How Do the Queen and Royal Family Travel Abroad?

Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, stand with Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince William at Westminster Abbey for a Commonwealth Day service in London, Britain March 11, 2019. (Reuters)
Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, stand with Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince William at Westminster Abbey for a Commonwealth Day service in London, Britain March 11, 2019. (Reuters)
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How Do the Queen and Royal Family Travel Abroad?

Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, stand with Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince William at Westminster Abbey for a Commonwealth Day service in London, Britain March 11, 2019. (Reuters)
Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, stand with Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince William at Westminster Abbey for a Commonwealth Day service in London, Britain March 11, 2019. (Reuters)

It's no surprise that members of the British royal family are among the world's most well-traveled individuals. They frequently jet overseas on official business, and are also no strangers to holidaying in far-flung, and, of course, secluded destinations.

Sometimes, this is by private plane, but the Queen's relatives have also been spotted on budget airlines, scheduled trains, and behind the wheel themselves, reported the Town & Country website.

Travel arrangements for official visits are determined by the Royal Travel Office, which takes into account security, cost and logistics before coming up with a plan.

Sometimes, this involves a charter plane which allows royals and their entourage to more easily stop off in multiple countries or islands, such as when Prince Charles and Camilla visited Cuba and the Caribbean earlier this year.

For that trip, which cost £416,576 (roughly $506,286), Prince Charles used the UK ministerial jet, the Royal Air Force's VIP Voyager, which is available to royals and British government officials.

For other visits, commercial flights are deemed more appropriate, like when Prince Harry and Meghan traveled first class with Qantas for their tour of Australia and New Zealand in 2018.

During this trip they also used a charter plane, which cost £81,002 (roughly $98,444) to travel to Fiji and Tonga.

Usually, the British public pick up the bill for official overseas travel except when the royals are visiting Commonwealth Realms (countries where the Queen is also Head of State), in which case the host country pays. While off-duty members of the royal family have been known to use both private planes and budget airlines.

Prince William and Kate, for example, have borrowed the private jet belonging to the Duke of Westminster for family vacations in Europe. When they holiday on the Caribbean island Mustique, they usually travel first class with British Airways to St. Lucia before taking another 30 minute flight to the private island. However, the couple has also been spotted on the budget airline EasyJet while heading on a skiing break.

Harry and Meghan were also seen sitting in economy on a scheduled British Airways flight to Nice in December 2017 en route to ring in the New Year. However, they have also both used private jets, with Harry recently taking one to Google's Climate Change summit and Meghan returning from her baby shower in New York on one.

No one covering Prince Harry and Meghan's trip to Cardiff in January 2018 could forget the stormy look on Harry's face when he stepped out of the car an hour late thanks to a train delay. The couple had boarded the first class carriage of a regular rail service from London Paddington that morning but found themselves held up when the train was moved to a slower track.

Other regular train journeys have gone more smoothly and the young royals in particular often choose this mode of transport, especially to visit major cities.

The Queen also uses a regular train service every year to start her Christmas break at Sandringham, boarding at London's King's Cross and disembarking at Norfolk's King's Lynn station. This all appears pretty frugal; however, there is also the small matter of the Royal Train, which is still occasionally used by members of the family.

Regulations permit the royals to use public funds to travel from residence to residence, trips they often make by helicopter. The Queen's Helicopter Flight currently has two helicopters in operation, which are based at RAF Odiham.



Scottish Antiques Auction Selling Neck Shackles Accused of ‘Profiting from Slavery’

“I think it’s important not to upset and offend, but shock people into learning the whole truth,” the auctioneer, Marcus Salter, said. (Cheeky Auctions Tain)
“I think it’s important not to upset and offend, but shock people into learning the whole truth,” the auctioneer, Marcus Salter, said. (Cheeky Auctions Tain)
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Scottish Antiques Auction Selling Neck Shackles Accused of ‘Profiting from Slavery’

“I think it’s important not to upset and offend, but shock people into learning the whole truth,” the auctioneer, Marcus Salter, said. (Cheeky Auctions Tain)
“I think it’s important not to upset and offend, but shock people into learning the whole truth,” the auctioneer, Marcus Salter, said. (Cheeky Auctions Tain)

An antiques auction selling chains linked to the enslavement of African people in Zanzibar has been accused of “profiting from slavery,” according to The Guardian.

The shackles, dated to 1780 and valued at about £1,000, are among objects listed in the auction, called “Challenging History.”

The auctioneer Marcus Salter, of Cheeky Auctions in Tain, Ross, said he wanted to ensure history was confronted with the sale of the “sensitive artifact” and did not wish to offend.

“I think it’s important not to upset and offend, but shock people into learning the whole truth,” Salter said. “There are certain things we’re not allowed to sell at auction. We had to check with the platform we’re selling with that we could do this. They consider the slave chains to be a historical artefact, therefore we can.

But Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group for Afrikan reparations, said trading in such items meant people were “continuing to profit from the slave trade.”

She said, “If they were to be put in a museum I would understand, but buying and selling them like oddities is the same thing that people do when it comes to human remains– treating them as collector’s items, something to be fetishized rather than items that should be looked at in horror.”

Salter said he was selling the chains for a dealer whose father had owned them for 50 years, adding: “No matter what happens there’s going to be money made out of it from somewhere.”

He claimed if the item was donated to a museum, it could be “put into storage and never seen again”, and that slavery-linked mahogany was sold and used without controversy.

In 2024, the Antiques Roadshow expert Ronnie Archer-Morgan refused to value an ivory bangle linked to enslavement.

Caecilia Dance, an associate at London law firm Wedlake Bell, has advised on the restitution of Nazi-looted art. Dance said she could not comment on the auction, but that there was “no specific law against” trading objects linked to slavery.

She added that “public interest stewardship” – donation, sale, or long-term loan to a museum with relationships with affected communities – would be the “ideal management pathway” for an item linked to slavery.


Crews Recover Bodies of 9 Backcountry Skiers Days after California Avalanche

A California Highway Patrol helicopter lifts off from Truckee Tahoe Airport while taking part in recovery efforts for the skiers that died in an avalanche in the Sierra Nevada mountains, in Truckee, California, US February 21, 2026.  REUTERS/Fred Greaves
A California Highway Patrol helicopter lifts off from Truckee Tahoe Airport while taking part in recovery efforts for the skiers that died in an avalanche in the Sierra Nevada mountains, in Truckee, California, US February 21, 2026. REUTERS/Fred Greaves
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Crews Recover Bodies of 9 Backcountry Skiers Days after California Avalanche

A California Highway Patrol helicopter lifts off from Truckee Tahoe Airport while taking part in recovery efforts for the skiers that died in an avalanche in the Sierra Nevada mountains, in Truckee, California, US February 21, 2026.  REUTERS/Fred Greaves
A California Highway Patrol helicopter lifts off from Truckee Tahoe Airport while taking part in recovery efforts for the skiers that died in an avalanche in the Sierra Nevada mountains, in Truckee, California, US February 21, 2026. REUTERS/Fred Greaves

Crews recovered the bodies of nine backcountry skiers who were killed by an avalanche in California's Sierra Nevada, authorities said Saturday, concluding a harrowing operation that was hindered by intense snowfall.

A search team reached the bodies of eight victims and found one other who had been missing and presumed dead since Tuesday’s avalanche on Castle Peak near Lake Tahoe. The ninth person who was missing was found “relatively close” to the other victims, according to Nevada County Sheriff’s Lt. Dennis Hack, but was impossible to see due to whiteout conditions at that time.

At a news conference, Sheriff Shannon Moon praised the collective efforts of the numerous agencies that helped recover the bodies — from the California Highway Patrol to the National Guard to the Pacific Gas & Electric utility company — and 42 volunteers who helped on the last day of the operation.

“We are fortunate in this mountain community that we are very tight-knit, and our community shows up in times of tragedy,” The Associated Press quoted Moon as saying.

The sheriff named for the first time the three guides from Blackbird Mountain Company who died: Andrew Alissandratos, 34, Nicole Choo, 42, and Michael Henry, 30.

According to biographies on the company's website, Alissandratos was originally from Tampa, Florida, and moved to Tahoe roughly a decade ago. He enjoyed a wide array of adventure activities, from backcountry exploration to rock climbing.

Henry moved to Colorado in 2016 and then to Truckee three years later. He was described as “laid back” and devoted to sharing his knowledge and love of the mountains with others.

There was no bio for Choo on the website.

“This was an enormous tragedy, and the saddest event our team has ever experienced,” Blackbird Mountain founder Zeb Blais said Wednesday in a statement.

“We are doing what we can to support the families who lost so much,” he said, “and the members of our team who lost treasured friends and colleagues.”

The six other fatal victims were women who were part of a close-knit group of friends who were experienced backcountry skiers and knew how to navigate the Sierra Nevada wilderness, their families said this week.

They were identified as Carrie Atkin, Liz Clabaugh, Danielle Keatley, Kate Morse, Caroline Sekar and Kate Vitt, all in their 40s. They lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, Idaho and the Lake Tahoe area.

“We are devastated beyond words,” the families said in a statement. “Our focus right now is supporting our children through this incredible tragedy and honoring the lives of these extraordinary women. They were all mothers, wives and friends, all of whom connected through the love of the outdoors.”

The families asked for privacy while they grieve and added that they “have many unanswered questions.”

Two of the friends got out alive and were rescued along with four others, including one guide, after Tuesday’s avalanche. Their names have not been released.

The avalanche struck on the last day of the 15 skiers’ three-day tour, when the group decided to end the trip early to avoid the impending snowstorm.

Officials have said the path they took is a “normally traveled route” but declined to specify what that meant.

At around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, the six survivors called for help, describing a sudden and terrifying slide that was approximately the length of a football field. In the aftermath they discovered the bodies of three fellow skiers, according to Hack.

Rescuers were not able to reach them until roughly six hours after the initial call for help, Hack said, and took two separate paths to arrive. They found five other bodies, leaving only one person unaccounted for.

But it was immediately clear to rescuers that it was too dangerous to extract the bodies at that time due to the heavy snowfall and threat of more avalanches.

Those conditions persisted on Wednesday and Thursday.

A breakthrough on Friday Authorities used two California Highway Patrol helicopters, with the help of Pacific Gas & Electric Company, to break up the snow and intentionally release unstable snowpack to reduce the avalanche risk.

Crews were then able to recover five victims that evening before it got too dark to access the last three.

Rescuers used helicopters and ropes to hoist the last four bodies from the mountain the following morning, fighting through severe winds that forced them to make multiple trips. The bodies were then taken to snowcats — trucks that are outfitted to drive on snow — for further transport.

“We cannot say enough how tremendously sorry we are for the families that have been affected by this avalanche,” Moon said.

Initial reports indicated that at least two of the surviving skiers were not swept away by the avalanche, Hack said. The others were standing separately and relatively close together and were hit.

Hack declined to offer information about what might have set off the avalanche.

Authorities close the area The terrain will be off-limits to visitors until mid-March, said Chris Feutrier, forest supervisor for the Tahoe National Forest. Officials intended to restore public access once the investigation is complete.

“This is the public’s land, and they love to recreate on it,” Feutrier said. “The Forest Service doesn’t close public land for every hazard or every obstacle. We trust the American people to use their best judgment when recreating.”


Riyadh Municipality Decorates Capital with Over 5,000 Lights for Founding Day

The capital's streets have transformed into vibrant displays of national pride, embodying 299 years of continuous development and progress - SPA
The capital's streets have transformed into vibrant displays of national pride, embodying 299 years of continuous development and progress - SPA
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Riyadh Municipality Decorates Capital with Over 5,000 Lights for Founding Day

The capital's streets have transformed into vibrant displays of national pride, embodying 299 years of continuous development and progress - SPA
The capital's streets have transformed into vibrant displays of national pride, embodying 299 years of continuous development and progress - SPA

The Riyadh Municipality has illuminated the capital's main streets, vital thoroughfares, and public squares with over 5,000 decorative lights in celebration of Saudi Founding Day.

The project involved installing 5,481 decorative lights across various locations to enhance the festive atmosphere throughout Riyadh's neighborhoods, giving the city a harmonious visual character that reflects profound pride in the nation's rich history, SPA reported.

As light and identity intertwine, the capital's streets have transformed into vibrant displays of national pride, embodying 299 years of continuous development and progress.

The transformation reflects the deep significance of Founding Day in the hearts of citizens and translates their loyalty to the leadership's blessed journey.