Travelers who ride Eurostar (phone +44 0 1233 617 575, www.eurostar.com) now can purchase, on board the train, tickets for public transit within Paris, London or Brussels. Pounds or euros are accepted. For Paris, 10 Métro tickets cost £12. One ticket valid for five journeys in Brussels costs £6.20. A London visitor Oyster Card costs £12.
The Waterford Crystal factory in Waterford, Ireland, closed on Jan. 30, 2009. The company is looking for a buyer or financing. Workers at the factory staged a sit-in protest over the closure.
When it was open, more than 300,000 visitors a year took the factory tour. Strangely, at press time, the Waterford website (www.waterfordvisitorcentre.com) did not indicate the closure.
The tiny alpine town of Serfaus, Austria, is home to the world’s smallest subway, the Dorfbahn. This 1,280-meter (about eight-tenths of a mile) underground funicular holds 270 people and is free to use. It was built in 1985 to transport skiers from a parking area at one end of the pedestrian-only village to the ski lifts at the other end.
By Arlanda Airport in Stockholm, Sweden, a Boeing 747 plane has been converted into a hostel, refitted with private rooms and dorm rooms. The Cockpit Suite sleeps two and has a toilet with shower. The other, smaller private rooms and dorm rooms share bathrooms in the hostel style.
Room rates are SEK350 (near $45) dorm; SEK1,200 ($154) twin-bed room; SEK1,350 ($173) private room sleeping one to three people, and SEK5,328 ($683) Cockpit Suite. Short-stay, day-room rates are available. A free transfer bus is available.
Cirrus Healthcare’s EarPlanes relieve airplane passengers’ ear discomfort during takeoff and landing. The earplugs use a special ceramic filter to slowly acclimate the inner ear to pressure changes.
It is recommended each pair be used for only one round trip (two flights), then discarded. Available at Walgreens, K-Mart and Target and through the Magellan’s catalog (800/962-4943, www.magellans.com), adult-size EarPlanes cost $11.85 for two pairs or $49.85 for 10 pairs plus shipping; the children’s size costs $11.85 for two pairs.
At almost 2,000 feet high, Takao-san Mountain is 30 miles from downtown Tokyo — perfect for a day trip of casual hiking; for nonhikers, cable cars and chairlifts are available.
At the cable car’s summit station is the beer garden Takaozan Beer Mount, with a metropolitan view.
Rental cars under the “World-Class Drives” program of Budget Car Rental Vietnam (198 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia St., Ward 6, District 3, HCMC, Vietnam; phone [84-8] 3930 1118, www.budget.com.vn) each include an English-speaking chauffeur with strong English-language skills who drives you on a half- or full-day trip and also functions as a concierge.
There are 15 short trips out of Ho Chi Minh City and seven more farther afield, including short tours designed for war veterans, cooking buffs, golfers or families. You also may build your own itinerary.
After a 4-year renovation and expansion project costing $16 million, the Musée International de la Parfumerie, or International Perfume Museum (8 place du Cours, F-06130 Grasse, France; http://en.museesdegrasse.com), reopened in Grasse on Oct. 18, 2008. Housed in the former Hugues-Aîné perfumery built in the 19th century, exhibits trace the 4,000-year history of perfumes, soap and cosmetics.
Open 10-5 daily June-August and Wednesday-Sunday October-May. €4 ($6).
Couples celebrating wedding anniversaries in multiples of five from their fifth to their 50th receive corresponding discounts of 5% to 50% off the prices of cruises with French Country Waterways (Duxbury, MA; 800/222-1236, www.frenchcountrywaterways.com). Each couple submits a copy of their marriage certificate.
Michael Brein’s “Travel by the Metro” series of 4"x9" foldable guides helps travelers sightsee in major cities using public transportation. Listing must-see attractions plus the nearest metro stations and directions on which lines to take, the guides now cover Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Munich, Paris, Prague, Rome, Sydney or Vienna. Printed guides cost $10 each and a PDF downloadable guide costs $8.