Travel Briefs

New Zealand offers the ultimate stress release: drive a tank over a car and crush it flat! Tanks for Everything (985 McLeans Island Rd., Christchurch, NZ; phone +64 [03] 359 1007) has a fleet of armored vehicles for people to drive and ride in: three tanks (Centurion, T-55AM2 and FV432), a Saracen armored personnel carrier, a Ferret armored “scout” car and a Jeep.

All patrons get a 45- to 60-minute guided tour of the fleet; driving lasts 15-25 minutes and a ride, 10-15. (Size restrictions apply with some vehicles. Clothes may get dirty. Wear proper footwear.)

Prices range...

CONTINUE READING »

In Switzerland, the Valais SkiCard (phone +41 [0] 27 775 25 82) offers guests the ability to skip ticket lines at the 54 ski areas and four thermal baths covered by the pass.

In increments of 100, points are added to the card at a rate of one point per Swiss franc, with discounts of up to 10 percent for adding larger balances. Points are valid for two years and can be extended with a deposit of CHF100 ($106).

Points are automatically deducted from the card as the pass holder enters turnstiles, with the correct entry fee debited for the person’s age and the time of day the...

CONTINUE READING »

The 39th annual Carriacou Regatta will take place July 25-Aug. 2, 2004. The most southerly of the Grenadines, Carriacou is the largest of the chain of islands between Grenada and St. Vincent. The festival is a salute to its sister island of Grenada’s art of boatbuilding, handed down by Irish and Scottish ancestors.

Race events focus mainly on the locally built “workboats,” ranging from 14 to 35 feet in length. Onshore festivities include the Miss Aquaval Queen Show, a donkey race, bicycle races, musical chairs, tug-o-war, a greasy pole competition (it’s suspended over the sea and...

CONTINUE READING »

Walkers are invited to join a 7-day walk in the steps of 18th-century Scottish cattle drovers from Spean Bridge to Crieff. It is part of the Crieff and Strathearn Drovers’ Tryst hill walking festival, Oct. 9-16, 2004. Various shorter walks are also planned, along with street theater, live music, ceilidh, pipe bands and a farmers’ market.

For info, call 01764 652578 or visit www.droverstryst.co.uk.

In July, the Supreme Court of India banned all tourism and business activities within the “core areas” of all of its 25 national tiger reserves until states comply with the “core/buffer” management strategy laid out by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in 1972.

Protected core areas of at least 300 square kilometers are where tigers can find water, shelter and prey and breed in safety. Around these are “buffer areas” in which limited industry (logging, farming, grazing, etc.) as well as tourism lodges are allowed.

It is the states’ responsibility to notify...

CONTINUE READING »

A Kenya Airways Boeing 737-800 crashed on May 5 after taking off from Douala, Cameroon, on a stop en route from Ivory Coast to Nairobi. There were no survivors among the 114 people from 27 countries. The cause is unknown. The aircraft was six months old, and the airline has a good safety record.

The “Tali Wiru Experience,” a dinner served on an isolated dune with a view of Uluru and the distant Olgas, is offered April 1, 2012, to Jan. 15, 2013, by Ayers Rock Resort in Australia (phone +61 2 8296 8010, fax +61 2 9299 2103, e-mail travel@voyages.com.au). Tali wiru means “beautiful dune” in the Aboriginal language Anangu. For AUS295 (about $313) each, no more than 20 guests are picked up from the resort’s six hotels and taken to Tali Wiru, where they will walk 250 meters on soft sand to the top of the dune. Canapés and champagne are served as the sun sets, followed by a four-course...

CONTINUE READING »

Switzerland’s Preda-Bergün toboggan run is the longest in Europe that is illuminated for nighttime use; you can sled until 11:30 p.m. The 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) course begins in Preda and drops 400 meters (1,300 feet). Average run time is half an hour (fastest record is five minutes).

Visitors take a narrow-gauge train from Bergün to reach the head of the run in Preda. A single-run ticket costs CHF13 (near $13) for an adult or CHF6.6 for a child (12-17). A half-day ticket costs CHF26 for an adult, with a full-day ticket costing CHF36 for an adult or CHF18 for a child.

From...

CONTINUE READING »