What makes a great city? The man who knows is top geographer David Gilbert, Professor of Urban and Historical Geography at The Royal Holloway Centre for the GeoHumanities. He tells me the key virtues of cities, and kindly takes part in a quickfire round in which he has less than a second to decide whether a city is great or not. You may be surprised by some of his answers ...

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Captain David Sanders, who has a long and distinguished career in aviation, tells me how passengers could help themselves by turning up on time and not drinking to excess; the joys of flying; and the most beautiful flightpaths.

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It's Travel Desk Tuesday, and cruise writer Marc Shoffman is bringing me up to speed on the joys of river cruising – in Europe and beyond.

This podcast is free, as is Independent Travel's weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.