travelsupplement

Talk to any shopkeepers in this Belgian city and they’ll tell you they’re excited.  Excited because Ghent, a sleepy university city just 30 minutes from Brussels, is seeing a new wave of visitors charmed by its beguiling cobbled streets, Gothic architecture and laid-back atmosphere. Once the seat of the Counts of Flanders, whose castle has … Read more

My son Joseph passes to the unusually tall winger out wide on the right, who then splits the defence with a perfectly weighted ball. Joseph runs onto it and then his teammate’s deep Bulgarian voice booms out around the pitch: ‘Feenish!’ Joseph dutifully slots the ball past the keeper to secure his hat-trick, then sprints … Read more

Britain at its best: A Dickens of a town in the heart of Medway, Kent, that inspired Great Expectations Charles Dickens ‘adored’ Rochester, writes the Daily Mail’s Rob Crossan This year marks the 150th anniversary of the author’s death  To mark the occasion, Rochester will be opening a gallery focusing on his life  By Rob … Read more

Even after something like 50 visits to Athens, I still find the geography occasionally baffling. Still, that’s part of the charm of this beautiful European city, and, the longer you spend there, the more you realise just how much there is to discover. By all means visit one of the spectacularly glamorous shoe shops on … Read more

An Inspector Calls… Sopwell House in Hertfordshire was once an Admiral’s country retreat but today’s PVC windows and dry seabass trigger a sinking feeling Sopwell House is located just outside St Albans and it has 128 bedrooms  It’s been owned by the chairman of AB Hotels, Abraham Bejerano, since 1986  He’s invested £14m in a … Read more

Margaux is explaining how babies drink champagne before they drink milk. ‘Really,’ she assures me, ‘it’s a tradition that goes back generations. A family member puts a drop or two on to the baby’s lips after it is born.’ Margaux, 25, was born and grew up in Reims, in the heart of the French Champagne region. … Read more

Everyone agrees that the gardens at Gravetye Manor have never looked better.  That’s high praise, given that they were created by famous landscape gardener William Robinson while he lived there from 1884 to 1935. More than 6,000 tulips are planted each year. Drop in right now and they will all be there to greet you … Read more

Q. We’ve booked a holiday to Sri Lanka. What will happen if we cancel? Mary Wilson, via email. A. Abta, the trade body for UK travel agents, says: ‘Customers who are due to travel imminently to the island on package holidays will be offered options of deferring their date of travel, transferring to another destination … Read more