Good times are already here
As we embrace the start of a new year things feel, on the one hand perhaps, depressingly similar to the same time in 2021, but reasons to be cheerful are more plentiful than last January.
Most of us are double- if not triple- vaccinated (which allows us to travel to destinations near and far), there is no ban on international holidays (at least not at the time of writing), most countries are open and welcoming UK tourists, cruise ships are plying the world's oceans and rivers and there are no flight bans or mandatory expensive quarantines in UK airport hotels.
Moreover, we are getting used to the now not-so-new requirements for travel. Whilst still onerous, all the form filling and testing procedures have become part and parcel of the 'travel experience'. In short, despite the challenges we are travelling again, albeit in different ways to previously.
In this issue, two of our staff writers report on their own recent trips, to Mauritius and New York. The sheer joy of travelling again, and the refreshing balm offered by simply interacting with locals, trying different foods and signing up for new experiences, comes shining through in their words.
Jessica Pook was one of the first to stay at the newly opened LUX* Grand Baie in Mauritius. Read about her trip, which included a snorkel trip in a glass-bottom boat and a visit to the southern hemisphere's oldest botanical gardens, on page 32.
April Waterston's account of her festive break in the Big Apple features in our special extended section on the USA. Travelling Stateside will be on the wish list of many Brits in 2022, an aspiration that couldn't be realised for most of last year. It wasn't until early November that Brits were allowed back into the country, yet as our series of destination profiles show, regions across the country – from Maine to Washington State – are keen to get the word out about why they should be first on any USA itinerary.
So, to wed a couple of popular idioms, keep the faith because better times are coming – and compared to the journey we have been on, in many ways they are already here.