Travel Briefs
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
BMW Museum, Munich
In Munich, Germany, the BMW Museum (Am Olympiapark 2; phone +49 [0] 180 2 118822, www.bmw-museum.com) reopened on June 19 after four years of redesign and construction. Located next to BMW World, it is closed Mondays. €12 ($19) adult.
Hermitage Amsterdam
With exhibitions from the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia, Holland’s new Hermitage Amsterdam will reopen in spring 2009 with ten times the space of the current Hermitage Amsterdam. Visit www.hollandartcities.com.
Airport parking
AirportParkingReservations.com (Suffield, CT; 800/727-5464) offers a listing of parking lots near 65 U.S. airports. The service allows price comparisons and the ability to reserve a space instantly for a fee equal to the price of the first day of parking plus $5.
The Chocolate Lady
In Suffolk, the shop The Chocolate Lady (Bower Hall Farm, Steeple Bumpstead, Haverhill, Suffolk CB9 7EG, U.K.; phone +44 0 1440 730346, www.thechocolatelady.co.uk) offers 5-hour chocolate-making courses, covering materials, tempering, molding, truffles, dipping, coating and packaging.
When Berlin Wall fell
The 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989, will be celebrated in 2009. A number of museums commemorate the event: GDR Museum, Wall Museum, Allied Museum, German National History Museum, Stasi Museum, Plattenbau Museum.
Mawson huts, Antarctica
The 27-day “Icebergs & Emperors” voyage, departing Hobart, Australia, on Dec. 12, 2008, visits the wildlife oases of the sub-Antarctic islands, the east coast of Antarctica and the historic huts of Sir Douglas Mawson, with his great-granddaughter Emma McEwin on board.
Travel bottles
Pitotubes (199 E. 52nd, Ste. 362, Boise, ID 83714; 208/853-1416, www.pitotubes.com) offers TSA-compliant travel containers. All the bottles hold fewer than three ounces and are shatterproof, leak-proof (even under pressure changes) and refillable. Tops can interchange a pump or spray head.
Military Cruise Deals
The company Military Cruise Deals (Walker, MN; 866/964-5482 or visit www.militarycruisedeals.com) offers a search engine for finding and booking cruises, guaranteeing military discounts for the cruises found on their website.
Helsinki tram tour
In Helsinki, Finland, for about €2 ($3) you can hop on Tram No. 3 (in either direction, T or B) and do a figure-8 through the city. The self-guided tour lasts about an hour. Among stops are South Harbor’s Market Square, the Opera House, the Natural History Museum, the Rock Church and Senate Square.
Eyre Peninsula
On the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia, you can spend AU$89 (near US$82) on a “Seafood & Beyond…” rewards card and get AU$100 (US$92) worth of discounts at participating hotels, attractions and tours along the “Seafood & Aquaculture Trail.”