Coming up with a list of the 20 best theme park rides in the US is easy. Narrowing this down to just 5? Now thats tough! The best theme park rides tell some kind of a story, have innovative or extraordinary motion effects and comfortable, safe ride vehicles. If you are familiar with theme parks, you wont be surprised to see Disney attractions dominating this list. With a gift for storytelling, a love for innovation and the budget to make big dreams a reality, Disney has all of the elements needed to make a great ride.

Debuting just in time for Star Wars Weekends in May 2011, the newly revised version of Star Tours has everything a rider could want.

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There are numerous quiet spots in the countryside, next to crystal clear waters, that make a fantastic day out from the coast.

Most of these places are well off the usual tourist tracks and some are only known locally. The river pools in La Resinera, near the village of Fornes, is one such place.

You couldnt hope for a more idylic spot for a picnic.

Situated within the Sierras de Tejeda, Almijara y Alhama Natural Park, the picnic area is near the source of one of the cleanest rivers in Andalucia the Rio Cacín. Ther

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The unsinkable beauty stunned the world by sinking on its maiden voyage. 100 years later and the world is still entranced by the story of the ship and its passengers. One James Cameron blockbuster movie later, countless memorials and novels will the Titanic ever sail again? Turns out, yes!

Introducing Titanic II

Australian Billionaire Clive Palmer released recently that he plans to rebuilt the legendary ship, to be christened Titanic II.

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Instead, you can bring back an unlimited amount of goods from travel in any EU country, as long as it is for your personal use or as a gift.

However in practice if you are over 17 you will be allowed up to 800 cigarettes, 10 litres of spirits, 90 litres of wine and 110 litres of beer.

If you bring in more you will have to persuade customs that it is for personal use.

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ANCIENT CIVILISATION: The palace on the peak, Sigiriya, Sri Lanka.

Are you ready for an Indiana Jones-style adventure? Remote locations, vanished cultures, searing deserts and ancient canyons, all with a side serve of buried treasure or mystical insight: what more can you ask from a holiday? These six destinations offer as many thrills as you can handle, as shown by our special rating system. One hat is suitable for adventure novices; three hats are perfect for the most intrepid explorers. Grab your bullwhip and get ready for a wild ride.

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On the coast, people come and go. Inevitably so. But inland many a Spanish town or village is made up chiefly of those who have lived there all their lives.

The Lecrín Valley is comprised of a collection of white washed villages where many a resident has not strayed further than this place where oranges and lemons grow aplenty and where life is sweet, not sour. 

I know the area well but not as well as those who were born and bred there.

People like Maria Luisa who tells me about her childhood in an area that was very different seventy years ago from what it is today. A

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Last Sunday, Vueling launched its first flight from Berlin-Tegel Airport to Barcelona. The Spanish airline now operates daily flights to Barcelona using an Airbus A320, departing from Tegel Airport at 2.50 p.m. and arriving in Barcelona at 5.20 p.m. (as of 3 June, from BER).

Passengers on board the first flight were welcomed at Gate D74 in Tegel by singers from the famous “Orfeó Català” choir. The show was held almost simultaneously at four other airports, which are also the new destinations served by the Spanish airline: Paris, Copenhagen, Florence and Lille. <

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Beautiful Bath heralded as the finest Georgian city in Britain, Bath is (without sounding too cliché) is a sight to see. Attracting the likes of Lady Emma Hamilton, Jane Austen (albeit reluctantly at first), William Wordsworth and King Louis XVIII of France, Bath is so much more than just a convalescent stopover.

Bath is the next stop on our British Heritage Tour. Our first stop was Oxford and now were heading west. Whether youre travelling from London or elsewhere in Britain, the easiest way to reach Bath is with a UK car hire. People have been travelling to Bath for more than 2,000 years at first for a taste of its curing waters and then to enjoy the splendour of this great city. Th

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Bella Sky Comwell, Copenhagen, Denmark

The two structures that make up the Bella Sky each incline at a slightly different angle.

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Outside is a highly influential magazine with a circulation of over 678,000 reaching throughout the United States and around the world. James Helmore, general manager of Lake Wanaka Tourism, said this kind of editorial exposure was invaluable to the resort town’s international profile.

“Securing this accolade is a massive boost for Lake Wanaka’s profile in America,” he said. “Outside magazine is pretty much the bible for active outdoors travellers from North America and is hugely influential. The awards are

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HONOLULU, Hawaii – The privately-managed Hawaii Tourism Association (HiTA), in coordination with the HiTA tourism ambassador based in Doha, Qatar, is planning to hold a cocktail presentation for travel agents attending the upcoming Internatinoal Pow Wow conference in Los Angeles, April 21-25, LA Convention Center.

HiTA’s ambassador program is actively opening up new markets. From the Gulf region alone, it is expecting increasing arrivals thanks to this initiative.

HiTA Ambassador Walter Diaz from Qatar will be taking a large group of influential travel professionals from Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, and Oman to this yearly event that promotes inbound travel to the United States.

Juergen T. S

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GOING GREEN: Percy Burn Viaduct on Hump Ridge track.

New Zealand has some wonderful walking country, but it can be a hard slog to experience it. On famous tracks, like the Milford, Routeburn or Greenstone, you can take a guided tour, staying in lodges with meals, bedding and towels provided, but at prices up to $1800 per person for a four to five-night trip they do not come cheap.

The alternative – using the Conservation Department’s more basic huts as a so-called “freedom walker” – is less expensive, but the principal freedom is to carry everything yourself.

But you don’t have to break the bank or your back to wander the country on foot. In recent years numerous private tracks have opened offering more comforts than a backcountry hut, such as cold drinks and hot showers to wash away the effects of the day’s exertions.

And each has its own distinctive style, as my wife, Nanette, and I discovered recently.

The first of these tracks we walked was the Banks Peninsula Track, opened in 1989 by neighbouring farmers as a means of diversifying income from farming. With four lodges along its 35-kilometre length we opted to walk it in four easy days.

The third and fourth lodges have small shops with enough stock to whip up breakfast, lunch and a three-course evening meal, reducing the food carried from the start.

The track leads through sheep pastures above Akaroa to the grey-knuckled rim of ancient volcanoes, peaking at 699 metres above sea level.

Descending through a bush reserve with numerous small waterfalls, it winds over cliff tops and around coves to Otanerito Bay – a perfect beach for swimming, paddling or watching wildlife swept in with the waves – before finally ascending through another reserve to a saddle and then back down to Akaroa town.

The accommodation is diverse but comfortably furnished, with electric lighting and gas cooking in well-equipped kitchens.

The first lodge is a modern chalet with sweeping views over Akaroa Harbour and a choice of bunk rooms, sleep-out double bedrooms, and small “star-gazer” huts with Perspex roofs for insomniacs with an astronomical bent.

The second and fourth nights are spent in an old cottage and a beach house, and the third in a whimsical village of filigree-trimmed huts beside a lawn, with a shower house built around the trunk of a large tree.

The coastal scenery is stunning, and we saw seals and dolphins sporting in the surf and geese and gulls on the wing.

A highlight on the second night was a guided tour, in camouflage gear, to watch little penguins cruising in the bay and coming ashore in the twilight, followed the next morning by kayaking to spot penguins sheltering in rock crevices.

Our second comfort hike was the Tuatapere Hump Ridge Track in Southland, opened in 2001 by a local community trust to stimulate business in the area after closure of nearby sawmills.

This 55km track through private forest adjoining the Fiordland National Park has 12km of boardwalk, two lodges for overnight stays, and takes three rather long days to walk. There are various pricing packages. Guided walkers have comfortable bedrooms, all food, bedding and towels provided, while freedom walkers share bunk-rooms, self-cater and carry all their gear.

We chose an intermediate package called Freedom Plus which relieves walkers’ shoulders by providing sleeping bags and towels and carrying packs by helicopter to the lodge on the first day of climbing.

Basic cooking supplies can be bought at the lodges and the wardens prepare breakfast porridge for everyone.

Cloud hugged the hills on our first day’s walk along the beach west of the Waikoau River. Then followed a steady and sometimes steep climb through forest to the Okaka Lodge, nestled in a basin above the tree line where kea noisily played.

We followed a boardwalk loop to the Hump Ridge summit where tarns and rocky outcrops, or “tors”, emerged eerily from the mist.

Back at the lodge we learned that cloud had grounded the helicopter with our packs. The hut warden cheerily found clean spare clothes for us to wear and provided dinner on the house.

Next day we headed south along the ridge towards the sea, with broad views in clearing air to Stewart Island and westward across the Waitutu Forest to the Fiordland mountains.

Dropping through bush rich with young rimu trees we joined an old tramline that once carried logs from the forest.

After three wooden viaducts and numerous cuttings we arrived at Port Craig Lodge in the old village where wood was shipped out of until the 1930s. Port relics remain scattered in the forest, and Hector’s dolphins frolicked near its ruined wharves.

On the last day the track weaved in and out of valleys and across small beaches to rejoin the route of the first day’s walk in. From the beach we looked back with new appreciation at the tor-studded Hump and the ridge walked the day before.

Our third hike was the Four Peaks High Country Track near Geraldine, opened by the station owners in 2006. This 40km track follows a mix of four-wheel-drive tracks and pole-marked trails through hill pastures among evocatively-named landmarks, like Fiery Pass, Devil’s Peak and Jumpover Saddle.

Luggage transfer is standard, so we carried light day packs.

We stayed in old musterers’ huts with bunks for up to eight people, refurbished with 21st-century home comforts: gas-fired kitchens in outdoor lean-to buildings, and outhouse en suites containing flush toilets and hot showers.

Insulated and snug with wood fires to keep off the chills, each hut had pictures and books conjuring images of life in the old high country.

Two of the huts are clad in corrugated iron, but the second night’s lodging is in stone-built Sutherland’s Hut, one of the oldest in the country.

Built in 1867 like a Scottish crofter’s house, it is a reminder of where many of the early shepherds and “boundary keepers” in New Zealand’s high country came from.

Our visit was cloudy but there was still plenty to see: gambolling lambs bleating for lost ewes, skittish mountain hares, and glimpses of wild pigs and their muddy wallows near the track. Even in mist the landscape had grandeur, remote and steeped in another time.

On any walk there’s no avoiding the weather, which can be unpredictable. But the home comforts on these varied tracks made it easy to recover from each day’s experiences and look forward to the next.

The Banks Peninsula Track can be walked in groups of up to 12 over four nights for $220 (off-peak) or $255 (peak season) per person, or $195 on standby if booked five days before departure.

Alternatively it can be walked over a more strenuous two days, costing $145 (off-peak) or $165 (peak), and $125 on standby. Luggage transfer between the huts can be arranged at little additional cost.

For more details see .

The Hump Ridge can be walked over two nights as a Freedom Walker for $130 per person; for the Freedom Plus package, including a first night in Tuatapere, helicopter transfer of packs to the first lodge and bedding for $350 per person; or as a fully provided guided walk for $1395 per person.

For more details see .The Four Peaks track can be done over three nights for $295 per person; or over four nights for $345 per person.

The station also offers tours on different routes for mountainbikers or travel in the luggage transfer vehicles. There is limited selection of food for sale at each hut. See .