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Time Out
16-07-2025
- Time Out
It's official: Cape Town is the Best City on Earth
We'd be lying if we said we didn't see this coming – but we'll stay humble: Cape Town has officially been named the Best City on Earth by The Telegraph Travel Awards 2025. Over 20,000 Telegraph readers took part in this year's survey, selecting the countries, cities, and travel companies that impressed them most. And when asked, 'What is your favourite city on the planet?' for the seventh time in 11 years, readers once again answered: Cape Town. The Telegraph highlighted Cape Town's unmatched natural beauty, noting the ' Victoria & Alfred Waterfron t fringing the Atlantic, Table Mountain rearing as an epic backdrop, the land ebbing down to the beaches of Camps Bay and the flicked tail of the Cape of Good Hope.' View this post on Instagram A post shared by Telegraph Travel (@telegraphtravel) Rounding out the top 10 were: Cape Town, South Africa Seville, Spain Sydney, Australia Tokyo, Japan Kyoto, Japan Copenhagen, Denmark Vancouver, Canada Venice, Italy Porto, Portugal Singapore, Asia This isn't the first accolade for the Mother City this year – Cape Town was also crowned Time Out's Best City in the World just a few months ago.
Telegraph
11-07-2025
- Telegraph
20,000 of you voted in the 2025 Telegraph Travel Awards – and the results are in...
We're an opinionated lot, here at Telegraph Travel. Over the past year we have published authoritative lists on the world's 50 best hotels and England's 500 best pubs. Our writers have travelled to every corner of the world, scribbling notes along the way. But we know that you, our readers, are an equally discerning bunch. Since launching the Telegraph Travel Awards in 1998, we have sought after and shouted about your views on the best travel companies and destinations. This year (two years after the last awards, in 2023), around 20,000 of you (that's enough to fill 110 Airbus A320s) completed a survey to let us know the countries, cities and holiday firms that impressed – and the ones that disappointed – on your most recent trips. There was a lot to analyse when we received the final results. Across our four destination categories we had three new winners. When we consider where tourist taxes have been introduced and the places suffering from overcrowding, some patterns begin to emerge: oversubscribed places such as Florence and Venice are down, lesser-visited Stockholm and Copenhagen are up. When it comes to the firms you travel with, we were reassured to learn that the best in class continue to deliver. I'm looking at you, Emirates and Audley. Across 20 categories, six were repeat winners from our previous awards, held in 2023, and another nine winners ranked in the top three last time around. But this leaves a group of five disruptors that have leapfrogged into top spot. To these companies, we say bravo. Whatever you have changed in recent years, it is working, according to you, our judges. And what judges you are. You, our esteemed panel of experts, have been on expeditions to sub-Saharan Africa, joined coach tours to the Continent and sunbathed on every European beach worth its salt. You have flown solo, joined established operators and taken a punt on smaller specialist firms. Now, it's time to reveal your verdict on the ones that shined the brightest. Best European Country Greece Italy Norway
Telegraph
25-06-2025
- Telegraph
‘I had an onion thrown at me': The 10 most unfriendly cities on Earth, according to our writers
From the anti-tourism protests which have enlivened several corners of Spain of late, to the old cliché of the waiter who can barely conceal his disdain at your dining decisions, a city is not always guaranteed to hail its visitors with a smile and a song. Here, 10 Telegraph Travel writers reveal the metropolitan hotspots where (in their subjective opinions) the greeting has been more 'bog off' than ' bonjour '. Berlin My husband is German, and will be the first to admit: his countrymen are not particularly warm and fuzzy. Nowhere is this more evident than in their capital, Berlin; where if you aren't left wing and unapproachable, you aren't cool. It is home, after all, to Berghain, the most notoriously difficult nightclub in which to gain entry. Personally I would rather share a bath with snakes than shiver in a six-hour queue alongside the hundreds of other muppets that try their luck every weekend at this former power station-turned-rave-house. The unsmiling, heavily tattooed bouncers vet hopefuls loosely based on how they look and whether they might 'contribute to the right overall energy'. I have always found the energy in Berlin to be distinctly lacking. The most interesting thing that happened to me last time I was there was being issued a €1,500 fine for failing to wear a face mask at a deserted outdoor train station at the tail end of the Covid pandemic. I didn't pay it, and I won't be going back. Annabel Fenwick Elliott Riga It was sub-zero in Riga and I'm not just talking about the weather. Stepping off the bus and into a cab in the Latvian capital, I got a frosty reception from the driver, who rolled his sunken eyes when I gave him the address of my hotel. Service with a sigh. He fired up his wheezing Merc and sped through the city, muttering what I assumed to be obscenities beneath his tobacco-stained tash. Perhaps he'd had a row with the missus, I thought. But his brusque behaviour would prove to be the rule, not the exception. If you think Parisian waiters are surly, go to Riga – they take it to another level. Or rather, they did when I was there. That was a decade ago now. Perhaps it's shaken off its Soviet hangover. I haven't felt compelled to return and find out. Still, one thing I will say is that rude Riga did at least prepare me for my next destination: Russia. Gavin Haines Moscow It is tempting to wonder if the following words are a case of recency bias; a discoloured view of a major city whose current position as the nerve-centre of a truly horrible war has thoroughly tainted its image. But no, my visit to Moscow occurred in the spring of 2017, five years before Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine – when (skipping over the annexation of Crimea in 2014) relations between Russia and western Europe were relatively normal. Yet Moscow did not feel particularly welcoming to this particular Western tourist. The metropolitan population seemed surly and guarded, and while a near-total inability to speak the language will always place you at a disadvantage in any conversation, my attempts at the local lingo made no impression. In 20 years as a travel writer, I have found that liberal deployment of the relevant term for 'thank you' will gain you a decent amount of credit. In the bars, restaurants and museums of Moscow, my use of the word ' spasiba ' elicited barely a grunt, let alone a grin or a cheery response. I should add that I am not indulging in flagrant Russophobia here. I have visited St Petersburg on two occasions, and found it a fabulous place, alive with art and music, and home to some lovely people; everything its compatriot did not seem to be. Perhaps Moscow is simply guilty of the rudeness so common to capital cities. Alas, I am unlikely to have a chance to check on its bonhomie levels (or lack of them) in the imminent future. Chris Leadbeater Geneva Like the mountains that encircle it, Geneva is cold and inhospitable. Once, I made the mistake of offering to pay the brunch bill for myself and a friend. Two mediocre dishes and two even more mediocre drinks set me back almost 100 CHF (£90) – worse than buying a round in London. On the way into town from the airport, I went one stop too far. Realising my mistake, I quickly caught the train in the other direction. The ticket collector was having none of it. My fault, granted, but I was instantly labelled as a fare dodger rather than a bemused tourist. Since so many people are in Geneva for work (rather than the warmth and hospitality of the people), everyone leaves at weekends, meaning there's no one left to be unfriendly to you. The rest of Switzerland is as warm and inviting as a vat of fondue, but I've learnt to skip this city. Anna Richards Amsterdam Amsterdam is, quite literally, the most unwelcoming city to British tourists in the sense that it has funded an entire tourism campaign telling us to 'stay away'. Well, OK, telling our rowdy stag groups to 'stay away'. Does it feel unwelcoming on the ground? They're not exactly rolling out the red carpet. In 2020, my housemate and I spent a month in Amsterdam. He knew a Dutch woman who lived in the city, and she invited us on a boat trip down the River Amstel with some friends. They were a cheery bunch, between themselves, but I recall being more or less ignored for the entire day. I think more so than being unwelcoming, the Dutch are busy, direct (easily misinterpreted as 'rude'), and they seem to take a little longer to warm up than other nationalities, a bit like the Danish. Fall into the right crowd in, say, Bilbao, Melbourne or Vancouver and you could easily make friends for life. Fall into the right crowd in Amsterdam and you'll get a smile and a firm handshake, at best. It's almost enough to make you want to stay away. Greg Dickinson New Orleans New Orleans is hostile. Not just unfriendly – hostile. I hate saying this because I love New Orleans: the most beautiful and hedonistic city in the Americas. One of my favourite cities anywhere. And yet, and yet. The hot, humid air hits you like a slap; everyone seems to require a tip, possibly 55 per cent; every smile feels faintly monetised; and, of course, if you walk two blocks the wrong way, you can get shot. Once, I saw half a body hanging from the ruins of a collapsed hotel – legs dangling grotesquely from the 14th floor. A crowd had gathered. They were arguing over whether anyone should photograph it. Then, for no reason, they turned and stared at me suspiciously – like I was there to judge them – or arrest them. New Orleans parties like it's possessed, and perhaps it is. There's music, madness, decay and menace. I'd go back tomorrow. Sean Thomas New York 'I'm nogunna soive yoo till yoo sayid prawperly,' demanded the lady in the Lower East Side pizza joint. ' You gotta loiyn to tawk ENGLISH! ' I tried several times to convince her that I was saying it properly – 'a bottle of water, please' – and that I actually speak English like, well, a native. Hell, I even resisted the temptation to correct her pronunciation, or to mention the War of 1812, but she remained as implacably granite-faced as old Abe Lincoln and his Mount Rushmore buddies. She couldn't understand me, she insisted, so eventually I caved like Keir on Nato contributions, and asked shamefully for a 'boddler warder'. She gave me a Dasani (tap water bottled by the Coca-Cola company) and a lesson – as if I needed another – in the unofficial motto of Manhattan: 'Welcome to New York. Now screw you!' Ed Grenby An expert's guide to New York Quito From the chatty driver who swept me from the airport in his boom-boom disco taxi, to the street vendor who insisted I try his foamy beer, egg and sugar concoction for free, I found Ecuadorians mostly friendly. Falling foul (or should that be 'fowl') of the 'bird poop trick' on my first day in Quito did dampen my enthusiasm, however. I was admiring the ornate façade of the Iglesia de la Compañía when what appeared to be bird droppings was dumped on my back. On the pretext of brushing me down, two crooks tried to steal my backpack. Later, heading back to my hotel, a random loony shouted at me, and that evening I was held up in an alley at knifepoint and had to hand over my phone (luckily a burner). S- - - on, shouted at and almost stabbed: that seems like the definition of unfriendly to me. Heidi Fuller-Love Monaco A jet-setter friend once told me that cabin crew quietly judge those who fly business class using credit card points. They'll still do their job, he said, but, deep down, they know you're playing out of your league and judge you accordingly. I remembered his words last year when I attended a climate-friendly, electric alternative to the legendary Grand Prix in Monaco. At first, the standoffishness was quite amusing: seeing the tailcoat-wearing doormen's disdain towards the selfie-stick brigade in Casino Square was more fun than roulette. But soon, it began to grate: from the begrudging table service (usually from French waiters who resent commuting to Monte Carlo in pursuit of scraps from the table) to the power-hungry police officers enforcing the complex network of road closures. After a weekend of butting heads (metaphorically) at every corner, I left with one simple conclusion: Monaco is where billionaires are courted and everyone else is merely tolerated. Djibouti City A waterside city used as a logistical base for combatting piracy is hardly the coastal escape likely to grace postcards anytime soon. Djibouti, a country within the Horn of Africa, has always intrigued me. Its eponymous capital was the final stop on a tour of beautifully austere and alluringly hostile volcanic landscapes, where sulphur-spluttering fumaroles rise from salt-crusted deserts. Even more inhospitable, however, were the troubled African nation's residents. Outsiders were scrutinised with suspicion: Yemeni refugees clustered in make-shift camps, suspected pirates awaited extradition, and intrepid tourists gulped at the price of beers in incongruously fancy hotels. During one casual evening stroll through streets lined with crumbling buildings, I was chased by a plain-clothes official and accused of being a member of the CIA. But the real low point came with a trip to the local market, where – while snapping a photo of a sleeping cat – I had an onion lobbed at my head. Bombed by a barrage of rotten vegetables, I took solace in the fact it wasn't watermelon season. Sarah Marshall
Telegraph
17-06-2025
- Telegraph
Anti-tourism is spreading across Europe. This is where it will hit next
Over the weekend, southern Europeans took to the streets to protest against mass tourism. It's a familiar scene, but this time, the demonstration was different. For the first time, groups across Spain, Italy and Portugal took to the streets to demonstrate on a single day. It was the biggest coordinated anti-tourism protest in history. The protests spanned Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Ibiza, Malaga, San Sebastián, Lisbon, Granada, Genoa, Naples, Palermo, Milan and Venice. A couple of weeks ago, thousands took to the streets across the Canary Islands, too. It feels like it's all coming to a head. But were a documentary to be made chronicling the European fight against 'over-tourism' this would not be the climactic scene. We are, dare I say it, at the very beginning. This is how I see things playing out over the next decade. For once, the French will not join the protest The French like to protest. If there was a nationwide desire to join a trans-continental demonstration, you can bet that they would have done so already. So why haven't they? Anthony Peregrine, Telegraph Travel's France expert, suggests one reason could be the type of tourists that France is dealing with: 'France simply doesn't attract quite so many of the people who, bottles in hand, disturb decent locals at 2.30am. 'There is, of course, poor behaviour on the Riviera but it's mainly by millionaires and they have a way of getting themselves indulged,' he says. Anna Richards, a travel writer based in Lyon, added: 'I think [the lack of anti-tourism protests] is because the French themselves holiday so much within their own country, so the tourism industry is set up to handle large numbers of visitors. 'Also, although there are hotspots that suffer from over-tourism – places like Étretat in Normandy, for example – people don't just flock to one area of France. Its attractions are numerous and well spread out.' I suspect we might see some isolated protests (I gather there's a group in Marseille) but I don't think there will be anything quite on the scale of the Spanish movement, at least any time soon. ...but the Greeks will, eventually Some of the fiercest and loudest of the anti-tourism protests have been those on islands – namely the Canaries and the Balearics – which begs the question: why haven't the Greek islands a little further east in the Mediterranean joined in? The signs of discontent are there. In 2023, during the 'beach towel revolt' residents on the Greek island of Paros marched on Parikia Beach and held up a sign saying 'Reclaim the Beach' in protest against the over-development of their coastline. In the subsequent days, these protests spread across the Greek islands and even into Turkey – a sign, along with 'tourists go home' graffiti cropping up in Athens, that there is a sense of frustration bubbling under the surface. Heidi Fuller-Love, The Telegraph's Greece expert who has her ears close to the ground on these things, says: 'There are rumblings, but since so many people rely on tourism (on a low income), so far there hasn't been much more.' Tourists will become the target Last July, protesters in Barcelona sprayed tourists with water pistols – the first time on record that tourists had been 'assaulted' (to use the term very loosely) in such a way. At last weekend's protests, water pistols were ubiquitous in the city once again. These plastic toys, it is fair to say, are fast becoming the symbol of resistance in Southern Europe. I think this sort of direct action will become much more popular. Last year, a protest group occupied a popular beach in Mallorca and erected signs that said 'Beach Closed'. On another, a sign read 'Beware of Dangerous Jellyfish'. Locals in the Menorcan village of Binibeca Vell resorted to chaining up the access roads to prevent tourists from getting in. There was also the quite comical sight of locals walking back and forth across a zebra crossing in Galicia to stop tourists from accessing a beach. The longer that policymakers ignore the messages of these groups, the more creative their actions will become. British tourists will refuse to boycott Spain Certain news outlets are in the habit of suggesting that British holidaymakers are boycotting popular holiday spots in Spain. Bookings are down, hotels are struggling. That's the narrative. My hunch has been that this is rubbish, and The Telegraph's expert Anna Nicholas (who lives in Sóller, Mallorca) confirms this to be the case, in her home town at least. 'It has been suggested that a boycott of Mallorca is underway, with British holidaymakers in particular said to be steering clear. Nothing could be further from the truth,' she writes. 'The island has never been busier.' Joana Maria Estrany Vallespir, a leading voice in the protest group SOS Residents in Mallorca, tells me: 'What we've seen is that the situation has worsened on every level. We are going to have 20 million visitors this year – the tourist season started earlier than ever before.' The British have been travelling to the Spanish islands and beaches for our holidays for half a century now. So long as package holiday prices remain low, it will take more than a few disgruntled locals with water pistols to break that habit. A word on Albania Where will be the next battleground, looking a little further into the future? I suspect that while discontent will rumble on in Spain, Italy and Portugal (and perhaps Greece, and pockets of France), we will eventually see Albanians join the demo. In 2023, Albania recorded 9.7m visitors, up 58.3 per cent from 6.1m in 2019. The prime minister, Edi Rama, has set the goal of attracting 30m foreign visitors by 2030. If they get anything close to that number, life will change immeasurably in Albania. More traffic, less beach space for locals, high-rise hotels lining the coast (they're already being erected) and – crucially – they can expect to see local landlords cashing in by listing their properties on sites like Airbnb and Vrbo. While there will be new jobs created and certain 'winners' in the industry, the population at large will wonder what happened to their beautiful home.
Telegraph
09-06-2025
- Telegraph
10 holiday red flags to watch out for this summer, according to travel writers
A holiday is meant to be a time of relaxation: a pressure valve releasing all the stress of day-to-day life. Especially a summer holiday, where thoughts turn to sunshine and the beach, and the only difficult decisions should be between ice cream and sorbet, cone and tub. But too often, these precious weeks away can be fraught with traps and tricks, issues and irritations – from the vastly inflated taxi fare to the resort fee that (you're sure) wasn't mentioned in the brochure, and those insidious terms and conditions where the devil is most definitely in the details. What to do, and what to watch out for? Here, 10 of Telegraph Travel's regular contributors name their main travel bugbears – and the 'holiday red flags' you should take care to avoid if you are heading to distant shores in the coming months. 1. The double tip (of the iceberg) I am not pointing the finger at America in particular. But the USA, the spiritual home of service culture, does seem to be especially guilty of this very modern sin: the double surcharge on the cost of your dinner. It is a pitfall that seems to have widened and deepened in the post-Covid world, where most transactions are not just electronic, but so commonplace in their contactless simplicity that, very often, we fail to check, properly, the sum we are coughing up. Yet it is well worth pausing to peruse the small print. More often than you would like, a restaurant will add a – perfectly reasonable – service charge to your bill, only to then present you with a hand-held payment terminal whose screen asks you whether you want to add a tip -– sometimes 20 per cent or more – on top of what should be the total amount. How to avoid it There is no shame in taking your time, and examining, again, the bottom of the 'cheque'. It certainly makes for less expensive evenings. Chris Leadbeater 2. The departure gate rush 'Now Boarding'. When the message flashes up at the departure gate, there is always a stir of movement towards the desk. Indeed, many passengers start queuing as soon as they arrive. It's a mistake. Airlines now start the boarding process before the plane is even at the gate – as a way of speeding things up. The result? You spend 15 or 20 minutes crowded into a chilly, airless tunnel with no idea how much longer you will have to wait. How to avoid it Don't rush forward. Check the window to see if the plane has actually arrived yet, and ideally wait until passengers are actually boarding, before you move forward. Nick Trend 3. Off-airport car hire headache That first, nail-biting hire car journey from the airport is bad enough: add an uncomfortable journey on a packed shuttle bus and a long queue in a sizzling parking lot before you even get the keys and that bargain off-site car hire deal starts to seem like a dreadful way to kick off a holiday. How to avoid it Before you book, check with a consolidator such as as they offer competitive deals from in-terminal operators that can be as cheap as the off-airport alternatives. Another bonus? You'll have more time on the beach pre-departure too. Amanda Hyde 4. Hotel buffet horrors We've all been there – that first circuit of the hotel buffet, fresh off a flight and ravenous. Loading up a plate with a random assortment of foods that may look enticing, but At best there are the mini pastries at breakfast that are all deviations of the same (dry, uninspired) thing. At worst there's a paella at dinner that's been a hit with the local fly population. The husband of one of my colleagues once memorably described the seafood and raw bar section of a resort hotel dinner buffet as 'certain death'. You have been warned! How to avoid it Embrace mindful eating – think carefully about whether a particular item is likely to be high quality. Do an initial lap to assess the full selection rather than just grabbing the first thing you see. And if you see flies, walk on by. Rachel Cranshaw 5. The lure of all inclusive 'All inclusive': such magic words! Your golden ticket to eat, drink and repeat – no fretting over the bill, and no need to scrimp on your third (ok, fourth) margarita. But reader, beware the small print. Hotels' dining packages are becoming outrageously stingy, whether they're charging extra for à la carte dining (or else you're stuck in the hellish buffet canteen, see above), or rinsing you for key dishes on the menu. I stayed at one 'all-inclusive' resort recently that demanded a premium for prosecco, and just three cocktails on its entire menu were bottomless. Never again! How to avoid it Read the terms and conditions (see below), quiz your travel agent – and check your favourite bevvy is definitely included. Hazel Plush 6. Check-in terms and conditions In a similar vein to the above, watch out for the hotels that seem determined to fleece guests at every turn. There might be a room service tray table charge that's more costly than the item you ordered, or a minibar coke priced at €12 when it can be found at a shop down the road for €1.50. Hotels that charge guests for the use of their swimming pool and spa facilities also leave a sour taste in the mouth, as do those with ruinous 'resort fees,' purporting to cover water and Wi-Fi (surely a human right at this point). How to avoid it Be less British. Ask for a breakdown of various spurious charges and check any resort fees before booking. Emma Beaumont 7. Do not trust (British) public transport Air-travel related stress once began after take-off: in the event of bad weather, bumpiness, uncouth piloting, and horrors like minimal legroom, rotten food, snotty stewards. But as planes have become safer, the stresses seem to have been rewound to begin ever earlier. First was the nasty frisking and all-round faffing at security. Then they turned airports into shopping malls. Then dropping off became ripping off. For non-Londoners, though, the stress begins at home. Based in the North West, every time I use the train (Northern, Cross Country, Avanti West Coast, take your pick), without fail it lets me down – and I'm not alone. Cancellations, delays and general chaos mean there's a very good chance of missing the flight. How to avoid it Avoid public transport if you want to relax before the inevitable stresses of the airport – especially if you live beyond the capital. Get a lift, or a taxi, or doze in a pod hotel the night before. Chris Moss 8. Dog-friendly dilemmas Thousands of pet owners wouldn't dream of going away without the dog – they deserve a holiday, too, after all. When a hotel advertises as 'dog-friendly' I'm thrilled, but all too often I'm disappointed on check-in: we arrive to receive a long list of rules my dog – who cannot read – must follow. He's not allowed in the dining area, breakfast room or the bar. He can't sleep on the sofa as he does at home, and he's not to be left alone in the room (lord knows what I'm supposed to do at breakfast time). Hardly dog tolerant, let alone dog-friendly. How to avoid it Avoid this kind of disappointment by booking the extra dog-friendly hotels – the ones that provide a canine menu, like Kimpton or Four Seasons, or those with their love of dogs displayed on their website, like Homewood Bath. Lottie Gross 9. Neighbourhood watch There are multiple red flags that suggest you are in the touristy part of a city and should leave immediately, in search of a more authentic part of town. These include: people throwing those whizzy toys in the air; a pub with O' in its name; open-top buses; tuk-tuks; people in waistcoats beckoning you into their restaurant. But you know of all these already. More nuanced signals include people wearing hiking trainers, being somewhere shaded in orange on Google maps, and the much maligned key lock boxes affixed outside homes. Increasingly, a not-so-subtle clue is a piece of graffiti scrawled on a wall, politely requesting that you 'go home'. How to avoid it Whether visiting a small city like Bratislava or a behemoth like Berlin, it always pays to do your research before you arrive. After asking friends for recommendations and scouring online sources (such are The Telegraph's city guides). I like to build a customised Google Map filled with some of the most interesting cafes, restaurants, galleries, bars and parks. Generally this pinboard of 'good stuff' seems to cluster in one or two quarters of a city, which can make planning the day over breakfast each day a much smoother process. 10. The tourist trap restaurant After a long day exploring, and eventually hobbling, exhausted, around a city – determined to see all the sites – it's easy to succumb to an overzealous restaurant greeter (spot them, more often than not in a skimpy vest and ripped jeans, drenched in sweat, chain smoking and gesticulating like Basil Fawlty). The red flags of a tourist trap restaurant might also include: laminated menus displayed outside, TripAdvisor stickers plastic table filled by British and American couples (spot bum bags and DSLR cameras as necklaces) and (most importantly) diabolical food. How to avoid it Contrary to popular belief, it is easy to eat extremely well within a stone's throw of iconic landmarks – but you may need to divert from the beaten track a little. Observing crowds is a good way to suss out any restaurant – if a place is full of locals it is usually a good sign. Asking for recommendations is, most certainly, the easiest way to find a good restaurant – but avoid hotel staff, and instead strike up conversation with shopkeepers, bartenders, cleaners, or taxi drivers. Jonathan Hatchman
