Your Weekly Travel Bulletin

As part of their sanctions package against Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, the UK, the EU, US, and Canada have all banned Russian flights from their respective airspaces.

In retaliation, Russia has banned UK flights from its own airspace, as well as airplanes from several other European countries, including Poland, Latvia and Lithuania.

If you’re in the UK and you had plans to visit Moscow or St Petersburg in the coming weeks, you’re obviously going to have to rethink:

• British Airways (which is banned from Russian airspace) has stated that they’ll be contacting passengers ASAP about its cancelled flights.
• If you booked with Russian airline Aeroflot (which is banned from British airspace), they offer a number of options for getting a refund on their website.
• The Foreign Office has formally advised against travel to Russia - although this is because you’ll have a seriously hard time actually getting there, rather than because of any personal risk to safety.

Otherwise, the main impact on UK travellers looks like it’s going to be a slightly lengthier flight time to destinations in Asia that would otherwise pass over Russian airspace. (Virgin Atlantic has estimated an increased flight time of 15-60 minutes for travel to India and Pakistan.)

Meanwhile, for anyone worried about their travel plans more broadly, the Independent’s guru Simon Calder has some sensible advice about what we can expect over the next few months.

COVID-19

And what about COVID-19? Well, it’s slightly happier news all around for travel on that front:

• As of last Friday, Iceland has lifted all of its pandemic-related entry requirements for vaccinated and unvaccinated travellers alike. Yes, all of them.
• Dubai has removed the requirement for PCR tests for fully vaccinated arrivals, as has Italy and now Sri Lanka.
• Singapore has also removed the PCR requirement for vaccinated travellers from a select but growing group of countries (which includes the US and UK) - a huge thank-you to Detour reader Gwen for writing in about this one!
• From Tuesday, Jamaica has scrapped its quarantine and travel authorisation requirements: visitors will be allowed to enter once again with a negative antigen or PCR test.
• Spain will now accept proof of recovery from COVID-19 for international admittance.
• And New Zealand has begun taking its first tentative steps towards opening up to wider travel - from the beginning of March, returning COVID-negative citizens will no longer have to quarantine upon arrival.

Meanwhile, back in the UK, the Government has been making noises about scrapping the passenger locator form in time for the Easter holidays.

Saving All Our Love For You

It’s a question that comes up again and again in our inbox - and hardly surprising given that our Detour readers are all savvy savers when it comes to flights. “Jack, where are the best places to travel on a budget?”

So here are our recommendations for the travel destinations that are literally cheap as chips - without forcing you to eat nothing but chips. And first up, it’s amazing Albania:

#1: Albania

According to Budget Your Travel, the average traveller spends around £36 per day in Albania. In other words, a day’s adventure, accommodation and food in the stunning Balkans nation is likely to cost you about as much as a salad and soft drink at one of Salt Bae’s restaurants.

And what do you get for that price? Glorious mountainous scenery and pristine beaches. Effortlessly cool ruins to explore like the magical Rozafa Castle (pictured above). And, most importantly, an adventure away from the floods of tourists.

Your itinerary

When in the capital of Tirana, we’d recommend Art Hostel, which comes extremely well-reviewed by travellers, with a spacious balcony and cab transfers upon request, for as little as 20 Euros a night.

Twice a day, the appropriately-named Tirana Free Tour company runs a free two-hour tour through the streets of the city (if you enjoy yourself, just leave them a tip!)

One of the city’s biggest attractions is Bunk’Art: a pair of old nuclear bunkers, now converted into a gloriously cool art and history exhibit. Tickets come in at 500 Lek, or £3.45 - it’s then a short walk to Tirana’s cable car for a scenic view of the city.

Next, you should definitely consider heading for the city of Shkodra in the north-west, which sits in a prime location between the Albanian Alps and the magnificent Lake Shkodra - offering up crumbling ruins, beachside relaxation, and tons of opportunities for stunning (and free) adventures in nature.

While you’re there, stop off at Mi Casa Es Su Casa, a backpacker’s hostel housed in a 200-year-old estate building, now home to a vegetable garden, campsite, artists, and three rescued street dogs.

You should also make a point of seeing Berat, or ‘The Town Of A Thousand Windows’ (pictured below).

This cobbled UNESCO World Heritage site has a bunch of well-loved hostels (Hostel Mangalem has prices from £13 per night, and sees a ton of high praise from travellers for its friendly, welcoming host Berti)...although if you're in the mood to splash out, even the plush, palatial 5-star Hotel Colombo will only set you back £67 per night for one of its single rooms.

If you want to get even cheaper, then wild camping is legal across Albania, so it’s perfectly possible to rent a car, take a tent and set out across the countryside without paying for accommodation costs at all. Travels Of A Bookpacker has some great recommendations for sites to get you started.

Eating and drinking

The local restaurants across Albania should be just as cheap as everything else - we’ve seen one travel blogger calculate that she spent about £3.50 per day on food and drink in the height of the tourist season.

If you’re sticking to street food, though, you’re certain to end up trying byrek. (It’s a scrumptious filo pastry treat packed with a variety of fillings.)

One thing to keep an eye out for, according to World Nomads, is bar scams (don’t agree to buy a drink for the bar staff) and over-pricing on imported alcohol. Order yourself a foreign beer at a bar and you could find yourself charged about the cost of a meal. Ask for a local Korca or Peja instead for better value.

More from the experts

• Modern Mix Travel have some great recommendations for budget travel across Albania (they even managed to keep their budget down to 32 Euros a day!)
• Nomadic Matt has his own handy guide to Albanian travel on a budget.
• Anita Hendrieka, who’s resident in Albania, keeps up a regular blog of recommendations for things to do and see across the country.

Check Out Our Latest Premium Perk

🚨 Psst! We’ve just added a groovy new free Perk in JFC Premium.

One of our brand new partners offers international data packages so that you can use your phone around the world without needing to replace your SIM card - and JFC Premium members can now purchase any one of their packages at 30% off the usual price.

If you’re already a Premium member, you can find the details in your JFC portal.

If not, what are you waiting for? Upgrade today for access to over £400 in travel-related discounts and freebies.

Our Pick of the Clicks

All the important (or silly, or strange) travel news from across the web this week.

• Yellowstone, the first national park in the USA, turns 150 this week. (What a cantankerous old geyser!)
• The new Atlantis…or a Lovecraftian horror? The BBC has been covering the story of Dunwich, the coastal British town that was drowned at sea.
• CNN Travel has the heartwarming tale of two US adventurers who travelled to Antarctica for a work placement - and then fell in love.
• The Guardian has been rounding up the best ski destinations for Easter, including some great family-focused choices.
• Buzzfeed has all the pics from New Orleans as Mardi Gras returns with a bang.

Your Questions Answered

In last week’s Detour, we got a whole lot of emails from you amazing readers, telling us about your upcoming travel plans for 2022.

Our incredible flight finders have been busy getting back to you with their advice on getting the cheapest flights - and we’ll be showcasing their answers in this newsletter, as well! Starting with...

Senggigi Beach in Lombok, Indonesia

Andy, Detour reader:

I am looking at an upcoming holiday in Indonesia - can you please update me on flights into Lombok, and also visa requirements, health certificates, etc? Many thanks!

JFC Flight Finders:

Indonesia has actually just opened this month for vaccinated travellers: the gov.uk website has all of the information on visa requirements (you'll need proof of income, travel insurance, and your accommodation already booked, as well as proof of vaccination and a letter confirming that you will follow local health protocols).

There’s also a 5-day quarantine for now and some other entry requirements, but considering the latest updates from around South East Asia, it seems they’re gradually re-opening to tourists.

My advice would be to book with airlines with flexible change policies just in case, but depending on your holiday times, you might find that some of these restrictions have lifted by the time you depart.

When it comes to flights, the best way to get to Lombok is by flying to Denpasar, and flights there are now slowly coming up from European departures like Amsterdam & Germany.

Another option is to fly direct to Jakarta and get a regional flight to Lombok from there. The connecting flights are pretty cheap - should be around £20.

We see flights to Jakarta more regularly from the UK, so this might be the easiest option for you! Around £400 for a return flight would be a good price, though we’ve recently sent some for as low as £350.

Keep an eye on your notifications from us and we're sure to send some relevant discounts your way in the future!

Walking In Memphis (And Everywhere Else): The 15-Minute City

Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could live in a city where everything you needed - from shopping to restaurants to entertainment - was within a 15-minute walk or bike ride?

In today’s guest post, Larissa from the JFC team takes us through the urban planning concept of ‘15-minute cities’, examining both the advantages and the drawbacks of eco-friendly efforts towards pedestrianisation.

Colombia’s capital Bogotá, notoriously one of the world’s most congested cities, has proven it’s possible to turn it all around.

They’re building on the pedestrian/cycle roads that were put in place during the pandemic and making them permanent.

In the future, the city will eventually implement several Barrios Vitales where residents will be able to reach everything they need within a 20-minute walk, alongside an improved metro/tram network and over 200 km of pedestrian routes.

Bogotá was never going to be able to turn their major traffic corridors into a sprawling pedestrianised avenue like La Rambla - they had to do the 15-minute city their way to actually make achievable improvements.

This goes for every city - planners have to apply the core principles in a way that makes sense.

For example, in Ottawa, they’re focusing on their footpaths - not just in terms of how walkable they are, but also how many trees need to be planted to shade those paths on hot days.

All around the world, cities are already introducing similar ideas:

• Parklets - car parking spaces redesigned into seating, community gardens or parks, as seen in several US cities like Dallas, San Francisco and Minneapolis
• Increased numbers of bike lanes from Addis Ababa to Jakarta
• Newly-pedestrianised streets in Berlin and Sydney
• Multi-use public spaces, like in New York and Gwangju.

Read more about 15-minute cities on the JFC website.

Feeling inspired to visit Bogotá? You can find TripAdvisor’s top recommendations for walking tours across the city here.

Last week, we hoped for a peaceful resolution to the story of Hank the Tank, the 500-pound black bear accidentally causing havoc in Lake Tahoe.

Now, in an epic twist, DNA evidence has revealed that there are three identical Hanks roaming around.

Thanks for reading!