L A R I S S A P R I V A T E T R A V E L
Issue 003 · From Larissa
A fire season across southern Europe, a volcano that shut Sicily’s busiest airport, a Gulf that keeps flaring. Three different stories, and the same question underneath all of them.
You have read the headlines already, so I have kept the facts short. What I have spent my time on this month is the part underneath: what actually protects a trip when the world moves, what your ticket really includes, and where I would put my own money. As always, the facts and my view are kept apart so you can weigh both.
Larissa Atkins · Larissa Private Travel
2
Opportunity
Worth knowing
How to read this briefing
Red FlagThe story that should change how you book right now. Read this first.
OpportunityThe travel stories. Something genuinely worth knowing that most people have not acted on yet.
WatchA developing situation with specific implications for your destination or booking.
TrackingA developing story Larissa is monitoring. No action recommended yet.
My ViewLarissa's own opinion, kept separate from the facts, so you can weigh both.
Red Flag · Protection · Europe & the Gulf
If it reaches your trip, what actually protects it?
Wildfires have affected large parts of southern Europe this summer, with significant fires in France, Spain and Greece. France has stopped the spread and Spain is improving, but Greece is still fighting active fires with several regions on the highest alert. Hot, dry conditions, strong winds and extremely dry vegetation mean new fires can develop rapidly across the Mediterranean. Nearly 543,000 hectares have burned across the EU this year, above the twenty-year average, with lives lost in Spain and Greece, and the season has weeks left to run. The Gulf has not settled either, the ground moved in Colombia and Venezuela, and a volcano shut Sicily's busiest airport for the best part of a week. None of this is news to you.
My View: My family had a farmhouse in Provence for thirty-two years and I was there every summer, so I know what these fires do. I have watched the bravery and the professionalism of the people who fight them.
While the cost to life and land is huge, my job is a narrower one. What it means for your trip.
In 001 I told you to book everything as a package, because standard insurance does not cover a conflict and a flight and a hotel booked separately are not protected in the same way when something goes wrong. I wondered whether wildfires worked the same way, so I read my own policy. Not as an adviser. Arranging your insurance was never mine to do, it is yours, and I am not authorised to arrange it or to advise you on it. So none of what follows is advice. It is simply what I found when I read my own cover as someone who travels with her family.
I expected it to talk about force majeure. It never used the phrase. It simply listed, by name, what counted and what did not. Mine defines a natural catastrophe and then names them: volcanic eruption, flood, tsunami, earthquake, landslide, hurricane, tornado, wildfire. War appears nowhere on that list. So wildfire was covered for me. Volcanic ash was covered for me. Was it for you? That is the question, and the answer is not a phrase, it is a list.
But covered is not the same as protected. Read the detail and the cover is for being delayed or stranded. It is not for looking at the smoke and deciding you would rather not go.
And timing is ruthless. Buy your cover once a fire is already burning and the part you need is cut or gone, because by then it counts as a known event. Insurance rewards the organised and quietly punishes the last minute.
On the Gulf, one line. Most policies will not touch war at all. (See Issue 001, Insurance and Package Protection.)
So I ended up close to where I started. Read your own policy, because you will be surprised by it. But the thing that holds when the map changes is how the trip was put together in the first place.
Trajectory: Fire season live into September · Gulf still flaring · Read your policy before you need it
Watch · Volcanic Ash · Sicily & the Med
A volcano closed Sicily's busiest airport for the best part of a week
An eruptive phase at Mount Etna from around 6 August repeatedly shut Catania, Sicily's busiest airport and Italy's fifth busiest, at the height of the season. Between 6 and 12 August more than a third of the 1,974 scheduled flights were cancelled and around 630 were diverted; roughly 700 flights were lost in all, with over 250 rerouted to Comiso, Palermo and Trapani. Ash drifted to Malta and as far as Libya. Thousands were stranded, some sleeping in the terminal for days. The airport operator called it the worst disruption there in at least two decades. Because volcanic ash is a natural event outside an airline's control, compensation under the air passenger rules is unlikely, but the airline still owes you care: rebooking, food and drink, and a bed where one is needed.
My View: Nobody planning a Sicilian summer put a volcano in the diary. That is rather the point of this issue.
Two things worth taking from it. The first is that no compensation and no help are not the same thing. When an airline tells you an event was outside its control, that is true, and it still has to rebook you, feed you and put you up. Ask for it, in writing, at the desk. Most people do not, because they assume that if there is no payout there is nothing.
The second is the same question I asked of my own policy. Is volcanic ash on your list? Mine names volcanic eruption alongside wildfire, so I would be covered. Yours may not, and this is exactly the sort of event people assume is covered because it feels like an act of God. There is no such category. There is only the list.
Trajectory: Etna remains active · No compensation, but care is still owed · Check whether ash is named in your policy
Watch · Cabin Class · Long-haul
Business class is now three different things. Do you know which one you booked?
Business class is being sold in tiers, and it is no longer a novelty. Emirates was the first major airline to sell a stripped-back business fare. Its Business Special, on selected routes, removes complimentary lounge access and the chauffeur, holds your seat assignment until check-in opens, blocks upgrades to first and cannot be refunded. The lie-flat seat and everything on board are unchanged. Qatar followed with Business Lite, and Etihad with Business Value, which charges for lounge access and drops the chauffeur. British Airways sells Club World as Saver or Flexible, the same seat either way, and is one of the very few airlines that charges for advance seat selection in business at all, unless you hold status or a flexible fare. That becomes free once check-in opens, twenty-four hours out. First class, meanwhile, has not disappeared. It is being rationed, fitted to fewer aircraft even by the airlines still investing heavily in it.
My View: Do not assume. That is the whole of it.
Business class used to be a single promise. You bought it and everything came with it. It is now a range, and the cheapest end of it is a different proposition from the one you remember.
Nothing changes on board. Same bed, same food, same service. Everything they have taken out happens before you board, which is why nobody notices until they are standing at the airport.
The first thing I would look at is flexibility. The cheapest business fares are the ones you cannot change or refund, and if your plans move, that is an expensive kind of cheap. Weigh that against the trip. If you are flying out on a package holiday with fixed dates, your plans are far less likely to move, and the cheaper fare may be the sensible one. On a business trip, where the meeting shifts and the return date is a guess, flexibility is worth paying for. After that: the lounge, a car if you are expecting one, whether you can choose your seat in advance, how many bags you actually have, and whether the fare earns your miles and status.
None of it is hidden. It sits one layer below the price, in the fare conditions. It just takes a minute you never used to have to spend.
Trajectory: Tiering now standard across the Gulf carriers and BA · First class rationed, not abolished · Buy the specification, not the name
Watch · Airfares · Premium Long-haul
The fare that did not come back down
Jet fuel spiked when the Gulf flared. As fuel prices eased, premium long-haul fares did not follow them down.
My View: My view is that we should not expect a significant drop, and certainly not a return to former fare levels.
The best strategy for securing good premium airfares is to book early. For long-haul travel I would be looking as far ahead as eleven or twelve months before departure where possible. That gives you the best choice of seats, the widest range of fare classes and, in my experience, the best chance of securing a competitive fare before availability tightens.
Trajectory: Fuel eased, fares held · No return to former levels expected · Book 11-12 months ahead
Watch · Insurance · The Gulf
The Gulf is quietly buying your insurance. That is worth reading, not just taking.
Etihad has started including medical cover with tickets into Abu Dhabi for international visitors, running to the end of the year, and others may follow.
My View: The fact it exists at all is the signal. Nobody gives insurance away when the market is comfortable. Cover for the region got harder to buy after the spring, so the destination stepped in where the insurers stepped back.
And what it leaves out tells you what they expect to go wrong. It is medical, which is the risk that is rare but expensive, so it is cheap to hand out by the planeload. It is not your cancellation. It is not your disruption. And it will not touch anything conflict-related. They will insure your body, not your itinerary.
And one thing worth knowing about all of it. If the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office advises against travel to a country, cover generally falls away, repatriation included. If somewhere is on that list, my view is simple. Do not go.
So it is worth having, and it is worth nothing on its own. Keep your own policy, and read the terms at the time of booking, because these schemes are weeks old and they will change.
Trajectory: Medical only · Runs to December · Terms new and likely to change
Western Europe & the Med
Caution
A long fire season, not a single event. France has stopped the spread and Spain is improving, but Greece is still fighting fires with several regions on the highest alert, and new fires can start quickly in the heat. Destinations are open. Check locally and close to departure rather than cancelling early.
Eastern Med & the Gulf
Unreliable
Still flaring rather than settling. Airlines continue to avoid Iranian, Israeli and Lebanese airspace, adding hours to affected routes. Where it matters is as a route east. Larissa is still routing clients around the region where there is a sensible alternative.
East Africa
Watch
Uganda declared its outbreak over on 28 July. The outbreak in the DRC has not ended and is now among the largest on record, so this stays on the list. The safari circuit, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda, has not been at the centre of it and is running normally. Check official advice before booking, and check the entry rules for any onward country too.
Colombia & Venezuela
Disrupted
A 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia on 10 August, the country's largest this century, with a rising death toll, buildings down across Pereira, Cali, Quibdó, Manizales and Armenia, and several airports suspended. It follows two quakes in Venezuela in June. Anyone booked should expect disruption and take local advice. Not a moment for a leisure trip to the affected regions.
The rest of the Americas
Clear
No Gulf exposure and clean transatlantic routing. The currency picture has turned since the spring: the pound is close to its best against the dollar in a year, so dollar-priced trips are better value than they were.
UK borders, inbound
In force
The Electronic Travel Authorisation is now fully enforced. Visitors without one are refused boarding, every traveller needs their own including children, and it applies to anyone connecting through UK passport control. Worth flagging to anyone hosting international guests.
Visa and borders, in one line. The Entry/Exit System is live across the Schengen Area and is the real reason for this summer's border queues. ETIAS, which in 002 was expected in the final quarter of this year, has slipped again and is now most likely 2027. Nothing to buy yet, and ignore any site offering to pre-register you for it. The UK's own scheme is already live for your visitors. Build the admin into your planning time.
Opportunity · Expedition · Antarctica
The trip worth booking three years out
Ponant has opened Antarctica for the winter of 2028 and 2029. Le Commandant Charcot will attempt a full loop of the continent, a first, leaving in January 2029. It is on sale now, and the best of it will still go early.
My View: First, the thing nobody tells you. This is an expedition cruise, not a cruise. You need to be reasonably agile. You are in and out of zodiacs, with the option to occasionally climb a volcano, and sometimes an icy narrow path to navigate to reach the penguins or the seals. If that does not appeal, it is not the trip for you, and I would rather say so now.
If it does appeal, I have been, and it is the trip I talk about often. There is a five-minute film about it on my website.
It sails on Le Commandant Charcot, which I have been on myself, Southampton to Brest. It is an ice-breaking ship, so it can go further and explore more. There is a science research station on board, and you can always ask any of the scientists to join you for dinner, which is part of the trip I loved. Nuna, the first Alain Ducasse restaurant at sea, is included in the fare and not charged as an extra.
Then there is the rest of it. Cobalt blue icebergs. Orcas, humpback whales, seals, penguins.
Book far earlier than feels sensible. The 2028 and 2029 season is already open, and the good cabins and departures go long before people start looking.
Trajectory: 2028/29 season open now · Expedition, not a cruise · Best cabins go first
Opportunity · Safari · Botswana
The lodge is only half the story. Here is the other half.
In 002 I said the lodge is only half the story. This is what I meant. Abu Camp, in the Okavango Delta, has closed, and the concession reopens at the very top of the market as Singita Elela on 11 December this year. It sits on the same 170,000 hectares of private Delta that Abu held, now renamed the Singita Private Concession, with eight stilted camps in place of the old six tents.
My View: I know the Abu Camp well. I walked with the Abu elephant herd, which you can no longer do at Elela, although you will still see the herd in the wild.
The wildlife is excellent. Lion, leopard, wild dog, elephant, buffalo, everything you could wish to see in a prolific game viewing area. We were lucky enough to see a wild dog kill also.
Boating and mokoro are largely flood-dependent, so water activities are not guaranteed year-round. If being on the water is important, Elela is very easy to combine with a permanent-water camp, giving you the best of both experiences.
What I cannot tell you is what Elela itself is like, because nobody has stayed there yet. I know the concession well, not the new camp. I am curious to see how it stacks up against what was there, and I will tell you what I think once I have been.
Trajectory: Opens 11 December · Water is seasonal · Combine with a permanent-water camp
The headlines have moved on. The stories have not. My job is to watch the gap between the two.
Stay informed. Travel well.
Larissa Atkins · Larissa Private Travel
Virtuoso · Forbes Travel Guide · ATOL 7514 · IATA 91-200056
+44 7785 280090 · larissaprivatetravel.com
Intelligence correct at time of issue. Situation evolving.