I want to ring in 2026 in the skies – what are my options?

Simon Calder answers your questions on domestic routes, a holiday in Cambodia, and the safety of Georgia

Q I need some travel help for New Year’s Eve. What flight could I take from the UK either to celebrate the arrival of 2026 in the skies – or miss it altogether?

Mary C

A Celebrating new year in flight is a tricky business. Which midnight is the correct one to mark? New year in the UK, or the destination, or the territory (or sea) over which you happen to be flying? An easy solution would be a flight to Ireland, Portugal or the Canary Islands, staying in the same GMT time zone. But I can find no trips from the UK that arrive at any of these destinations after midnight.

Instead I suggest you choose a target that involves a late-evening departure from Heathrow. Leaving around 10pm will mean that the drinks and dinner should be ready an hour into the flight. You can raise a glass to 2025 while flying over western Europe en route to Dubai (multiple airlines), Hong Kong (Cathay Pacific) or Singapore (Singapore Airlines). Heading south, British Airways to Cape Town or Virgin Atlantic to Johannesburg should see you over France at the witching hour. Or go west, on Aeromexico to Mexico City, Avianca to Bogota or British Airways to Rio, and use the inflight map to work out the appropriate time to celebrate.

There is one sure way to avoid the calendar turning from 31 December to 1 January, and that is to get a flight across the International Date Line. Get yourself in position at Los Angeles by early evening on New Year’s Eve. Choose Air New Zealand to Auckland, Qantas to Brisbane or Delta to Sydney. You will have a long, extended 31 December until you cross the date line, whereupon it will already be 2 January. Travelling in the opposite direction, you can enjoy multiple new year celebrations.

Inverness in the Scottish Highlands takes 520 passengers per day from Heathrow (Getty)

Q Which are the most popular domestic routes to and from London Heathrow?

Doug B

A

Until I received your excellent question I had not contemplated which domestic links with the UK’s busiest airport carried the most passengers. The results surprised me: for example, the extent to which Scotland dominates the listings. Defining a “domestic” route is tricky: what to do about Jersey and the Isle of Man, which are technically Crown Dependencies outside the UK? Well, the Civil Aviation Authority – whose latest figures for October 2024 comprise the source of my information – include them, and so shall I. That provides 11 routes, for which I have calculated the average per day.

The bottom three routes are all operated by the Scottish airline Loganair: Dundee (82 passengers per day), Isle of Man (86) and City of Derry (202). All the rest are the preserve of British Airways.

The de facto capital of the Scottish Highlands, Inverness, takes eighth place with 520 passengers per day. In the 1970s, Jersey airport was the sixth-busiest airport in Europe, but today it is merely the seventh busiest from Heathrow, with 924 passengers per day – well behind even Newcastle, in sixth place on 1,301.

Competition between the next three airports is intense. In the course of a year, Belfast City has fallen one place to fifth, with 1,551 passengers per day. It has been leapfrogged by Aberdeen, in fourth place with 1,589. Considering Manchester airport is only 151 miles from Heathrow and has dozens of daily trains taking two hours and 10 minutes to London Euston, it does well (or, from an environmental point of view, badly) to take third place with 1,631 passengers per day.

Glasgow is 345 miles from Heathrow, and (on a non-strike day) four hours and 30 minutes from London Euston by train. On an average day, 2,554 people fly between the English capital and Scotland’s largest city, making it the second-most popular route. But Edinburgh is way out in front, with 3,235 passengers per day. That is more than the bottom six airports combined and helps Scotland to dominate the domestic picture with 4.4 times as many passengers to and from Heathrow as Northern Ireland. Wales has no link with the UK’s busiest airport; Newquay, Leeds Bradford and Teesside are among the recent English locations to lose their air connections to Heathrow.

‘Tickets, please’: provided you can avoid the ubiquitous motorcyclists and Vietnam’s notoriously persistent traffic wardens, bus travel is the best way to get to the Cambodian capital (AP)

Q As part of a journey through Indochina, I need to travel from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to Phnom Penh in Cambodia. Have you made this journey and, if so, do you recommend going by road or flying? I am particularly concerned about road safety in Asia.

Julia F

A The distance between the biggest city in Vietnam and the Cambodian capital is only 132 miles as the white-shouldered ibis flies. That makes the one-hour flight on Vietnam Airlines or Cambodia Angkor Air poor value at typically £100 one way. Add the city-airport journey at either end, and the centre-to-centre journey is a solid four hours. In comparison, the fastest bus takes six hours, including the border crossing. I have made the journey (in the opposite direction) and can vouch for the scenery and slices of southeast Asian life along the way. The bus I took was ultra-budget: a former Paris suburban bus exported to Indochina and repurposed as an international intercity conveyance.

You are right, though, to be concerned about road safety. Relative to its population, Vietnam has one of the highest death tolls for road users in the world: around 10 times worse than the UK. This is partly due to the vulnerability of motorcyclists, who are on the roads in vast numbers. According to the United Nations, 93 per cent of all vehicles are motorcycles. But car, truck and bus occupants are also at a sharply higher risk in Vietnam than in Britain.

In your position, I would still opt for the bus – choosing the highest grade available. Currently, this is VET Air Bus Express, which has four daily departures, costing US$28 (£23). Some are scheduled to take six hours, others slightly longer. Another advantage compared with flying is that there is no need (or benefit) for booking well in advance; looking at tomorrow’s departures, all but one has space. So you can stay flexible. Careful of any snacks you take along for the ride, mind: the company bans “strong-smelling foods” and singles out the durian fruit for special mention.

Return flights to Tbilisi this summer are available for as little as £186 (Getty/iStock)

Q I note in your latest Independent travel newsletter that you recommend three “one step beyond” destinations for summer 2025. We’ve already explored the Azores and Albania – thanks for your tips. The last one is Georgia. With the political unrest there at the moment, is it a good time to be booking, or is it worth waiting to see how the continuing situation rolls out?

Ian K

A Georgia is one of my all-time favourite countries, for the formidable combination of spectacular scenery, deep history and culture, great food and drink and welcoming people. Some of those citizens are engaged in regular political demonstrations, some of which turn violent, between police and protesters. The Foreign Office warns that these are frequent in the capital, Tbilisi: “Crowd numbers tend to increase in the evening and some rallies extend into the night. Tensions can escalate without warning. You should check local media, avoid large gatherings and demonstrations and follow the advice of local authorities.”

Tourists do not generally want to be caught up in other countries’ political struggles, and there are dozens of other nations where this is a low possibility. Even so, with both British Airways and easyJet launching flights this spring and summer to Tbilisi, I believe 2025 will prove an excellent time to visit. Airfares are much lower than you would normally expect for a journey of more than 2,000 each way; even in August, easyJet has fares of £186 return.

While Tbilisi is likeable most of the time, there is no particular need to concentrate on the capital when monasteries, mountain scenery and Black Sea beaches beckon. My recommendation: fly into Tbilisi on either BA or easyJet, travel across the country towards the shore, talking in the cultural highlights and landscapes, and then leave from the resort of Batumi on a flight via Istanbul on Pegasus – which is also likely to be at a reasonably low fare.

One final point: you will meet plenty of Russians in Georgia. I find many of them excellent company, but discussing Ukraine will not necessarily make for a jovial evening.

Email your questions to s@hols.tv or tweet @SimonCalder