Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast

Today the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions has released its figures for 2024 – showing a "slow but steady" increase in visitor numbers. But the backdrop is tough times for attraction providers, exacerbated by successive governments putting up the barriers to foreign visitors.I'll been catching up with ALVA director – and top tourism thinker – Bernard Donoghue.This podcast is free, as is Independent Travel's weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox.

I've been talking to Sean Collins, chief executive of Uber Boat by Thames Clippers, about his shiny new ferry – and how it will transform travel across the river downstream of Tower Bridge in London.This podcast is free, as is Independent Travel's weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox.

Today, the German capital is a busy, fun and coherent city. But I first knew Berlin when the Wall carved through its streets, dividing families. Some of those oppressed in East Berlin were allowed to leave – along with curious tourists like me.The main way out was at Friedrichstrasse station, where the Tränenpalast – or Palace of Tears – is now the most powerful reminder of division.This podcast is free, as is Independent Travel's weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox.

Cheese dumplings, the castle of the princely family, a national trail and some excellent skiing. That’s some of the offering from one of Europe's blink-and-you-miss-it countries: Liechtenstein, a mountainous crumple of territory measuring 15 miles by four.I have been talking to tourism spokesperson Claudia Agnolazza.This podcast is free, as is Independent Travel's weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox.

Hope you don't get flashback anxiety – I have been looking back with many a shudder at the extraordinary tangle of travel restrictions that blighted our movements for two years from 17 March 2020.This podcast is free, as is Independent Travel's weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox.

This year Easter is unusually late ... and that spells a very different holiday pattern for many people, especially families. Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive, Advantage Travel Partnership, tells me some are swapping an August fortnight in Mallorca for two weeks in Thailand at Easter for much the same price.This podcast is free, as is Independent Travel's weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox.

I'm in Portugal, and talking to Captain João Melo about the prospects for serious fishing 40 miles off the coast of the Algarve –and how the tuna are tagged and released, rather than eaten. Sounds one heck of a day out (and, forgive my maths error, the cost is €258 per person based on six sharing the vessel).This podcast is free, as is Independent Travel's weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox.

BREAKING NEWS! British travellers will not need an online permit to visit the European Union and wider Schengen Area until April 2027 at the earliest.In this episode, I break down the full timeline of what we can expect from the rollout of this new service over the coming two years.This podcast is free, as is Independent Travel's weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox.

I am talking to Mikael Mahlberg of Swedish e-ferry manufacturer Candela. His firm makes the electric hydrofoil that darts between the islands of Stockholm and will soon be gliding across Lake Tahoe. He explains how a low-impact ferry can transform urban transport.This podcast is free, as is Independent Travel's weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox.