Photo: Monica Arellano-Ongpin from Anghiari (AR), Italy · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
What to look for, two weeks out
Transport strikes are the single most common disruption in Europe and they are announced days in advance in national media, often only in the local language. Public holidays are the second: in much of southern Europe, shops, pharmacies and intercity buses run on a different schedule around them, and a long weekend can empty a city or fill it entirely.
Third are the seasonal specifics that never make international coverage — a water shortage with restrictions, an early ski closure, a beach closed for weeks after a storm.
Why the international feed is not enough
International outlets report a country when something dramatic happens. What travellers need is the ordinary layer underneath: the announcement that the metro line closes in August, the note that the border crossing has changed its hours. That layer only exists in domestic reporting.
Aggregators help here because they sit between the two. A news site that gathers reporting by country makes it possible to scan a destination without following a dozen individual outlets — useful for the ten minutes you are willing to spend before booking.
A practical routine
• Two weeks before departure: scan the country page for transport, weather and any national event on your dates.
• Three days before: check again — strikes are usually announced within that window.
• On arrival: look once at local reporting for the region you are in, not the capital.
For Germany, as one example, the country pages, for example the German one collect exactly that kind of domestic reporting — economy, regional news and the announcements that decide whether your train runs.
The counterweight
One caution: reading foreign news about a place you are about to visit produces a distorted picture, because news selects for problems. A country in the middle of a political row is usually a perfectly pleasant place to spend a week. Use the news for logistics and dates, not for deciding whether a destination is worth going to.
That distinction — practical information from local sources, judgement from your own experience — is the whole trick. It costs ten minutes and it has saved more trips than any packing list.