Travel Wires

Leave footprints . . . and bad impressions Batshit crazy things that tourists do, according to the locals. Jennie Carping, Mt Rushmore, US: get too close to the wildlife. “If I read about another tourist who thinks they need a selfie with a bison and gets gored . . . ” Maja Burazin, Croatia: climb mountains in Jandals. “Some tourists break a leg, end up being lost, dehydrated or starved.” Patrick Walsh, London: harass Queen’s Guards. “Interfering with their job and irritating them not only pisses off the guards but it also turns out that you’ll get yelled at by them.” Vishak Raman, India: taking pictures of “poor people”. Tam Risa, Ireland: saying “top of the morning”. There she goes Travel operators are focusing on new women-only tours. On International Women’s Day London-based Exodus Travels launched all-female tours to destinations including Iran, Myanmar and the French Riviera, pairing groups of four to 16 women with local female guides on high-adrenaline itineraries. Smallgroup operator Intrepid announced women-only trips to Morocco, Iran and Jordan. Trafalgar Tours introduced #SheGoes, a campaign to empower women in partnership with 1000 Places to See Before You Die author Patricia Schultz. Exodus reported a 300 per cent increase in women on their tours over the past few years and Intrepid saw the number of women booking trips through their company surge 35 per cent in the first half of 2017. Hip Hooray for Brighton The world's most hipster city is … the genteel English seaside resort of Brighton. MoveHub.com ranks 446 cities in its International Hipster Index, comparing vegan eateries, coffee shops, record stores, tattoo studios and vintage boutiques per 100,000 people. Brighton has more record stores, the third highest density of coffee shops and 37 vegan eateries. Portland, quintessential home of hipsterdom, was second. Salt Lake City came third; it has the fifth-highest density of tattoo parlours and an annual international ink convention. Cities that will be gutted to miss out: 1 Melbourne. 2 Wellington. Would you stand for that? Italian manufacturer Aviointeriors has come up with a new design for its stand-up plane seat. The original SkyRider, which looked like a saddle, didn’t get off the ground. The company says Skyrider 2.0 is designed for short-haul flights and has many benefits. Mainly for airlines: it would increase passengers by 20 per cent, meaning more bums on … er, seats, and it weighs 50 per cent less than standard seats, lowering running costs. But how could you stow smaller items under the seat in front of you? — travel@nzherald.co.nz