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(CNN) In this week’s travel news: the best time and day to book your flights, new business and first class cabins for Qantas and Air France, and the only woman living on an island populated by convicted criminals.
When should you book your flights?
With some flight prices up by as much as 50%, it’s more important than ever to be smart about your booking strategy. An expert at travel website Hopper tells CNN that you should start tracking your May, June and July vacations now. And there’s a “Goldilocks window” to book — not too early, not too late — says another expert at travel website Going.
Check out this interactive content on CNN.com
Get your laptop and credit card out on a Sunday for the best chance of getting the best deals, says booking platform Expedia. You can refine your search even further with flight comparison site Skyscanner’s new savings generator, launched this month. Enter your departure city, your destination and your desired travel time and it will help you to determine the best booking time and the cheapest travel time.
New cabins for Qantas and Air France
As an airline, if you’re planning to launch record-breaking new 19-hour flights connecting Australia with New York and London, you damn well want to make sure you’re offering your customers a comfortable experience — especially for those with big budgets to spend in the front area.
Qantas has unveiled the first and business class prototypes for the Airbus A350 to be used on its new “Project Sunrise” routes due to start in 2025. The airline says its First Suite will feel like “a mini boutique hotel.”
This follows Air France’s unveiling last month of its sleek new long-haul business cabin, complete with sliding doors and redesigned seats. He debuted on a Boeing 777-300ER flying Paris-New York and the first destinations he will serve are New York, Rio de Janeiro and Dakar, Senegal.
Prison islands became islands of paradise
Back in 2011, Giulia Manca traveled to a former Italian prison island in search of a relaxing break. Twelve years later, she lives as the only woman on an island populated by convicted criminals and loves life in the “Alcatraz of the Tyrrhenian Sea”.
Over in Mexico, one of the country’s most notorious prisons began a new chapter as a Pacific haven in December. Formerly a penal colony on the Islas Marías archipelago, it now has a tourism center, restaurant and cafe, and villas where guests can stay before hitting the beaches.
See the world by bike
Dubai could have a covered, air-conditioned, 93-kilometer bicycle superhighway circling the city if developer URB prevails. The green-filled corridor “is designed to make Dubai the most walk- or bike-connected city in the world.”
The move could perhaps earn the Middle East hub a future spot on our list of the best cities in the world to see by bike: destinations in North America, Scandinavia and Asia-Pacific all make up the current round-up.
Two people who know global cycling culture better than most are British couple Laura Massey-Pugh and Stevie Massey, who last year became the fastest cyclists to circumnavigate the world on a tandem.
summer 69
Photos: They met on a boat to a Greek island in 1969. They have been married for over 50 years
Greek romance: Anthony Sall was an American tourist who traveled the world. Barbara Olle was a flight attendant with Air France on holiday in Greece. They met on a ferry to the Greek island of Mykonos in the summer of 1969.
Dream job: Barbara loved her job at Air France which allowed her to explore the world. “Meeting people, being in a different country on every trip with my airline friends – on safari in Africa, walking the Champs Elysees in Paris, going to my favorite hairdresser in Frankfurt – I could go on forever,” says Barbara to CNN Travel.
Fall in love: Barbara, originally from Germany, and Anthony spent a week together, first on Mykonos and then on Hydra. “We both started to realize that we couldn’t just say ‘goodbye’ at the end of the Greece experience and we had to start thinking about continuing a long-term commitment,” Anthony told CNN Travel.
Wedding day: The couple decided to get married. Here they are on their wedding day in Philadelphia. “We can’t data across the Atlantic because it wasn’t that easy back then. You couldn’t make phone calls like you can today,” says Barbara. “And so we were like, ‘Well, we either get married or we have to end it.'”
Flying Career: Barbara moved to the US to be with Anthony. She later worked for National Airlines, Pan Am and now works for Delta.
Importance of travel: Barbara and Anthony have four grown children who have all embarked on exciting journeys over the years. “They still travel a lot today,” says Barbara. “Now they’re trying to teach their kids what’s out there in the world.”
frequent flyer: Barbara is 76 and still flies regularly. Here she poses on a Delta jet last year.
Five Decades Later: Today, Anthony and Barbara fondly remember how they met while traveling in Greece in 1969. “Stories like these are seldom lived and told, but ours is one that we both cherish with all our hearts, for how many people can know each other in such a short period of time, from opposite ends of the Atlantic, and manage to piece together an enduring story like this , which continues to this day,” says Anthony.
Anthony met Barbara at a Greek ferry port in the summer of 1969. He was a 28-year-old American college grad on a third-class ticket, and she was a 24-year-old flight attendant for Air France and traveling second class.
Like Jack and Rose in Titanic, the boat’s classifications didn’t stand in the way of love. That’s how Anthony broke the barriers to meet the woman who would become his bride.
The best budget earphones
What little travel accessory are you most likely to lose — and most likely to grieve when you do? For many of us, the answer is headphones.
If you’re someone whose best travel companion is a playlist or podcast, but also don’t like breaking the bank for something that might end up on the floor of a foreign city’s subway system, you might want to take a look at this guide budget earphones. It was compiled by our partners at CNN Underscored, a CNN-owned guide to product reviews and recommendations.
Disturbing Traveler of the Week
After a short hiatus, we regret to say that unruliness is back. An American Airlines flight was diverted to a North Carolina airport on February 22 because of a disruptive passenger. The woman was taken into custody but a misdemeanor charge was dismissed.
In case you missed it
An Airbnb disaster led to a wonderful friendship across continents.
Turn on the waterworks, they will touch your heart.
This Asian nation has the most in the world “powerful” pass.
So why don’t citizens use it?
What it’s like to live off the grid in a traditional Mayan village.
And why her lifestyle is now in jeopardy.
