Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast

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.

One of the many triumphs of the Brexit agreement was that British travellers to the European Union are now counted as “third-country nationals” – limited to stays of a maximum of 90 days in any 180 days.But Steven Jolly, of the France Visa Free group is campaigning for friendlier relations between the British government and the EU.This podcast is free, as is Independent Travel's weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox.

Explora Journeys might sound like an overland adventure company, but in fact it is an upmarket cruise line.The president of the organisation, Anna Nash, told me how it differs from mass-market cruise firms, and says she welcomes competition from land-based companies such as Ritz-Carlton dipping a toe into the water and offering voyages.This podcast is free, as is Independent Travel's weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox.

Gloria Guevara is campaigning for the post of Secretary-General of the United Nations body that works to promote sustainable tourism around the world. She told me why she is the person for this tricky role.This podcast is free, as is Independent Travel's weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox.

I've been looking into Electronic Travel Authorisation ahead of the 2 April 2025 deadline – after which every foreign visa-exempt visitor to the UK, with the exception of the Irish, will need to pay £10 and register online.This podcast is free, as is Independent Travel's weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox.