Will 2024 be the year happiness returns to travel?

Covid and Brexit trampled on the joy of a holiday – but now we crave adventure more than ever, writes Simon Calder

Blue-sky thinking: Simon Calder on Portugal’s Algarve coast on 17 May 2021, the day international travel became legal again (Paul Goldstein)

Julian’s car was a metaphor for how the joy of travel vanished.

On Saturday 1 February 2020, the BMW spluttered up the hill heading west from Dover on the A20. As we approached the summit, Bavarian engineering relinquished its reputation for reliability and dumped us unceremoniously on the edge of the road.

Julian and I were returning from France after a significant event the previous evening. We had boarded the first ferry from the UK that would arrive in the European Union after Brexit officially took effect on 31 January 2020. Boris Johnson’s war with Europe was still in the phoney stage; the full force of the withdrawal agreement would not hit until the start of 2021.