On 1 January 2024 we wrote about how rising prices affect travel. Not only the price of flights, but also the price of activities. Pricing was a topic the year before, 2023. In 2024, conventional and social media dug into the issue of overtourism. Articles about locals protesting, Instagrammers posting about big crowds in Japan…
Tag: Florence
PORTUGAL | Three days in Lisbon
Easter Holiday 2024. Danny and Sam visited Porto in February, I visited the capital, Lisbon, in April with Steve, Philippe and Nicolas. I had my free week during a school holiday and as the boys work in education, I made the best of it. We chose Portugal for its convenience and our hope for fair…
SCENIC TRAINS | Train de Rhune (France), Texas, Oman, Alaska, Romantic Road (Germany), New York to San Francisco, Tuscany
You may have noticed we love to travel by train and we don’t shy away of travelling to ride on one or more specific trains or railway line. The Canadian in Canada, the California Zephyr in the United States, the Glacier Express in Switzerland or the Flåmsbana in Norway just to name a few. As…
Antwerp number 1 of 40 most exciting cities to visit in 2024
For the British newspaper of record The Sunday Times, Antwerp in Belgium is the number one exciting city to visit in 2024.
2024: rising prices affect travel plans and vacation activities
On 1 January 2023, we wrote 2023 would be a year of coping with staff shortages and industrial action. While both themes were present in 2023 – and still will be in 2024 – they felt less pressing. Perhaps we learned to live with staff shortages and strikes and not dramatize them (anymore). But it…
CLIMATE CHANGE & TRAVEL | Is Belgium ready to be the Spain and Italy of the future?
In August 2023, several media reported Belgium is a hotspot for summer holidaying to watch for the future. Travel destinations around the Mediterranean Sea such as Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Morocco are just experiencing too many exaggerated heat waves.
MIDNIGHT TRAINS | Unified Rail Europe? Coping with rail network challenges
Back in June 2021, a company in France called Midnight Trains launched its ‘Hotel on rails‘ project for luxury night train services worthy a hotel experience. Every Friday, Midnight Trains sends a newsletter with some sort of update on its project.
EMILIA-ROMAGNA | Bologna & Modena 2022
October 2022. As we wanted to test Trenitalia‘s Frecciarossa 1000 service from Paris to Milan, we planned a rail trip around it. From Antwerp to Paris with Thalys, the ‘Red Arrow’ to Milan and once in Italy continuing to Trieste and Bologna. The return trip took us to Basel in Switzerland to enjoy SBB‘s panoramic…
GreenCityTrip launches new destinations for its chartered night trains: Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Malmö, Bologna, Firenze, Bolzano, Como, Salzburg, Linz
Dutch company GreenCityTrip already organised charter night train voyages to Venice, Prague, Milan, Vienna, Verona and Innsbruck. It now adds Copenhagen in Denmark; Gothenburg and Malmö in Sweden; Bologna, Florence, Bolzano and Como in Italy and Salzburg and Linz in Austria.
Orient Express La Dolce Vita: luxury train travel in Italy from 2023
Orient Express, or Orient-Express with a hyphen, has been a byword for luxury and exoticism for 150 years. Now a new venture is (re)introducing the Orient Express to Italy from 2023.