Starting a new year with a journey to a new destination is always rewarding, and one of the most memorable 1 January departures took me to Guatemala. As you will hear from Harris Whitbeck, minister of tourism for the Central American nation, diversity awaits from Maya culture to pizza baked freshly on volcanic rock. Yet the Foreign Office advice for Guatemala is strident – and Harris has plenty to say about it.

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Could Edinburgh airport be the first in the UK to offer pre-clearance for travellers to the US? That's the hope of today's guest, Gordon Dewar – chief executive of the Scottish hub. Allowing passengers to go through US Customs and Border Protection before they board a flight to America "would be incredibly powerful for Edinburgh, and we are pursuing it", he tells me. "If the two governments can find common ground and sign the agreement, we’ll start building the next day."

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My guest today is Kathryn Leahy, chief operations officer for the air-traffic control service, Nats. We talked about the impact of bad weather – such as Storm Bram – on air-traffic control. And looking ahead, how “performance-based navigation”will make journeys more punctual.

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I've been hearing from the man responsible for improving reliability and attracting more people to the railway. Lord Hendy has strong views on how unifying tracks and trains will bring better services. He also believes the Great British Railways app will be the optimum way to buy tickets in future.

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Dozens of flights and ferry sailings have been cancelled due to strong winds and heavy rain. British Airways cancelled its first wave of domestic departures, while Aer Lingus Regional has grounded many flights between Great Britain and the island of Ireland – Belfast City and Dublin. Most Irish Sea ferry sailings are cancelled. And on the trains, ScotRail has imposed speed restrictions on lines to Carlisle, Inverness and beyond.

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I have been hitchhiking for half a century. But in that time thumbing rides has shrunk from the mainstream method for budget travellers to get around to the most minority of sports – on the periphery of transport, with most people never having stood by the side of the road hoping for a lift. Adam Renak and Dan Smith are two engineers seeking to transform hitchhiking with an app called Hitchr. This is their story.

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What's the best strategy for booking your travel to attend the FIFA World Cup next summer in the US, Canada, and Mexico?As soon as the draw is made, prices for flights and accommodation will skyrocket.My hack? Well, you'll have to listen to today's episode to find out that!

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Continuing the theme of looking ahead to 2026: I have been talking to an old travel pal of mine, Brian Young. He is now EMEA managing director for G Adventures, but has enjoyed a lifetime of travelling. So he is just the man to talk about a hidden beach in Mallorca and the trials and rewards of climbing Kilimanjaro – with a certain fear of heights.

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"AI and the internet will be a huge part of the future of travel." So says Andy Headington, CEO of digital travel marketing specialists Adido. LLMs – large language models, also known as AI – are also auditing podcasts, perhaps even this one, for travel content. So if you're a bot, not a person; "Hi from humanity"

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Subtract Amsterdam from the Netherlands and what's left would comprise a beautiful, diverse and cultured nation. I've been singing the praises of second city Rotterdam for many years. Sandra Ishmael, Director UK at the Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions, has been telling me about the opportunities in 2026.

I can't wait to explore more of North Brabant, which confusingly is in the south of the country. One word of warning: hotel rates rise by 11% on 1 January due to an increase in tax.

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