Travel Briefs

January 2008 issue

Inspect hotels from home

The website www.TVTrips.com offers video tours of many hotels in Europe. On city maps, visitors to the site can click on a numbered hotel and a video pops up showing the surrounding area, the hotel’s public areas and each class of room. Sample prices are listed.

May 2008 issue

Essential London kit

VisitBritain is offering an Essential London Kit, which contains a 3-day London Travel Card (Peak, Zones 1-2), one London Eye ticket, one Tower of London ticket and an Original London Sightseeing Bus tour ticket, which includes a river cruise on the Thames.

The kit costs $119 and a children’s kit is $66; add $10 shipping/handling. Call 800/462-2748, www.visitbritain.com/onlineshop.

September 2008 issue

Butterfly farm, UK

In Stratford-upon-Avon, the Stratford Butterfly Farm (Swan’s Nest Lane, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, CV37 7LS, England; phone +44 [0] 1789 299 288, fax 1789 415 878, www.butterflyfarm.co.uk) is an indoor tropical garden with many butterflies.

Other exhibits show leaf-cutter ants, caterpillars, spiders, scorpions, etc. Open 10-6 in summer and 10 a.m.-dusk in winter. £5.50 (near $9).

August 2008 issue

Eyre Peninsula

On the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia, you can spend AU$89 (near US$82) on a “Seafood & Beyond…” rewards card and get AU$100 (US$92) worth of discounts at participating hotels, attractions and tours along the “Seafood & Aquaculture Trail.”

When you present the card, not only do you receive a 10% discount, you also earn AU$1 reward point back for every AU$10 spent. The reward points can be spent at seafood restaurants along the trail.

A guide is included that lists businesses and the benefits offered. The discounts are available on trips like boat cruises in Port...

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October 2009 issue

Hop-on / hop-off Potsdam

In Potsdam, Germany, Rail Europe (800/622-8600, www.raileurope.com) offers a hop-on/hop-off double-decker bus tour which stops at 12 sites of cultural interest, including Luisenplatz (for its fountains), the Film Museum (€3.50) and the palace gardens of Sanssouci Park (entry to Sanssouci Palace, €8 or €12).

A pass for one circuit, including live commentary in English, costs $21 adult and $16 senior. Tours operate 9:20 a.m.-2:20 p.m. April 8-Oct. 31, 2009.

January 2009 issue

Botswana fires

Devastating seasonal fires that raged from mid-September through October 2008 destroyed thousands of square kilometers of the Central Kalahari Game Preserve in Botswana. However, an initial report that the 2-million-year-old Gcwihaba Caves were destroyed in the fire has proved to be false.

Although the fire scorched the veldt around Gcwihaba, a proposed UNESCO World Heritage Site for its natural beauty and value to Paleolithic studies, the interiors of the caves were undamaged.

The Tsodilo Hills, currently Botswana’s only World Heritage Site, also were threatened by the fire...

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July 2009 issue

Antipiracy plans

A US Coast Guard “Maritime Security Directive” revised in May requires all US-flagged ships to submit antipiracy security plans (which will not be made public) and requires all ships that sail around the Horn of Africa to post guards.

There is a debate about whether to allow or encourage crews to carry arms as part of their security procedures. Some countries do not allow armed vessels to use their ports. Insurance costs and liability also are issues.

May 2008 issue

Crane’s-eye view in Panama

Panama City’s Metropolitan Park, the only protected rainforest in a city, is home to sloths, monkeys, 42 other mammal species, iguanas and more than 250 kinds of birds. London-based Cox & Kings now offers, either on a group tour or custom itinerary, the chance to get an up-close view of wildlife in the rainforest canopy by riding in a wire-screen-enclosed gondola manipulated by a construction crane.

During the 45-minute ride, passengers are lifted up to 112 feet. The accompanying naturalist guide directs the crane operator. The crane is quiet and the animals aren’t disturbed by...

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