisit these authors and give them the acclaim they rightly deserve.
https://travel.atspace.co.uk Just when the Black Travel Movement was gaining so much speed, we now all find ourselves confined to our houses. While the onset of COVID-19 has put the entire world on the no-fly list, we don’t have to pass this time idly. Instead, we can use these weeks we’ll be grounded to absorb the work of the legends that paved the way for us to be able to lead our nomadic lives. Just when the Black Travel Movement was gaining so much speed, we now all find ourselves
As most of us have been ordered to stay home to help control the spread of COVID-19, we’re all looking for ways to pass the time and learn new skills from the confines of our own houses. Because we will travel again when this is all over, and because speaking a foreign language is an incredibly useful part of our explorer’s toolkit, using our time at home to learn a new language is time well spent. Using a language-learning tool is a cheap, easy, and social way to pick up a new skill. You can team up with a partner across the globe in your efforts so that you can still communicate and hang out without needing to board a plane. Here are the best tools to learn a new language while in self-isolation.
If you’re one of those people who’d love to pick up a new language but needs the human aspect of learning, try Italki. The online platform helps you connect with a real human tutor as opposed to a virtual chatbot. You can ask your teacher any question and dive into the rules of grammar, while they make sure that you follow along. The catalog of teachers includes more than 10,000 native speakers from all across the globe. Each tutor has a video introduction along with a bio, a calendar with their availability, and an hourly rate. Some teachers offer a trial rate for a single lesson where you can evaluate your compatibility.
The advantages of Italki are that you’re not just learning a language but also making a friend who will help hold you accountable for showing up to class and pronouncing your new vocabulary properly. The cons are that unlike an app on your phone, you can’t just pull a class up whenever you like. You actually have to arrange a time and coordinate availability with your tutor. Italki can also be pricey since each tutor charges individually.
Speaky is a social language-exchange platform that lets you select your language partner based on your shared interests. If you’d like to learn Spanish and enjoy dancing salsa, you can find a native Spanish speaker who dances as well. This way, they’ll not only guide you through the basic grammar but also enlighten you to the particular terminology of your shared hobby. On Speaky, you’ll find an average of 5,000 people chatting online at any given time. You can see the real-time numbers on your screen and jump in by simply creating a profile.
You’ll find each of the community members’ interests on their profile and will be able to shoot them a message to connect. The major pro of Speaky is that it’s free. The con is that since you are talking with regular people, as opposed to professional teachers, your lesson will actually feel like a casual conversation and might lack the structure a tutor would provide. But it will give you a better sense of how people really communicate outside of a textbook.
Think of the Tandem app as Meetup’s version for online language practice. All you need to do is choose the language you’d like to learn and offer your own to teach. That way, you’ll match up with your study buddy and exchange conversation to help each other out. Instead of only browsing by language, you can choose your practice friends based on where they live — from New York City to Sao Paulo, Moscow, Tokyo, and more. The app has over 150 countries participating, so you’ll have plenty of options.
Tandem’s pro is that you don’t have to pay for practice. The potential con is that you’ll need to allocate time to help your partners in return since language-exchange is a two-way street. And if you prefer to spend some money to get a trained tutor, you have that option too; the app will match you up with a teacher based on your language level and requirements.
Reddit has always been a source of inspiration for social discussions, and language-learning is no exception. In the site’s language-exchange channel, you’ll find plenty of native speakers, many of them in a social-isolation right now too, willing to call you up and practice. The community you’ll dive into is an eclectic mix including Germans who seek Mandarin experience, Korean-natives wanting to improve their French, along with plenty of Spanish and English native speakers offering to volunteer their free time to guide you.
The pro for Reddit is that you can establish contacts quickly and easily, arranging informal calls with other language enthusiasts. Unless stated otherwise, this is free and on a friendship basis. The con is that since there is no payment involved, you’ll just have to hope that your study buddy shows up for your language meeting.
Duolingo has gained a large following due to its many gamification features that make learning easy and fun. You can choose from 35 courses, including French, Turkish, Indonesian, Gaelic, and more. The app focuses on teaching phrases that are useful in real life, such as asking where the nearest subway station is, ordering food at a restaurant, or locating your luggage. With Duolingo, you will not only learn new words and sentence constructions, but you’ll also master the pronunciation of your new foreign vocabulary like a pro.
Thanks to a “club” feature implemented in 2016, language-learning on Duolingo has become a team sport. You can add up to 15 people in a social “club” to compete with each other, motivate yourselves with custom emoji, and track your overall score on the leaderboard. Choose a language, invite your friends and family to your Duolingo club, and go at it together which in the end will lead to faster results.
The pro for the app is that learning is made fun thanks to the colorful and animated platform features. The major con of Duolingo is that there isn’t a grammar explanation when you make a mistake, so you might be left wondering why you failed an exercise, playing the guessing game the next time around without actually understanding how to correct yourself. Still, it’s a more productive game than Candy Crush.
http://travel.atspace.co.uk As most of us have been ordered to stay home to help control the spread of COVID-19, we’re all looking for ways to pass the time and learn new skills from the confines of our own houses. As most of us have been ordered to stay home to help control the spread of COVID-19,
From Crisis Will Come Eventual Opportunity for Venture Capital in Travel: New Skift Research
Skift Take: We are headed into a winter for travel startups. But travel won't be gone forever. And history teaches us that startups are often the first to pinpoint our industry’s new direction as we exit a crisis.
http://travel.atspace.co.uk Skift Take: We are headed into a winter for travel startups. But travel won't be gone forever. And history teaches us that startups are often the first to pinpoint our industry’s new direction as we exit a crisis. — Seth BorkoRead the Complete Story On Skift Skift Take: We are headed into a winter for travel startups. But travel won't be gone
Travelzoo to Exit Asia-Pacific as Coronavirus Proves Too Much
Travelzoo's Toronto office. Travelzoo
Skift Take: Businesses in the times of coronavirus are damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Travelzoo’s decision to exit Asia-Pacific when signs of recovery are being spotted in China is a good example of that.
http://travel.atspace.co.uk Travelzoo's Toronto office. TravelzooSkift Take: Businesses in the times of coronavirus are damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Travelzoo’s decision to exit Asia-Pacific when signs of recovery are being spotted in China is a good example of that.
— Raini HamdiRead the Complete Story On Skift Travelzoo's Toronto office. TravelzooSkift Take: Businesses in the times of coronavirus
Whether you’re trying to join the crowds on holiday, get away from them, or just find inspiration for your next vacation, it can be helpful to know where other tourists are traveling. Get Going travel insurance has conducted an in-depth study on tourism around the world. This includes the countries whose citizens travel the most, their favorite destinations, and nations with the largest tourist to resident ratio.
It’s probably not too shocking to learn that China is the best-traveled nation in the world. Its citizens spend over a quarter of a trillion dollars on tourism around the world, which is more than the US and Germany — second and third place, respectively — combined.
Sharing the continent with Canada and Mexico, it’s no surprise that US citizens count those two countries among their most frequent travel destinations. An estimated 35.1 million people cross the border into Mexico each year, and 14.3 million visit Canada. Canada racks up equally impressive numbers as it’s the sixth top traveling nation. Canadians log an average of 632 air miles per person each year, with the UK, Cuba, and Germany as their favorite international destinations.
The ratio between tourists and a country’s population might be a good predictor of how frustrated the locals get by overwhelming swarms of tourists. But that’s a study for another time. As far as these ratios are concerned, the small European principality of Andorra tops the list. With a total population of 80,000, Andorra sees about three million tourists each year for a ratio of one local for 39 tourists. Macau, of the south coast of China, experiences a similar trend with a ratio of 1 local for 27 visitors.
To combat the spread of coronavirus and encourage social distancing, many national parks are closing to the public or modifying their operations, including Yellowstone and Grand Teton. Although, thanks to their sizes, parks might seem somewhat safer than other public gathering places, they attract large numbers of visitors, which poses a health risk.
In lieu of visiting the parks, the NPS is offering some virtual alternatives like photo galleries, apps, videos, and virtual tours. These are obviously poor substitutes for the real thing, but they’ll just have to suffice to tide us over until the parks reopen.
The decision to close the parks comes shortly after President Trump waived all national park entrance fees — a move designed to make social distancing less painful by encouraging safe outdoor recreation. The gesture, however, triggered fear of crowds and risks for NPS visitors and employees. The UK made a similar reversal with the National Trust opting to close parklands, coast, countryside, and gardens shortly after offering free entry.
https://travel.atspace.co.uk To combat the spread of coronavirus and encourage social distancing, many national parks are closing to the public or modifying their operations, including Yellowstone and Grand Teton. Although, thanks to their sizes, parks might seem somewhat safer than other public gathering places, they attract large numbers of visitors, which poses a health risk. To combat the spread of coronavirus and encourage social distancing, many national parks
Perhaps you’ve been reading all these year-end “Where to go in 2020” stories and thinking to yourself, “Well, that sure must be nice for people who have money to do stuff like travel.” But it doesn’t always have to be that way. Keeping your eyes on cheap flights can get you out of the country for less than the cost of a trip home for Thanksgiving. And a lot of cities around the world won’t cost more than $75 a day once you get there. Starling Bank took a look at the average costs of food, entertainment, and hotels in 35 of the world’s biggest cities and found 10 where even a tiny budget can take you a long way.
The lone European city to crack the top 10, the Polish capital won’t cost you more than $20 a day for food, with $2 beers in the city’s most popular pubs. Entertaining yourself won’t break the bank either, as you can score free admission to the Warsaw Rising Museum on Sundays and the National Museum on Tuesdays. Though you might not usually think of landlocked Warsaw as a “beach town,” head here in summer and you can bask in the sunshine at the beaches along the Vistula River, or get your Polish tan on at Lazienki Park. The end of the night will be painless too, with average hotel costs just over $50*.
Perhaps you have a friend who spent a few weeks in Argentina many years ago and to this day will bring up how they got the best steak dinner of their lives with flowing wine and a free tango lesson for less than the cost of dinner at TGI Friday’s. Turns out, that wouldn’t really be hyperbole. If you’re into steak and wine, you can dine fantastically cheap in Buenos Aires, where meals will rarely top $20. Beyond gorging yourself on red meat, you can also cruise the cafes of Palermo where coffees are less than $2. The National Museum of Fine Arts doesn’t charge admission, nor does Feria de Mataderos — a traditional craft and food market marked by gauchos on horseback and live tango demonstrations. Rooms won’t wreck your wallet in BA either, as an average night only costs about $36.
Granted, if you’re trying to hit some of the spots from the vaunted World’s Best Restaurants list, you’re gonna end up dropping a lot more than $59 a day in Lima. But satisfied to eat fresh ceviche in beachside bodegas, you’ll find the city a fantastic culinary value, where some of the best meals you’ll ever have average about $16 a day. Hotels aren’t much worse, where sharing a room with your friend or SO will run about $45 a night, and drinks are only a couple bucks if you stick to local wine and pisco drinks.
The historic churches like the Cathedral of Lima and the Church of San Francisco are free to visit, and the nightly changing of the guard at the Palacio del Gobierno is free as well. The zoo is about $3 to tour, and while the Museo del Arte de Lima charges 30 cents on Sunday, its regular admission is only about $9.
Marrakech is the odd destination where the things people come to see most are, for the most part, free. So wandering the medina and taking in the mosques, minarets, and souks that make it famous won’t cost you anything. And even if you do decide to buy a souvenir, there’s always room to haggle.
Food is cheap here too, as grabbing a kebab from any of the smoky stalls in the old city is a less-than-three-dollar proposition, and tagines and lamb roasts in larger restaurants are typically under $10. Alcohol isn’t flowing here, necessarily, but going out should run about $20 a night, plus your dry cleaning when you come home saturated in cigarette smoke. That aside, your home base is pretty cheap too, with rooms here averaging $39 per person.
One night in Bangkok might make a hard man humble, bit it still won’t demolish your travel budget with hotels averaging about $41 per night. And dropping baht in the colorful bars of the Patpong district can be done for under $15 if you know where to go. If The Hangover 2 got you thinking Bangkok is probably best experienced during the day, you’ll find a wealth of free museums like the Bangkokian Museum, the Royal Elephant Museum, the Silpa Bhirasri Memorial and Museum for modern art, and the Corrections Museum situated in a former prison. The temples and shrines are free to step inside or photograph, and a day of food should only cost around $17.
You don’t get to be a global economic powerhouse in less than half a century by overcharging people, or at least that would seem to be the case judging by the prices in the Chinese capital. Lodging averages a stunning $29 a night, and an entire day of food should only cost about $12. If you’re into adventurous eating, head to Wangfujing Snack Street where the boiled tripe is exquisite and only a couple dollars. Tiananmen Square is free to visit, as is the National Museum on its border, full of ancient Chinese art, weapons, and bronze work. Strolling through the narrow hutongs is free, as is taking in the public art in the 798 district. Or you can tour the crumbling relics of the 2008 Olympics after an afternoon in the Olympic Park around the Bird’s Nest.
Though Kuala Lumpur has quickly climbed the ranks of world financial centers, the city has still kept its prices low. Think of it like Singapore on a budget, with a heavy dose of grit, where an average night in a hotel runs $32, and a day’s worth of food from the fragrant street stalls is only about $11. You can learn the culture here pretty cheaply, as well, with free admission to both the National Art Gallery and Petronas Gallery in the City Center, the latter offering free art classes. Delving into nature is also affordable, as the of the best urban forest reserves in the world at the KL Forest Eco Park is completely free, as are the limestone Batu Caves about 10 minutes outside the city.
Istanbul stands as one of the most culturally rich cities in the world, a joining of East and West where visitors spend the morning haggling with vendors at the 600-year-old Grand Bazaar, then stroll past old Ottoman houses and duck ponds in Yildiz Park in the afternoon. Hotels cost only $22 a night, and you can fill yourself with sweet simit and fresh balik ekmek sandwiches for less than $6 a day. All that money saved on food and lodging can be spent on an economical splurge at one of the city’s famous Turkish baths, which cost about $15 to enter and $23 for massages. And if you want to tour a museum, both the Museum of Contemporary Art and Jewish Museum of Turkey are free.
The biggest attraction in Cairo is far and away the Giza Pyramids, and if that’s on your itinerary, it’ll about double your daily cost. If that’s still too much, you can easily take a bus to the pyramids for less than a dollar and appreciate them from the outside. But if you do opt to drop $40 on a tour, it won’t feel quite as painful when you’re only spending $18 on a hotel and $9 on a full dinner. The city itself has some fascinating neighborhoods like Coptic Cairo, an old Christian enclave where the winding streets are filled with frescoes and mosaics. Or Fatimid Cairo where you’ll learn about Cairo’s Islamic history. Indoor art is also easily accessible here with numerous free or almost-free galleries across the city, like Al-Mashrabeya, Safar Khan, Art Lounge, and the Gypsum Gallery.
The lowest-cost city in the survey, Delhi has hotel rooms for only about $20 a night, and a drink is just over $2. The city is also full of free activities to keep you entertained, from free movie screenings at the India Habitat Centre and other locations to free admission at the Vadehra art Gallery. Delhi can skew crowded at times, but escaping it is also easy with refuge at the tranquil Lodhi Gardens and Garden of Five Senses, costing almost nothing. Delhi dining is also incredibly cheap — and delicious — with an average meal running just under $9.
*Hotel price is per person based on double occupancy
https://travel.atspace.co.uk Perhaps you’ve been reading all these year-end “Where to go in 2020” stories and thinking to yourself, “Well, that sure must be nice for people who have money to do stuff like travel.” But it doesn’t always have to be that way. Keeping your eyes on cheap flights can get you out of the country for less than the cost of a trip home for Thanksgiving. Perhaps you’ve been reading all these year-end “Where to go in 2020” stories and
