Another 16 diversions yesterday from Manchester airport because of snow – but at least no one ended up in the wrong country this time. Tui holidaymakers returning from Montego Bay in Jamaica touched down in Birmingham, while the plane behind them from Cancun in Mexico went to East Midlands airport. Southbound Loganair travellers from Inverness made do with Leeds Bradford; northbound Ethiopian Airlines passengers circled for 50 minutes over the Peak District before diverting to Gatwick. Three hours later they flew on to Manchester, enduring a further seven circuits above Derbyshire before finally touching down. I don't suppose they count themselves lucky, but compared with some of the passengers flying in to Manchester on Sunday morning they had a smooth journey. Some travellers found themselves in Dublin and the Air Transat plane from Toronto to Manchester went to Paris for the morning. Unluckiest of all: passengers on Singapore Airlines flight SQ52. As the Airbus A350 approached northwest England from Singapore, it went into a holding pattern over Leicestershire for 20 minutes then turned south to Gatwick. The pilots refuelled and tried again. But after a fruitless couple of hours trying to land at Manchester it was back to Sussex. After the double-divert they finally made it at the third attempt, 11 hours behind schedule. My most extreme diversion involving Gatwick was supposed to get me to the Guyana capital, Georgetown, via Paris and Caracas. A delay in departure at the Sussex airport meant I reached the French capital too late and was rerouted back from Paris to Gatwick for an onward flight to New York. There followed some intense Caribbean island hopping – Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Barbados – en route to South America. No extra frequent-flyer points, but a salutary reminder to be grateful when travel goes according to planned – as it did for 330 of us passengers on a packed plane from Gatwick to Tampa in Florida this week. I booked two months ago for a bargain £501 return, and count myself lucky rather than prescient for avoiding the worst of winter. |
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Escape route: The Gulf of Mexico, as seen from Anna Maria Island in Florida |
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| As Memphis celebrates the King's 90th birthday this week, a new tour takes visitors behind the scenes. Read more. |
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| Whether you're looking for a cosy boutique stay or a luxury spa, these properties will have you covered. Read more. |
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| From Georgia's capital Tbilisi to Durres in Albania, visit these spots before the crowds move in. Read more. |
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"Temperatures dipping as low as minus 16C where we have lying snow in Scotland and northern England," predicts the Met Office chief meteorologist Paul Gundersen. "Temperatures will also be well below freezing across much of the UK." If you are waking to a brutal frost, you may not thank me for pointing out that Britain enjoys an uncommonly benign climate – one reason why extreme weather sometimes catches our transport system out so spectacularly. Yet this is an excellent day to start planning some new adventures: the latest Rail Sale has been announced this morning. From Tuesday 14 January to Sunday 19 January, more than two million "up to half-price" tickets will go on sale. You will be able to travel on many trains in England, Wales and Scotland between 17 January and 31 March at deeply discounted Advance and Off-peak fares (though don't expect too many bargains between Valentine's Day and the end of most schools' half-term on 23 February). Because bookings are not yet live, I cannot test or verify the prices. But examples issued this morning by the Department for Transport include Preston to Edinburgh for £8.40 (exactly half the cheapest Advance ticket I can find) and Liverpool to London for £7 – less than half the lowest Avanti West Coast £15 "Superfare deal". As soon as tickets go on sale I shall book a trip to Bradford, where the opening event for the year as UK City of Culture gets under way tonight despite sub-zero temperatures. "It has a huge, rich industrial heritage," the creative director Shanaz Gulzar said on The Independent travel podcast. "At one point it was known as Woolopolis, the wool capital of the world. You can literally see the wealth that was in Bradford in its architecture: it's classical, it's Victorian, it's Edwardian." The National Museum of Science and Media reopened in the city this week; from next Wednesday, 15 January, it will host a new exhibition featuring the local artistic hero, David Hockney. The museum generously says of the exhibition: "Pay what you feel." Myth of 'world's longest rail journey' unpicked |
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Route of the Orient Express accelerates |
At last: part of the former route of the Orient Express through Serbia finally has fast trains running. You can travel from the capital, Belgrade, to Serbia's second city, Novi Sad, in just 36 minutes on a high-speed train, branded Soko (meaning falcon). Services continue to Subotica, close to the Hungarian border, in a further 41 minutes. The Orient Express was a scheduled trans-European train that last ran 15 years ago; the Venice-Simplon-Orient Express (VSOE) is a luxury chartered train that runs once a year from Paris to Istanbul and makes many other journeys across Europe. |
Qatar Airways resumes Syria flights |
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Greek islands for non-car drivers? |
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We're seeking the best Greek island for cuisine and culture – but neither of us drive. Where do you recommend? |
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Good food and wine are assured wherever you go. For the strongest cultural offering combined with decent buses, I recommend either Crete or Rhodes. The historic highlights in Crete are strung out mainly along the north coast. I suggest you fly out to the ancient port of Chania in the west. Then head east to the capital, Heraklion; far from postcard-perfect, but worth staying overnight so you can visit the Minoan palace complex of Knossos, just south, as soon as it opens at 8am. Later in the day it gets crowded; the archaeological museum in town does not, so visit in the afternoon. Continue east to the lovely bay of Elounda for a few more days, with excursions to the former leper colony of Spinalonga and the pretty port of Agios Nikolaos. The island of Rhodes is one-sixth of the size of Crete, and good if you prefer not to travel too far. The main attractions are the city of Rhodes itself, with layers of history stretching back for millennia and beautiful Lindos – location for a spectacular Acropolis. Greek island-hopping guide |
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