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Let’s show our kids the World!

“ Don’t wait to travel with your kids until they’re the ‘perfect age’! You never know what’s around the corner to mess up your plans; I think the pandemic has taught everyone that. And really, does the ‘perfect age’ even exist? ”

( Jenny Lynn, Mum and Editor of TraveLynn Family )

Want to travel with your kids?

You’ve come to the right place for inspiration. Here we share our family travel tips, personal reviews, and itineraries for global travel adventures!

We’re the Lynn Family, aka ‘TraveLynn Family’ – Jenny (Mum), Jay (Dad), Arthur (age 10) and Ezra (age 8). We’re from the UK, but live in Malaysia (we moved here in 2024), and we’ve been travelling as a family to off-the-beaten track destinations ever since the boys were born.

Our ‘big’ trips include:

• living in India for a year
• trekking the Himalayas
• 101 days traversing Africa in a Land Rover
• a full summer of Bongo vanlife in France
• slow travelling and living in Morocco for 4 months
• 10 weeks backpacking Southeast Asia

But whilst we love off-the-beaten-track adventures, we also love European city breaks and occasionally treating ourselves to a bit of luxury (check out our review of Rixos Marina Abu Dhabi .

TraveLynn Family was established in 2016 and has grown to be one of the top family travel blogs in the UK, receiving over 85k page views per month to this website and with an engaged following of over 23k on Instagram.

Our style of travel

Travel for us isn’t a once-in-a-lifetime experience, nor have we sold up and hit the road fulltime, homeschooling our kids. In fact, our boys love their school, their friends and their clubs, and us parents need the childcare of school to be able to work. But travel is a huge part of our lives and we embrace the philosophy of worldschooling .

Since the boys were born, we have found ways to travel as much as possible; living overseas, saving funds and quitting jobs, deregistering our boys from UK school , creating remote work, and of course, learning the tricks and rewards of budget family travel … we’ve learned to be quite creative!

Do we homeschool when we travel? Oh no. Lockdowns sucked any ability we ever had to homeschool our kids. Online learning works brilliantly for us! You can read about our approach to online schooling here .

Our longer adventures allow us to embrace slow family travel . Rather than jumping from one place to another to cram as much as possible in, we are happy to spend weeks (and sometimes months) in the one country. This is a deeper travel, a more rewarding travel, where the natural daily routines of staying in the one place for a big chunk of time allows you to feel part of the local community. It’s also a much cheaper way to travel as you’re money goes further.

Learn more about us >>>

Our current travel plans

2023 was quite a year for travel, with our main adventure being the 10 weeks backpacking Southeast Asia (which included Thailand , Cambodia , Malaysia , Singapore ). For this, the boys were deregistered from school and Jay took unpaid parental leave .

Click here for our full roundup of travel in 2023.

And as for 2024? Well so far there have been trips to Essaouira, Morocco , and Bucharest, Romania . And in April we moved to Penang, Malaysia ! We’ve been granted digital nomad visas and found the boys a lovely school. We’re so excited about this new adventure!

Follow us on Instagram for regular updates of our travels.

OUR SOUTHEAST ASIA ITINERARY

Inspiration for how to travel as a family:

Online schooling for family travel

TIPS FOR BACKPACKING WITH KIDS

WHAT IS WORLDSCHOOLING?

packing light for family travel

HOW WE AFFORD TO TRAVEL

taking parental leave to travel

Latest from the blog:

Our favourite adventure family travel destinations:

BRITstralian ®

A podcast about BRITS in Australia by former UK radio newsreader turned podcaster, Anna Moran. Featured on GB News, This Morning, Capital FM, Australia Today with Steve Price, Podcast Radio and Podnews!

NUMBER 1 in the Apple Podcast Charts & almost 20,000 downloads!

BRITstralian® is popular in the charts both in Australia and the UK.

We have featured on  Podcast Radio  and gained coverage on  Podnews ,  GB News , as well as a chat with our host on   Australia Today  with  Steve Price .

The BRITstralian® community have made it LIVE onto the UK's popular daytime TV show,  This Morning  with  Holly Willoughby  and  Philip Schofield  and featured on  Capital Breakfast .

Our chart-topping podcast is almost exclusively listened to by British expats and Brits preparing to migrate down under.

GET IN TOUCH WITH US FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES! 

Are you a Brit living in Australia?

Or, are you looking to emigrate down under?

Join the FREE BRITstralian Community on  Facebook    and   Instagram  to take part in our fun online polls (featured on the podcasts).

The BRITstralian® podcast guests provide real life stories and experiences from Brits who have made Australia their home and an insight into life down under.

More than a million people who were born in the UK have chosen to live in this beautiful sunny climate down under. But no matter how far we have moved away from Blighty, we can’t help but miss the things we used to know and love.

Since you’ve found this website, you must be either a BRITstralian® yourself, or you’d like to make the big move from the UK.

If that’s you, you are welcome to join our  private community on Facebook  and follow us on  Instagram  where we start conversations through our polls and posts about the things we miss about home and the best bits about living in Oz.

Whether you’re looking for connection with your fellow  Brits in Australia ; information about what life is really like for expats down under, or simply to remind yourself of the reasons why you made this big move in the first place, we hope you'll find it with BRITstralian® .

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© 2023 BRITstralian. All rights reserved.

Managing Travel With Australia's Closed Borders

Like this Podcast? Share with a friend!

Jennie Bardsley is a travel agent from Dukinfield, Greater Manchester who came to Australia in 1992.

Within a year of arriving in Perth, Jennie set up her own travel agency called British Travel and is still in business today, almost thirty years later.

Prior to the COVID19 pandemic, Jennie’s main customers were Aussies booking overseas trips and coach tours throughout Europe.

However, since Australia closed its international borders in March 2020, she has become highly experienced in understanding the strict government exemption rules and organising flights on behalf of Brits who need to return to the UK.

Bullet points of key topics & time stamps: 

●  08:34 - each country you transit through and travel to have their own rules  

●  11:26 - Jennie talks about coping with the surge in demand and her alopecia caused by the stress  

●  15:44 - British Travel helped a man get back to the UK in time for the birth of his child 

●  17:52 - AU$15,000 for flights in August 2020   

●  21:18 - Jennie’s predictions for future travel restrictions  

List of resources mentioned in episode, suggested reading & social media handles:  

●  Updates to Australia's immigration and border arrangements during the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic.  

●  Australian government rules on leaving Australia  

● DFAT (Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade)  

Join the BRITstralian  Facebook community Follow BRITstralian on  Instagram  and our  Facebook Page

This Episodes Sponsors are:

Disclaimer:.

Sponsors are third-party organisations who pay BRITstralian® a fee to be mentioned on the podcast, which helps towards the costs of producing the podcast and associated services. BRITstralian® is not responsible for providing any goods or services advertised by our sponsors and holds no control over the goods or services they provide. BRITstralian® cannot be held liable for any loss resulting in your use of those services. Your relationships with our sponsors is yours directly.

The views and opinions shared by the guest(s) in this podcast are the views and personal experiences of the guest(s) and are not necessarily representative of the views or opinions of Britstralian and the host.

Production Music courtesy of MorningLightMusic .

Transcript − +

Anna (00:00)

 It's difficult enough at the best of times, being thousands of miles away from loved ones, when it can take more than 24 hours in the air to get back to where you come from. But since the Covid19 pandemic began, and Australia closed its borders to the rest of the world. Many Britstralians have faced difficulties getting back to the UK in even the most desperate of circumstances. 

And that's where our next guest comes in.

Jennie (01:06)

Hi, I'm Jennie from British travel. I've been a Britstralian since 1992. I've helped thousands of Brits in and out of Australia since the start of the pandemic last year.

Anna (01:17)

Jenny is the owner and director of British travel and has been so flat out with work since March last year that she's been doing 18-hour shifts, just to cope with the demand.

Jennie (01:28)

I want to help people. And I wanna get, you know, I want to be able to do it for people, to get them out and get them back. It's always been in my nature to do that. 

Okay, so I'm originally from Manchester in the UK a little place called Dukinfield. And I've been in Australia for nearly 30 years. I pretty much arrived over here when I was 22 with my boyfriend at the time and didn't know anybody didn't have any family or anywhere to go and just winged it from there really.

Anna (02:00) 

Wow. What made you come to Australia then? 

Jennie (02:02)

My boyfriend at the time had a brother who lived in Melbourne and he wanted to go and see his brother and I was working in travel in the UK at the time. So we went to Melbourne, went to Brisbane, went to Adelaide, went to Cairns, never came to Perth. But the weather looked like it was like Tenerife in Perth all year round and the house prices at the time were a lot cheaper, so we just thought that place looks great. 

Anna (02:28)

And what made you stay here? 

Jennie (02:31)

I just from the moment I got here, I loved it. I loved the weather, the people, just the laid backness. What's not to like? 

Anna (02:37)

Do you miss anything from home? 

Jennie (02:39)

Pudding, chips, peas and gravy. And not really anything else? Maybe Dandelion and Burdock pop, but. 

Anna (02:45)

Okay, so you've been running your own independent travel agency for nearly 30 years now. Is that right? Is it your It is my business? 

Jennie (02:52)

Yeah, it is my business yeah-. And I’ve had it-, it’s 27 years. So yeah, nearly-

Anna (02:55)

How did you set that up? How did that come about? 

Jennie (02:58)

From the beginning, I was working in a travel agency in the UK. And then we came over here on holiday. And then we decided to emigrate. So we came here and I got to a job with somebody who I knew. So I worked there for probably about six or seven months, and then Britannia Airlines started flying to Australia. And not many people wanted to touch Britannia airlines because they were cheap and cheerful and they'd not really heard of charter flights in Australia at the time. So after a while of bing told by my boss at the time that my desk was too messy because I had too many files on it and my coffee cup wasn't correct, in the right place. So in the end, I took a punt and erm, set up my own business. It was actually called UK Charter at the start, which was to do with the Britannia charter flights. And it just sort of progressed from that and then obviously, the charter flights stopped, so we did the name change to British Travel.

Anna (03:56)

That's really brave. That's a huge step.

Jennie (03:59)

Anna (04:00)

From reading your website, it sounds like your main business has been with Aussies who want to go to Europe.

Jennie (04:06)

Correct, yes. For the last 20-odd years, basically, we've been doing outbound flights from Australia to the UK. But the pandemic’s obviously changed all of that. Pre-pandemic, somebody would ring up and they would want a holiday and it would be all jolly, and they was going to their sister's wedding or they was going to the-, you know, the Greek islands for a cruise. So, in March when the borders started to close

Anna (04:29)

Jennie (04:30)

Last year. That's when it just turned into absolute chaos, or whatever you want to call it. Passengers who were overseas who just had to get back-.We got everybody back, near enough. There was a few people with visa issues and of course, all the airlines started canceling. So then we was just getting all the Irish and the English- 

Anna (04:53)

Wanting to go home- 

Jennie (04:52)

All the other mums and dads who were here on holiday who didn't live here. So it was absolute chaos. But yeah, we managed to get everybody out. So-

Anna (04:58)

Okay, so just to go back to that-, just for anyone listening. In March last year, Australia closed their international borders-

Jennie (04:03)

Correct. Yes. You couldn't get in or out. Yeah. Unless you were an Australian citizen or a permanent resident. But then if-, you couldn't leave Australia, unless you had a travel exemption- 

Anna (05:16

Can you just explain what do you mean by that? 

Jennie (05:19)

Okay, so Australia back in March was allowing anybody who was not a permanent resident or a citizen of Australia to leave. I.e. if your parents had come over here in Christmas for a holiday-. Anybody who wasn't a citizen, or a permanent resident was allowed to leave the country. But they then said that they didn't want anybody who was a citizen or a permanent resident to leave unless they had a compelling or compassionate reason. So a compelling a compassionate reason could be, for example, some people had sold their houses prior to the pandemic

Anna (05:57)

What-,  here, you mean?

Jennie (05:58)

Here in Australia.

Anna (05:59)

Jennie (05:59)

And they were already shipped their furniture and they were moving back. They had to apply for an exemption to leave. That would be a fairly straight-forward process because they could prove that they'd sold their house and that they were moving back. But then there was deaths, there was illnesses. There was a lady whose house burnt down. She had to go back. I had FIFO workers who normally live in the UK, but then they come and work for four months in Australia, and then they go back for maybe three weeks, and then they come back again. So there's all different reasons why people would need a travel exemption. And my first client-, his dad had died, and he needed to get back. And I just had to learn the system-, how it works, and how to get him on a flight and how to get an exemption. So it was just-, at the time it was quite difficult and everybody was being refused. But we managed to get him a flight. I spent a lot of time and effort and reading-, and reading policies and reading legislation. And then, you know, once people knew that we could advise them of the correct way of getting out, then the word spread. And, you know, we've been inundated.

Anna (07:14)

I've seen your name, Jenny Bardsley, on about a million Facebook posts where people are like, how do I get an exemption, or I need to get in, or I need to get out, or this has happened. “Contact Jennie”-

Jennie (07:26)

Ah, well, you know, I do have a team-, so you know, my staff work for me and they're fantastic. So they're all doing the exemptions and doing the flights and they're doing everything as well. So-

Anna (07:32)

How many of you are there, in total?

Jennie (07:36

So, erm-, at the start of the pandemic, there's four of us. We’re a small business, wo we've always been four of us. So now I've had to take a couple of staff on-, extra staff. We've sort of grown a little bit, especially in the last couple of weeks as well. So it's just been getting bigger and bigger. 

Anna (07:51)

Can you give us some examples of things that you're dealing with?

Jennie (07:54)

So, the first thing is that when people ring up, they don't know what to do, they don't know where to start. I've had car accidents where, you know, people's brothers have been killed in a car accident. I've had farming accidents, where, you know, erm-, somebody's dad was killed in a farming accident. This is all in the UK. So-, it's a unique situation for everybody. So it's not a case of give me A, give me B, give me C. Each individual request is different. Each individual request requires different paperwork. So there's no blanket rule for that, unfortunately. The next problem is not just putting you on a flight, because each country has its own COVID test requirement, each airline, each transit point. So it's not just as simple of getting a COVID test inside 72 hours, or inside-, you have to check each country what their rules are, and then make sure you abide by them. For example, Ireland, their COVID test is within 72 hours of landing. So if you take that back, if you're going for example, you know, Sydney-Singapore, Singapore-London, London to Dublin, then you can only have your COVID test the day before you leave Australia. So you have to be able to understand the rules. And then if you're transiting through Frankfurt, or if you're transiting through Paris,-, each, each place has got different rules. So I feel like a brain surgeon at the moment.

Anna (09:30)

Oh my goodness.

Jennie (09:31)

Constantly reading the rules and updating the staff with all the regulations. It's erm, it's never ending. 

Anna (09:37)

And do the-, does the information change, because I mean-

Jennie (09:40)

It changes daily.

Anna (09:41)

Jennie (09:41)

It changes hourly sometimes, in fact, so-. But yeah, it generally changes daily, so-, But it's not like they-, you can subscribe to somebody's website to get the changes. You actually have to read everything, you know, again-

Anna (09:53)

How do you know where to look? 

Jennie (09:56)

Erm, well, I've been doing it for a year now. So pretty much everything 

Anna (09:58)

You’re the expert!

Jennie (10:00)

Yeah, I know where to go to get everything, so-

Anna (10:03)

What are the flight prices like at the moment? Have they gone a bit crazy as well?

Jennie (10:07)

Yeah, I mean, it’s-, as we say, buy cheap buy twice. So what's been happening with a lot of people who've been saying that they've been bumped is they're buying cheap and not having a human travel agent as an intervention. Because you can go on the internet and you can search for flights, put your credit card in, it'll give you a ticket, but it's not giving you all the correct rules. And it's not also letting you know about the schedule. So-.

Anna (10:33)

So you’re calling these obviously cheap-, you said that these are cheaper flights, what would you class is cheaper? And what are the prices that people are paying? 

Jennie (10:38)

Anna (10:40)

What's it costing people to come home.

Jennie (10:41)

Currently, if you-, if you want you to fly from Perth-London, return, erm-, your starting price is about $3,500. 

Anna (10:51)

Okay. What's in pounds, roughly? 

Jennie (10:53)

About half. But that's going economy in both directions. You don't necessarily have to come back in business class, it is a little bit of a fallacy-, it does help if you do come back in business class. But, you know, 95% of our clients are flying in economy class, and we're getting them there and we're getting them back as well without being bumped.

Anna (11:16)

I bet your head spinning cause my head’s spinning even just listening to all this? 

Jennie (11:19)

Yeah, completely. So-

Anna (11:21)

How are you dealing with it? I mean, obviously, you say that you're working all hours.

Jennie (11:25)

I think my husband tried to put a message on Facebook and ask for me because I think he’d get more attention than what he would-. Erm, it's-. It's been hard. I mean, my hair fell out in probably about July, August with the stress. And that wasn't the stress of the repatriation flights, or the stress of getting people out of Australia. That was the stress of, you know, the media's perception on travel agents at the time about the, you know-. We'd done a lot, we’ve obviously booked everybody's holiday for them. But it's-, it's harder to unravel a booking than what it is to actually ‘do’ the booking because there's more components that are involved in it. And of course, you know, it wasn't just one travel agency trying to get a refund, it was every travel agency in the world, if their clients wanted a refund, and then the airline didn't have staff to-, to cope with it. So it was very stressful. So like I said, my hair fell out. I had alopecia for a few months. And yeah, it's been- 

Anna (12:24)

Stressful. 

Jennie (12:25)

It's been stressful. I've been working-. I've had-, I think I've had a three day break to Broome in 12 months and I've seriously not had one day off. Yeah, it's hard. It has been stressful. Like I said, I've taken on more staff, which has been good. But it's still on a personal level, you know, I've not spent that much time with my kids as much as what I should do, I've not spent that much time with my friends that, you know-, my family. It's been hard, you know, but-. Well, I've proven that I can keep my business going through the pandemic. And I’ve proved that I will be around after the pandemic, which I didn't know this back March 2020. And-.

Anna (13:00)

How often is your phone going off? Like how many calls do you get a day?

Jennie (13:05)

Oh, 5, 060 calls a day minimum. But that's-, that's the small bit. Most of it’s email. So all the Facebook messages. So-, the phones, I mean, obviously the phones go and the staff delegate the calls and ring people back. But yeah, you know, it starts off with an email, “Wonder if you can help”, and the emails are just like ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-.

Anna (13:25)

Yeah, wow. Can you tell me about some of the people that you've helped? 

Jennie (13:31)

There's a situation back in August and-, where they were already over in the UK. And then the very first reduction in the caps appeared where the government then said we were only allowing X amount of people back per week, which interpretated to about 20 people on a flight. So the numbers were extremely low. And a lot of the airlines had already been taking bookings. And they weren't pre aware of that. So, the longest that I've have ever had anybody bumped for is three weeks. And that was because the lady would only come back on a Friday, because it was a day her son could take out to the airport. But everybody else who was around-, when we did have a few bumped in August, I'd ring them up and I’d say okay, how far do you live from the airport? And they'd be like-. So I'd have like a grid and it'd be like, you know, Joan lives four hours away from the airport, how many people? Two. And Simon live two hours away from the airport. And then it'd be a case of if somebody didn't get on their flight in, say, for example, New York or Canada, then they would be an opportunity to ring them up. And so my sales reps-, the airline rep would ring me up, say we've got two seats. So I'd be saying to them, pack your bags, get your bags, I'm going to give you a call. I might call you like, in the middle of the night and everyone's like, “We don't care, we don't care”. So like, I'd ring them up and I’d so,  “Go! Go now! You've got like two hours to get to the airport”. So then they get to the airport, and then they get on a flight back. 

Anna (15:04)

Jennie (15:04)

Well, that was that was sort of-. It's not like that anymore, but it was completely like that. 

Anna (15:10)

Jennie (15:10)

But like I said, I had the backing of my airline reps, which is because I've been here so long, I pretty much know everybody in the industry. So they're pretty good. So, she’d just bring me up and say, “Yep, they're on. I can get them a flight”. So yeah, I’d just get them back. But yeah, it was erm-. It was stressful. I, I think for quite a few months, I think I had champagne being delivered and flowers being delivered every day, which is lovely. So people were appreciated, and I was appreciated that they was appreciated.

Anna (15:38)

Oh, that's so lovely. I'm sure they were, you've managed to really ge-, help them out.

Jennie (15:44)

One particular client, he had, his partner was having a baby in the UK. And he applied-, I believe it was 26 times himself for a travel exemption and he got refused. And then it ended up being on the ABC News. And I think a few other news channels picked up the story. And somehow or other, through Facebook, someone said, contact me. So he said, “Look, you’re my last chance”. And I said “Well why didn’t you come to me the first time?” 

Anyway, he got his exemption, he got back in time for his child to be born. And he sent me a picture of the baby, like the day it was born. And he was like, so that was quite lovely. Yeah. 

Anna (16:27)

So he made it!

Jennie (16:28)

He made it! He made it. But like I saw he was on channel Seven. Channel 9-, he was on-

Anna (16:34)

What were the reasons to say no to him to get back for his partner giving birth?

Jennie (16:37)

To be honest with you, I think the documentation that he was lodging was probably-, it needed a bit more information than what he was providing. In his defense, he was providing everything that he thought he needed. But from doing it from experience-

Anna (16:51)

Jennie (16:52)

We know what other bits of documentation-

Anna (16:53)

But what could they possibly need?

Jennie (16:55)

Erm-, they need-, in his instance, they needed confirmation of the pregnancy. So they had to get the hospital appointments to show the-, they needed to show their delivery date. Plus as well, at the time, UK was in lockdown. So it was very difficult for his partner to be able to go to her doctor, to get all of these letters, to go to the hospital. So it was quite-

Anna (17:18)

Jennie (17:19)

You know, so-. Then they were partners, but they had to prove that they were in a relationship as well, because there wasn't married. 

Anna (17:25)

Jennie (17:26)

So you know, proof that they've even been together. Proof it was even his-, his child. So-

Anna (17:30)

Jennie (17:32)

Yeah. So it went down to as nitty gritty as that. 

Anna (17:35)

Oh, wow. 

Jennie (17:36)

Yeah, that was-, that was good. So, you know, like I say-, it's every time the phone goes, You don't know what you're going to get.

Anna (17:43)

I've heard rumors that people are paying-, have been quoted, like 15 grand for flights.

Jennie (17:47)

Okay, so it all depends on the situation. So back in August, if they needed to get back then they possibly would be paying $15,000 for a one-way ticket back in business class. Because it was all that was available. But I mean, currently, I would sort of recommend my clients, if they were leaving Australia, to travel out economy, if that was their preferred form of travel, because not only do they have the airfare, they've got the quarantine expense once they get back, plus they’ve got all the-, the other $500 for all the extras that would be on top of it. But you know, if they need to come back in economy, we are pretty much advising them, probably between $3,500 and $5,000 in economy. But yeah, there has been instances where people have paid that. But it just depended on what their situation was. If they needed a flight that day, then yeah, they'd have to pay it.

Anna (18:44)

Oh wow. And have you had people that have needed to get back on the day?

Jennie (18:49)

I've got two different markets. So I've got the first market, which is the Australians that we're helping to get out. For example, Perth-Londo, return. And then the second market is that we are quite predominant now in the UK. This is-, hence why I'm sort of working till 2am most mornings because of the time difference. So we're bringing all the stranded back from the UK, back to Australia. So it's- there’s two sort of different levels of the business, if that makes sense. So most of the people that we're dealing with in the UK now, a year after the pandemic, are the ones that have sold their house, or they've been had had to wait to sell their house, but now they need to come back. So we’re basically booking one way tickets to come back to Australia-, 95% of them and booking in economy class-

Anna (19:38)

The people that are coming back, or wanting to come to Australia now, what kind of situations are they in?

Jennie (19:44)

They could have been an Australian doctor, who went over to do a two-year contract in the UK. It could be somebody who went to, you know-, got a scholarship for university for two years in the UK. These were all quite normal things pre-pandemic, you know, so-. They could have got a transfer from work-, they've been, you know, had a two year contract in the UK. And all these contracts are coming up and they need to get back. 

Anna (20:16)

Are you predominantly working with people coming to Perth, or going out of Perth?

Jennie (20:21)

No, the whole of Australia. So we do the whole of Australia, we don't deal-, we’re not Western Australian. The whole of Australia.

Anna (20:27)

Were you before? 

Jennie (20:28)

Previously, we were probably 60%, Western Australia 40%, you know, interstate. But now it's definitely-, I mean, I had a phone call this morning-, the lady rang about seven o'clock, but she's from Brisbane, and people don't realise the time difference, you know, so-, 

Anna (20:43)

Yeah, they’re ahead aren’t they? 

Jennie (20:45)

Yeah. Or you'll get somebody you know-, luckily it’s only like, you know, two hours at the moment for Sydney, where when it’s three hours you get a phone call at five o'clock in the morning. 

Anna (20:52)

Jennie (20:53)

So-. But no. It's the whole of Australia, so-

Anna (20:55)

So it's not true, then that if you leave, it's not going to be too difficult to get back in then? 

Jennie (21:00)

I can get you back.

Anna (21:03)

Do you see this-. Now the world is used to the situation as it is. It's not like back in March last year where it was just a complete shock to the system. Do you find that it's getting easier? Or is it just still as complicated every day?

Jennie (21:18)

It's getting more complicated. 

Anna (21:19)

Jennie (21:20)

Yeah. So in my opinion, I don't think everybody's be going to be seeing their family for Christmas. I really don't think it's going to happen. You know, thank God for FaceTime.

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Jenny Southan

Contributor.

Jenny Southan is the editor, founder and CEO of Globetrender, the UK's leading travel trend forecasting agency and online magazine dedicated to the future of travel. Jenny is also an experienced public speaker, a spokesperson for BBC Radio and an award-winning freelance travel journalist whose work has been featured in The Telegraph, Mr Porter and RoadBook.

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Hello, I'm Jenny, and I'm more than just a travel expert—I'm your key to unlocking the world's most incredible adventures. With over 25 years of experience in the travel industry, I've dedicated my life to crafting unforgettable journeys for my clients. Let me share with you why I'm the perfect choice to transform your travel dreams into reality.

My journey in the world of travel began over two decades ago, and I've been fortunate to accumulate a wealth of knowledge through my personal travels and active participation in the travel community. I attend events all over the UK and abroad, connecting with a wide range of travel suppliers to ensure that I stay at the forefront of the ever-evolving travel landscape.

I understand that every traveller is unique, and that's why I take a highly personalised approach to design your dream itinerary. Whether you're dreaming of a family getaway, a romantic honeymoon, an enchanting destination wedding, an adventurous cruise, an enlightening tour, a multi-centre exploration, or even a tailor-made package to attend your bucket-list sporting event abroad in style, I'm here to make it happen.

I have a deep love for sports, having dedicated 20 fantastic years to coaching young athletes at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre. I'm not just a travel expert; I'm a proud grandmother of four beautiful granddaughters, two of whom are talented rugby players, with one even representing our country. My upbringing was a global adventure in itself. I spent my childhood living in Jamaica in the 1950s, followed by stints in Ghana and Bahrain in the 1960s. This international exposure has given me a knack for uncovering hidden gems and unique experiences that enrich your journey with authenticity.

When you entrust your travel plans to me, you're not just booking a trip; you're embarking on a personalised adventure designed with care, knowledge, and passion. My goal is to ensure that every detail of your journey is crafted to perfection.

Your dream journey awaits, contact me today…

This is the first time that my husband and I have used Holidaysplease. I must say that Jenny Jackson was extremely helpful and professional. She has made booking our holiday so easy and has took all the stress out of it for us. I would highly recommend Jenny Jackson to anyone who wants to book a holiday stress free!

I booked our summer holiday at Sani through Jenny Jackson. She was a pleasure to deal with - very knowledgeable, went out of her way to find us the best deal and importantly, a very nice person!

Jenny Jackson was amazing she helped us on our first visit to Maldives. She had so much knowledge and information for us to help us decide. You & Me in the Maldives was amazing like she said, our flights were all good times. Jenny was very attentive and happy to answer my calls and messages when I had a question always got back to me.

You really are treated exceptionally well throughout the entire process. I give my thanks to Jenny Jackson for ticking every box and making sure our holiday was tailored to exactly what we required. Couldn’t recommend her more.

An exceptional service from Jenny Jackson from start to finish. I am new to active holidays as a solo traveller, so Jenny's help to find me the most appropriate option at an affordable price as a late booking was a big challenge. She achieved the task with ease. Truly appreciate being served by a knowledgeable agent. Looking forward to those yoga classes - Thank you.

We were recommended by a friend to use Jenny Jackson and were blown away by the level of service provided. Just returned from a fantastic Holiday to the Maldives, looking to book again next year!

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I'm a specialist., i am accredited., i am well connected., i am transparent., my specialities, weddings & honeymoons.

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Interview with Jenny – a British expat living in Oman

For more information on Muscat, access the Expat Arrivals Oman Guide .

About Jenny

Q: Where are you originally from? 

A: I am from the UK. We were living in Edinburgh just before we moved.

Q: Where are you living now?

A: Muscat, Madinat Al Llam on a compound with 12 white-washed villas built in traditional Arabic style. There is a swimming pool and a well-kept garden with tropical flowers.

Q: How long you have you lived here? 

A: Since January 2011 – one year at the time of writing.

Q: Did you move with a spouse/children? 

A: We moved as a family: spouse, 13-year-old son, 19-year-old daughter and six-week-old granddaughter. 

Q: Why did you move; what do you do? 

A: My husband was offered a job as director of customer affairs for Authority of Electricity Regulation in Oman. It seemed a wonderful opportunity at the time when any employment in the UK seemed tenuous. Just after he was made the job offer, they shut the Edinburgh office.

About Muscat, Oman

Q: What do you enjoy most about Muscat, how’s the quality of life in Oman? 

A: If you can imagine Los Angeles with a Middle Eastern twist – that’s Muscat. It is a city with beautiful beaches, palm trees and fresh sea air. There is lots of atmosphere: the haunting call for prayer; the skyline of minarets and domes, the traditional Omani national costume. Everything is beautifully clean and there is lot of greenery.

The quality of life is very relaxed and laid back. It is a quiet city.  

Q: Any negatives? What do you miss most about home? 

A: The downside is it can be too quiet, too unadventurous. All the shopping malls tend to have the same shops – Next, Carrefour, Muscat Pharmacy. All the hotels do the same things. You get the urge to get away, which luckily is quite easy with Dubai within driving distance.  

Q: Is Oman safe?

A: Yes. From a crime perspective it is totally safe. Expats and locals walk everywhere even at night. As anywhere in the world, you should be careful of valuables, but that is more as a precaution. The main risk is from road accidents. 

About living in Oman

Q: Which are the best places/suburbs to live in Muscat as an expat?

A: It depends what you want. Each area has its advantages and disadvantages. You really need to explore for yourself. Unlike some parts of the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia, expats can live anywhere. We live in Madinat Al Llam, which is close to all facilities and the schools. While we are by no means social butterflies, we do like to go out to lots of different places so it suits us. Lots of people swear by The Wave, which is a huge out-of-town, up-market development by the sea. But there are plenty of others.

Q: How do you rate the standard of accommodation in Oman?

A: Good. There is a range of villas and apartments which should suit every pocket. Like everywhere, landlords can be neglectful of their maintenance responsibilities, so try to get a good one.

Q: What’s the cost of living in Oman compared to home? What is cheap or expensive in particular?

A: Petrol is cheaper than water. In fact it is so much cheaper than the UK I take visitors to the local garage as a tourist attraction. Labour is cheap too, so lots of things unaffordable in the UK – maids, drivers, tailor-made clothes, fitted curtains – become possible. Fresh fruit and vegetables are also on sale for a phenomenally good value. We found our grocery bill halved. However, we enjoy cooking, and we eat local produce. If you love branded goods, such as Heinz tomato-ketchup, expect to pay for it. Ham, pork etc. Can be bought at particular shop, and is very highly-priced.

The chief expense is entertainment. If you enjoy an alcoholic drink when you go out you are restricted to a few hotels and restaurants, which can be very expensive (and repetitive). Tour guides are excessively expensive. Another major cost (to those used to free medical care) is health. The actual prices are not bad value compared with the international medical market but even with insurance, you still seem to have to dig deep. 

Q: What are the locals like; do you mix mainly with other expats?

A: The locals are very friendly and willing to mix, which is unusual in an Arabic country. My son in particular has been to an Omani farm, and has been invited to Ramadan feasts. Nevertheless, perhaps because of the cultural and religious divide expats mix mainly with other expats. This includes me, but over time I would like to change it. 

Q: Was it easy meeting people and making friends?

A: Meeting people is fairly easy. The Women’s Guild of Oman and American Women’s Group both offer opportunities for women to meet new people. However, there is not a thriving social scene of parties, like in some overseas postings. You need to be proactive. 

Family and children in Oman

Q: Did your spouse or partner have problems adjusting to their new home?

A: I had the most difficulty adjusting. It was largely the loss of my friends and family plus hours of free time. There are women’s clubs, but it doesn’t replace friends.

Q: Did your children settle in easily?

A: Yes. The boy settled in very quickly and happily. 

Q: What are the schools in Oman like, any particular suggestions?

A: There are plenty to choose from. My son is at the British School, Muscat. It follows the English curriculum (GCSEs, A-levels) and has a friendly atmosphere. The American British Academy takes the International Baccalaureate. The American International School (Taism) follows an American curriculum. They all have good facilities – Taism has the best. There are other good international schools, but I know very little about them.

Q: How would you rate the healthcare in Oman?

A: I have used it extensively and found it very good. English-speaking staff, short waiting times (I can never get over how quickly I am seen), comfortable facilities. Expats can only use private facilities, except in an emergency. Medident is a good GP surgery. Kathy, the nurse, is a whiz at baby vaccinations. Muscat Private Hospital is for diagnostic and surgery. All the doctors seem to be well-trained. When my daughter had her wisdom teeth out, her private room had great facilities and the food was tasty too.

And finally…

Q: Is there any other advice you like to offer new expat arrivals?

A: RELAX. It’s Oman. 

~ interviewed January 2012

Further reading

►Check out Expat Experiences in Oman for more personal expat stories

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Jennie is a travel bag with a difference, you have a pocket on the back that slips over the handles of your suitcase, so your bag fits easily on top of your suitcase.

The pocket will fit over suitcase handles 18cm wide - standard suitcase handles

Inside the bag you have pockets that come with their own accessory bags, there are clips for your keys, insulated bottle holders, and phone & pen pockets. Our pockets are big enough for iPad, Kindles and Tablets.

You can choose your bag in the Faux-Leather or LITE Fabric, please see our video for the difference between the two fabrics.

Included with the Jennie:

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Size: W40cm, H28cm & D15cm

Weight: 1.3kg for Bag / 850g LITE Bag : 350g for Accessory Bags & Strap  

(width is taken from the base of the bag and the height is taken from the base to the zip not including the gusset) The bag will always look bigger when empty and lying flat

Material -  Ultra Soft Faux Vegan Leather -   Interior:  Polyester Nylon in LITE Collection -   Interior:  Polyester

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All you need to know about Escape to the Country star Ginny Buckley

The presenter joined the bbc show in 2015.

Whether there are brand news episodes or we're watching it on catch-up, we never tire of watching the lovely series of  Escape to the Country .  One of the stars of the show, Ginny Buckley , has become a regular face since joining the BBC show.

MORE:  Escape to the Country's Jules Hudson makes rare comment on family life

But what else is there to know about the presenter? We did some investigating and here's all the info you need...

WATCH: Escape to the Country with Kate Humble trailer

Ginny Buckley: bio

Ginny is a TV and radio presenter, writer, actress and broadcaster. After moving to Australia from Rochdale aged 18, she went on to begin her career working in commercial radio stations and as a junior in various newsrooms.

A few years later, Ginny returned to home turf and landed a job working on children's BBC TV Children's gameshow The Wetter The Better. 

MORE:  Escape to the Country's Alistair Appleton reveals he 'felt like a fraud' on show

READ:  Escape to the Country presenters' children: Jules Hudson, Jonnie Irwin, Ginny Buckley and more

Ginny is a TV and radio presenter

Ginny Buckley: career

Since then, Ginny's career has been non-stop. The journalist, now aged 51, went on to work on other different shows such as ITV's Granada Tonight and Taste for Travel . Clearly enjoying the lifestyle aspect of presenting, in 2005 she then began working on BBC one-off programme Holiday, before being replaced by Lawrence Llewelyn-Bowen.

After briefly returning to news reporting at Sky, Ginny then started presenting other flagship shows such as Crimewatch , ITV's Tonight and Watchdog.

Ginny joined the show in 2015

Ginny Buckley: Escape to the Country

The TV star joined the BBC programme in 2015 alongside the likes of Nicki Chapman, Jonnie Irwin and Sonali Shah. Ginny still presents the show to this day, and often posts filming updates and location pictures with her followers on social media.

Ginny Buckley: family

Ginny is clearly protective of her private life, and it's not known whether the presenter is married or in a relationship. However, Ginny is a mother-of-one to Zak. The TV star posted an adorable photo of her son on Instagram back in August 2020 celebrating his 11th birthday.

Ginny with her son, Zak

The 51-year-old wrote: "11 years ago today this amazing boy said hello to the world. He hasn't stopped making me smile since. He's growing up way too quickly, but on the plus side I can now borrow his cool trainers! Build a ladder to the stars my love. I'm so proud to be your Mama."

She is also a proud auntie to nephew Maxie, and recently opened up about missing him during the pandemic as he resides in Australia. Posting a photo of herself with Maxie, she wrote: "Happy Australia Day to all my Aussie friends and family. Especially my gorgeous nephew #MaxieBK who we miss so much. Zak and I can’t wait to be back in our second home and give you a huge cuddle. Take care Australia, we miss you." 

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British tourists issued urgent 'do not travel warning' to 24 countries - full list

The government has advised against travelling to these 24 countries and warns travel insurance could be invalidated..

The Foreign Office has warned British travellers to avoid these 24 countries amid political uprisings, high crime rates and dangerous demonstrations.

The government have updated their list to include eight more countries deemed "too dangerous" for Brits this year.

They have also warned that anyone choosing to travel to these countries may invalidate their travel insurance, with support from the government "severely limited".

The Foreign Office (FCDO) advises against all but essential travel to places including Afghanistan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Israel , Lebanon, Libya, Mali, and Niger.

Here is the full list of 24 countries to avoid - and advice for those thinking about travelling to them.

The FCDO advises against all travel to the whole of the Yemen due to the unpredictable security conditions.

The government website tells Brits: "If you’re in Yemen, you should leave immediately."

Support for British people is severely limited in Yemen. British Embassy services in Sana’a are suspended, and all diplomatic and consular staff have been withdrawn. 

The UK government cannot help British nationals leaving Yemen. There are no evacuation procedures in place. 

FCDO  cannot offer advice on the safety of travelling to any potential departure point. The UK government’s ability to help with onward travel is severely limited and you’ll be expected to cover the cost of visas, accommodation, insurance and onward travel yourself. 

If you choose to remain in Yemen, you should minimise movement around the country and within cities and towns, monitor developments in the local security situation and follow other precautions in this travel advice.

23. Venezuela

The FCDO advises against all travel to within 80km (50 miles) of the border with Colombia. Drug traffickers and illegal armed groups are active along the border area with Colombia and there is a risk of criminal kidnapping.

It also advises against all travel to Zulia State, which has prolonged power cuts, water shortages, violence and local conflict.

The FCDO  advises against all travel to within 40km (25 miles) of the border with Brazil. Drug traffickers and illegal armed groups are active along the border area with Brazil and there is a risk of criminal kidnapping.

It also advises against all but essential travel to the remaining areas of Venezuela, due to ongoing crime and instability.

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22. Ukraine

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is ongoing, with missile and drone attacks across the country. Russian missile and drone strikes have caused significant damage to civilian infrastructure, including residential areas, energy and industrial facilities, injuring and killing civilians.  Ukraine’s airspace remains closed.

There is an ongoing risk of harm to British nationals from Russian attacks across all of Ukraine, including from missiles and drones that hit unintended targets or from falling debris. Whilst these are more frequent where  FCDO  advises against all travel, they could also happen in the western regions, where  FCDO  advice is against all but essential travel.

FCDO advises against all travel to Syria due to the ongoing conflict and unpredictable security conditions.

If you are a British national in Syria, leave the country by any practical means.

There is no UK government support available in Syria, as all British Embassy services in Damascus are suspended. If you need help, call the  FCDO  in London on 44 (0)20 7008 5000.

FCDO advises against all travel to Sudan because of the ongoing military conflict in Khartoum and other parts of the country.  

There have been several ceasefires, but these have been regularly broken.  

Khartoum International Airport is closed. The only functional civilian airport operating international flights is Port Sudan Airport. 

The British Embassy in Khartoum is closed due to the conflict. There are no British consular staff in Sudan. Our ability to provide consular support is severely limited and we cannot provide in-person support inside Sudan. 

If you’re a British national in Sudan, you can call the 24/7 telephone helpline: 44 1908 516 666. Select option 2 for consular services for British nationals. 

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Taylor Swift Draws Five Times as Many US Luxury Travelers as the Olympics

(Bloomberg) -- Paris authorities have spent years readying for the almost  2 million international visitors expected for the 2024 Summer Olympics, but they may have overlooked a far bigger phenomenon now coming to the city: Taylor Swift.

This week the billionaire  superstar is playing four shows at La Défense Arena, just outside the capital, kicking off the European leg of her “Eras Tour.” With a total seating capacity of 40,000 per show, the music event is a small fraction of the size of the Olympic Games. And yet the concerts are drawing five times as many Americans as the Paris Olympics, according to figures from New York-based luxury travel agency Embark Beyond . For both events, trips would normally be booked many months in advance.

“I never would have anticipated it,” says Embark co-founder Jack Ezon. “Look at what Taylor did to the Super Bowl . She’s even overshadowing the Olympics.”

Read More:  Marriott Offers Taylor Swift Concert Trips for 500,000 Points

By that, of course, Ezon is referring to Swift’s ability to broaden football viewership simply by supporting her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, at several games. According to former Paramount Global Chief Executive Officer Bob Bakish, her attendance was considered one of the factors that made this year’s Super Bowl  the most watched broadcast in US history. 

Now, Swift fever is reaching Europe, where many cities—including Paris—maintain limitations on ticket resales, preventing prices from reaching the five-digit sums that some consumers have paid in US markets. 

Ezon says that among the more than 200 Paris trips his company has planned for Swifties, the average length is three nights, with clients usually staying at luxury hotels like the Plaza Athénée, the Hôtel de Crillon and Le Bristol. Around a third of the groups are mother-daughter pairs who want to schedule shopping sprees around the concerts. Some 20% of clients are also planning larger European trips to follow the shows, adding destinations such as London or the south of France.

Read More:  Taylor Swift Vaults Into Billionaire Ranks With Blockbuster ‘Eras Tour’

The appetite for the blockbuster tour comes amid lower-than-expected demand for the Olympic Games, with many high-end vacation rentals slashing prices for the summer as owners come to terms with the overblown hype. Hotel prices, similarly, have dipped more than 30% in the past six months, according to data from travel insights company Lighthouse.

Olympics bookings could still pick up as the July 26 opening ceremony approaches, especially given the recent price drops. The pace of inquiries and bookings has increased 8% following a 14% decline in April, Ezon notes.

As for the Taylor effect in Paris—it should come as no surprise. Swift’s tour has given a boost to many economies, including  Australia ’s and Singapore ’s. In 2023 the first round of her US concerts contributed $4.3 billion to the country’s gross domestic product, according to estimates from Bloomberg Economics.

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©2024 Bloomberg L.P.

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Travel chaos at Heathrow and major UK airports over Border Force issue

Thousands of passengers were stranded at Britain’s busiest airports on Tuesday night as the e-gate system failed.

Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester airports were thrown into chaos as the technology suffered a nationwide fault, leaving passengers facing queues of two hours as they returned from extended Bank holiday breaks.

It is the second time the e-gates have failed in two weeks, raising questions over the reliability of the system which is designed to speed up passengers through passport checks.

There was no evidence to link the border chaos to a cyber attack, but it came just a day after the armed forces payroll system was hacked by a suspected “state actor”.

The gates are understood to have failed at 8pm on Tuesday night just as thousands of passengers landed on early evening planes.

A Home Office spokesman said the e-gates were restored four hours later, shortly after midnight.

“As soon as engineers detected a wider system network issue at 7.44pm last night, a large scale contingency response was activated within six minutes,” the spokesman said.

“At no point was border security compromised and there is no indication of malicious cyber activity.

“We apologise to travellers caught up in disruption and thank our partners, including airlines for their co-operation and support.” 

The main Border Force security database - called “Border Crossing” which was introduced just under three years ago at a cost of £372 million – appeared to have suffered a complete shutdown.

Thousands of arrivals at Heathrow, the UK’s busiest airport, were delayed, with passengers waiting in queues for up to two hours. There were also long delays at Stansted, Manchester and Edinburgh airports, and delays of 90 minutes were reported at Gatwick.

Passenger Nathan Lane posted on X: “The entire Egate immigration system at Heathrow Airport is down at all terminals. Now all the systems at the desks are too. Brits and foreigners alike. Nobody is getting through. This is management yelling updates at everyone.”

Richard Gaisford posted on the social media site: “E-gates down at LHR T3, and seemingly across Heathrow Airport. Border Force suggests to passengers it might be a nationwide outage.”

Justin Bronk, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London, who was among those queuing at Heathrow, said: “You see how high-capacity the system normally is by how rapidly things turn to chaos when it breaks; plane after plane of people pouring in and backing up in the corridor.”

There were indications that planes may have been delayed and stacked up in the air to prevent increasing the pressure on queues of passengers waiting to have their documents manually processed by Border Force officers.

Dominic Baliszewski, co-founder of a PR company, said: “Apparently Heathrow isn’t letting planes land and doesn’t have a real plan. E-gates down and they’re processing everyone manually through one gate. This is only a small portion of the queue. Almost no staff on hand.”

At Bournemouth airport, Border Force staff were reported to have resorted to laptops to process passports. Richard Heading, a passenger, reported on X: “All systems are down and they are using laptops to check passports. There are moderate delays.”

A spokesman for Heathrow airport said: “Border Force is currently experiencing a nationwide issue which is impacting passengers being processed through the border.

“Our teams are supporting [them] with their contingency plans to help resolve the problem as quickly as possible and are on hand to provide passenger welfare. We apologise for any impact this is having to passenger journeys.”

There are more than 270 e-gates in place at 15 airports and train stations in the UK that were all understood to have failed. The cause of the issue was unclear. The Home Office apologised last month following the failure on April 25, which it blamed on a “technical issue”.

E-gates usually process the vast majority of passengers, including children aged ten and over, arriving in the UK. They were originally restricted to British and EU arrivals.

However, their use has been extended over the years to include arrivals from Australia, Canada, Iceland, Japan, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland and the US.

E-gates have repeatedly failed

The e-gates have failed on a number of occasions in the past three years. The whole system collapsed at the start of the late May bank holiday weekend in 2023 because of a failed system upgrade, resulting in four-hour queues at airports. In 2021 technical issues caused the gates to fail three times in two months.

An aviation source said: “It is underinvestment again - the system falls over at peak periods. The last major outage like this was the same weekend last year - the Coronation weekend.”

The apparent collapse of the system will raise questions over Border Force’s ambition to create an “intelligent border” with new e-gates capable of allowing arrivals into the country using only advanced facial recognition.

Phil Douglas, the director-general of Border Force, said that the plans have been designed to bring Britain’s border up to a gold standard that has been developed overseas.

Trials of the new technology are expected to begin at airports later this year before the launch of a full procurement process for new gates.

It comes amid growing concerns in the UK Government about the prospect for chaos at the border over French plans to scan fingerprints at the EU border.

Lord Cameron, James Cleverly and Mark Harper have all recently raised concerns about the potential impact of the new Entry/Exit System (EES), with French ministers.

Rishi Sunak was due to bring up the practical impact of the changes, which start in October, with Emmanuel Macron on a call last month but other issues dominated instead.

From Oct 6, people travelling into the EU will have to scan their fingerprints and be photographed at border checks instead of simply presenting their passport.

Live Reporting

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Heathrow statement

“Border Force is currently experiencing a nationwide issue which is impacting passengers being processed through the Border. “Our teams are supporting Border Force with their contingency plans to help resolve the problem as quickly as possible and are on hand to provide passenger welfare. “We apologise for any impact this is having to passenger journeys.”

No relief as travellers face long queues

Long queues continue to build, including at Heathrow, with one traveller describing border officials rushing to manually process passport holders.

“All the e-gates were totally blank and there was just a lot of chaotic scenes,” said Sam Morter, 32, who was returning to London’s Heathrow from a holiday in Sri Lanka.

He told PA: “There was a lot of Border Force officials running and scrambling around. Four or five went to man the posts and start processing the UK passports manually.

“But at the same time, hundreds of passengers started to flood into passport control, so it all of a sudden became chaotic and they couldn’t cope with the number of the people coming in.

“We weren’t given any information. There was no information on the Tannoys or from staff.”

He made it through the airport after around 90 minutes.

Videos posted on X showed long queues of passengers at passport desks.

E-gates appear to be reopening

E-gates are beginning to reopen at some airports, but long queues remain. 

Paul Curievici, from Haslemere in Surrey, landed at Gatwick Airport at around 7.30pm on a flight from Lyon and waited in line for almost an hour at passport control.

The 41-year-old said: “(I was) a little bit resigned at what initially looked like another British infrastructure failing, and (I had) quite a lot of sympathy for the poor buggers furrowing their brows and trying not to look embarrassed.”

Mr Curievici said the e-gates at Gatwick had since reopened but that fast-track passengers continued to be prioritised, which he found “pretty galling”.

He continued: “There was an awkward moment - half of us had been funnelled into the ‘all passports’ queue.

“When the system came back online they reopened almost all the UK/EU gates without opening any for us - I actually raised it with a member of staff and they finally opened one.”

Outage comes a day after MoD hack

The outage comes just a day after news emerged of a hack on the Ministry of Defence, which has been blamed by sources on China. It is unclear if the e-gate crash was caused by a hack. 

‘The system falls over at peak periods’

An aviation source told the Telegraph: “It is underinvestment again - the system falls over at peak periods. The last major outage like this was the same weekend last year, the Coronation weekend.”

Pictured: Long queues at Gatwick

Issues come after recent strikes

The disruption comes after Border Force workers staged a four-day strike at Heathrow in a dispute over working conditions last week.

The union said the workers were protesting against plans to introduce new rosters they claim will see around 250 of them forced out of their jobs at passport control.

‘Lots of children and no water’

Seems to be a UK nationwide airport system crash. No e gates working. This is the current queue in Gatwick airport with lots of children and no water #welcometotheuk pic.twitter.com/ckT21gJYXx — Rosie (@rxsiebo) May 7, 2024

‘Some passengers may experience longer than normal waits’

Edinburgh Airport statement: “Border Force is experiencing a nationwide technical outage affecting UK airports.

“Although not in a peak arrivals period, some passengers may experience longer than normal waits at the border while UKBF works to fix the issue. Thank you for your patience.”

Stansted Airport statement

“We are aware of an issue with UK Border Force’s systems across the country, affecting all UK airports. “Our operational and customer service colleagues are supporting passengers while UK Border Force and the Home Office fix the issue.”

‘No communication on timeframe’

Pictured: manchester airport.

E-gates closed at Edinburgh

Passengers reporting chaos on social media

All systems down and thousands in queues across all terminals @HeathrowAirport . No plan in sight either. Water bottles are being handed out, never a good sign. Photo courtesy of my husband in Terminal 5. @SkyNews @BBCNews pic.twitter.com/j8QDl7M0mk — Molly Rosedale (@MRosedale) May 7, 2024

@HeathrowAirport all terminals affected by an IT glitch and no one is being processed through the UK border 🥲 left waiting an undetermined amount of time to enter the UK. This is Terminal 5 arrivals. 😬 pic.twitter.com/rIQ19qLicF — Megan Henderson (@mhenderson24) May 7, 2024

Manchester Airport statement

“We are aware of an issue with UK Border Force’s systems across the country, affecting a significant number of airports. “Our Resilience Team and customer services colleagues are supporting passengers while UK Border Force and the Home Office fix the issue.”

Ryanair statement

“Please be advised that the Electronic Passport gates are temporarily unavailable at all UK Airports.  “You may experience extended queue times at passport control in airports in the United Kingdom as a result of this outage.”

Gatwick statement

“Some passengers may experience delays at immigration due to a nationwide issue with UK Border Force e-gates. “Our staff are working with UK Border Force - who operate passport control including the e-gates - to provide assistance to passengers where necessary.”

Long queues

E-gates down at LHR T3, and seemingly across @HeathrowAirport . Border Force suggests to passengers it might be a nationwide outage. pic.twitter.com/XzAJcyoI95 — Richard Gaisford (@richardgaisford) May 7, 2024

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Travel chaos at airports across UK - as London and Manchester confirm nationwide border issue

Both Stansted and Gatwick airports said the issue was related to e-gates at passport control.

By Claire Gilbody Dickerson, news reporter

Tuesday 7 May 2024 23:08, UK

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Chaos has been reported at airports across the UK - as several airports have confirmed a nationwide border issue.

A Heathrow spokesperson said: "Border Force is currently experiencing a nationwide issue which is impacting passengers being processed through the border.

"Our teams are supporting Border Force with their contingency plans to help resolve the problem as quickly as possible and are on hand to provide passenger welfare. We apologise for any impact this is having to passenger journeys."

UK airports confirmed to be affected by Border Force issue

London Heathrow

London Gatwick

London Stansted

Southampton

Follow latest: 'Queues only getting bigger' after London and Manchester a irports confirm nationwide issue

Manchester Airport also confirmed that the UK Border System is down as part of a nationwide outage.

Bristol Airport said on X it had also been affected by the issue as it warned passengers that "e-gates are not available and wait times may be longer than normal".

A spokesperson for AGS Airports which operates Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton airports has told Sky News they are impacted by the nationwide outage of the UK Border system.

The flights schedule means they are not currently affected by any queues, but Glasgow airport is due to have international arrivals later this evening.

The spokesperson said that if the situation continues they would expect passengers to be affected at Glasgow airport but contingency plans are in place and extra staff will be on hand to assist passengers.

A London Gatwick spokesperson said: "Some passengers may experience delays at immigration due to a nationwide issue with UK Border Force e-gates.

"Our staff are working with UK Border Force - who operate passport control including the e-gates - to provide assistance to passengers where necessary."

It said its teams are working to assist passengers in the airport.

Seems to be a UK nationwide airport system crash. No e gates working. This is the current queue in Gatwick airport with lots of children and no water #welcometotheuk pic.twitter.com/ckT21gJYXx — Rosie (@rxsiebo) May 7, 2024

A passenger at Gatwick Airport posted a video of the queues, saying on X that there were "lots of children and no water".

At Gatwick airport, the queue is over an hour long, with people being given no information on how long it may take for them to get through passport control, Sky News understands, while getting people on trains into London has also become an issue.

One passenger at Heathrow Airport said they had already been in the queue for an hour and it was "only getting bigger".

They added there had been "no communication" on how long it may take to resolve the issue.

Sky News correspondent Sadiya Chowdhury, reporting from Heathrow Airport, said one passenger had been in a queue for about three hours.

Last year, at the end of May, there were similar problems with e-gates and it took a day to resolve the issue as human officers had to check people's passports while the automated machines were out of service.

The country's air traffic system also suffered issues in August 2023 when a technical problem disrupted the National Air Traffic Service for several hours.

Long queues at Heathrow airport where passengers are being held at arrivals for a system failure. Been here already 1hour and the queue is only getting bigger. No communication given to anyone on what is the timeframe to sort this out. #welcomeback #heathrow #london #england pic.twitter.com/1BR71tetJh — A N D Y (@A_N_D_Y_3) May 7, 2024

Stansted Airport said on X: "UK Border Force is experiencing nationwide issues affecting e-gates at a number of airports, including London Stansted."

They said in a statement to Sky News: "Our operational and customer service colleagues are supporting passengers while UK Border Force and the Home Office fix the issue."

Edinburgh Airport said: "Border Force is experiencing a nationwide technical outage affecting UK airports.

"Although not in a peak arrivals period, some passengers may experience longer than normal waits at the Border while UKBF works to fix the issue." It added: "Thank you for your patience."

A Home Office spokesperson said: "We are aware of a technical issue affecting e-gates across the country.

"We are working closely with Border Force and affected airports to resolve the issue as soon as possible and apologise to all passengers for the inconvenience caused."

The disruption comes after Border Force workers staged a four-day strike at Heathrow in a dispute over working conditions last week.

The union said the workers were protesting against plans to introduce new rosters they claim will see around 250 of them forced out of their jobs at passport control.

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JetBlue to Cut Routes Across the U.S., U.K. in Major Change-up

The changes will take place in October.

JetBlue is making major changes to its network for this summer and fall following the U.S. government’s breakup of its planned merger with Spirit Airlines earlier this year. 

Travelers in the New York, Boston, and Los Angeles area will be most affected, with a handful of route cuts and reduced transatlantic service to Europe during the winter months. However, there will also be a boost in service on JetBlue’s popular lie-flat business class cabin, Mint, to hot spots like Phoenix and Vancouver (along with new San Juan and Caribbean flights ).

Route Cuts and Reductions

While JetBlue only started flying to Europe in recent years JetBlue will slightly scale back its transatlantic operation during the slower winter season this year. It’s not unusual for major U.S. airlines to deploy their aircraft more efficiently during this time period (more on that below).   Starting Oct. 27, JetBlue will cut Boston (BOS) and JFK service to London-Gatwick (LGW) and reduce service between JFK and Paris (CDG) to once daily, from twice daily. The airline will continue to fly daily to London-Heathrow (LHR) from both JFK and BOS. JetBlue also intends to bring back these flights later in 2025 when the warmer months return—and along with it, the crowds to Europe.  The New York City-based airline will cut service on select North American routes entirely starting on Oct. 27 — with the hardest hit being New York LaGuardia (LGA) — including:

• LGA to Atlanta (ATL)
• LGA to New Orleans (MSY)
• LGA to Nassau, Bahamas (NAS) 
• LGA to Fort Myers (RSW)
• Los Angeles (LAX) to Orlando (MCO)
• Los Angeles (LAX) to Newark (EWR)
• JFK to Puerto Vallarta (PVR)

More Lie-Flat Seats in the Americas 

JetBlue’s much-beloved premium Mint cabin , which is only found on select JetBlue aircraft, will make its debut on several routes. That includes a once-daily service beginning in July between JFK and Vancouver (YVR); and JFK and San Juan (SJU). Starting in late October, travel to Phoenix (PHX) will be getting a major upgrade with the airport’s only dedicated lie-flat business class service domestically. JetBlue will launch Mint seasonal flights from PHX to Fort Lauderdale (FLL), JFK, and BOS. In addition, Mint-equipped planes will also operate between FLL and Las Vegas (LAS). All of these new Mint flights mean more opportunities to travel in style within North America. 

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Jenny Powell

Jenny Powell is an experienced presenter and events host, whose career has spanned 3 decades.

Jenny began her career presenting cult music programme ‘No Limits’ for BBC2.  In the 1990s Jenny became the hostess on ITV’s ‘Wheel of Fortune and appeared on the Channel 4 mockumentary ‘Brass Eye’.

Contact Great British Speakers today to book TV personality and award event host Jenny Powell for your next event.

Type of talent.

More About Jenny Powell

She then went on to present for Disney, on various Saturday Morning TV Shows.  Jenny presented features on ITV’s ‘Daybreak’ and ‘Jenny Powell’s Luxury Uncovered’ for the Travel Channel.

Jenny also fronted the ‘Food and Wine Adventures’ series for the Travel Channel and has been a regular on ITV’s popular show Loose Women.  She has also competed in reality shows, such as ‘Celebrity Wrestling’, ‘Celebrity Come Dine With Me’ and ‘Celebrity Masterchef”.

Not only is Jenny an experienced presenter, but she is also a keen dancer – As a teenager, she attended the famous Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, where she fuelled her passion and talent for dancing and the performing arts.

Call +44 1753 439 289 or email  Great British Speakers now to book TV Presenter & Awards Host Jenny Powell for your next live event or corporate video.   Contact us .

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75-year-old 'mastermind' of a 2005 armed robbery that killed a UK police officer sentenced to life

A 75-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a British police officer who was shot dead during an armed robbery of a travel agency in northern England nearly two decades ago

LONDON — A 75-year-old man will spend the rest of his life in prison after being sentenced Friday for the murder of a British police officer who was shot dead during an armed robbery in northern England nearly two decades ago.

Piran Ditta Khan was convicted in April, as he had fled the country to Pakistan soon after the murder of Sharon Beshenivsky. He was extradited to the U.K. last year.

Judge Nicholas Hilliard sentenced him in Leeds Crown Court to life imprisonment. He must serve a minimum term of 40 years in prison.

“You will inevitably spend the remainder of your life in custody, but that is a consequence of sentencing a man of your age for a crime of this particular gravity,” he said. “You have had your younger and healthier years at liberty because you chose to leave the country when you feared you were about to be arrested.”

Though Khan stayed in the lookout car during the robbery at the family-run Universal Express travel agents in the city of Bradford in November 2005, prosecutors argued that he was the “mastermind” behind the robbery as he organized it and purchased the weapons. Police officers in Britain do not carry guns on routine patrols.

“Even though he did not fire the fatal shot, his actions stole from Sharon and those who knew her a lifetime together, and as he is sentenced today our thoughts remain with her family and loved ones,” said specialist prosecutor David Holderness.

Beshenivsky was 38 years old and only nine months into the job when she responded to an alert about the robbery. She was shot dead at point-blank range by one of the three men who carried out the robbery. Her colleague, Teresa Milburn, survived after being shot in the chest.

Beshenivsky, who had three children and two stepchildren, was gunned down on her youngest daughter’s fourth birthday. In a victim personal statement read in court, Beshenivsky’s daughter Lydia said she was “too young and innocent” to understand what happened when her mother failed to return home from work to celebrate her birthday.

“There will always be a void in my life — a void that should have been filled with my mum’s presence but as a result of violent, callous actions by you, Piran Ditta Khan, and your associates that day, you robbed me of a future and precious time with my mum,” she said. “Every birthday is a reminder of what happened that day.”

Paul Beshenivsky, who had been married to his wife for four years when she died, said telling the children what had happened was “the hardest thing I have ever had to do.”

Khan fled to Pakistan two months after the robbery. He was arrested by local authorities in Pakistan in January 2020 and extradited to the U.K. last year.

Khan denied the allegations.

GREAT BRITISH BOOK CLUB

All of Faith Martin’s Jenny Starling Books in Order

In some cases, we earn commissions from affiliate links in our posts.

Faith Martin is the pen name of British author Jacquie Walton, best known for her DI Hillary Greene series. Walton first began as a romance writer under the Maxine Barry pen name, and she's also written books as Joyce Cato

In this post, we'll take a look at the Jenny Starling series of books in reading order.

ALL OF FAITH MARTIN'S JENNY STARLING BOOKS IN ORDER

The Jenny Starling book series follows travelling cook and reluctant amateur detective Jenny Starling. Her wealthy father is a celebrity chef, now divorced from Jenny's mother. Unlike her father, however, Jenny prefers to travel the country doing catering jobs in her red van.

The Jenny Starling series of books was first published under the pen name Joyce Cato with different titles. We're listing the Jenny Starling books in their new, current form (the way you'll find them on most online retailers and library catalogs). Below, you'll find the complete Jenny Starling reading order.

JENNY STARLING BOOK 1 | The Birthday Mystery

The series starts out with Jenny Starling catering the 21st birthday party of upper-class twins Alicia and Justin. Unfortunately, she arrives to a police-filled scene because one of the guests drowned in the pool. Incredibly, the party goes on – until another guest falls dead, poisoned by Jenny's food.

Get it: Kindle | Audible | Paperback | Bookshop.org (support independent bookshops)

JENNY STARLING BOOK 2 | The Winter Mystery

Jenny is happily preparing for the holidays when a member of the family she's working for is found dead. The head of the family blames Jenny, and it's up to her to clear her name.

JENNY STARLING BOOK 3 | The Riverboat Mystery

During a stint on a luxury paddle steamer, Jenny gets caught up in the death of a passenger. She'll have to follow the clues, and ignore a great many red herrings to solve this case.

JENNY STARLING BOOK 4 | The Castle Mystery

Working her dream job in a castle cooking for Lord and Lady Avonsleigh, Jenny Starling is happy. Happy, that is, until a staff member is found murdered.

JENNY STARLING BOOK 5 | The Oxford Mystery

When womanizing taxidermy society president (yes, you read that right), Maurice Rains is found with knife in his neck, Jenny Starling takes time away from her summer job cooking at Oxford College. It doesn't take long for suspects to appear –  among them, Maurice's wife and at least one lover.

JENNY STARLING BOOK 6 | The Teatime Mystery

Cricket player Tristan Jones is found murdered at a match Jenny Starling is catering. Handsome and athletic, Jones has a reputation for going after married women – leaving no shortage of suspects.

JENNY STARLING BOOK 7 | The Country Inn Mystery

This book finds our heroine cooking at an idyllic countryside inn. It all seems to be going swimmingly until a leading actress turns up dead. It's only then that Jenny realises the inn is full of secrets, lies, and simmering romance.

WILL THERE BE MORE JENNY STARLING BOOKS IN THE SERIES?

Although there's been no word on future books in the Jenny Starling series, author Faith Martin has another series fans of Jenny Starling are sure to like.

The previously mentioned DI Hilary Greene series currently has 19 books ready to read. You can check out the DI Hilary Greene series HERE .

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