I am stuck at Crewe, the rail junction in Cheshire, but I have been hearing from two of the presenters of an excellent new Channel 4 series, Britain's favourite railway station: Si King and Siddy Holloway. The first episode is available now at channel4.com

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Eleni Skarveli, director of the Greek National Tourism Organisation in London, says Athens and Thessaloniki are excellent winter destinations – and also reveals some of her favourite islands.

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My guest today is Paul Goldstein: photographer, expedition guide, and campaigner for protecting wildlife. He’s also author of a book out this week called Nine Lives: One Photographer, Nine Persecuted Species.

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Uganda and northern Argentina are off the tourism mainstream, but high on Annabel's recommendations for the year ahead. Adventure travel in Africa and South America sounds a joy – can't wait to find out for myself.

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Avanti West Coast is providing a glorious workaround to the closure of the main rail line between Preston and Carlisle: a scenic train diversion along England’s most beautiful line, the Settle-Carlisle Railway. I went on a test run with Avanti West Coast managing director Andy Mellors, and talked to him when the train paused at Appleby.

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Right at the end of 2025, tens of thousands of passengers had their New Year plans wrecked when a problem in the Channel Tunnel.

30 trains linking London St Pancras International with Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.

Paul Charles, chief executive of the PC Agency, used to be director of communications for Eurostar – and gives me his no-holds-barred view of how events unfolded.

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To start 2026, I'm talking to Mark Tanzer, well respected chief executive of Abta, the travel association – about reasons to be cheerful, challenges from the EU entry-exit system and the environmental impact of tourism.

As well as: What's the point of Abta?

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I'm talking to Mike Vincent, General Manager of the Langdale Chase Hotel overlooking Windermere in Cumbria – who has been working through the festive season along with his staff.

"We're nice people looking after nice people," he says.

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