London is still the world’s five-star hotel capital, according to Forbes Travel Guide’s 2020 Star Rating Awards. It is recognised as having 19 five-star properties – more than any other capital city – by the awards, which honours luxury hotels, spas and restaurants. Wynn Resorts dominates the Las Vegas market with seven five-star awards, while … Read more
If you don’t want to mark your match-up the same way as every other loved-up pair for Valentine’s Day, pay close attention. Here we’ve rounded up ten of the lesser-known places linked to love around the globe, from bizarre kissing statues in Georgia to the I Love You Wall in Paris. The Tunnel of Love, Klevan, … Read more
Bored with standard holiday rentals? Blasé about top-end hotels, or Premier Inns and Travelodges? Never fear — websites are overflowing with madcap options, from sleeping in a former Soviet prison to a suite in a crane in Amsterdam, and a hut in the Arctic. Here are ten of the wackiest… Bed down on an Arctic … Read more
The ongoing climate crisis is on course to destroy half the world’s sandy beaches by the end of the century, a new study warns. Sandy shorelines of many high-population areas and tourist hot-spots are threatened by erosion, climate change and surging sea levels. At-risk areas include Surfers’ Paradise in Queensland, St Tropez, Honolulu, Copacabana, the Costa … Read more
BOOK OF THE WEEK ON THE HIGH WIRE By Philippe Petit (Weidenfeld & Nicholson £9.99, 115pp) When my son ran away to join the circus, I more or less ran away with him. I couldn’t be kept away from the Academy of Circus Arts, the apprentice arm of Zippos. Most weekends, I would cook a … Read more
More than a QUARTER of the world’s oceans need protecting urgently ‘to give marine species space to live free from human impacts’, scientists claim At least 26 per cent of oceans should be given special conservation protection To provide safe spaces for sea species they suggest an area of 3.3 million miles Researchers mapped the … Read more
We are seemingly in the middle of nowhere as we sail off the Antarctic Peninsula, with giant icebergs bobbing and snowy peaks protruding. But as we turn the corner, a tiny wooden hut comes into view. We’ve reached the southernmost post office in the world. Port Lockroy postal station is located on Goudier Island, which is … Read more
Animal magic! Ohio Zoo makes history with the world’s FIRST cheetah cubs born through IVF using a surrogate in a bid to help save the declining species Two cubs were born in on Feb. 19th through in vitro fertilization in Ohio The team inseminated a cheetah that is younger than than the biological mom Both … Read more
Bob Weighton is spry, beady, dryly funny and has better hearing than me. He pops down to Waitrose, does his own cooking, reads avidly, writes poetry, makes furniture and ornaments out of recycled materials, is well-versed in current affairs and has only recently given up his ecological column in Church News. Which, had he been 80, … Read more
Daredevils took to the frozen surface of the world’s deepest lake in a bid to break speed records in a mile-long race. Ice-adapted vehicles – including helicopters, lorries and motorbikes – soared along Lake Baikal in Russia for the second annual Baikal Mile. The competition in the village of Maksimikha can reach temperatures of -40C and … Read more