Travel Briefs

Begun in 2005, the project to clear the sand and silt that has built up around Le Mont-Saint-Michel continues, restoring its natural marine landscape, with completion set for 2015. On April 28, 2012, a 4,150-space car park will open with a tourist information center, toilets, a pet kennel and baggage lockers. It will serve as the departure point for transportation to the Mont, as visitors no longer will be allowed to drive themselves to the site.

Six 50-seat maringotes, or horse-drawn...

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Travelers with connecting flights at any of three London airports can reserve a stay in airside (i.e., past security checkpoint) lounges and, at Heathrow, guest rooms operated by No.1 Traveller (phone 08442 64 64 40, www.no1lounges.com).

• Airport lounges are in Heathrow Terminal 3; Gatwick North and South terminals, and Stansted gates 16 and 49. Amenities include cinema, bistro, game room, business center and free WiFi. £25 (near $39) for three hours; £7.50 for each extra hour....

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Francis Ford Coppola Resorts’ Blancaneaux Lodge (Mountain Pine Ridge Reserve, P.O. Box B, Central Farm, Cayo District, Belize; phone 011 501 824 3878 or, from US and Canada, 800/746-3743, www.coppolaresorts.com) offers hotel guests day trips to three local caves.

Barton Creek Cave, an ancient burial site that is visited via canoe, allows viewers to see stalagmites and stalactites, pottery shards and remains in the water below.

Trips, at varying difficulty levels, depart at 8 a....

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For smartphones or mp3 devices, 12 self-guided audio tours of Jerusalem’s Old City can be downloaded for free at www.jerusalem-oldcity.org.il. Among them are “Via Dolorosa,” “The Herodian Quarter” and “Marketplaces in the Old City.” Most tours take two to four hours (depending on walking speed); five are handicapped accessible.

Each tour download includes maps, written descriptions of the sights in four languages, and audio and video tracks. Brochures of the tours are available in...

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Guests at The Gleneagles Hotel (Auchterader, Perthshire, Scotland; phone, in the US, 866/881-9525 or, internationally, 01764 662231), a Leading Hotels of the World member, can attend Gleneagles Shooting School during their stay.

A one-hour archery lesson for one person costs £52 (near $82) and for two people, £70. A clay-pigeon target-shooting lesson (25 cartridges) costs £62. An air rifle lesson on the 55-meter rifle range costs £70. Classes in hunting with a gundog, horseback riding...

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Takabisha roller coaster near Mt. Fuji.

With a drop angle of 121 degrees, the world’s steepest roller coaster is Takabisha at Japan’s Fuji-Q High Land amusement park (5-6-1 ShinNishihara, Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi, Honshu, Japan; phone 055-23-2111).

The 2-minute-long ride, which opened in 2011, includes seven inversions, attains a height of 141 feet and reaches speeds of 100 kph (62 mph). It’s one of seven roller coasters at Fuji-Q park, southeast of Mt. Fuji.

In addition to height restrictions for riders (no one...

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In Inari, Finland, you can visit a farm of the indigenous Sámi people, meet reindeer herders and feed their charges, join a reindeer drive or even try to lasso one of the semidomesticated animals.

A two-hour farm excursion costs €50 (near $65) and can be arranged year-round. During the June-August high season visits are scheduled at 3 p.m. Monday-Friday. Reserve through your hotel in Inari or e-mail inari@visitinari.fi. For info on northern Lapland, visit www.saariselka.fi.

Every two years, the Grand’Place in Brussels, Belgium, is transformed into a 2,000-square-meter carpet of almost a million brightly colored begonias, laid down in one day by 100 craftsmen.

Each carpet has a different theme; 2012’s will have an African motif. The carpet will be open to the public at 10 p.m. on Aug. 14 and daily Aug. 15-19. Each night there will be a 5-minute sound-and-light show beginning at 10, 10:30 & 11.

Viewing at street level is free. A panoramic view...

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