Travel Briefs

The Istanbul New Airport (IST) — an $11 billion project that will include the largest airport terminal in the world, capable of serving 150 million passengers annually (60 million more than Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport) — is scheduled to open in October 2018. The airport will include improved internal and external security measures.

The airport is located 22 miles northwest of the city and, when complete, will take over international air traffic (and the IATA airport code) from Atatürk Airport.

If you have at least five hours of transit time at Hamad International Airport (DOH) in Doha, Qatar, you may be able to join any of six Doha city tours scheduled each day. Example — the 2-hour, 45-minute “Doha City Tour,” at QAR40 (near $11) per person, includes the Katara cultural village, the Museum of Islamic Art and Souq Waqif market. 

Vatican City is constructing a second entrance to its museums to relieve wait times for visitors. Currently, the city-state’s single museum entrance serves all of the roughly 25,000 visitors it receives each day, causing wait times of many hours.

As of press time, there was no estimated date of completion of the second entrance.

On the shore of Lake Mahinapua, outside of Hokitika on New Zealand’s South Island, visitors can walk on a suspended walkway between trees at the West Coast Treetop Walkway (1128 Woodstock-Rimu Road, Hokitika, West Coast, New Zealand; phone +64 0508 8733 8677, www.treetopsnz.com).

For people with mobility issues, entry to the 60-foot-high, 1,476-foot-long walkway is via ramps, but a tower more than 130 feet high at one end is accessible only by stairs.

The walking tour “Lisbon’s African Roots” focuses on Portugal’s history of exploitation of Africa and on the influence Africans have had on the culture and heritage of Lisbon. It includes visits to former slave markets and places of spiritual significance and ends at an African restaurant (meal included).

The 3-hour tour is led, in English, by Naky, a native of Togo and an African history enthusiast. It can be booked at www.foodiebookings.com/tour/lisbon-tours-lisbon-african-roots for €35 (near $43).

Kazakhstan’s president, Nursultan Naza­bayev, announced on Oct. 27, 2017, that the nation would be switching its official alphabet from Cyrillic to Latin by 2025. Kazakh, a Turkic language, began being spelled in Cyrillic during the Soviet era. When including ligatures (such as æ), the Latin-based Kazakh alphabet will have 32 letters.

Until June 10, 2018, the exhibit “Vienna 1900: Klimt/Moser/Gerstl/Kokoschka,” at Vienna’s Leopold Museum (MuseumsQuartier, Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Vienna, Austria; phone +43 1 525 700, www.leopoldmuseum.org/en), will display the museum’s collection of works by those Viennese Modernist artists along with other works on loan.

Open 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Mon., Wed. & Fri.-Sat. and 10-9 Thurs. €13 (near $16) adult or €9.50 senior.

More than 60 murals have been painted in the city of Köln (Cologne) during the CityLeaks Art Festival, held every two years since 2011, and a new guidebook and map, “Recover Discover – Urban Art Koeln,” pinpoints each mural.

Get the map for free at the Köln Tourism Board’s Service Centre (Kardinal-Hoffner-Platz 1, 50667 Köln, Germany; phone +49 221 346 43 0, www.cologne-tourism.com).

With the app “Korea Travel Books,” created by the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), travelers to South Korea can access the KTO’s most up-to-date travel guides as well as guides published by regional tourism organizations, along with maps and information on day tours, accommodations and transportation. The app also determines the user’s location and automatically displays guidebooks for the area, also offering real-time weather and currency-exchange information.

Free on iTunes and Android, the app requires a network connection for most functions. A data charge may apply.

Famed magician and escape artist Harry Houdini was born Erich Weiss in Budapest in 1874, and one of the largest collections of Houdini artifacts can be found there in the House of Houdini (11 Dísz Square, H-104 Budapest, Hungary; phone +36 1 9518066, houseofhoudinibudapest.com), located next to the funicular at the foot of Buda Castle.