Travel Briefs

In Australia, hot-air balloon flights to view Uluru (Ayers Rock) from afar are offered by Outback Ballooning (P.O. Box 2702, Alice Springs, NT, Australia 0871; phone +61 0 8 8952 8723). Guests are picked up from their hotels at Yalara before dawn and driven to the takeoff site 10 to 25 kilometers south of the rock. The flight, itself, covers about 10 kilometers in 45 to 60 minutes, while the entire excursion takes four to five hours. In 2012, flights run March 1-Oct. 31 and cost AUD450 (near $453) per person, with a light breakfast.

With an Apple or Android smartphone, you can access weather-related applications. Using search words such as “hurricane” or “weather,” check your mobile device’s app store for products like these.

Visitors to Israel can hike on the Jesus Trail, which follows the path Jesus is believed to have walked from Nazareth to Capernaum at the Sea of Galilee.

In November, Virunga National Park (phone +243 991715401) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo began offering escorted, overnight trips to observe a newly forming volcano erupting. Travelers hike three to four hours over treacherous, muddy jungle trails to a site (chosen by volcanologists from Goma) within 400 meters of the lava spurting from the black mound. The eruption may continue for months or just weeks.

In Moscow, the main stage at the State Academic Bolshoi Theatre of Russia (box office phone +7 [499] 250-73-17) has reopened after six years.

To mark 60 years of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, the UK is holding the Diamond Jubilee during 2012. Main celebrations, June 2-5 (official holidays). Among events — pageant, Windsor Castle; BBC concert, Buckingham Palace; 1,000-boat flotilla on the Thames; “Big Jubilee Lunch” in many towns, and lighting of beacons (bonfires) in many places.

Other special events during the year — Items from Royal Collections will be exhibited. Ten of Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings will tour to five museums. In August and September, diamonds exhibition at Buckingham Palace.

For 30 years, travelers who wanted to get involved in short- or long-term overseas projects in education, construction, the environment, community development, etc., or to help the disabled have turned to Volunteers For Peace (Burlington, VT; 802/540-3060).

Hundreds of projects in more than 45 countries are available. For a typical two- to three-week project, the fee for lodging, food, accident insurance and administration is $300. Volunteers stay in dormitory-type accommodations.

Thalys began, on Oct. 30, running a direct train linking Paris’ Gare du Nord with Brussels International Airport once a day. The high-speed morning train takes one hour 47 minutes (one way).

In the “Inspired by Iceland” program, hundreds of Iceland’s citizens invite visitors to participate in Icelandic experiences for free during their stay.

Amsterdam’s Het Scheepvaartmuseum, or Maritime Museum (Kattenburgerplein 1, 1018 KK Amsterdam, Netherlands; phone +31 [0] 20 52 32 222), closed in 2007 for what was supposed to be a two-year renovation; it reopened on Oct. 2 with exhibits ranging from whales to Amsterdam’s Golden Age.

Two life-size replicas, the three-masted East Indiaman Amsterdam and the steamship Christiaan Brunings, are moored alongside the museum, which was built in 1656 as a warehouse for the war fleet.