Travel Briefs

The Agatha Christie International Festival (www.agatha christiefestival.com), held annually in Devon, England, will celebrate the 125th anniversary of Christie’s birth in 2015. The festival will take place Sept. 11-19 at Torre Abbey in Torquay, the town where Christie was born (on Sept. 15, 1890) and raised.

A tour, “The Agatha Christie Full-Day Tour,” includes visits to Greenway (Christie’s holiday home), the Imperial Hotel and the Grand Hotel, with lunch at The Weary Ploughman Inn...

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Located in Abu Dhabi’s Yas Mall, ROGO’s is the world’s largest roller coaster-inspired restaurant.

Diners at the 2-story, 360-seat restaurant place food orders using handheld digital tablets while seated at their tables. Food is delivered in a covered pot or jar strapped to a tray that slides, secured but gravity driven, down one of 30 “roller coaster” tracks that loop and twist around the dining room.

The international and fast-food items include dishes like Tornado Burgers...

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As of the start of 2015, travelers on tours with Overseas Adventure Travel and Grand Circle Travel (Boston, MA; 800/955-1925, www.oattravel.com or www.gct.com) no longer are being asked to tip local guides and motorcoach drivers. Except for tips to the tour leader, gratuities now are included in the tour price. This policy also includes guides and drivers on Grand Circle Cruise Lines shore tours but not ships’ staff.

In addition, until further notice, guests of all Africa tours with...

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On Nov. 10 in Egypt, after four years of renovations, the courtyard area around the Sphinx at Giza reopened to visitors.

Sitting in a horseshoe-shaped courtyard, the Sphinx was carved out of a limestone quarry that was the source of the stone blocks used in constructing the pyramids and temples of the Giza Necropolis. The renovations included shoring up walls of the quarry and repairing cracks in the neck and chest area of the Sphinx.

Also, the Menkaure pyramid, smallest of the...

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A 16-year restoration of the Virgin Mary Church in Cairo, Egypt, was completed in October.

Once the seat of the Coptic Pope, the church, also known as El Muallaqa, or the Hanging Church, because it sits above the gatehouse of the Babylon Fortress, is one of the most important and oldest sites in Coptic Christianity. It houses 110 religious icons, including one of the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ and St. John the Baptist that dates back to the eighth century.

The church is located...

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Near Munich, Germany, the wrought-iron gate at the Dachau concentration camp was stolen on Nov. 3. The gate proclaimed the slogan “Arbeit Macht Frei” (“Work Makes You Free”), as did the gate to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, which was stolen in December 2009. Recovered later, the Auschwitz gate had been cut into three pieces, and a Swedish man with neo-Nazi ties was arrested for having ordered its theft.

Dachau, built in 1933, was the first Nazi concentration camp opened...

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Visitors to Myanmar now can apply for eVisas online; visit http://evisa.moip.gov.mm. The eVisas, which cost $50 each, are available only to tourists, are valid for trips up to 28 days and are good for three months from the date of issue. Holders of eVisas are limited in their arrival destinations to Yangon, Mandalay and Nay Pyi Taw international airports.

The first automatic teller machine (ATM) in Somalia began accepting transactions in September 2014 in the capital, Mogadishu. Owned by Salaam Somali Bank and located at the luxury Jazeera Palace Hotel (Airport Road, Mogadishu; phone +252 1 857500, www.jazeerapalace.com), the ATM accepts Visa and MasterCard (including debit cards) and American Express and provides only US dollars. (Somalia’s currency, the shilling, has almost no value.)

Salaam Somali Bank has plans to add ATM locations...

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