Travel Briefs | International Travel News

December 2013 issue

Easter Island festival

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.

June 2013 issue

Scenic train routes in Korea

In South Korea in April, two central inland region tour trains of Korail began providing access to the mountain areas of Chungcheongbuk-do, Gangwon-do and Gyeongsangbuk-do, formerly accessible only by twisting, sometimes unpaved roads. Purchase tickets on site or at www.korail.com/en.

The O train runs a 159-mile, circular, 4-hour 50-minute route, departing Seoul four times a day and stopping at 13 stations, including Jecheon, Yeongju and Taebaek. It carries 205 passengers and has an observation car and a café. Round-trip tickets cost KRW62,900 (near $57). Partial-route tickets are...

November 2013 issue

Rum tour, Barbados

In Barbados, visitors to the Mount Gay Rum distillery (Spring Garden Highway, Bridgetown; phone 246 425 8757) may take a 45-minute tour of the facility that includes a tasting session.

Available 9 a.m.-3:45 p.m. Mon.-Fri. Admission costs $10 (includes tour) or, (advance booking required) including lunch and transport from Bridgetown hotels, $50.

February 2013 issue

Belfast Titanic museum

At the slip in Northern Ireland where the Titanic was built, the Titanic Museum (47 Donegall Pl., Belfast, BT1 5AD, Northern Ireland; phone +44 28 9076 6399) offers visitors nine galleries full of interactive exhibits chronicling the building, maiden voyage and 1912 sinking of the ocean liner. Purchase tickets in advance. £13.50 (near $21) adult.

Open 9-7 Mon.-Sat. and 10-7 Sun., April-September, and 10-5 daily, October-March.

March 2013 issue

72 hours visa-free in China

Effective Jan.1, 2013, Americans traveling through China to another country via Beijing or Shanghai may stay in their transit city for 72 hours without securing a visa. In Shanghai, transit travelers holding third-country visas and plane tickets can enter the city through two airports: Hongqiao (SHA) or Pudong (PVG). In Beijing, transit passengers can enter only through Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK).

January 2013 issue

Longest flights ending

The two longest flight routes in the world — nonstops on A340-500 planes from Newark, New Jersey, to Singapore (9,500 miles in 18 hours) and from Los Angeles to Singapore (8,000 miles but 18½ hours due to headwinds) — will cease being flown by Singapore Airlines in 2013, as they are unprofitable. The airline still will fly New York-Singapore via Frankfurt and Los Angeles-Singapore via Tokyo on A380s.

July 2013 issue

Surf school, Costa Rica

Guests at the Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica (Peninsula Papagayo, Guanacaste; phone 506 2696 0000) located on the northwestern coast, may take surf classes through the Four Seasons parner Tropicsurf. Classes range from a 2-hour lesson ($220 per person) to a full-day trip of about seven hours ($490 per person, two people minimum).

Suitable for beginners or advanced surfers, the classes are taught by expert guides. Room rates at the hotel run $475 to $2,395 a night.

December 2012 issue

Chilean Andes activities

High in the Andes of Chile and three miles from the Argentinean border, you can stay in one of the geodesic domes ($121, full board) set up by Nevados de Sollipulli (Temuco Region IX, Chile; phone [56] 45 276000). Alternatively, a B&B room costs $84 per night at the resort, which is closed May and June.

In the summer (December-March), among the resort’s expeditions, you can try the 3-day, 2-night, guided “Overnight Stay in the Volcanic Crater” camping experience ($345).

At Sollipulli, you can scale the glaciers on foot or by 4-wheel-drive vehicle or go horseback riding or...