News travels
Your need-to-know this month
From sun, sea and silence to spring blooms, and golf’s glow-up: Here’s your inside track on everything travel
Vegan meals take off
The plant-based movement is going sky high. Emirates is the latest airline to offer a bigger, better vegan menu, with more than 300 items now in rotation. Growing customer interest seems to be driving the change: The airline served 450,000 vegan meals last year, up 40% on 2022. Meanwhile, United and Delta have teamed up with Impossible Foods to offer meat-free meatballs and burgers, and China Airlines partnered with Michelin Green Star restaurant Yang Ming Spring to develop its plant-based menus. Bring on the broccoli.
Silence is golden
It seems the hottest new sound is… silence. Gen Z is shouting about “silent walking” on TikTok, aka going for a walk without music or phones, unplugged and mindful of your surroundings in a kind of mobile meditation. In our increasingly noisy worlds, silence is the new luxury in travel, whether staying at peaceful monastic hotels or digital-detox cabins where you lock your phone away. Take your own silent walk at one of Quiet Parks International’s certified quiet places, such as Portland’s Mt. Tabor Park or Glacier National Park in Montana.
Golf has had a glow-up
Golf is pitching a cool new image. Hipster apparel brands including rapper Macklemore’s Bogey Boys and Brit-born Manors trade plaid pants and pastel polos for bucket hats and retro-inspired button-up shirts. These fresh looks will come in handy this month as golf fans flock to the Masters Tournament (April 11–14) in Augusta, Georgia, or book ahead for the U.S. Open at Pinehurst, North Carolina, in June. Meanwhile, the sometimes stuffy clubhouse vibe is stylishly reborn at golf hotels such the Catskills’ hip Inness, Scotland’s Rusacks St. Andrews, and Marine Troon, near the British Open in July.
The bloom boom
Millions flock to Japan each spring to see the country’s cherry trees turn into candyfloss clouds of blossom, which peak between late March and early April. But it’s not the only place to see spring in bloom. Closer to home, consider cherry blossom festivals in Macon, Georgia (March 15–24) or Washington, D.C. (March 20–April 14). Or if tulips are more your style, plan a visit to Amsterdam’s Keukenhof Tulip Gardens toward late April or May for an explosion of color, with a mind-blowing 800 varieties on show.
Seeking Semana Santa
Across the Catholic world, Semana Santa brings colorful processions and weeklong celebrations between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday (March 24–30 in 2024). Its full pageantry is on display in Spain, where each city has its own unique take, from Verges’s skeleton dancers to Seville’s huge spectacle with ornate floats and emotive flamenco songs. Meanwhile, in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa, a cast of thousands takes to the streets in an epic devotional performance. Shops, restaurants, and some attractions may be closed in observance of the holiday, so be sure to plan ahead.
Fiona Kerr
Writer
Fiona Kerr is a food-loving travel journalist and former features director at Condé Nast Traveller. Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, The Telegraph, Elle Decoration and The New York Times. When she gets to a new country, her first stop is usually the local supermarket.
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