FCDO Travel & News

Ibiza is very different in winter. After the hectic, chaotic heat of the summer, winter is chill-out time under the weak winter Mediterranean sun. The clubbers and party-goers have left to recharge their batteries ready for next year and the Islanders do the same. Over the last 20 years the Spanish perception of Christmas has […]

Christmas in South India comes in the middle of the Indian festive season. The songs of joy and sparkling decorations could be an extension of Deepavali (Diwali in the North) without the sound and fury; or perhaps it is the harbinger of another mega event – Sankranthi, the harvest festival. In the countryside, you might […]

As the weather starts to turn cold in the UK, Atlanta starts to heat up for football, family, and twinkling lights. Christmas begins to show up early in the US, with decorations appearing in November, and family get-togethers kicking off as the college football season reaches fever pitch. The holiday season officially starts on Thanksgiving, […]

Nicky Hewitt, 34, born in Melbourne, grew up in Surrey Although I was born in Melbourne, I moved to the UK when I was just 11months old so I always considered myself to be British. When I was 12 years old, I went to Victoria, Australia, with my family on our summer holiday. While we […]

Steve Grant, 54, from Portsmouth My daughter, Lacey, met Osama in the UK. Osama is from Oman but grew up in England. They had a good relationship and in 2004 they got married. After having been married for a little while, Osama wanted to move back to Dubai. Lacey was excited about the prospect of […]

Alexander Khan, 37, from South Coast, England My parents come from very different backgrounds; my father is from Pakistan and my mother is English. They married in the late sixties at a time when mixed-race marriages were not widely accepted. The relationship was put under considerable pressure by my father’s family, who were unhappy that […]

The following is a post by Naomi Cowan, Vice Consul, Tokyo. Christmas cheer, trip to Tokyo, big night out, a few too many, punch a snowman… six days in a police cell… is how one British national spent the run up to Christmas last year. Japan is a good example of how behaviour abroad has […]

The following is a post by the FCO’s ‘Know Before You Go’ Team in London. Christmas can be a wonderful time of year to travel – to beat the weather and find a bit of summer sun, to travel to the frozen north with the family to visit Santa, to catch up with family or […]