The cosy cabins, bike rides and serenity of De Alde Feanen national park make it the perfect place to switch off and unwind in winter
If there are times when the sights, smells and sounds of a new destination are best downed in a single, heady, flaming sambuca of a weekend, there are others when a more slow-drip pace is called for. Such is the case with De Alde Feanen, in Friesland. One of the most peaceful national parks in the Netherlands, this 4,000-hectare wetland slows down naturally after the summer season. Its waterways shrug off their summer flocks of kayakers, paddleboarders, boat trippers and terrace diners. Museums and galleries close. The local tourist office winds down. Even the park’s population of nesting storks fly south.
A 20-minute drive south-east of Leeuwarden, in the country’s north-east, the lakes, ponds, ditches and canals of “The Old Fens” are the remains of the peat-cutting that began there in the middle ages. Now awash with reeds, rushes and sedges, its watery habitats are richly biodiverse, home to more than 100 bird species as well as otters, pine martens, roe deer and dragonflies. Hay meadows and wetland forest add marsh thistle, reed orchids, alders and willows to the list. Ribboned with well-marked hiking and cycling trails, the proximity to nature draws spring and summer tourists but treasures can be found there in autumn and winter too; among them thousands of ducks and geese, and some of the starriest skies in the Netherlands.
Bundjalung man Ashley Moran has a personal connection to the track and says the multiday hike will give walkers a new appreciation of the area’s significance
Ashley Moran clearly remembers the first time he completed the new four-day Gidjuum Gulganyi Walk in northern New South Wales, long before it opened to the public in April this year.
It was 2020 and the newest NSW Great Walk wasn’t even a track. “It had been pink-tagged by the trail construction company, but it was pretty arduous trying to navigate through dense rainforest and find those little pink ribbons,”he says.
Homes Under The Hammer has never looked or sounded better – at least on a train. Speeding at 125mph through sunlit Berkshire on an intercity express to London Paddington, BBC One’s daytime favourite cuts through loud and clear.
Having travelled to the Indian Ocean for the past 15 years, Sam Wylie-Harris shares her tips for making the most of your holiday, whether you’re after an active break, culinary getaway or fly-and-flop
Archaeologists discovered an Egyptian ceramic vase in a Pompeii fast-food kitchen destroyed by Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, revealing cultural exchanges in the ancient city.
British holidaymakers could have to pay a nightly tax on hotel stays and Airbnb-style visits in plans expected to be announced by Rachel Reeves in the budget next week.
The chancellor is reportedly preparing to give mayors powers to raise taxes by charging tourists on the cost of an overnight stay in their cities.
The idea of a full year of travel might be amazing for social media likes but a gap year doesn’t have to be a hole in young people’s bank balance
Let’s play a quick word association game, where I say a word and you reply with the first word that comes into your mind. My word is “gap year” (OK, that’s two words). Was your response word “travel”?
As my son prepares to take a gap year (and my daughter finishes first-year university after taking a year’s break), I’m realising just how strongly gap years are associated with travel. Yet, for many school leavers contemplating a year away from study, travel is either well down the list of options, only a small part of their next 12 to 15 months, or not on the agenda at all.
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