Travel Briefs

All tickets for the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Feb. 7-23, 2014, are being sold online through CoSport; only Visa cards are accepted for payment.

CoSport began accepting “Expressions of Interest” applications for tickets Dec. 14, 2012, and tickets went on sale Feb. 11, 2013. At press time, individual event tickets were no longer for sale, though more may be released. Still available are ticket/hotel packages.

Example — a 3-day/2-night “Flex” package, including hotel,...

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Talking statues, shrinking rooms, underground labyrinths, a griffin, a glass pyramid: these are a few of the weird wonders at the Forbidden Corner (Tupgill Park Estate, Middleham, Leyburn, North Yorkshire, DL8 4TJ, U.K.; phone +44 [0] 01969 640638), one of Britain’s oddest attractions. Initially one man’s private pleasure garden, the park was opened to the public in 1994.

Admission through prebooked tickets only (online or call). £11 (near $16.50) adult, £10 senior, £9 child (4-15),...

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Auto Museum Moncopulli (phone 64 210744, [website in Spanish]), 80 miles north of Puerto Montt in southern Chile, boasts 100 vintage cars, 26 of them Studebakers dating from the ’30s to ’60s. Among other makes are a Ford Model T and a 1965 Ford Thunderbird.

Located at km 25, Ruta International 215, in Puyehue, Osorno province, the museum is open 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Dec. 15-March 15 and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. March 16-Dec. 14 (closed Jan. 1 & Dec. 25). $4 adult or $1 child.

Outdoor adventurer Bear Grylls and Worldwide Experience have created the Bear Grylls Survival Academy (877/742-2925), offering survival-skills courses led by crew members of the “Man vs Wild” and “Born Survivor” TV shows featured on the Discovery Channel.

The 5-day fall courses, each of which ends with a 36-hour wilderness expedition, currently take place in the Scottish Highlands. For select courses, Bear will make an appearance (dependent on his schedule). Limited to 10...

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In Barcelona, Spain, Gray Line’s GourmetBus (Balmes, 5; phone 902 024 443) offers travelers a 3-course meal by a Michelin-starred chef and a 3-hour tour that passes popular sites, including Gaudí’s Casa Batlló, Gaudí’s La Pedrera, the Sagrada Familia cathedral, the Torre Agbar, the Arc de Triomf and Port Olimpic.

The bus, which has three 4-person tables and three 2-person tables with facing seats, features a glass-fronted kitchen where meals are prepared. Each seat includes an iPad to...

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The 80th anniversary of Hitler’s rise to power is being commemorated in Berlin in 2013 with events and exhibits, including pillars in public spaces adorned with biographies and photographs of people who left their mark on pre-1930s Berlin. For details, visit www.berlin.de/2013 or contact the Berlin tourism office (phone +49 30 25 00 23 33).

The related exhibit “Diversity Destroyed,” showing Berlin’s transition from a diverse center of the arts in the 1930s to a repressive Nazi state,...

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Quito, Ecuador's, new Mariscal Sucre International Airport, in the Tababela district 12 miles east of the city center, was scheduled to begin operating in February. The airport replaces the older, more centrally located Mariscal Sucre International, which, due to its being surrounded by mountains, is unable to be expanded to accommodate increased air traffic or larger aircraft.

Effective Jan.1, 2013, Americans traveling through China to another country via Beijing or Shanghai may stay in their transit city for 72 hours without securing a visa. In Shanghai, transit travelers holding third-country visas and plane tickets can enter the city through two airports: Hongqiao (SHA) or Pudong (PVG). In Beijing, transit passengers can enter only through Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK).