Simon Calder’s Travel Week

Written by Simon Calder | May 22, 2025

Over the past year, the archiving service at The Independent informs me, I have written 1,130 articles (cue cries of “Slacker” and “Lightweight” from my hard-core news and sport colleagues). Not all have been about Covid travel restrictions: the first was headlined “Government gives three conflicting versions of passport rule for post-Brexit travellers to Europe”. But most have. Yesterday, for example, the ratio of stories on travel red tape to normal festive transport chaos was 2:1. “Germany to end travel ban on Tuesday” and “Goodbye to 2021: The year that decimated the UK travel industry” outran “New nightmare for Southern commuters: no London Victoria trains until 10 January”.

How the world has changed. Until 2020 I had enjoyed a quarter-century of being on holiday pretending to work. Since I caught the last plane out of Yemen in March 2020, that excellent arrangement has reversed. I now report the risks and traps that international travel involves, while seeking to convince people like you that journeys are still worth celebrating.

As I write on Thursday evening, the new Covid infection figures for Scotland have recently arrived: on average, one person is testing positive for coronavirus every five seconds. This statistic will inevitably translate to some human tragedies and, less importantly, impact the everyday business of travel. ScotRail will cut services through January to try to run a reliable schedule despite so many staff being unavailable due to coronavirus.

Record infection rates abound around the nation and the globe. Even in Australia, which has kept its borders shut for the past 21 months, New South Wales is reporting over 60,000 active coronavirus cases while Victoria has almost 20,000. These, too, are horrible numbers.

Yet from a travel perspective I can see a crumb of comfort that, for me, makes the outlook for 2022 less gloomy than the skies at the forlorn end of a tough year. The figures prove the point of the World Health Organisation that you can’t ban your way out of trouble.

Sign of the times: there's a beach waiting for you in 2022

France (two new cases every second) still pretends that the UK is the problem, while Britain (one million positive tests in the past week) brought in a preposterously complex and expensive testing regime in a futile bid to keep Omicron at bay. Despite their manifest failures, the rules remain stubbornly in place on the obstacle course formerly known as travelling abroad.

Yet here is a theory to give the traveller some hope: this latest variant will finally persuade the world and its leaders to accept that Covid is a long-term hazard that has to be managed with mass vaccination and great care for the vulnerable. Travel – or rather restricting it with arbitrary, headline-grabbing rules – can no longer be used as a political weapon to make politicians look as though they are doing something useful. The industry of human happiness that connects people, creates jobs and enhances lives is simply too important to lose. That is the belief with which I shall begin a new year in which I hope to resume the art of being permanently on holiday.

Mountain high: Andorra provides good terrain for skiing in the Pyrenees

The high-altitude co-principality squeezed between France and Spain is now easier to reach thanks to a new air link on the regional carrier Air Nostrum.

A new “public service obligation” air route gives easier access to Andorra with a connection to Iberia’s hub, Madrid. It offers an alternative to the three-hour journey from the nearest international airports.

The tiny nation, which offers excellent skiing, does not quite have its own airport, but lends its name to the La Seu d’Urgell-Andorra airport, six miles southwest of the border. On Sunday 16 January, Iberia is selling a fare of £94 one-way from London Heathrow to Andorra via Madrid. The journey is on British Airways as far as the Spanish capital, with a connection to Air Nostrum.

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Deal of the week: Free visits to US national parks

The US National Park Service has just revealed its five free-entry days for 2022. The dates are: 17 January ( Martin Luther King, Jr Day); 16 April (first day of National Park Week); 4 August (Anniversary of the Great American Outdoors Act); 24 September ( National Public Lands Day) and 11 November ( Veterans Day).

Visitors could save up to $35 (£27) on these days – the fee applied to for taking a car into the outstanding western US parks, including Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Yosemite. The entrance fee waiver does not cover activities such as camping.

Almost three-quarters of the 400-plus national parks do not have fees.

Q Why has Gatwick has fared so much worse than the other top UK airports in 2021?

A Figures this week revealed that Gatwick – always the challenger for Heathrow and well ahead of Stansted and Manchester – has had a terrible 2021 and is now in an unfamiliar fourth place. Its three really active long-haul operations – British Airways, Norwegian and Virgin Atlantic – have disappeared or (in the case of BA) downsized. While easyJet remains Gatwick's top airline, travel restrictions mean that the number of budget flights has slumped – and those that have taken off have had many empty seats. In contrast, Stansted and Manchester have a large presence from Ryanair, which has tended to maintain a higher proportion of its flights than easyJet. But in summer 2022, Gatwick should return to its former position as the UK’s second-biggest airport. Wizz Air has grabbed some Norwegian slots, British Airways will resume short-haul services with a new Gatwick subsidiary and easyJet plans to ramp up its operations.

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