EXCLUSIVE I was lying on a sun-lounger next to my husband when a terrorist shot dead the couple sleeping in front of us and killed dozens of others. This is how we survived - and our desperate hunt for our missing 18-year-old daughter
Why would it be anything else? All around her, on a warm June morning, happy holidaymakers were enjoying the beach at the Tunisian resort of Port El Kantaoui.
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Daily Mail
5 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Revealed: European city with must-see cruise port voted world's most beautiful - beating Sydney and the Bahamas to top spot
New research has deemed a historical European capital the most spectacular place in the world to sail into if you're a cruise passenger. The scenic Mediterranean city of Valletta, where tourists disembark for a day spent wandering honey-hued streets and centuries old sights, is apparently the most breathtaking place to glide into on a liner - according to a survey that used eye-tracking technology on cruise fans. Around 50 miles south of Sicily, Malta has often been dubbed Europe's Caribbean thanks to its azure waters and fine-sand beaches, and according to AllClear Travel Insurance, it's biggest city is also a master of first impressions. Researchers from the cruise travel cover specialists conducted the study with 100 cruise passengers to help them discover the world's most scenic ports. The software monitored which ports caught tourists' eyes the quickest and for the longest amount of time. And the most easy on the eye proved to be UNESCO-listed Valletta. The city was built as a fortress settlement by the Knights of St John after the Great Siege by Ottoman forces in 1565, and is named after Grand Master Jean Parisot de la Valette, then leader of the military religious order. Its home to 320 historic monuments but also some exceptional sands, meaning visitors who arrive can marry a beach stay with some a city break. Where else scored highly? Ports in Argentina, Italy and Sweden also proved visually bewitching to cruise travellers. Last stop before Antarctica: Ushuaia, which is the capital of Tierra del Fuego province in Argentina, came second thanks to Martial mountains backdrop Ushuaia in Argentina, sometimes called 'The End of the World' because it's the last stop before Antarcticay, scored highly thanks to its high drama scenery - including a backdrop of snow-dusted mountains. Elsewhere in Europe, Palermo's Cruise Terminal frequently welcomed guests with arching blue skies, beautiful markets and pretty restaurants. And Lisbon's port also comes with winsome views, with liners sailing beneath the striking 25 de Abril Bridge ahead of docking for the night. Other notable places to sail into? The Overseas Passenger Terminal in Sydney gives a sensational view of the city's famous Harbour Bridge as well as the Sydney Opera House. And, unsurprisingly, three Caribbean spots made the top 20 too. Nassau in the Bahamas came 5th with a total eye-tracking score of 81/100 while Oranjestad on Aruba placed 6th (79/100) and Philipsburg, St Marteen ranked 20th (65/100). Letitia Smith, Head of Communications at AllClear, said: 'When cruising, often it's the incredible moments you sail into a new port for the first time that really take your breath away. 'Around the world there are cruise ports and harbours that are set in some spectacular destinations, and those who love to sail around the world will understand how exciting that feeling really is.' Are these the 10 most beautiful cruise ports in the world? Valletta Cruise Port, Valletta, Malta Port of Ushuaia, Ushuaia, Argentina Port of Palermo, Palermo, Italy Stadsgården Cruise, Terminal Stockholm, Sweden Nassau Cruise, Port Nassau, Bahamas Aruba Cruise, Terminal Oranjestad, Aruba Lisbon Cruise Port, Lisbon, Portugal Overseas Passenger Terminal, Sydney Australia Port Sultan Qaboos, Muscat, Oman Ege Port, Kușadası, Turkey In 2024, the Daily Mail asked Lauren Heavner (@laurenheav), a professional vocalist who has worked on cruise ships for over 10 years for six different lines across more than 1,000 voyages to tell us about her favourite ports, and Valletta made the cut. Lauren told us: 'The first time I sailed into the harbour of the capital, Valletta, I cried. No shame in it. The sight of this ancient, golden-stoned city rising from the sea, bathed in that otherworldly Mediterranean light, was enough to crack even the most jaded traveller's armour. I've always described this city as 'Jerusalem meets Northern Africa with a European flair". Her advice for passengers heading to the historic city? 'Rent a boat for the day with a local captain, and you'll find yourself threading through hidden caves and the azure perfection of the Blue Lagoon. Wander its sandstone streets and alleyways - they're like a maze built for dreamers.' She added: 'Take a historical detour through the National War Museum at Fort St. Elmo or the Grand Master's Palace. 'Then there's St. John's Co-Cathedral, built by the Knights of St. John between 1572 and 1578. It's not just a church, it's a declaration - a glittering display of Baroque art that'll leave you breathless. For a more laid-back approach, hop on one of the island's hop-on-hop-off buses or take a ferry to Malta's smaller islands, each one offering its own kind of magic.'
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
TOM UTLEY: From the bliss of my own bed to a decent cuppa... why the best part of any holiday is the heart-lifting relief of coming HOME
Oh, how heartily I agree with the 52 per cent who say one of the best parts of going away on holiday is returning to the comforts of home. My only quibble is that it's the best part, bar none. We may look forward all year to getting away from it all for that summer break, studying the travel pages, thumbing through the brochures and counting the days until we can pack our bags and head for the heaven of our dreams. But on average, apparently, it takes only five days away for us to start missing everything we've left behind, from the bliss of our own beds to our familiar routines, gardens and pets and our favourite TV programmes – or simply a decent British cuppa, with proper British milk. So says a survey of 2,000 holidaymakers from the UK, published this week by the sofa retailing firm, DFS. True, there was a time in my younger days when I wished that my holidays could go on for ever. I longed to explore the whole wide world, absorbing new sights, sounds, tastes and experiences, while going home just meant the start of a new term or, later, returning to the grind of the office. But since money was always tight in my bachelor days, I never got round to venturing beyond Europe. And when marriage and the four boys came along, further clipping my wings – except on the handful of occasions when my employers sent me abroad for work – I resigned myself to putting my wilder ambitions on hold until our finances looked up and our sons were old enough to fend for themselves. These days, with the boys now grown up, the school fees behind us, the mortgage paid off – and Rachel Reeves's dreaded Budget still weeks away – I can at last afford to take the two of us just about anywhere in the world we may fancy. Yet this summer, we found five days on the Isle of Wight more than enough. The trouble is that my feet stopped itching years ago, and Mrs U seems to feel much the same way. Far from yearning to travel, I find my heart sinking at the very thought of going through all the palaver, inconvenience and discomfort of another holiday abroad. I'm not a bit proud of the death of my spirit of adventure. On the contrary, all those people who say life starts at sixty or seventy – and spend their retirement swimming with dolphins, going on safari in Africa or sailing round the world – make me feel terribly inadequate. It's just that when I look back over a lifetime of holidays, I remember only a litany of disasters, and almost constant anxiety. There was the time in Pompeii, which I've mentioned before, when our then three-year-old eldest fell, bottom-first, into an enormous Roman wine-jar of the first century AD, with only the top of his head and the soles of his shoes visible. For several interminable minutes, as we heaved on his shoulders and ankles, I feared that we'd have to smash this priceless artefact to get him out, and I'd have to answer for the consequences to my bank manager (not to mention the Italian police). Then there was the holiday a couple of years later, at a friend's villa in Tuscany, where the same boy broke his arm on day two, after laughing so hard at a funny book that he fell on to the stone floor from his perch on the arm of a sofa. I still shudder at the memory of our long drive in the hire car to the nearest hospital, with the poor boy screaming in pain in the back. Indeed, trips to hospital feature prominently in my memories of holidays abroad. There was the time in Normandy when son Number Two suddenly developed a mysterious illness. He wouldn't eat or sleep, and when he tried to walk he developed a terrifying limp. Frantic with worry, and fearing he had picked up something like polio (all right, neither of us is medically literate), we drove him to hospital in Bayeux. As he hobbled round the consulting room, in apparent agony, two doctors said they were as baffled as we were. It was only when they told him he'd have to stay there a couple of nights for tests that he miraculously recovered in an instant, and walked down the hospital corridor without a trace of a limp. I'll never forget what one of the doctors said to his colleague, in French, presumably thinking I wouldn't understand: 'These stupid English. They watch far too much television!' Then there was the time near Toulouse, when I managed to skewer the top of my head on a spike hanging down from a chandelier. Blood gushed from my head like a Roman candle, and our gite soon looked like the set of a gruesome Quentin Tarantino movie. Before I knew it, I was lying in an antiquated ambulance – a converted Citroen Deux Chevaux, I seem to remember, though I wouldn't swear to it – on my way to have my wound stapled up in A&E. As for lesser holiday disasters, these include suffering a blow-out on our way to Saint-Malo, when we were already running late for the ferry home and, like so many other muppet tourists, having my pocket picked in Rome. (To adapt the famous saying: 'When in Rome… cling on to your wallet for dear life.') Yes, such disasters and mishaps can also befall us in dear old blighty. But the stresses are multiplied a hundredfold when they happen abroad, with an unfamiliar language and bureaucracy to contend with. Indeed, even when everything goes smoothly on a foreign holiday, I find the anxiety kicks in from almost the moment we leave home. Have we locked the rear bedroom window, cancelled the papers and remembered to turn off the gas? Which of us has the passports and the tickets – and where the hell did I put the booking reference for the hire car at the other end? Then there's that exhausting business at the airport – the endless, snaking queues at the check-in desk, passport control and customs, and that ridiculous rigmarole with the belts and the shoes at security. It's another interminable wait at the other end, for Mrs U's suitcase to appear (generally last) on the carousel. Then the hassle at the hire-car kiosk and that first, nerve-racking hour of getting used to driving a strange vehicle, on the wrong side of a strange road. That's not to mention the constant demands on our mental arithmetic, as we struggle to translate foreign currencies into pounds and pence. (One of the few things Mrs U and I have in common, apart from 45 years of marriage, four sons and five grandchildren, is that we're both completely hopeless at maths). Enough to say, oh, the heart-lifting relief of that first glimpse of the Isle of Wight or the White Cliffs of Dover, from the aeroplane window or the deck of the ferry on the journey home. And, oh, the joy of ordering a favourite takeaway and cracking open the duty free on our arrival in our own dear house, with our own familiar kitchen, our own telly and our own comfy bed. No, there's no question that this is the best bit of any holiday. It's just such a shame that we have to go through all the worries and bother of travel before we can fully appreciate it.
Scottish Sun
9 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
The lesser-known affordable beach city that Brits are flocking to this summer – with £1.70 wine and £15 flights
Read on to find out what else you can do in the country, straight from the locals EUR-ON The lesser-known affordable beach city that Brits are flocking to this summer – with £1.70 wine and £15 flights Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A COASTAL city you probably haven't heard of is seeing a huge boom in demand from British tourists. Sitting on the Adriatic Coast, Durres in Albania is a little-known gem that is way cheaper than your average European getaway. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 5 Durres is Albania's second largest city and is home to a long, sprawling beach Credit: Getty 5 And Love Holidays has just named it a top emerging destination Credit: Alamy Win one of 8 incredible holidays to the Caribbean, Mexico and Greece by voting in The Sun's Travel Awards - enter to win here New data from Love Holidays suggests the city is an emerging destination, with bookings up by a staggering 224 per cent compared to last year. Yet, the idyllic port city remains less crowded and more affordable than several European hotspots. Dubbed "the eternal city on the Adriatic Coast" by Albania's National Tourism Agency, Durres benefits from a Mediterranean climate and features a number of secluded bays with turquoise waters and golden sand. One of the most popular spots in the city is Durres Beach, which stretches over 6.5 miles, making it the largest in Albania. Littered along the promenade are numerous bars, cafes and restaurants to explore. Cosmo Restaurant, which sits at the west end of the beach, is rated the best in the city and serves seafood dishes such as freshly caught lobster. There are a number of hotels on the promenade too, many of which have direct beach access. Guests can also hire two sunbeds and an umbrella on the beach for between £4.33 and £21.63. If you don't fancy sitting on the beach, then head to Hawaii Beach Club on the pier and grab a cocktail to enjoy on one of the club's sunbeds looking out at the sea. Five stunning, little-known holiday destinations Across the bars and restaurants in Durres, a beer is likely to set you back £2.05 to about £2.40, and a glass of wine will cost around just £1.73 to £3.03. For something more active, there are a number of watersports activities you can do from the beach as well, such as jet skiing and 'flying fish'. But it isn't just all about the beach in Durres, as it is Albania's second largest city meaning it has a wealth of different historic and cultural spots to explore. One spot is the ruins of Durres Castle, which was originally built in the 5th century, and the Venetian Tower which was built in the 15th century and was used to defend the city from attack. If you head to the top of the nine-metre tower, you will get to see stunning views of the city and the sea. Durres Mosque, which sits in the centre of the city, is also free to visit. 5 There are many historic sites in the city as well, some of which are free to enter Credit: Getty It opened originally in 1938 but since has seen a myriad of different uses including, at one point, being a youth centre. Today, it is a religious centre and an active place of worship - so make sure to be dress appropriately and remove your shoes if visiting. Another key spot to explore is the Roman amphitheatre of Emperor Hadrian, which has around 15,000 seats and is the second largest amphitheatre in the whole of the Balkans. The amphitheatre was built in the early second century and was used to host social gatherings and gladiator contests with wild animals. However, in the fourth century gladiator fights were banned and a Christian chapel was built in the centre of the amphitheatre. It was later discovered in the 1960s after being buried for hundreds of years due to a number of earthquakes. It costs around £2.60 to enter the amphitheatre. 5 Hotels are affordable too, with some seven-night last minute breaks available for less than £138 per night for two people Credit: Getty Just outside of the city centre is the Abaia Winery and Vineyard, where visitors can go on a tour and see the site's five different wines being made. The experience is the top rated thing to do in Durres, with many guests enjoying the cellar visit and restaurant that serves local food to go with the wines. The cost of a guided tour varies depending on the season and length of the tour, but prices start from £17 per person. There are numerous hotels across the city, most of which are super affordable. For example, you could stay at the Hotel Epidamn Boutique & Spa, which has a restaurant, bar and garden, for £69 a night for two adults. Or, according to Love Holidays, you could grab a last minute seven-night package for two people, for around £138 per person, per night this summer. Durres is conveniently located just 40 minutes from Tirana, the capital of Albania. You can catch a direct flight from the UK to Tirana from a number of airports, including London Luton with Wizz Air for as little as £15 one-way and from London Stansted, with Ryanair from £15 one-way. What is it like to visit Albania? LOCALS have shared the best spots to visit in the country and their top tips... Pristine beaches and secluded bays: Albania offers a mix of sandy and pebble beaches. The Albanian Riviera in the south is home to beautiful spots like Ksamil Beach, which locals describe as a "tropical beach in Europe," and the more off-grid Gjipe, perfect for camping. Secluded, boat-accessible gems like Krorëz Bay and Dafina Bay provide a tranquil escape from crowds. Diverse dining options: From budget-friendly street food to high-end restaurants, Albania's food scene has something for everyone. For an authentic and cheap meal, look for a "Zgara" (grill) spot or grab a byrek (filo pastry) for as little as 40p. For a more formal experience, check out Tirana's Arka Rooftop or the farm-to-table restaurant Mullixhiu, with main dishes for under £7. Hidden natural gems: Beyond the popular tourist spots, Albania is full of natural wonders. Discover the breathtaking Grunasi Waterfall in Theth National Park or the lesser-known Shengjergji Waterfall near Tirana. The mysterious Haxhi Ali Cave is only accessible by boat, adding to its allure for adventurers. Affordable attractions: Many of Albania's most impressive sights are also budget-friendly. The Blue Eye Spring, a mesmerising underwater spring, costs just 40p to enter. Meanwhile, the historic Gjirokaster Castle offers panoramic views and a journey through Albania's past for around £3. Must-do activities: The country's varied landscape allows for a range of activities. Explore UNESCO World Heritage sites like Berat and Gjirokastra, or hike the stunning Accursed Mountains. For thrill-seekers, options include paragliding over the coast of Vlore or navigating the rapids of the Vjosa River. Vibrant nightlife: Whether you're in the capital or at the beach, Albania has a lively nightlife scene. Tirana's exclusive Blloku area is known for its upscale bars and clubs. Meanwhile, coastal cities like Durres and Ksamil come alive in the summer. Don't miss the unique experience of a drink at the rotating Sky Club. Best bars for a drink: From trendy cocktail spots to classic pubs, there's a bar for every mood. For unique craft cocktails, check out Nouvelle Vague in Tirana. For a simple and cheap drink, beer starts from around £1.50 at places like the newly renovated Sky Club. Family-friendly options: For those travelling with family, Albania has many welcoming options. The coast from Kavaja to Zvernec offers affordable places to stay and eat. Destinations like Durres have plenty of family-friendly activities and hotels. Albania has previously been noted as an underrated beach destination with cheap pints and short flights. Plus, these are the best places to visit on the Albanian Riviera.
