European Travel | News, Reviews, Tips & Advice | The Irish Times

A waiter wearing a face mask serves drinks at Cafe Florian in Venice. Photograph: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty Images

‘Living day by day’ – Venice and Florence without tourists

Fionn Davenport
September 12, 2020

With the usual deluge of tourists to the Italian cities now a trickle, how are residents surviving?

Goodbye, airfares: when our Ryanair flight leaves for Greece next week, we won’t be aboard. Photograph: Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty

Keep our money if you must, Ryanair. We’d rather lose our airfares than board our flight

Liam Stebbing
July 3, 2020

It’s not just for health reasons. We can live with the financial hit if it helps our communities

Wish you were here? While countries across Europe are beginning to reopen their tourist markets, Irish people still have no idea if they are coming or going. Photograph: Getty Images

Why you still can’t have a European holiday this summer. Or can you?

Conor Pope
June 6, 2020

Across Europe, beaches are open and airliners are ready for take-off. It’s tempting...

ITAA said consumers should “adhere to the current travel guidelines from the Department, which state that non-essential travel should be avoided until further notice”. File photograph: Natascha Libbert/Bloomberg

Irish travel agents call for 'clear guidelines' as airlines launch summer schedules

Conor Pope
June 2, 2020

Tourists must follow government advice on travel, not airline offers, says industry body

A waiter serves visitors in a roof-top cafe of a hotel in central Athens, on the first day of the opening of hotels in Greece. Photograph: Milos Bicanski/Getty Images

Irish holidaymakers will not be barred from Greece when tourism restarts

Conor Pope
June 2, 2020

Department of Foreign Affairs advisory against travel except to UK remains in place

Bear essentials: Alessandro Breda walks away from the bear he encountered on a family walk in an Italian nature park. Photograph: Twitter/Loris Calliari

What do you do when you meet a bear on a walk? Copy this 12-year-old

Elisabetta Povoledo
May 27, 2020

A video of Alessandro Breda encountering the animal in the Dolomites has gone viral

Ryanair: the airline says security restrictions prevent it from processing cash refunds. Photograph: Crispin Rodwell

Coronavirus: Ryanair suspends refunds and offers passengers vouchers instead

Conor Pope
April 9, 2020

Customers who want money back can ‘join cash-refund queue’ until crisis has passed

Cruising along the majestic Danube in the Ama Magna. Our three-day itinerary takes us to Vienna, Esztergom and Budapest.

Sampling the delights of the Danube on a leisurely river cruise

Deirdre McQuillan
March 1, 2020

River cruising is a delightful way to visit majestic cities like Vienna and Budapest

Toulouse seems specially suitable for meandering talks, the nursing of wine, and long stretches of riverside walking.

Finding beauty behind closed doors on a weekend break in Toulouse

Shilpa Ganatra
February 16, 2020

Unhurried pace of life and a prevailing air of creativity among the many attractions of France’s fourth largest city

Trieste, Italy: The church of St Antonio Thaumaturgo is situated at the northern end of the Canale Grande.

Ten reasons to visit Trieste, Italy’s jewel of a city

Pavlo Fedykovych
February 9, 2020

Close to the border with both Croatia and Slovenia, Trieste is a city at the crossroads of cultures

Joya and Priya Hobson at Utah Beach where their great-uncle Eddie was part of the Normandy landings

After years of staycations, it was time to take the kids to France

Róisín Ingle
February 1, 2020

Róisín Ingle's girls didn’t want much: just to travel to another country, and experience a bit of 'proper' sunshine

The city has lost none of its fascination: buckets are still lowered from high windows on winding lanes strung with washing lines. Photograph: iStock

Relive Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels on the city’s real world streets

Victoria White
January 27, 2020

If you're a fan of the books, you'll love discovering Lila and Lenu's haunts around the city

Spectacular views in northern Tenerife

Walk on the wild side with a winter hiking holiday in Tenerife

Margaret Ward
January 12, 2020

The prehistoric world of Anaga Rural Park is a cool and humid contrast to the Canary Island's sunny resorts

Bruegel Box: three of the artist’s painting are projected on to walls, floor to ceiling around you, at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts

Brussels is buzzing with Bruegel artwork to celebrate 450th anniversary

Sorcha Hamilton
December 14, 2019

City offers non-traditional approach to experiencing art and multimedia exhibitions

In Lecce, there are plenty of restaurants for dinner. Most are Italian, but you can also find a selection of Greek and Turkish places too. Photograph: iStock

Perfect Puglia: Something for all the family on holiday in Italy’s ‘heel’

Sarah Walsh
December 1, 2019

New flights from Dublin to Brindisi will make the region easy to visit for Irish tourists

Paris in the snow. Photograph: iStock

The best European cities for a winter weekend break

Darragh Geraghty
November 19, 2019

Winter is the most romantic time to visit Paris, and nobody seems to know it

Guests have to pay for skis and boots separately – the rest is all-inclusive, from food and drinks to lessons and lift passes.

Leave your brain behind on an all-inclusive ski holiday in France

Emma Cullinan
November 3, 2019

‘Just try it’ is the philosophy at Club Med in Val Thorens, from the slopes to the dancefloor

A tourist on a bike rides along the East Side Gallery, an international memorial for freedom with paintings by artists from all over the world on one of the longest remaining sections of the Berlin Wall.

Cycling the Berlin Wall nearly 30 years after its fall

Margaret Ward
October 20, 2019

Margaret Ward cycles along the brutal barrier that once split the city

I suspect no door or beginning will match the one we and the kids opened that day in August 2000, as we stepped onto the terrace of our house in Herault

Leaving our family’s holiday home in France after 20 years

Michael Guilfoyle
October 20, 2019

Our love affair with this house and our holidays here started with excitement, anticipation and longing

Edinburgh Castle high above the city illuminated green for St Patrick’s Day. File photograph: PA

What’s the story? In Edinburgh’s Storytelling Centre there are a lot of them being told

Jennifer O'Connell
September 28, 2019

Tall tales and time machines in a glistening sandstone city that is the jewel of East Lothian

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Meet John and Louise Mathers, who offer a warm welcome with fabulous food

Armagh’s Newforge House is a gourmand’s delight with local, seasonal produce on the menu, plenty of period charm and lots to do nearby

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