Walk to New York or sail to the centre of the Earth
Wendy Driver selects the most astonishing – and fun – holidays waiting for you in 2018
THE New Year brings a host of exciting new travel opportunities. You can fly to Australia non-stop, stay in the first rock hotel in the Alps or visit the V&A museum opening in Scotland.
There are thrilling new theme park rides, while major UK exhibitions feature Picasso and the Terracotta Warriors.
Here is our pick of where to go and what to see next year.
THEME PARKS
THE first wooden rollercoaster to be built in the UK for 20 years opens at Alton Towers in the spring. Codenamed SW8 (Secret Weapon 8) it is guaranteed to get the heart pumping and senses tingling (thewelcoming.co.uk).
A new Toy Story Land opens at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando next summer. Guests will think they have shrunk to the size of Woody and Buzz when they find themselves surrounded by oversized toys in Andy’s Backyard. There will be two new attractions including a family-friendly rollercoaster on the back of Slinky Dog and the Alien Swirling Saucers (disneypackages.co.uk).
Legoland Windsor Resort is expanding its Miniland when it reopens on March 9. Visitors can stroll from the UK to Australia or New York in a few minutes and new landmarks include the Taj Mahal, the Sydney Opera House and the Statue of Liberty (legoland.co.uk).
GARDENS
Join a six-day Downton Abbey & England’s Stately Homes tour of nine glorious English gardens, departing on July 16. Many of the stately homes have appeared in TV period dramas such as Pride And Prejudice, Cranford and Poldark (bright waterholidays.com).
CRUISES
VOYAGES Jules Verne (vjv.com) is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a seven-day Journey To The Centre Of The Earth expedition cruise around Iceland on MY Callisto, departing June 27. It will visit landscapes virtually untouched by human civilisation and stop off at the Snaefellsnes Peninsula from where, according to the novelist Jules Verne, the centre of the earth can be accessed. A new expedition ship, the Ventus Australis, will sail between Punta Arenas in Chile and Ushuaia in Argentina through the Strait of Magellan and around the Cape Horn. The four-day cruise will navigate some of the world’s narrowest fjords (coxand kings.co.uk).
ANNIVERSARIES
IT IS 50 years since the American civil rights activist Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis. A special two-week Journey To Freedom tour visits sites in the Deep South related to his life, including the Lorraine Motel where he was gunned down, the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail, retracing the route of King’s 1965 march, the Martin Luther King Centre in Atlanta and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (americaasyoulikeit.com).
Canary island La Palma celebrates 35 years as a Unesco World Biosphere Reserve and is recognised as a Starlight Reserve with extraordinary visibility for viewing the night sky. The Observatory of El Roque de Los Muchachos has the largest optical telescope in the world and visitors can take part in a range of stargazing activities. Go to visitlapalma.es.
The Naked Truth: Klimt Confronted in Vienna will commemorate the centenary of painter Gustav Klimt’s death. It will run from March to September at the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Kirker Holidays (kirkerholidays.com) offers an Opera And Art In Vienna short break to visit the museum.
EXHIBITIONS & MUSEUMS
PICASSO 1932 – Love, Fame, Tragedy opens on March 8 at London’s Tate Modern. It will take you on a month-by-month journey through one his most creative years, with
more than 100 paintings and sculptures (tate.org.uk). The first V&A outside London will open in Dundee in late summer. The V&A Museum Of Design forms part of the new waterfront development and houses hundreds of objects from the V&A and collections across Scotland (vandadundee.org).
The Terracotta Warriors, from the tomb of China’s first Emperor, return to Britain for the first time in more than ten years, visiting Liverpool’s World Museum from February until October. The exhibition will include artefacts never shown in the UK before (liverpool museums.org.uk).
RAIL
THE Caledonian Sleeper – which runs from London Euston to Inverness, Aberdeen, Fort William, Glasgow and Edinburgh – will introduce new carriages by the early summer. There will be suites with double beds, club rooms with en suite bathroom and a key-card entry system to individual compartments (sleeper.scot).
FLIGHTS
BRITISH Airways (ba. com) launches the first direct flights from the UK to the Seychelles on March 24. Qantas (qantas.com) introduces its first non-stop flights to Australia on March 25. The 9,000mile journey from Heathrow to the west coast city of Perth takes 17 hours. Meanwhile low-cost Norwegian Air (norwegian. com) will fly direct from Gatwick to Buenos Aires from February 14, with fares starting at just £299pp one-way, making it the first budget airline to fly between the UK and South America.
ACCOMMODATION
HARD Rock opens its first hotel in the Alps in August. It is located in Davos in the historic Alexander House built in 1882 ,which has been transformed into a music-inspired Alpine escape with memorabilia adorning the walls. It will have the only rooftop bar in Davos with a 360-degree view of the mountains, and a chapel for weddings (hardrockhotels.com/davos).
Once a favourite country retreat of Queen Victoria, Pitchford Estate in Shropshire dates back to Tudor times. The Generals Quarters, the newly restored West Wing, sleeps up to 14 and will be available for holiday rentals from May. Visit cottages.com (ref UKC2646).
The first luxury hotel in the remote Andaman Islands lying in the Bay of Bengal opens early in 2018. The five-star Taj Exotica Resort & Spa on Havelock Island has 75 villas surrounding a private beach. Inclusive holidays are available through Ampersand Travel (ampersandtravel.com).
Edinburgh will have its first floating hotel in the early summer, a luxury ship with accommodation for 46 guests moored in Leith. Fingal has 23 cabins, some with private balconies. There will be a ballroom, gym and spa treatment room (fingal.co.uk).
SPORT
THE football World Cup is hosted in 13 cities across Russia. Regent Holidays has put together a rail tour incorporating them all (regentholidays.co.uk).
The Commonwealth Games takes place on Australia’s Gold Coast from April 4 to 15. For tours of the Gold Coast visit australiansky.co.uk.