Royal Caribbean Buys 50% of Sandals Resorts for About $3 Billion, Bringing Cruises and All-Inclusives Together
Royal Caribbean Group is buying a 50% stake in Sandals and Beaches Resorts for about $3 billion. That values the Caribbean all-inclusive chain at roughly…
TOURISE Summit 2027: March 23-25, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
TOURISE has unveiled the theme for its 2027 summit, “Alliances That Move the World.” The event runs March 23 through 25 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.…
Wrocław’s Market Square in Fisheye: Why I Kept the Distortion
I almost reached for the correction tool on this one. Old habit — see a curved horizon, straighten it out, make the building lines vertical…
Salamanca’s Stone Faces: A Photo Essay in Five Frames
SALAMANCA, SPAIN A city built out of sandstone and documents, and it never quite stopped writing itself. Photo essay · Five frames from the sandstone…
Europe’s Tourist Crime Belt: Pickpockets, Bracelet Scams, and Why the Same Offenders Keep Working
Nobody ties a bracelet on your wrist at the bottom of the Sacré-Coeur steps because they want €10 for a bracelet. They want your hand…
The Beach Racket in Italy, Greece and Spain: Turnstiles, Cheap Concessions, and a Shoreline You Can’t Reach
Every metre of Italian beach below the high-water mark belongs to the state. It’s demanio marittimo, public property, and the law says you can walk…
Why Lisbon Cafés Are Putting Up No Laptops Signs: Coffee, Instagram, and the Remote Work Terrace
A café terrace in Lisbon on a hot afternoon. Teal awning, three words on it: coffee, brunch, bistro. Mint green stools, white folding chairs, azulejos…
Four in Ten Travelers Visit Landmarks Mainly for the Photo: How Instagram and Reels Reshaped Tourism
A woman tourist stands in Piazza della Signoria with her arm raised, pretending to hold the David’s testicles for an Instagram photo. Her friend takes…
Why Comporta Still Feels Empty: The Rice Estate Behind Portugal’s Most Coveted Beaches
Everybody has found Comporta by now. The remarkable thing is that you can’t tell from the road. The drive explains most of it. You leave…
Travel in 2026: Five Photos That Explain the Year’s Real Trends
Year in Review Twelve months, two cameras, roughly four hundred keepers. These are the five that kept nagging. Frame 01 · Lyon, the Saône at…
Tiny Tourism: Why Travellers Are Choosing Towns Nobody Photographs
The trade press has already reduced tiny tourism to a number of nights. Average trip length is falling, one-night hotel stays are up, and the…
In Defence of the Hop-On Hop-Off Bus
I’ve spent a lot of evenings standing on street corners in other people’s cities waiting for the light to do something interesting, and a fair…
EasyJet Agrees £5.7bn Apollo Takeover: What Changes for Passengers and What Doesn’t
The airline that taught Europe to fly for the price of a train ticket is going private. EasyJet’s board has accepted a firm £5.7bn cash…
Taormina Beach Guide: Mazzarò, Isola Bella, and What Nobody Tells You About the Pebbles
Taormina sits on a cliff. The beaches do not. That single fact shapes everything about a beach day here, because the town you booked and…
Juliet’s Balcony in Verona Was Added in the 1930s and the Crowds Do Not Care
The queue is not for the house. Nobody comes for the house. They come for a courtyard about the size of a generous parking space,…
St Mark’s Basilica in Venice: The Gold Mosaics Are Dimmer Than the Photographs Suggest
You come in off the piazza, where the light bounces off pale stone and water and hits you from every angle, and for the first…
China Fines Trip.com $770 Million for Locking Hotels Into Exclusive Deals
China’s State Administration for Market Regulation closed a six-month investigation into Trip.com Group on Saturday with the heaviest antitrust penalty imposed on a single Chinese…
Château de Monbazillac, Dordogne: A difficult childhood. One château too many.
There’s a particular kind of exhaustion that sets in around the fourth château of a Dordogne road trip, and it doesn’t discriminate by age. Ask…
Fora Hits $1 Billion Valuation as AI Transforms the Future of Travel Planning
Fora has raised a $60 million Series D funding round, achieving a valuation of $1 billion as it continues to expand its technology-driven approach to…
The Open Kitchen Experience: Dining Where You Can Watch the Cooking
There’s a particular kind of restaurant where the kitchen isn’t hidden behind a swinging door but sits in full view, often just a few feet…
Holland America Line Adds Flåm and Hellesylt to Five 2027 Norway Fjord Cruises
Holland America Line is widening access to Norway’s fjord country for 2027, adding calls at Flåm and Hellesylt to five seven-day sailings aboard *Rotterdam*. The…
La Cité du Vin, Bordeaux: The Building That Looks Like Wine in a Glass
Few museum buildings commit to a metaphor as literally as La Cité du Vin. Perched on the banks of the Garonne River in Bordeaux, the…
EU Border Delays: ETIAS Pre-Travel Authorization Pushed to Late 2026 as EES Chaos Continues
Travelers heading to Europe this summer are facing a wave of confusion over two separate EU border systems, and the timing couldn’t be worse. While…
Toledo’s Old Town: A Mudéjar Watchtower Hiding an Antiques Shop
Wander far enough into Toledo’s tangle of medieval streets and you’ll run into buildings that seem to be doing two jobs at once — part…