Each year on the Saturday closest to Sept. 18 (in 2009, that’s Sept. 19), the town of Egremont, England, celebrates the crab apple with a day of unique events. Foremost is the World Gurning Championships; putting one’s head in a horse collar, contestants vie for the award by making the funniest and most contorted faces.
Found only in the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro, tanzanite is one of the rarest gems in the world. The Tanzanite Experience (phone +255 0 27 250 5101, www.tanzaniteexperience.com) in Arusha, Tanzania, showcases the violet-blue gemstone, with information on its extraction, processing, cutting and polishing. Visitors may purchase gems with certificates authenticating color, clarity and cut.
Located on the third floor of the Blue Plaza Building on India Street, the museum is open 9-4 Monday-Friday and 9-1 Saturday. Admission is free.
The 7-mile Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway (Ravenglass, Cumbria, CA18 1SW, U.K.; phone 01229 717171, fax 717011, www.ravenglass-railway.co.uk) shows the sights of England’s Western Lake District from Ravenglass to Dalegarth year-round.
The world’s oldest working, 15-inch-gauge steam locomotive departs multiple times every day from April to October; other months (except January) have departures only on weekends. A ticket costs £10.20 (near $18) for one day’s unlimited rides or £6 ($11) for a single ride (children £5.10 or £3, respectively).
Employees of Ritz-Carlton Hotels & Resorts around the world each were challenged to identify an organization in their community in need of support. Dates then were scheduled for hands-on assistance, and hotel guests can volunteer a half day to assist the community where they are vacationing. Each of the half-day programs includes instruction by professionals. All profits go to the partner organization.
The Lisboa Card offers free unlimited travel in Lisbon, Portugal, on buses, trolleys, funiculars and the metro, along with free admission at 25 museums and historic buildings and discounts at others. It is available at the Lisbon Airport and rail stations. The cost is €15 (near $19) for one day; €26, two days, and €32, three. Visit www.askmelisboa.com.
Located at Schiphol Airport near Amsterdam, the “luxury pod hotel” citizenM (Janplezierweg 2, 1118 BB Schiphol Airport, Netherlands) has no porters or room service. On the bottom floor is a self-check-in kiosk, a shared “living room” space (with computers) and a “canteenM” with food and beverages for sale.
Unusual Hotels of the World showcases on its website www.uhotw.com 149 “avant-garde” lodgings around the world, organized by location, price and “wow factor.”
Example — the Old Jail in Mount Gambier, South Australia, built in 1866 as a prison and now a hostel; from AU$22 (near US$15.50) per person for a dormitory bed. Another — the Woodpecker Hotel, a tree house in a large oak in Stockholm, 40 feet above a public park and accessible by rope ladder; $250-$350 per night.
Frommer’s travel guides for Paris and London are available for download on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Each point of interest can be plotted on the map relative to others, with reviews and contact information. Items like restaurants can be sorted by price, cuisine, rating or neighborhood. The guide includes suggested itineraries, with details of each stop.
At $9.99 each, the guides are available through the iPod Touch and iPhone’s built-in App Store. Once downloaded, the guides do not require an Internet connection. Visit www.frommers.com/go/mobile.
Downloadable MP3 tours of neighborhoods in Rome and Buenos Aires are available from www.mptours.com. There are three tours for each city, narrated by someone who lives in the neighborhood. Along with a detailed map, each includes about an hour of narration and takes two to three hours to complete.
Twelve cultural sites in Kyoto, Japan, not open to the public before are open until March 18, 2009. Included is Myoshin-ji, Kyoto’s largest Zen temple, containing 46 sub-temples. And Myoko-ji, a temple in a bamboo forest, is showing a print of the Edo painting “Fujin Raijin Zu Byobu,” which the temple used to protect.
Visit www.kyotowinterspecial.com or contact the Japan National Tourism Office (New York, NY; 212/757-5640, www.jnto.go.jp/kws).