Arrivals & Departures Weekly Travel News & Views 22 February 2026

MANAGING MONEY

What’s the best way to manage money when you’re travelling? We’re often asked about this and we write on the subject continually in these pages, as lots of readers feel they’re navigating a maze of fees, exchange rates and security risks. And, after a series of requests from people listening to our podcast, The Pod Well Travelled, we’ve just done a big round-up. We had a full team on board for the 36-minute episode — Mogens Johansen, Penny Thomas, Megan French and me. We break down the smartest ways to pay, budget and protect your cash when you’re on the road. Subscribe to The Pod Well Travelled where you get your podcasts — and share it to your family and friends.

PS Reader Rod Blitvich, who has been raising this issue, listened to the podcast, and just wrote to us: “You nailed it!!!! Well done. Thank you. Very useful.”

IN THE FREEZER

Would you like ice with that? I think Ponant’s Le Commandant Charcot is the most seriously brilliant polar ship. As I wrote last week, it is the only passenger ship in the world with a Polar Class rating (most are PC5). And Ponant has just announced that Le Commandant Charcot will return to the Arctic for the 2026-2027 winter season. A spokesperson says: “As the only high polar exploration vessel capable of navigating through the ice in the depth of the boreal winter, this will unlock a rare opportunity for guests to explore territories otherwise unreachable during this season.” There are 16 departures from October 2026 to March 2027, sailing an area from the Baltic Sea to the shores of the St Lawrence River in Canada, including the coasts of Norway and Greenland. My pick is the 10-night voyage from Bergen in Norway to Helsinki, from the North Sea to the Baltic. au.ponant.com

LEGEND CHARCOT

Ponant’s beautiful ship is named for Jean-Baptiste Charcot, a hero of mine. Better known as Commandant Charcot, he was born near Paris in 1867 and died at sea near Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1936. Charcot was a scientist, medical doctor and polar scientist. He was leader of the French Antarctic expedition on the ship Francais from 1904 until 1907. And from 1908 until 1910, he led another Antarctic expedition, this time on the ship Pourquoi-Pas? (why not?). He explored the Bellingshausen Sea, and I recently visited Pourquoi Pas island. (Charcot’s father, Jean-Martin Charcot, was a neurologist. He described and named multiple sclerosis and is known as “the founder of modern neurology”, being associated with at least 15 medical eponyms. He was once called “the Napoleon of the neuroses”.)

GOLDEN GOOSE

The Australian tourism scene has been all a-twitch with news that international visitors have been feathering our nest. They spent as much as $2.6 billion on travel that involved birdwatching in the year to June 2024. The news comes from Tourism Research Australia, a branch within the Australian Government’s Austrade. It has also revealed that Australian “overnight travellers” spent $636 million over the same period — a 53 per cent increase over 2021.

ALASKA & CANADA

Luxury touring company APT has announced its 2026 Canada and Alaska pre-release tours. There are early-bird savings of up to $3000 per couple. With a maximum of 40 guests on each tour, they include rail and land touring, and ocean cruising. The classics, I think, are:

The 22-day Rockies Odyssey and Alaska Cruise, from $16,395 per person, twin share, beginning in Vancouver, then travelling through the Canadian Rockies on the the Rocky Mountaineer train in GoldLeaf Service. There are stays at Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise and Banff Springs before a seven-night Alaskan cruise in a veranda stateroom with Holland America Line up the Inside Passage to Juneau and Ketchikan.

The 15-day Rockies Icons and Alaska Cruise, from $12,995 per person, twin share, visits both icons and lesser-known spots, and also includes a rail journey and Inside Passage cruise.

Bring on the bears! aptouring.com.au

(Q: What do workers at a teddy bear factory do? A: Just stuff.)

CHAMPION CHIPPIES

The last time I had hot chips “out of the newspaper” in England, it was actually fancy paper printed to look like the very stuff you’re reading now. While takeaway fish and chips are all well and good, I was interested to see the annual Fry Awards, announced by Fry Magazine. After months of judging by mystery diners assessing food quality, premises cleanliness, staff expertise, value for money and ease of ordering, the 10 best fish-and-chip restaurants for 2025 are:

Catch, Giffnock, Glasgow.

Eric’s Fish & Chips, Hunstanton, Norfolk.

Fish City, Belfast.

Harbour Lights, Falmouth, Cornwall.

Pier Point Bar & Restaurant, Torquay, Devon.

Squires Fish Restaurant, Braunton, Devon.

The Elite, Tritton Road, Lincoln.

The Magpie Cafe, Whitby, North Yorkshire.

The Scallop Shell, Bath, Somerset.

Toff’s of Muswell Hill, London.

This is the awards’ 13th year and frymagazine.com also lists the 50 best fish-and-chip takeaways.

TOWING TYRES

Our story last week about the corrugations at the eastern end of Fitzgerald River National Park, on the south coast, prompted reader Lester Marston to raise a couple of old bush tricks:

“There is a little park run by the shire at Cape Keraudren (in the Pilbara) and the warden nearly every day tows a couple of big tyres behind his vehicle. The gravel road is great. Why our national park mob can’t do the same, I don’t know. They are running utes and 4WD vehicles over those roads all the time.”

“On another angle, there are no instructions on how to drive on gravel, namely let your tyres down. When you drive the Oodnadatta Track they tell you let your tyres down to protect the road. Also they tell you to slow down when a car comes the other way — be courteous.”

PS The cape is named for Pierre Keraudren (1769-1858), a scientist and physician in the French navy. He was the official medico on the Baudin expedition to Australia, which charted the cape in 1801.