What does it take to run a hotel that outlasts empires, divorces and difficult cousins? From farms transformed by daring couples to grand dames in the family since the 1800s, Christy Spring picks out her favourite family-owned hotels
Anna Richards takes her dog on a flight and car-free bikepacking and kayaking adventure in northeast France – and discovers that Pas-de-Calais is far more than simply a port to pass through
We’ve picked our favourite stays as seasoned hotel sleepers – everything from transformed 19th-century Parisian townhouses to rustic Tuscan retreats and the odd staycation bolthole closer to home
Mike Gibson travels through the southern Spanish region of Andalusia on two trips, two years apart, from Jerez de la Frontera to Seville, exploring its food and drink culture while navigating the shifting rhythms of life with three young children – learning to embrace both chaos and moments of calm along the way
Nick Savage journeys through southern Val d’Orcia in Tuscany with his family, drawing from the writings of DH Lawrence and the beliefs of the ancient Etruscans to interrogate loss, continuity and the pull of the unseen
Christy Spring didn’t come to Bali seeking transformation but instead to catch a connecting flight. Stranded by flooding and her father’s heart surgery looming back home, she finds that island serenity looks different when you actually need it
Forget strip-lit terminals and joyless queues – these railway stations make the journey as magical as the destination. Christy Spring picks out the finest palaces of movement, filled with Gothic grandeur and Beaux-Arts beauty
As we step into 2026, this issue of Escapism explores cities and the vibrant worlds we build within them. Cities are human playgrounds, shaped by our decision to live side by side and connected through dense networks of culture, creativity, opportunity and indulgence. Escapism looks at urban centres across the globe, tracing their histories, examining the communities that inhabit them and reflecting on how they are adapting, evolving and reckoning with the legacies that shaped them. Christy Spring delivers a devastatingly beautiful feature on the Japanese pottery technique of kintsugi, weaving its philosophy of repair and imperfection through her own personal history. Lydia Swinscoe heads to the overlooked Polish city of Łódź, exploring how its contemporary art scene grapples with a complex Soviet past. Elsewhere, we journey deep beneath the surface in Cappadocia, Turkey, tracing humanity’s shared origins through its ancient subterranean cities. Rounding out the issue are dispatches from Vancouver, Hamburg, Athens and beyond.
