Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast

Today’s travel podcast. Why do people check in bags for a flight but then choose not to travel – and what happens next? I’m aboard a late-running British Airways Airbus A320 from Nuremberg in Germany to London Heathrow. Everything was going swimmingly until two passengers decided, at the last moment, not to travel. That triggered a sequence of events that ended up with us being almost an hour late. An annoying waste of time for everyone; extra fuel burn doing the planet no favours; and lots of stress and expense as a result of missed connections.This podcast is free, like my weekly newsletter. Subscribe here to receive every Friday. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For today’s travel pod, I’ve wandered into the garden of a royal palace – in Denmark, which means it’s access (almost) all areas without formality. Specifically, I’m in the exquisitely pretty town of Møgeltønder, location for Schackenborg Castle – where Prince Joachim, the second son of the Queen of Denmark, lives. The gardens are glorious, a wildlife symphony from melodic birdsong to staccato frogs. Along the main street, 12th-century Møgeltønder church is surely the most intricately beautiful in Scandinavia.This podcast is free, like my weekly newsletter. Subscribe here to receive every Friday. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After becoming one of the tens of thousands, who had their flights cancelled this week, I’ve been thinking about how travellers can minimise their personal exposure to disruption.This podcast, unlike train tickets, is far more generously priced as it's free, along with my weekly newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered every Friday. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Unravelling travel – and getting to the bottom of some of the unending acronyms that seem designed to confuse everyone. Today, it's Abta – the travel association – and Aito, the Association of Independent Tour Operators. What do they do for travellers, and why are they a good idea to be on your side?This podcast, unlike train tickets, is far more generously priced as it's free, along with my weekly newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered every Friday. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s travel podcast is on the thorny subject of single-leg pricing: whereby passengers wanting flexible, one-way off-peak tickets on the East Coast main line can save almost half compared with the fares prevailing last week. I believe it is the first significant step in untangling the incredibly complicated system of rail fares that confuse and deter prospective train travellers. But unless you live in eastern Scotland, northeast England or Yorkshire, it could be a while before it comes to a station near you.This podcast, unlike train tickets, is far more generously priced as it's free, along with my weekly newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered every Friday. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I’m on the 9.52am train from Aberdeen to London King's Cross – the only one in the LNER timetable on which alcohol is banned, and then only as far south as Newcastle. “We expect a number of large groups to be travelling on this train,” says the train operator. “So to help make it a pleasant experience for everyone, we'll be operating an alcohol-free policy for part of the journey.” But drinking is banned on every ScotRail train, and at every Scottish station. In Northern Ireland, the legality of alcohol depends on what sort of train you are on. And on all public transport in London, drinking has been illegal for 15 years.Of course this podcast is free, as is my weekly newsletter. Subscribe here to get every Friday. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With 31 days of security strikes threatened at Heathrow, I take a look at what measures will be used to limit the impact of the walk-outs.This podcast is free, like my weekly newsletter. Subscribe to that here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

London Heathrow airport will see “disruption, delays and cancellations this summer” according to the Unite union. In a “a major escalation” of a pay dispute, it is calling more than 2,000 security staff out on strike for 31 days between June and August.The action at the UK’s busiest airport is timed to coincide with busy family travel dates, including the start of the main summer holidays in England and Wales, as well as the August bank holiday weekend. Here's my assessment.This podcast is free, like my weekly newsletter. Subscribe to that here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Part two of my Arctic adventure. In which a train goes missing, a bus stands in, another train has almost no passengers, connections are missed or never truly existed in the first place, many drivers are kind but some are not, and the Miracle of the Train whereby I was heading south from Oslo airport on an express that was due to leave two minutes before my plane from Bodo arrived.This podcast is free, like my weekly newsletter. Subscribe to that here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I had a particularly odd journey to Luleå in Sweden. It began with a 25 minute late flight from Stansted, I was met by a train derailment in Arlanda but I did enjoy a taxi instead of a rail replacement bus. Then I had to negotiate with members of an extremely long security queue in order to board my Norwegian flight on time. Thanks to a few strokes of luck I arrived at my final destination but things could have gone badly wrong.This podcast is free, like my weekly newsletter. Subscribe to that here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.