Starting Jan. 1, 2017, all hotel guests in Lucerne, Switzerland, will each receive a Hotel-Ticket allowing them free unlimited second-class transport on buses and trains within “tariff zone 10,” which covers the entire city. Hotel-Tickets can be picked up at hotels after checking in.
Cities in Germany are hosting events in 2017 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation (visit www.luther2017.de/en), including…
• The “Luther! 95 Treasures — 95 People” exhibit, with artifacts such as Luther’s personal Bible, at Augusteum (Collegienstrasse 54, Lutherstadt Wittenberg), May 20-Sept. 10. €12 (near $13).
Travelers of any nationality now can receive a 96-hour transit visa for Qatar. The traveler must be flying on Qatar Airways and have a layover of at least five hours at Hamad International Airport (HIA), near Doha, the capital; a passport valid for at least six months, and a ticket for an ongoing flight that is not to his origin city (for example, a JFK-HIA-JFK route would not qualify).
It is a single-entry visa valid for 90 days.
London’s Underground now runs 24 hours on Friday and Saturday on the Central, Victoria, Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines, with a train arriving at each station every 10 to 20 minutes.
On Oct. 6, Hapag-Lloyd’s ms Europa, carrying 350 passengers, became the first cruise ship to stop at the port of La Goulette in Tunis, Tunisia, since a terrorist attack on the city’s Bardo National Museum in March 2015 left 21 people dead.
At least two other ships have Tunis stops scheduled in 2016, Regent Seven Seas Cruises’ Seven Seas Explorer and Holland America Line’s Rotterdam, and Viking Ocean Cruises’ Viking Sea has port stops scheduled throughout 2017.
On Nov. 14, the Obama administration lifted, by executive order, the import limit of $400 on Cuban goods as well as the $100 limit on importing Cuban cigars or alcohol. Travelers now may bring into the US, for personal use, any amount of cigars or alcohol, so long as they declare it at Customs and pay any import taxes.
As with bringing items from other countries, the first $800 worth of imported goods is duty-free, with rising tariffs imposed on each additional $1,000 in goods. In addition, individual US states have varying limits on importing alcohol.
Off the north coast of New Zealand’s North Island, visitors can take a walking tour of the active White Island Volcano with White Island Tours (15 The Strand East, Whakatane, New Zealand; phone +64 7 308 9588, www.whiteisland.co.nz).
The 6-hour tour, departing Rotorua daily (weather permitting), takes visitors across the volcano’s caldera, where they will see hot springs, bubbling mud pots and fumaroles. A tour costs NZD199 (near $145), adult, or NZD130, child (minimum age, 8); book in advance.
Visitors to Stockholm, Sweden, can take a city tour on the 40-passenger, amphibious Ocean Bus (Nybrogatan 62, 114 40, Stockholm, Sweden; phone +46 708 879 854, www.oceanbus.se/en).
The 75-minute tour leaves from a point near the Royal Opera House (Strömgatan 10, Stockholm) and, making no stops, takes passengers through the Östermalm district, then launches into the water to cruise past the islands of Djurgården and Skeppsholmen before returning.
Blaming congestion and concerns from walkers, as of August 2016, Prague, Czechia (aka Czech Republic), banned Segway scooters from sidewalks in the historical city center and also in some adjoining areas.
Wealthy and adventurous travelers may like an 8-day, 7-night luxury stay in Antarctica at the hotel White Desert (phone +44 7740 423571, www.white-desert.com).
Starting in Cape Town, South Africa, guests fly to the “Unknown International Airport” in Antarctica, landing on an ice runway, after which they are taken to their heated sleeping pod at “Whichaway Camp,” which also has a lounge pod with a library and a dining pod where guests will eat meals prepared by a gourmet chef.