Completed in 1850 in southwestern Ireland, Ballycotton Island Lighthouse is now open to visitors for the first time.
Lighthouse tours run by Ballycotton Island Lighthouse Tours (Ballycotton, Ireland; phone +351 21 4646875, www.balleycottonlighthousetours.com) depart daily at 10 a.m. onward from the Inn By The Harbour, a pub located at the pier in the village of Ballycotton, about 25 miles east of Cork.
Visitors to Hamburg can set sail on Alster Lake, located in the center of the city, with Pieper Sailing School (An der Alster 10, Hamburg 20099, Germany; phone +49 40 36 16 32 17, www.hamburg-city-sailing.de [click on “English Version”]).
Interested mariners can rent a skiff and a skipper for a simple lake tour or for a sailing lesson. Each lasts about 1½ hours. English-speaking skippers are available.
More than 150 objects held at London’s British Museum since being collected in Australia, many from the times of earliest contact between indigenous peoples (Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders) and nonindigenous people (British), will return to Australia for the exhibit “Encounters,” Nov. 1, 2015-March 28, 2016.
Among the objects are a wooden shield believed to have been taken by James Cook in 1770, a mid-1840s Tasmanian shell necklace and an 1870s dilly bag.
The Lonely Planet eBook guide “Accessible Melbourne” highlights wheelchair-friendly restaurants, shops, scenic sites, activities and participatory sports in Melbourne, Australia, and offers tips for visitors with mobility, hearing or vision impairment. To download a free copy, visit www.lonelyplanet.com/accessible-melbourne and fill out the online form.
An exhibit of Byzantine-era gold and silver coins and medallions — discovered 50 meters south of the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem in April 2013 during the excavation of a sixth-century-AD building — is being held until Jan. 30, 2016, at the Israel Museum (11 Ruppin Blvd., Hakirya, Jerusalem, Israel; phone +972 2 670 8811, www.english.imjnet.org.il).
ILS54 (near $13.50) adult or ILS27 senior or child (under 17).
Visitors to Abu Dhabi can ride in a modern abra, or wooden boat, using Capt. Tony’s (Abu Dhabi, UAE; phone +971 02 650 7175, http://captaintonys.ae) “Water Hopping Service.”
Passengers are picked up at the Souk Qaryat Al Beri marina and the Ritz-Carlton and Fairmont hotels in the Khor Al Maqta’a district and travel 25 minutes to the Eastern Mangroves.
A ticket costs AED50 (near $14) one way and AED80 round trip. On Fridays and Saturdays only, boats pick up passengers from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. once every two hours.
In Melbourne, Australia’s Central Business District, as of Jan. 1, 2015, people can ride trams for free. Sites of interest within the “Free Tram Zone” include the Queen Victoria Market, the Melbourne Observation Wheel and the Parliament House. Sites within a 5- to 10-minute walk of the free-fare zone include the Melbourne Museum, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Royal Botanic Gardens.
Visitors spending at least one night in the Swiss capital are eligible for a free Bern Ticket, which allows for unlimited travel on public transit in zones 100 and 101 as well as on the Marzilibähnli and Gurtenbahn funicular railways.
The Bern Ticket is valid during a visitor’s entire stay in Bern. In fact, any traveler arriving in Bern with a confirmed reservation at a hotel or boarding house is guaranteed free public transfer from either the Bern-Belp Airport or train station to their accommodation. For info, contact the Bern Tourism office (www.bern.com).
Members of AirAsia’s “BIGshot” frequent-flyer program can purchase an ASEAN Pass for MYR499 (near $138) or an ASEAN Pass + for MYR888.
Each pass has a value in “credits,” 10 for the ASEAN Pass, 20 for the ASEAN Pass +. For flights to any AirAsia destination in the 10-country ASEAN region (which includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam), each route costs from one to five credits.
Visitors to the 138-year-old Glasgow Central Station (Gordon St., Glasgow, Scotland, G1 3SL, U.K.; phone +44 845 748 4950) can take a behind-the-scenes tour of the second-busiest train station in the UK.
The 90-minute tour (weather permitting) includes a 90-step climb and a walk across catwalks above the roof, made up of 48,000 panes of glass, plus a trip to the remains of Grahamston village, which the station was built on top of in 1879, a stop at the old steam engine boiler rooms and an exploration of the station’s catacombs.