Travel Briefs
Off-road driving for kids
At Scotland’s Gleneagles Hotel (Auchterarder, Perthshire, Scotland PH3 1NF, UK; phone, from the U.S. 866/881-9525, www.gleneagles.com), children age six to 12 can drive mini Land Rovers on their own off-road course, navigating log piles, bridges, grades and water splashes.
Azores divers’ parks
Two underwater archaeological parks have been set up in the bay off of Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira Island, Azores.
Great Christmas Pudding Race
The 28th Great Christmas Pudding Race will be run in the West Piazza of London’s Covent Garden Market on Dec. 6, 2008, at 11 a.m.
Luggage strap
It’s In The Bag (888/261-8211, www.tagsforbags.com) sells a luggage strap that can be permanently attached to soft-sided luggage. You have it sewn into a seam.
Norwegian Cruise Line flight hotline
Norwegian Cruise Line (866/234-7350, www.ncl.com) now has a hotline for their guests to call if they are aware of a flight delay before arriving at the airport en route to their cruise.
MP3 audio city tours
Tourcaster.com offers 250 downloadable audio tours of more than 30 cities on six continents. They can be added to MP3 players, including iPods, or burned onto a CD. Most tours cost $5-$23 each, and each comes with a numbered map and detailed directions.
Homecoming Scotland
Homecoming Scotland 2009 will be celebrated countrywide from Jan. 25 (the 250th birthday of poet Robert Burns and a national holiday) to Nov. 30 (St. Andrew’s Day, this year featuring Scottish music from folk to contemporary).
Tokyo fish market
At Tokyo’s famous Tsukiji Market, the largest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world, as of April 1, 2008, tourists can watch tuna auctions only from a designated area and only from 5 to 6:15 a.m.
Butterfly farm, UK
In Stratford-upon-Avon, the Stratford Butterfly Farm (Swan’s Nest Lane, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, CV37 7LS, England; phone +44 [0] 1789 299 288, fax 1789 415 878, www.butterflyfarm.co.uk) is an indoor tropical garden with many butterflies.
La Sagrada Familia
In Barcelona, Spain, the Roman Catholic church La Sagrada Familia, which has been under construction since 1882, will “soon” have its roof completed. By 2010 there will be enough completed to hold services inside.
Ecuador’s Chiva Express
Metropolitan Touring offers expeditions in Ecuador on their Chiva Express one-car trains. The 38-passenger railcars each have large windows, a bar, a toilet and a rear platform. An outside ladder gives access to the roof, where there are securely attached seats and a guardrail.
Sydney bike tours
Bonza Bike Tours (30 Harrington St., The Rocks, NSW 2000, Australia; phone +61 2 9247 8800, www.bonzabiketours.com) offers daily bike rentals plus four bicycle tours of Sydney.
Raffles Hotel Museum
Noel Coward, Charlie Chaplin and Queen Elizabeth II have stayed there, and its Long Bar saw the birth of the cocktail known as the “Singapore Sling.” It’s the Raffles Hotel (1 Beach Road, Singapore 189673; phone +65 6337 1886, http://singapore.raffles.com), and its rich histo
TravelChums
The website www.travelchum.net matches people up with like-minded travel companions. With more than 40,000 members, the site is free and offers detailed searches of users’ profiles, messaging with other users, and discussion boards.
Bathroom directory
The website www.thebathroomdiaries.com lists over 12,000 public restrooms in over 120 countries and allows searches for specific amenities such as “handicap access” and “changing tables.”
Tel Aviv at 100
Tel Aviv, Israel, celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2009, with ceremonies on April 4 and special events, entertainment and exhibits into December. Call the Israel Government Tourist Office (New York, NY; 888/774-7723 or 212/499-5650) or visit www.tlv100.co.il or www.visit-tlv.com.
Renaissance science
A 3-hour walking tour in Florence, Italy, focusing on the history of science during the Renaissance is offered by Context Travel (2222 Lombard St., Ste. 2r, Philadelphia, PA 19146; 888/467-1986, www.contexttravel.com).
Victoria Falls dinner train
Departing from the Royal Livingstone Hotel at Victoria Falls, the antique locomotive Royal Livingstone Express offers a 6-course dinner aboard and chances to spot elephants, buffalo and other wildlife on a 12-mile, 3-hour trip along the Zambezi River and through Mosi-Oa-Tunya Game Park in Zamb
Surrealism exhibition
The Scharf-Gerstenberg collection, housed in Berlin in the newly renovated Stüler building (10 miles east of the city center, opposite the castle), is hosting a 10-year exhibition of surrealist and presurrealist art.
Calling long-distance cheaply
There are many companies offering VoIP (voice over Internet protocol), which allows free or discounted international calls that travel mostly through the Internet, saving on long-distance charges.