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HOLIDAYMAKERS are swapping Spanish escapes for bargain breaks to North Africa, where glamour comes without the premium price tag.

Tour operator TUI has seen a rise in British passenger numbers for this winter, with particular interest in all-inclusive, luxury holidays to Egypt as well as Tunisia.

Meanwhile, easyJet recorded a growth of 14 per cent year on year to North Africa.

Garry Wilson, boss of easyJet holidays, said: “Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco offer huge potential, with high-quality hotels, brilliant value, warm hospitality and great connectivity from airports across the UK.”

Sophie Sweitochowski shares her pick of premium North African getaways for 2027 that won’t break the bank.

Grab them while they are hot.

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TAGHAZOUT, MOROCCO

THE Hilton Hilton Taghazout Bay Beach Resort & Spa is an absolute steal at under £700pp for seven nights with flights.

It’s chic and contemporary in style, with five swimming pools — one adults-only and a few overlooking the sea where you will spot surfers riding Taghazout’s notorious waves.

Bedrooms are generously sized and come with balconies, perfect for soaking up those 22C highs, plus there is a lavish spa dishing out local treatments like

Don’t skip brekkie. The extensive feast features freshly baked pastries, yoghurts, fresh fruits and live cooking stations as well as local honeys and traditional flatbreads.

GO: Seven nights’ B&B at the 5H Hilton Taghazout Bay Beach Resort & Spa is from £656pp including flights from Gatwick on December 3, plus luggage and transfers. See jet2holidays.com.

SHARM EL SHEIKH, EGYPT

IT is impossible to feel bored at the Jaz Mirabel Beach Hotel.

The sprawling resort is home to an on-site waterpark with whirling slides, a water sports centre where you can try windsurfing, parasailing and water-skiing, plus an open-air amphitheatre for regular shows and entertainment.

The highlight is the location, bordering the Red Sea. Guests can use the hotel’s private jetty to plunge into one of the best snorkelling spots in the area.

Scenic boat trips and desert safaris to traditional bedouin camps are some of the bucket list excursions on offer from the hotel.

GO: Seven nights’ all-inclusive at the 5H Jaz Mirabel Beach Hotel is from £762pp including flights from East Midlands on December 14. See tui.co.uk.

SOUSSE, TUNISIA

A CHAMPAGNE lifestyle on a lemonade budget is achievable in Tunisia, especially at the Sousse Palace Hotel & Spa.

Right in the centre of town, there are glam restaurants and bars right on the doorstep — not that you will need them with this all-inclusive package, however.

The main buffet restaurant operates around a theme of international dishes every night with live cooking and meat carving stations.

If you are willing to shell out a little extra, though, you should visit the hotel’s Le 12ème which serves elegant plates such as freshly-caught fish carpaccio and slow-cooked lamb shank.

Outside of the food, there’s a sandy beach, wellness centre with a traditional Tunisian hammam, steam rooms and massage suites, and several swimming pools.

GO: Seven nights’ all-inclusive at the 5H Sousse Palace Hotel & Spa is from £360pp including flights from Gatwick on November 25. See easyjet.com/en/holidays.

MARRAKECH, MOROCCO

ON the hunt for a relaxing couples break? The Be Live Collection Marrakech is an adults-only haven, set back from the chaos of the city centre but with a free daily shuttle bus direct to Jemaa el-Fnaa square.

There is a quiet pool if you are after complete relaxation, while the activity pool has a livelier atmosphere.

If you have never experienced a traditional Moroccan hammam, this is the place to do it.

The wellness area is equipped with two authentic traditional Moroccan hammams where therapists use authentic black soap to remove dead skin cells.

Come night time, indulge in a drink at one of the four sleek bars.

GO: Seven nights’ all-inclusive at the 5H Be Live Collection Marrakech is from £479pp including flights from Manchester on December 12. See loveholidays.com.

HAMMAMET, TUNISIA

ON a private beach and surrounded by greenery, The Sindbad offers pure luxury escapism in the heart of the town.

Its infinity pool looks a little like the sort you would get in a fancy Ibiza or Mykonos resort, only this place is a fraction of the price.

In to golf? The resort offers discounted green fees to Yasmine Golf Club and Citrus Golf Club, two of Tunisia’s top 18-hole courses, with free shuttle buses.

The buffet restaurant is excellent and a great opportunity to sample the local cuisine such as couscous and brik, a mashed potato dish usually served with fish.

GO: Seven nights’ B&B at the 5H The Sindbad is from £370pp including flights from Newcastle on December 10. See travelsupermarket.com.

The plaintiffs argue they are losing access to vital information media outlets covering Trump used to provide.

A group of private citizens has sued the administration of United States President Donald Trump over its restrictions on news outlets covering the White House.

“All of the Plaintiffs rely on the White House press corps for independent reporting about the president and his administration, and all of them use that reporting in a variety of ways in their scholarship, teaching, journalism, or advocacy,” says the lawsuit, filed on Monday in a federal court in New York.

The lawsuit is the first lodged not by the news outlets being banned, but by those who consume the news and rely on it for their work.

The plaintiffs include a human rights advocate, a media watchdog, a university history professor, a high school teacher, a legal journalist and a student journalist.

Each argues they need unbiased, diverse media reporting from the White House to do their work.

“I’m gravely concerned that the Trump administration’s restrictions on White House reporters are cutting off access to crucial information,” Peter Schmidt-Nowara, a high school social studies teacher in New York City, said in a statement.

“I joined this lawsuit because my students deserve to know what’s happening in their government and to hear from a free and independent press.”

Trump already faces several legal challenges to his practice of banning journalists from outlets he dislikes from accessing the White House.

Last month, he banned journalists from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from attending news conferences at the White House. A federal judge later ruled the order was unconstitutional, a violation of the First Amendment, which protects freedom of the press, and ordered access be restored. However, the Trump administration continues to fight the ruling.

Last week, Trump dismissed reporting that he planned to evict journalists from the White House press briefing room and restore a swimming pool that was housed there starting in 1933. But he said he is still considering moving the press out of the briefing room.

“I am thinking about moving the Press, and putting them in a different location, but I will use that location for very badly needed space,” Trump said in a social media post.

Kenneth Roth, a senior fellow at Yale University and former executive director of Human Rights Watch, said the restrictions on press access were familiar postmarks in countries whose leaders have become authoritarian.

“Worldwide, I have seen how governmental leaders’ efforts to penalise independent journalists are a prelude to the rise of autocracy,” he said in a statement.

THIS is easily the best way to ray-se your holiday game.

Swimming with stingrays on a sandbar in the Caribbean, a 25-minute boat trip from Grand Cayman.

Standing in the warm, waist-deep water amid dozens of these exotic animals is about as close to the ultimate relaxation as you can imagine.

They are totally conditioned to visitors, there’s very little danger of a Steve Irwin moment — and I found it hard to resist the chance to pose while kissing one, though it’s probably not the most ecologically sound thing to do.

The kiss was a bit sloppy and rubbery, but the stingray said she’d had worse.

There really is no better escape from our miserable weather than a Caribbean cruise, gleefully ticking the sun, sand and sea boxes.

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Your only questions are which ship, which ports and what to do when you’re not chilling with the fishes.

We were delighted to be on board Holland America’s Nieuw Statendam, which we joined in Fort Lauderdale, for a week-long voyage stopping in the Bahamas, Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel, an island just off the Mexican coast.

It’s a lovely ship, a nice size with just over 2,500 passengers, and all the bells and whistles you would expect in such a luxury floating hotel.

We loved the Crow’s Nest, the top-deck bar which is the place to be on a sea day, sampling cocktails and deciding which of the many restaurants to eat in that evening, while wondering who those people are who actually spend time in the admittedly well-equipped gym.

We could see people sweating away in there while we went for a stroll around the open decks, stepping carefully over the jogging track and gently bickering over how much to spend playing roulette in the casino.

That is the key point of cruising. It is not normal. Normal life doesn’t have free food at every turn (and free drinks if you invest in the Have It All package) — and if you’re not cruising you don’t pitch up at a private island in the Bahamas very often.

Holland America’s Half Moon Cay featured gorgeous, white-sand beaches to sunbathe on or snorkel off, a friendly bar, a tasty BBQ and, best of all . . . sea horses.

Sorry, not sea horses, but horses that go in the sea. It was truly exhilarating, riding around the paddock and beach first before heading into the water on horseback — and galloping, then swimming through the waves, with no fear of falling off as you’re guaranteed a soft landing.

One fellow rider asked how well the horses were looked after, and got the reassuring response from an animal welfare point of view: “Better than the staff!”

From Half Moon Cay, it was next stop Jamaica, making port in Ocho Rios on the north of the island.

There really are lots of options and excursions for you to pick over and plan for here before you board, including ziplining for the adventurous, river rafting — and the classic, climbing Dunn’s River Falls.

We opted for the waterfalls and it was a lot of fun, going up the river in small groups with everyone buzzing, laughing, splashing and helping each other over the tougher bits (they’re not that tough, I’m an unfit sixty-something and coped).

Reward yourself with a tasty ice-cream at the end before making the short trip back to the ship.

And the options for amusement on board are just as varied. Sit back and enjoy more laughter with a top comedian, take in a bit of live music or a show — and dance the night away.

Or pit your wits in a quiz, challenge your partner to a game of chess, watch a movie or simply sit back and relax with a good book.

Nieuw Amsterdam also offers a host of options for both live and recorded entertainment, and a packed programme of talks and activities.

We had great nights enjoying the live shows in B.B. King’s Blues Club, with the talented All-Stars house band making music and memories, though I do need to find a better quiz team as our pre-show performance in the general-knowledge tester was sadly lacking.

We also enjoyed treat meals and wines in The Pinnacle Grill, Tamarind and Morimoto by Sea, all well worth the supplement — though the standard of cuisine is excellent throughout the vessel, from the buffet to the main dining rooms, and not forgetting the essential late-night pizza availability after watching movies by moonlight on the open deck.

Our last port of call before sailing back to Florida was Cozumel, a charming if tourist-centric island a short ferry ride from the Mexican mainland.

Again, build up your anticipation of your cruise by selecting activities before you go.

We had tough decisions to make, I was well up for going to watch a Lucha Libre show — you know, the Mexican wrestling where they wear masks and get all acrobatic.

Passengers who did go to that loved it, but we decided to stick with what we do best — swimming with things.

Having already snogged a stingray and gone galloping through the waves on horseback, this time we were off to get up close and personal with manatees.

They were terrific, crunching down on heads of lettuce — and a real highlight of this corker of a Caribbean cruise.

Wife Lucy loved them — but has a soft spot for a leathery-skinned, rotund, slow-moving mammal.

SACRAMENTO — A private prison company is challenging a new California law requiring detention centers to provide medical care, privacy and other civil rights to people detained by federal immigration authorities.

GEO Group, a for-profit prison company, filed a complaint in federal court over Senate Bill 942, also called the Civil Detainees’ Bill of Rights Act of 2026. It mandates that immigrant and other detainees are afforded privacy, safety, hygienic living conditions and other rights.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the law last week as part of a package of bills to push back on the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement, which the Democratic governor described as “Orwellian.” GEO Group filed its complaint the day after Newsom signed the law.

SB 942 declares that detainees at state, local and privately run facilities have the right to medical, dental and mental health care; physical exercise; clean drinking water and functioning toilets; and other rights. It allows the attorney general to bring civil action against private and public entities that allegedly violate those rights.

GEO Group attorneys argue in the federal complaint that while California elected officials “may disagree with federal immigration policy,” the state “may not impose its preferred immigration-detention standards on federal detention operations, whether those standards would tighten, loosen, supplement, or otherwise alter the federal framework.”

According to its website, the company operates six detention facilities in California, four of which are housing detainees under contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That includes a shuttered state prison that began holding ICE detainees earlier this year.

GEO Group has had some previous success challenging laws seeking to undermine the private prison industry’s role in federal immigration enforcement. A federal court struck down a 2019 law that attempted to bar any “private detention facility within the state” after the company filed suit.

Representatives for GEO Group did not respond to a request for comment. Spokespeople for Newsom, Atty Gen. Rob Bonta and state Sen. Anna Caballero (D-Salinas), who authored the bill, did not immediately comment on the lawsuit.