International Travel News

Travel Briefs

October 2014 issue | Appears on page 76

My Airport Guide, Frankfurt

My Airport Guide, a new service available at Germany’s Frankfurt Airport (FRA), offers personal assistants to help departing and arriving travelers.

The “Welcome Service,” costing €30 (near $40) for two people, includes, for departing passengers, being met at a prearranged point in the airport, helped with bags and escorted to the check-in counter… or, for arriving passengers, welcome at baggage claim, help with baggage and escort to a prearranged location at the airport.

The “...

October 2014 issue | Appears on page 77

Hogmanay in Edinburgh

The annual Hogmanay Festival takes place in Edinburgh, Scotland, Dec. 30-Jan. 1. It is preceded by the Hogmanay Carnival, Dec. 27-Jan. 5, with rides on the 137-foot-tall Edinburgh Wheel and the nearly 200-foot-tall spinning Star Flyer in St. Andrew’s Square.

The festival begins with a torchlight procession through the city center led by Vikings from Shetland’s Up Helly Aa Festival. Accompanied by pipes and drums, visitors can join in, having reserved a torch for £10 (near $16.50) plus...

October 2014 issue | Appears on page 77

Cebu Zoo python massage

Visitors to the Cebu Zoo (Woolbright Dr., Beverly Hills, Cebu City, Cebu 6000, Philippines; phone +63 32 414 7103) can each experience a massage from giant pythons.

For only the price of admission — PHP25 per adult or PHP10 per child (near 60¢/23¢) — a brave volunteer can lie under four pythons, with a combined weight of 550 pounds, and let their writhing bodies rub the stress away.

The snakes are fed meals of chicken before the massage to make sure they are relaxed and...

September 2014 issue | Appears on page 4

TSA’s new electronic device rules

The US Transportation Security Administration, in cooperation with air travel authorities in other countries, has implemented new security measures regarding electronics, citing intelligence that terrorist organizations have been attempting to create explosives that are harder to detect. There was no specific threat or incident to cause the increase in security.

As of July 8, travelers flying into the US from selected foreign airports (unspecified) must show that they can power on all...

September 2014 issue | Appears on page 4

Air travel in North Korea

In North Korea (the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK), an increase in deliveries of fuel from China allowed the national carrier, Air Koryo, on July 14, to begin offering scheduled service on its domestic routes for the first time in years.

Until now, without regular air service to cities other than Pyongyang, large swathes of North Korea were difficult to access by American travelers.

According to the US State Department, “Foreigners are not allowed to use...

September 2014 issue | Appears on page 4

Leipzig turns 1,000

Leipzig, Germany, celebrates its 1,000th birthday in 2015. For a downloadable list of events, visit www.leipzig.travel/en/download_centre_2139.html and click on “1000 Years of Leipzig.” Examples —

• “500 Years of Leipzig’s Printing & Publishing Heritage,” April-September 2015, at Leipzig Museum of Printing Art (Nonnenstrasse 38, 04229 Leipzig; phone +49 341 23 16 20, www.druckkunst-museum.de). €6 (near $8) adult, €3 student or €1.50 child. Closed Saturday.

• Festival Week...

September 2014 issue | Appears on page 4

Cunard Line at 175

To celebrate Cunard Line’s ties to Liverpool, England, the line’s ships — Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth — will line up in the city’s River Mersey on May 25, 2015, for the “Three Queens in Liverpool” event. Liverpool was the home of Cunard from 1840 until 1967, and the Cunard Building still stands on the pier head.

To celebrate the 175th anniversary of the first departure of Cunard’s Transatlantic Crossing service, the Queen Mary 2 will retrace the 1840 voyage of the...

September 2014 issue | Appears on page 24

25 years after the wall

On Nov. 9, 2014, Berlin will celebrate 25 years of the reunification of Germany. Events include a street party outside the Brandenburg Gate on German Unification Day (Nov. 9), a bus tour that follows the route of the Berlin Wall (until Dec. 31), a tour of nuclear bunkers in East Berlin (until Dec. 31) and an exhibit on East German refugees (until Dec. 31). Find locations and ticket prices at www.wall.visitberlin.de/en.