The place names are tiny poems: Silent Street, where sound was deadened with straw out of respect for convalescing soldiers during the Anglo-Dutch wars of the late 17th century; Smart Street, named after a benevolent merchant and library builder, William Smarte; Star Lane for Stella Maris, Our Lady of the Sea; Franciscan Way, leading to Grey Friars Road, evokes monkish times. Thirteen medieval churches rise above the old town, some in disrepair. Others are renascent: St Mary-le-Tower was recently redesignated as a minster in recognition of its value to the community and its 1,000 years of existence. That’s not so long ago in a town settled very early – perhaps as early as the fifth century, and established by the seventh – by the Anglo-Saxons.
You have to rummage to find historical treasures, which lie scattered, disguised, buried, bullied. The town has one of the best-preserved medieval cores in the country, but local planners wrapped it in roads, houses and, latterly, retail and leisure centres. Things are revealed by walking: the Tooley’s Court almshouses; lemon-hued, half-timbered Curson Lodge; gloriously pargeted Ancient House; an opulent town hall; and an ostentatious former post office on Cornhill, the main square. Seen from between the columns and arches of Lloyds Avenue, it could be Trieste or Venice, minus the overtourism and rip-off cappuccinos.
Curson Lodge dates to the 15th century. Photograph: Alan Curtis/Alamy
Erica, from The Friends of the Ipswich Museums, shows me around the mansion in Christchurch Park. Only four families ever lived here – the Withypolls, Devereux, Fonnereaus and Cobbolds – each associated with their times’ trades and trends: Atlantic merchant-adventurers, titled nobles, Huguenot linen traders, brewers and bankers. A standout exhibit is a patinaed oak overmantel rescued from a house on Fore Street that belonged to Thomas Eldred, who sailed round the world with Thomas Cavendish on his 1586-8 circumnavigation. The flagship Desire gave its name to a port on the Patagonian coast. In a corner hangs a portrait of Admiral Edward Vernon, who participated in the War of Jenkins’ Ear between Britain and Spain in the mid-18th century and the capture of Portobelo in Panama; he wore grogram cloth and is thought to have introduced toasts of rum-and-water – or “grog” – to the navy.
Ipswich traded with northern Europe from Saxon times, growing to become a Hanseatic League port, exporting wool and woollen cloth, and importing wine from Bordeaux.
On the harbour front is Isaacs on the Quay, a pub carved out of an old maltings. Behind it, at 80 Fore Street, is – according to Historic England – “the last surviving example of a 15th- to 17th-century Ipswich merchant’s house with warehouses at the rear opening directly on the dock front, where merchandise was unshipped, stored and distributed wholesale or sold retail in the shop on the street front”. The local council considered filling the harbour in to build houses, but a festival in 1971 showed the area could be a place of recreation as well as cultural preservation; the Ipswich Maritime Trust, still very active, grew out of this showdown. Things to see and do: Willis Building; river cruise on the sailing barge Victor; free A Peep into the Past tourat Christchurch Mansion; Blackfriars monastery ruins
Ramsey, Isle of Man
The Manx Electric Railway to Laxey and Snaefell summit. Photograph: Allan Hartley/Alamy
Travelling overland to Ramsey from Douglas, you have a premonition of how important the sea must once have been. The meandering road and heritage electric railway both scale a mountain on the journey. Doing the trip on foot or horseback must have been hell. The Isle of Man’s longest river, the Sulby, plummets and meanders down from the uplands to meet the sea at Ramsey. Vikings, as well as Scots, entered the Isle of Man here. Its name derives from the Old Norse for “wild garlic river”.
The small working port breaks up a shoreline of sand and pebble beaches backed by apartment buildings and grand-seeming hotels. Timber and aggregate are massed up on the wharves. A bulk carrier called Snaefell River is moored beneath a single tall crane. To the south is the long Queen’s Pier, once a landing stage. Victoria never disembarked, but the pier recalls her visit. Above town is the Albert Tower. The consort made landfall.
Once Ramsey was a popular seaside resort, with Steam Packet ships to Kirkcudbright and Garlieston in Dumfries and Galloway; Liverpool and Whitehaven (I can see the Cumbrian fells). A swing bridge – closed to motorised traffic – connects the northern beach to Ramsey town centre, a likeable mishmash of Victorian buildings housing pubs, food and drink outlets, antique and bric-a-brac shops – and a very 80s strip mall with a Tesco, a drycleaner, a model shop and tattooists.
On the edge of town, I find myself at Grove House, now a museum. It was the holiday home of the island’s second most famous Gibb family. Duncan Gibb was a shipping agent from Greenock. The house reaches out to foreign climes. A tiger skin on the floor of the drawing room. A leopard skin in the bedroom. Mahogany furniture from a primeval forest. Curtains from India. A japanned backgammon set. When the men sailed away or died out, a matriarchy took over.
The Trafalgar pub, on West Quay, must have seen so many deals and binges, squabbles and scuffles. I drink an Odin’s mild in the corner. Locals look bristlingly familiar with one another, conspiratorial, as if they know something I never will. Things to see and do: Manx Electric Railway to Laxey and Snaefell summit;Ramsey Nature Reserve beach walk; walk up to Albert Tower; the TT
The Pendle witches were imprisoned at Lancaster Castle. Photograph: Tara Michelle Evans/Stockimo/Alamy
It’s easy not to notice the River Lune or the Lancaster Canal. The former snakes north of the town centre, often behind buildings – supermarkets, an enterprise zone – and is cut off by the city’s notorious roads. The canal sneaks up from the south-west, hopping across the river near a McDonald’s. Anyway, the natural movement here for pedestrians is upward and inland.
The Romans took the high road. Marching through north Lancashire, operating in conjunction with naval transports, they could look out for landing troop detachments. A Roman fort was built on the hill now occupied by Lancaster Castle. It dates from the 12th century, as does the name of Lancashire, and is infamous as the place the Pendle Witches were imprisoned prior to their trial, sentencing and hanging. A small exhibition in a dungeon of the Well Tower recounts the key points of the story, reminding us Jack Straw refused to pardon them in 1998. The castle housed a prison till 2011; its Shire Hall is still used as a courtroom.
Lancaster was once England’s fourth largest slave port, with at least 122 ships sailing to Africa between 1700 and 1800. Local merchants were involved in the capture and sale of around 30,000 enslaved people. Slave-produced goods from the West Indies included sugar, dyes, rice, spices, coffee, rum and, later, cotton for Lancashire’s mills. Fine furniture, gunpowder, clothing and other goods were produced in and around Lancaster and traded in Africa for enslaved people, or sent to the colonies.
The Ashton Memorial, in Lancaster’s Williamson Park, has views across Morecambe Bay to the Lakeland fells. Photograph: Rob Atherton/Alamy
The slave trade and abolition trail, revised by University of Central Lancashire professor Alan Rice, takes in churches, with their memorials to merchants who made money from slavery; the Sugarhouse, a nightclub on the site of a former refinery; Gillow’s Warehouse, which imported slave-harvested mahogany to make furniture; and 20 Castle Park, home of the slave-owning Satterthwaite family. On the abolition side are a Friends Meeting House (Quakers were among the earliest opponents of slavery) and, most poignantly, three benches in and near Williamson Park provided by philanthropists for the vagrant poor – including cotton workers laid off during the cotton famine caused by anti-slavery measures taken by Lancashire firms.
The small city of Lancaster, with its university campus and would-be genteel airs, looks and feels innocuous, and altogether unconnected to stormy seas. But it’s the nexus of a significant dark maritime history. Things to see and do: Ashton Memorial; Maritime Museum; Gallows Hill; Judges’ Lodgings.
Travel influencers Sarah Woodard. Photo: Instagram/@sarahwoodard
Solo traveller Sarah Woodard, who has visited 102 countries, often shares details about her trips on social media. In a recent post, the American listed five countries where she felt unsafe. India too is included in Sarah’s list of unsafe countries. Sarah was bothered by the constant staring on the streets of India. Besides, she was scared to see stray animals roaming around everywhere. However, she noted that she enjoyed visiting these countries and would surely visit again. Sarah has also stated that she doesn’t believe her experiences in these countries are uncommon or rare. These are the five unsafe countries in the world according to Sarah Woodard.
Namibia Sarah had one of the scariest experiences in Namibia. A tour guide had tried to cheat her out of hundreds of dollars. She also felt that the local residents had troubled her when she was travelling through Namibia.
India India ranks second in Sarah’s list of unsafe countries. Sarah had initially planned to visit India as part of a group tour. However, she later decided to visit the country independently. She also hired a private driver for safety. Sarah says she always felt she was constantly being observed while travelling in North India. The driver used to urge her to get inside the car whenever people stared at her. Sarah states that she was scared even to take out her phone and felt afraid whenever she was alone.
Turkey Sarah felt safe for the most part during her six-week trip to Turkey. However, last week, she received a travel advisory that Americans were being abducted from a particular region. Sarah says that she was bothered by such advisories while travelling solo through Turkey.
United States of America Sarah states that women might feel unsafe at some point in the United States, mainly due to unwarranted attention given by men. She had an unpleasant experience while walking alone with her luggage on the subway. A man had constantly tried to talk to her. He then started getting angry and even demanded sexual favours from her.
Tanzania Sarah visited Tanzania in 2020 when she was financially broke. A stranger who kept staring at her followed her up to the hotel. He continued to stare at her until the hotel authorities intervened. Besides, strangers demanded money from her. Sarah says that she was made to wait alone at the border for completing paperwork that wasn’t required for others.
As Vice President of Global Public Relations at luxury travel company Virtuoso, Misty Belles has spent most of her career shaping how—and where—discerning travelers should explore. With 26 years at the company, she’s no stranger to the ever-evolving rhythms of travel and the ins and outs of the industry. Belles recently sat with our editorial director Pilar Guzmán to chat about all things travel this season: why more women are opting to go at it alone, the magic of a girl’s-only trip, and some trends to look forward to.
What are some travel highlights from this past year? What has stuck with you the most?
My first big trip this year was back in May, to Europe, then shortly thereafter, I went to Banff for the 2025 Virtuoso Impact Summit. That’s an area I hadn’t been to since I was maybe five years old, and it made such an imprint on me. I grew up in a small town in Texas; my parents used to load us into a car and we would drive from south Texas to Canada. I give them mad props for being in a car with two little kids for that long.
I went to my soul city, Paris, this last New Year’s with my own kids, and we traveled in a totally different way. It was their first time there. It’s quite extraordinary during the holidays. But I also took my twelve-year-old daughter to see Taylor Swift—twice—and it was the time of my life. Once was in Miami; we did a long weekend together, staying at Aqualina, which culminated in the show. The other time was in Vancouver for the end of The Eras Tour. We did it on a whim, actually. I planned the whole thing in 24 hours. We drove from Seattle and stayed in the middle of nowhere. And it was just magical. If I could bottle that feeling, that excitement, I would be in heaven.
Let’s talk about solo travel. What has changed in the last decade?
I’m someone who has traveled by herself quite a bit, and there was always a stigma of loneliness—but solo travelers are not lonely travelers. They just want to go out and explore the world on their own terms, not on somebody else’s. Nowadays, companies aren’t penalizing solo travelers anymore. There’s also more attention on women-specific travel, where you have a community baked into the trip (highly recommend checking out Intrepid and G Adventures). While you’re still traveling on your own terms, you’re doing it with the safety, security, and support system of knowing that someone has organized it for you. Women tend to backburner their own needs, so giving yourself permission to move at the pace that’s comfortable for you is a great gift.
Looking at our data, there was an increase in solo travel for the three main categories of cruises: Expedition, ocean, and river. That was super interesting—I always think of cruising as a couples or family experience. But on the other hand, it does make sense, because you’re as social or as not social as you want to be on a cruise. We’re also seeing trips to more “exotic” destinations, where, as a solo traveler (especially a woman!), you might be more intimidated on your own. For example, I have friends who have done a women-only trip to Saudi Arabia, and a colleague who just did the same in India—I’ve not been to either, and as a first-time destination, I might be more reluctant to do so. But going with another group of women, where the focus is on meeting and interacting with other women, opens up your world in a completely new way. It’s exciting, and it’s so transformative: You realize how similar someone else’s life is on the other side of the world. You think about the same things. You want your family to be happy. You want to be fulfilled. It’s a very eye-opening experience.
Girl trips are also having a bit of a renaissance. Why do you think they’re so important? What has evolved there?
Women are giving themselves permission to enjoy and to prioritize their female friendships. When you travel with your family, you feel personally responsible for everybody’s happiness: everybody has to have a good time, everybody has to do what’s on their list, everybody has to have a meal that they enjoy. But if you’re traveling with others where you don’t feel like you have to take care of them all the time, that’s a vacation for yourself. It can feel self-indulgent when you’re used to taking care of everyone else. But there are so many benefits. It’s not just the fact that you maintain close relationships, which gets harder to do in adulthood, but you also come back recharged. I always feel like I’m a better mom, wife, and worker when I come back from a trip that has fed my soul.
For a long time, for women, the only way to decompress and to enjoy each other was through the destination spa. For those who enjoy it, awesome. But that’s not everybody’s idea of a good time, or even of decompressing. Really, it’s key to find someone with a similar travel style, to align with them well, whether you’re go-go-go or more relaxed. I also find that the older I get, the more important it is to know people who knew you when you’re young—people who have seen your evolution throughout the different iterations of your life, who are still friends and want to be friends. To me, that’s the best path to walk with somebody.
What’s the summer travel outlook? Any surprise destinations breaking through?
Europe is still very strong, with the usual suspects on top—Greece, Portugal, Italy (I’ve been here for 26 years and Italy has always been the number one outbound destination for us!). US domestic travel is also huge—it’s actually our number one this year—and we’re starting to see a couple other destinations, like Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries, crack the top 10.
Our summer bookings are up 23% year over year and our sales up 26%. When those two numbers are right on par with each other, prices aren’t going up exponentially—which means the rates are finally leveling off. That spells good news for travelers.
Any sense of where some of the wellness trends are netting out?
We’re hearing a lot about the evolution of wellness into wellbeing. To me, wellness feels like a snapshot in time; a feeling of I went here, and I feel better because of it, but now I’m back to my life. But wellbeing is a reset: you learn to care for yourself differently and can integrate that into your life when you get back.
Wellbeing used to be focused just on diet and exercise—both of which are still important, of course. But there’s a deeper question now of how to tackle those ideas along with the things that are important specifically to you, whether it’s longevity, sleep, brain health. It’s not just enough to have these traditional spa services—your facials, massages, hot stones, et cetera—there has to be a kind of medical rigor. A lot of this is because people are making big health changes to their lives back home. They’re looking to accommodate and accelerate those changes when they’re going to these spas.
Pilar Guzmán is the Editorial Director of Oprah Daily, overseeing content strategy across the brand’s platforms.
Toasted ham baguettes in hand, we cheered as the new-generation Nightjet drew into Vienna Hauptbahnhof. It was a little before 7pm, and as the carriages hummed past I felt a rush of joy, like celebrity trainspotter Francis Bourgeois, but without the GoPro on my forehead. For more than three years I’ve been documenting the renaissance of sleeper trains, and I’d wondered if I might one day tire of them. But the thrill seems only to intensify each time I embark on another nocturnal adventure, this time with my two daughters – aged eight and five – who were already arguing over the top berth. The first four carriages were designated for travellers to the Italian port city of La Spezia, the other seven carrying on to Roma Tiburtina, where we would alight at 10am. Once in Rome we had 24 hours to eat classic carbonara, dark chocolate gelato, and bike around the Villa Borghese before taking a train to Florence.
Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) has played the lead role in resuscitating Europe’s night trains. Towards the end of 2016, ÖBB launched its Nightjet network on 14 routes, using old rolling stock it bought from Deutsche Bahn. Then, to the delight of train nerds like me, it launched a brand-new fleet at the end of 2023, and now operates 20 routes across Europe. We were now on board this high-spec service, which smelled of freshly unpacked furniture, the carpets soft underfoot, the lighting adjustable to disco hues of neon blue and punk pink.
We were booked into a couchette carriage, which mostly comprisesd mini cabins designed for solo travellers preferring privacy. Placing shoes and small bags in lockers, passengers can open a metal door with a keycard and crawl into their single berth, drawing the door closed around them, and not have to look at another human until morning. Last year I had trialled the mini cabins from Vienna to Hamburg alongside a tall friend who had likened the experience to sleeping inside a bread bin, though I hadn’t found it as claustrophobic as I’d feared, just a bit hard, chilly, and with a pillow as flat as a postage stamp. So I was curious to see how the carriage’s four-person private compartments, for families and groups, would differ.
New generation Nightjet train in Austria. Photograph: Christian Blumenstein
Normally happy to share with strangers, I’d booked a whole compartment for the three of us: more to protect other hapless travellers from my children, who were now swinging off the berths like members of Cirque du Soleil, their sweaty socks strewn under the seats. With raised sides, the upper berths were safe for the girls to sleep in without rolling out, and I set about tucking in their sheets while they settled down to finish their baguettes. There is no dining car on the Nightjet, so we’d bought food from the station, which was now moving backwards as the train sailed out of the Austrian capital in silence, smoothly curving south-west.
Two days earlier we’d arrived in Vienna by train from London, via Paris, and had checked into the Superbude Wien Prater, a curious hotel that appeared part art-installation, part hostel, with gen Zs slouched around worn leather sofas on MacBooks. With four-bed family cabins overlooking the Prater amusement park, it was a great location from which to explore the city, then finish the evening with a terrifying rollercoaster and a spicy Bitzinger wurst. A friend had described Vienna to me as a grand and beautiful “retirement village”, but, on the contrary, its green spaces, playgrounds and museums made it an easy stop for 48 hours with kids.
Hopping off the Nightjet from Paris, we’d gone straight to my favourite restaurant, Edelgreisslerei Opocensky – an unassuming nook serving homely dishes such as stuffed gnocchi, and goulash with dumplings – before whiling away an afternoon at the Children’s Museum at Schönbrunn Palace.
Dressing up like young Habsburgs, the girls had swanned around in wigs and musty gowns, laying tables for banquets and begging not to leave – a far cry from our usual museum experiences. Before boarding this train we’d had one last run around the interactive Technical Museum, where the human-sized hamster wheels, peg games and slides had so worn out the children that my five-year-old was asleep as the train plunged into the Semmering mountain pass.
It was still light as we swept around the Alps, my eight-year-old kneeling at the window and asking where local people shopped, so few and far between were signs of human life. Horses grazed in paddocks, cows nuzzled, and the occasional hamlet emerged from round a bend as though the chalets were shaken like dice and tossed into the slopes. In the blue-grey twilight we watched streams gleam like strips of metal, and spotted a single stag poised at the edge of a wood, before the train made a long stop at the Styrian city of Leoben, at which point we turned in.
Monisha Rajesh and her daughters disembark the night train. Photograph: Monisha Rajesh
Like the mini cabins, the compartment was still too cold, the pillow still too flat, but the berths were wider and the huge window a blessing compared with the single berths’ portholes – this one allowed for wistful gazing.
Shoving a rolled-up jumper under my head, I fell asleep, waking at 7am to rumpled clouds and a golden flare on the horizon. Most night trains terminate soon after passengers have woken up, but this one was perfect, allowing us to enjoy a leisurely breakfast of hot chocolate and jam rolls while watching the Tuscan dawn breaking into song, and Umbrian lakes and cornfields running parallel before we finally drew into Rome – on time.
When travelling alone I relish arriving with the entire day at my disposal, but with children it’s hard work waiting until 3pm to check in to accommodation, so I default to staying at a Hoxton hotel if one is available. Its Flexy Time policy allows guests to choose what time they check in and out for free, and by 11am we had checked in, showered and set off to toss coins in the Trevi fountain, finding thick whorls of eggy carbonara at nearby trattoria Maccheroni, and gelato at Don Nino. To avoid the crowds and heat, we waited until 6pm to hire an electric pedal car from Bici Pincio at the Villa Borghese and drove around the landscaped, leafy grounds, relishing the quietness of the evening ride. Excited about the next adventure in Florence, the girls had only one complaint: that they couldn’t ride there on the night train.
Monisha Rajesh is the author of Moonlight Express: Around the World by Night Train (Bloomsbury, £22), published on 28 August and available on pre-order at guardianbookshop.com
Omio provided travel in a four-person private compartment in a couchette carriage from Vienna to Rome (from £357). Accommodation was provided by Superbude Wien Prater in Vienna (doubles from €89 room-only); and The Hoxton in Rome (doubles from €189 room-only)
