A guest room lying 13 feet below the surface of the Indian Ocean is part of a structure floating over a clearing in a coral reef 250 meters from Pemba Island in the Zanzibar Archipelago, off the coast of Tanzania.
Spotlights outside the room’s eight windows illuminate any sea life swimming by. Guests can climb a ladder to a lounge and bathroom at water level and continue up to the roof to sunbathe or stargaze.
For visitors to Barbados, Atlantis Submarines (The Shallow Draught, Bridgetown, Barbados, BWI; phone +1 246 436 8929) offers dives in its fleet of two submarines to see exotic fish, coral reefs and a submerged shipwreck off of the coast of Bridgetown.
Tokyo Great Cycling Tour (1-3-2 Shinkawa, Chuo-ku; phone +81 3 4590 2995) offers four different cycling day tours to explore Japan’s capital, one very easy, two easy and one at intermediate level.
The easy-level “Edo-Tokyo Culture Ride,” on mostly flat terrain, takes six hours and departs from the company’s office. It begins at 9 a.m. and stops at eight sites, including a sumo stadium, the University of Tokyo and the Imperial Palace.
On Bali, Indonesia, you can take a tour of a traditional organic chocolate farm and experience hands-on chocolate making at Pod Chocolate (phone +62 361 239 440).
The hillside cacao farm is located on the grounds of the Bali Elephant Camp, near Ubud. The tour includes transport from and to your hotel, a trip to the trees to learn how the beans are grown and a visit to the factory, where you will make your own batch of chocolate elephants.
The Shibanxi Railway (aka Jiayang Coal Railway), an authentic, narrow-gauge steam line on which foreigners may book tickets, is located in the town of Shixi, south of Chengdu in Sichuan Province, south-central China.
Tickets are available at the station in Shixi and cost RMB5 ($0.80) for the local train or RMB50 ($8) for the tourist train with air-conditioned passenger cars. All trains are powered by any of the six steam engines that take coal and passengers from Shibanxi to Bagou, making six stops along the 20-kilometer route.
In Dorset, England, travelers may visit the thatched cottage where writer Thomas Hardy was born in 1840, as well as Max Gate, the Victorian home he designed and lived in for much of his life.
In 2014, the cottage and house are open March 12-Nov. 2. Cottage entry, £5.50 (near $9). Home entry, £6.50 ($11). Contact the National Trust (Higher Bockhampton, near Dorchester, Dorset, DT2 8QJ, U.K.; phone +0844 800 1895).
In Hong Kong, China, the Dragon & Lion Dance Extravaganza takes place yearly on Jan. 1, with a parade of more than 500 specially crafted, large-scale animal and dragon costumes. The parade starts at 1:30 p.m. from Canton Road near the Hong Kong Cultural Centre and finishes at the Urban Council Centenary Garden, in the waterfront Tsim Sha Tsui district.
Contact the Hong Kong Tourism Board (phone +852 6344 6188).
For guests ages 8-17 who travel on Lindblad Expeditions’ (800/397-3348) ships in 2014, the company is holding its Lindblad-National Geographic Young Explorer Challenge.
Participants who submit a multimedia PowerPoint presentation capturing their journey compete for a 2-night cruise from Seattle to Puget Sound and Washington’s San Juan islands. Three prizes will be awarded by February 2015, one each for ages 8-10, 11-13 and 14-17.
For mobility-impaired visitors to Jerusalem’s Old City, a brochure on self-guided tours is available from the Israel Ministry of Tourism.
The tours are titled “From Jaffa Gate to Zion Gate,” “The Jewish Quarter,” “The Temple Mount Compound,” “The Via Dolorosa” and “Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period.” The tours cover five to ten points of interest each and can be completed in a few hours, depending on pace.
Until June 14, 2014, over 100 works by the painter El Greco will be on display in Toledo, Spain, at the Museum of Santa Cruz (3 Calle Miguel de Cervantes, 45001, Toledo; phone +34 925221036). Open 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 10-3 Sun. Admission free. A list of works is posted at www.elgreco2014.com.
El Greco, born in Cyprus, moved to Venice, Rome and, in 1576, Spain, settling in Toledo. 2014 marks the fourth centenary of his death.