Uber-Easy Transfers

This new feature will allow travellers to quickly and easily book airport transfers, drives from the hotel to the restaurant, day trips, and more.

There's just one catch - you'll have to give Uber access to your Gmail so they can rifle through your appointments and collate the times and dates of all your bookings. (In exchange for handing over the contents of your inbox to an international ride-booking company, you will get 10% Uber Cash back on relevant trips.)

As of yesterday, the feature has already been rolled out in the USA and Canada, and it appears as if a modified and perhaps slightly less invasive version - allowing travellers to simply book trains, flights and more directly through the Uber app - will be arriving in the UK later this summer.

Kash's Guide To Creative Chiapas

Kash, in our wonderful Flight Finders team, has been out in Mexico exploring the southern state of Chiapas.

Chiapas is a genuinely unique and remarkable place; it’s steeped in indigenous Mayan culture and history, with a ton of colour and vibrancy in its streets. (And with Budget Your Trip estimating an average week’s visit costing just £366 per person, it’s also a very reasonable place to visit if you're hoping to save a few quid.)

We asked Kash to give us the lowdown on Chiapas, San Cristóbal de las Casas, and her top picks for travelling there.

Getting to Chiapas is easy enough - domestic flights to Tuxtla Gutierrez Airport are cheap from elsewhere in Mexico, or you can grab an international flight via Mexico City. (If you want to start in Guatemala, you can also get a ticket on a bus colectivo to drive across the border and end up at San Cristóbal!)

San Cristóbal de las Casas lies at the heart of Chiapas and it’s the best place for making your base for explorations out across the state.

The city is 2,200 meters above sea level, so dress warm and expect mountain weather! The streets are lined with colourful, colonial-era buildings.

There’s a seriously artsy and bohemian vibe here, and you’ll find plenty of holistic activities (dream workshops, yoga, meditation, ecstatic dance).

Everywhere you’ll go, you’ll see reminders of the Zapatista movement and 1994 uprising captured in street art - in Chiapas, the graffiti always has a political message to it.

If you want to learn more about the state’s political history, you can head to the Kinoki Cultural Forum, which offers regular film and documentary screenings on the topic. (They also have private viewing rooms where you can pick a film and settle in to enjoy it without being disturbed!)

There are some really cool shops here, run by indigenous communities that make handmade clothing, soaps, and art, as well as the Mercado de Artesanias: a huge market with indigenous made textiles, jewelry, and amber!

I’d also definitely suggest doing a walking tour here for some more info on the history of the Mayans and the Zapatistas - there are English-speaking free tours in San Cristóbal twice a day.

Where to stay

• Hostal La Isla: I used to volunteer at this hostel! It’s a bohemian hostel with the option of private rooms, and it also offers free activities like cacao ceremonies, yoga and meditation.
• Casa Na Bolom: this hotel is housed in the historic home of archaeologist Frans Blom and his wife, the journalist, photographer and anti-fascist activist Gertrude Blom. Gertrude dedicated her life to chronicling the culture and history of the Mayan people of Chiapas, and the protection of the local rainforests. The hotel actually contains a museum and research centre to carry on her legacy!

Where to eat and drink

• Chiapas coffee is the best in all of Mexico, so it’s important to try it while you’re there!
• I’d head to Frontera (which also does good breakfasts); it has a lovely little courtyard that is shared with other cafés as well as a bar called La Espirituosa! Here, you can taste Chiapas’ traditional liquor, ‘pox’. It’s pronounced ‘posh’ and it’s made from corn - it’s a lot tastier than it sounds!
• Nearby, you can find a great restaurant called Kukulpan - it’s a punny name, after the Mayan feathered-serpent god Kukulkan, but focusing on bread (or ‘pan’)! It has great vegetarian and vegan options as well as a European-style terrace to sit at.

Where to go

Close to San Cristóbal, there are a couple of indigenous villages which are well worth a visit: San Juan Chamula (pictured below) which is famous for its church’s ceremonial chicken sacrifices, and Zinacantan.

This small town is well-known for its gorgeous traditional textiles and for its nearby cave networks, which are said to hold magical properties (as well as bats - Zinacantan literally translates to the ‘land of bats’, and locals refer to themselves as ‘people of the Bat’)

Beyond that, I’d take a visit to Sumidero Canyon - it’s a vast and impressive sight located in a national park. You can take a boat or walk along the viewing points.

If you love natural beauty, there’s also the stunning waterfalls at El Chiflon, and close to the border with Guatemala, the turquoise waters of the Lagos de Montebello - it’s a sight that will truly take your breath away!

And finally, you need to pay a visit to the magnificent Mayan ruins of Palenque, which sit in the heart of the jungle.

This ancient city was abandoned some time in the 8th century - while you can visit a number of temples and gorgeous Mayan pyramids, it's estimated that a good 95% of the ruins are still buried within the surrounding rainforest...

Huge thanks to Kash for the fantastic advice! If you'd like to see us cover a particular country or a topic in The Detour, just let us know - we've got upcoming recommendations requested for Indonesia, Iceland with a teenager, Canada and more!

Our Pick of the Clicks

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

• TripAdvisor have revealed travellers’ top-rated hotels around the world for 2022 - with Costa Rica, Brazil and Greece taking the winning spots. (If you want to stay in some of these awesome places, think way ahead - we struggled to find an available room in the ultra-exclusive Tulemar Villas for any week in 2023.)
• Condé Nast has been shining a light on Rwanda’s blossoming foodie scene.
• In an intriguing idea, the tiny island of Palau is ‘gamifying’ responsible tourism by offering incentives for good behaviour. Travellers who visit Palau-sourced restaurants or use reef-safe sunscreen will gain extra access to exclusive experiences and locals-only events.
• The Guardian wants you to tell them about your favourite Portuguese beach for a chance to win a £200 travel voucher. (Lonely Planet will be judging the results, so stay ahead of the crowd and pick something that isn’t already in their own top ten.)
• As it’s cheaper than getting a mortgage (hard to argue with that one) one couple has spent the past two years living on cruise ships.
• And a big pat on the back to one passenger - with zero flying experience - who had to land his single-engine plane in Florida when the pilot collapsed.

How would you tackle a fellow passenger leaving their smelly feet on your seat? JFC travellers share their traumatic experiences over on our Facebook page.

Thanks for reading!