Travel Briefs

The Observatorio Astronómico Andino, or Andes Astronomical Observatory (Camino del Bollenar 21.974, Lo Barnechea, Santiago; phone +56 02 -221 514 59) outside of Santiago, Chile, offers tours of the facility.

A tour in English starts with a presentation entitled “Discovering the Universe,” then participants may take turns gazing at the cosmos through binoculars, mid-size computer-controlled telescopes or sensitive telescopes used for astrophotography.

A 2-hour tour costs CLP45,...

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On Rapa Nui, aka Easter Island, the Tapati festival will take place Feb. 1-15, 2014. The festival has competitions based on ancient sports, which include a triathlon and horse racing. In one competition, called Haka Pei, participants slide down Easter Island’s steepest hill on banana tree trunks. There also are parades, music and dancing.

Contact the Chilean tourism board (phone 56 2 731 8336, www.chile.travel). Flights to the island are limited, so book early.

Addressing medical care on the front during the First World War through diaries, letters, literature, photographs and objects, the exhibition “War and Trauma — Medical Care in WWI” will be on display in the In Flanders Fields Museum (Lakenhallen - Grote Markt 34, B-8900 Ieper, Belgium; phone 32 057 239 220) in Ypres, Belgium, Nov. 11, 2013, to June 30, 2014.

The museum is open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. daily, April-mid November, and 10-5 Tues.-Sun., mid November through March....

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To celebrate the 150th birthday of Richard Strauss, the Gewandhaus Orchestra (Gewandhaus ticket hotline +49 341 1270 280)  in Leipzig, Germany, will perform a series of Strauss works from April 3, 2014, until the special birthday concert on June 11.

The Leipzig Opera will perform the Strauss operas “Elektra,” “The Knight of the Rose” and “The Woman Without a Shadow.” Contact the Gewandhaus and the Leipzig Opera (Opera ticket hotline +49 0 341...

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The 3-day 2014 Rainforest World Music Festival takes place June 20-22 in the Sarawak Cultural Village in Borneo, Malaysia. 

The 2013 festival featured concerts from 10 a.m. to midnight each day, with 21 groups performing, including local folk singing groups and groups from Jamaica, Korea, China, Australia and Japan. Throughout the festival, talks were given and workshops were offered in singing, dance, ethnomusicology and music — everything from gamelan playing to...

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The new Red Star Line Museum (Montevideostraat 3, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium; phone +32 3 298 27 70), located in the historic warehouses of the shipping company in Antwerp, Belgium, opened on Sept. 28.

Mirroring the Ellis Island story, the museum brings to life the journey of more than two million people who emigrated via Antwerp to New York, amongst them iconic passengers such as Irving Berlin and Albert Einstein.

Wheelchair accessible. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m, Tues.-Fri. and 10-6 Sat....

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In New Zealand, you can stay at a vineyard overnight in a stationary motorhome that sleeps two (double bed), with facilities en suite, as offered by the motorhome company Maui (phone 011 800 200 80 801).

Vineyards are located on the North Island at Mercury Bay (Coromandel Peninsula, near Auckland), the Linden Estate (on the coast near Napier) and Coney Wines (near Wellington) and in central South Island at Carrick Wines.

A stay costs NZD140 (near $111) per night per home and...

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The “Winged Victory of Samothrace,” the statue that normally stands at the top of the main staircase in Paris’ Louvre Museum, has been removed from view for support reinforcement and a cleaning. Its return is expected in June 2014.