Travel

Flight-tip blogger Sam Huang snared this bargain rate for the ultra-luxury journey, from Singapore to Sydney, by redeeming KrisFlyer miles and then posted pictures of his amazing trip on his blog to show just how truly memorable it was. Highlights included sleeping in a double bed (top right), drinking Krug champagne (top left) and eating an eight-ounce rib eye steak for dinner.

SPONSORED It's perfectly possible for tourists to see Canada's wonderful animals up close in award-winning zoo enclosures and in their magical natural habitats. Here MailOnline Travel reveals 16 amazing wildlife experiences visitors need to have in Canada, including snorkelling with belugas (top right), seeing polar bears from a buggy (top left) and kayaking with orcas (main).

From a 135-year-old Manhattan landmark to the ultimate Maldivian retreat, travel writers and industry experts have chosen their annual winners in the Tatler Travel Awards 2017. With accolade categories as varied as ‘the most fun ever’ and ‘enduring excellence’ a diverse variety of retreats, boutique hubs and contemporary lodges were commended. Pictured clockwise from top left, winners included: The Alpina Gstaad in Switzerland, Soneva Jani in the Maldives, The Beekman in New York, Mandarin Oriental in Bangkok and inset, The Ritz in Paris.

The amazing installation was created by Mexican artist Gabriel Dawe, who has been tricking museum visitors in Ohio into believing they are seeing the meteorological wonder indoors. Dawe’s installation, Plexus No.35, was created especially for the Great Gallery of Toledo Museum of Art.

From glamorous fashion bloggers to social media stars, online influencers are making a pilgrimage to take similar snaps at the same dreamy swimming pool in the heart of a Marrakech riad. The distinctive oasis belongs to Riad Yasmine, a seven-bedroom bolthole in Marrakech.

A new collection of eye-opening photos has shed light on a previously unseen demographic – the affluent North Korean elite. Crushing stereotypes, this thriving urban community has been captured sporting designer handbags (inset) and mobile phones (top left), taking horse riding lessons (bottom right), driving Audis (top right) and even enjoy flights over the capital (bottom left). North Korea's super wealthy urbanites are a demographic the socialist regime turns a blind eye to.

Infinity pools, plush furnishings and sweeping ocean views - oh, and not forgetting the multi-million pound price tag. This is the standard checklist when it comes to the world's swankiest superyachts, which are laid bare a new coffee table book. The Superyacht Book, published this month by TeNeues , offers a glimpse inside an array of today's most stunning boats reserved only for the rich and famous. Tony Harris, who edited the tome and spent a decade as the publisher of Boat International magazine, says the luxury vessels have got bigger and better over the years.

From the tropical paradise of Anguilla to the rugged wilderness of New Zealand, luxury homestay service Le Collectionist has revealed some of its unrivalled rentals complete with butlers and helipads, should you wish to truly indulge. Pictured clockwise from top left: Chalet Yoko in the Alps, Villa Aata in Bora Bora, Chalet Ornella in Megeve, Chalet Eteroa in New Zealand and inset, Villa Ahuura, also in New Zealand.

Filmmaker Kevin Wolf, based in San Francisco, captured the image at California's Yosemite National Park on a clear day. At first glance, it looks like a cloak of stars hanging over a rugged mountain range. But look closer and you'll notice some distortion around its tree-lined base. But what could that be?

Most public bathrooms are not pleasant places to be – but the shortlisted entries to America’s Best Restroom contest have a whiff of style about them. There were ten loos from across the U.S. vying for the top spot, including colourful restaurant toilets in Chicago (top left), ocean-themed loos in Baltimore (top right), chic water closets in Chicago (bottom right) and a Doctor Who-themed Tardis loo in Brooklyn, New York (centre). The toilets at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (bottom left) were revealed as the winner, with their twinkling mosaic wall tiles, soft mood lighting and well-placed nooks to rest luggage.

From the enchanting Giant Buddha in China (main) to the timeless serenity of snowy Japan (bottom left), legendary photographer Steve McCurry has created a spellbinding series of images spanning 12 locations. McCurry, best known for his poignant National Geographic Afghan girl image, travelled to China, Japan, India, Scotland, Switzerland, Mexico, Uzbekistan, Ethiopia (bottom right), Russia, France and the United States to capture the 'spirit of travel'.

Photographer Matt Emmett's career isn't about to go down the drain - as his picture of the East London Water Works Company (main) has won first prize in a prestigious photography competition. His picture of a covered reservoir in London's Finsbury Park 'captured the imagination of the delegates' at the World Architecture Festival in Berlin, where the prizes for the Arcaid Images Architectural Photography Awards were handed out at a recent ceremony. Mr Emmett's image was up against extremely stiff competition, including Nick Almasy's image of Shanghai Tower (bottom left) and Victor Romero's image of Baku National Stadium in Azerbaijan (bottom right).

Shocking photos have revealed damage to a Saudi Arabian Airlines plane caused by bird strike. A passenger on the tarmac spotted a gaping hole in the Airbus A333’s left wing and on closer inspection staff discovered a dead bird embedded in the aircraft. The passenger jet had landed at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from Dammam, reportedly without incident.

A Welsh hotel dubbed 'the worst in Britain' has been closed by inspectors - over fears guests could be electrocuted in their rooms.  Fire chiefs and safety officials immediately evacuated all the guests at the 27-room Fiorenzo Cazari hotel in Rhyl. The hotel will not be allowed to re-open until urgent safety work on its electrics has been completed.

Extraordinary footage has emerged of a Monarch aircraft pitching and tipping dramatically as it comes into land at Gibraltar airport. The clip, uploaded to the internet on Monday, shows the aircraft approaching at a steady angle – then violently rocking as it comes closer to the runway. The aircraft then tips forward violently as heavy gusts batter it. With just 30 feet or so separating the aircraft from the runway the plane suddenly tips sideways, but the pilot quickly straightens it out and makes a safe landing.

Reportage photographer Eleonora Costi's spellbinding photo series of abandoned places across Italy includes a vandalised church (bottom right), a debris-strewn nightclub, a decadent villa frozen in time (top left), opulent neglected castles, a crumbling former psychiatric hospital (bottom left) and a home suddenly ripped open by an earthquake (top right).

US restaurants have started to serve live animals like octopus, which joins a long list of cruel food practices such as drowned bird and boiled rat. Here are some of the worst offenders globally. Pictured clockwise from top left: Newborn rodents dipped in boiling oil and eaten live, an octopus dismembered in a restaurant, a live fish on a plate, a diner chooses a live fish to eat from a bucket, frog sashimi and the ortolan, which is drowned in brandy.

The Chilean port city of Iquique is bordered on one side by an enormous 2.5 mile-long sand dune, known as 'The Dragon'. It is the largest urban sand dune in the world. From its peak, the dune slowly edges down into a Pacific Ocean beach. Its unique geographical location makes it the largest urban sand dune in the world.

National Geographic Traveler has released its 2017 list of the hottest cities and the best places to visit for nature and culture in the world. Canada’s epic wilderness, Hawaii’s Jurassic World splendour and Finland’s unspoiled beauty have been highlighted among 21 of the top destinations to explore next year. Pictured clockwise from top left: Via Dinarica, Western Balkans, Banff, Canada, Hamburg, Germany, Mexico's Baja California and inset, Switzerland’s Canton Uri.

A thrillseeker has captured the terrifying moment he and a friend clambered over a hotel railing to scale a rooftop and leap into the swimming pool below. The mysterious jumper, who goes by the name of 8Booth frequently posts videos of his shocking stunts online and has a reputation for sparking panic among onlookers. His latest video, named ‘Pool drop 5’, was shot at a hotel in Mexico.

The miserable experience of fumbling for lost boarding passes and endless queueing at airports could finally be a thing of the past, as airports of the future will feature biometric tickets, virtual assistants (top right) and fast molecular security scanners (main). Designs for how airports could look in 25 years have been revealed, including descriptions of what passengers' experiences will be like using technology that is already being trialled and developed. The research shows how check-in - a major source of queues and frustration for travellers - will become an automated doddle by 2040.

The gigantic Emirates aircraft – the world’s biggest passenger plane – was filmed approaching the runway sideways at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. It can be seen moving sideways into the wind as part of a special 'crab' landing technique. A crosswind or 'crab' landing sees an aircraft drifting laterally as it approaches the runway in order to track the runway centerline, thereby enabling the pilot to safely bring the plane to the ground.

MailOnline Travel's Sadie Whitelocks ventured to Guadalupe Island in Mexico to dive with great white sharks and ended up coming within inches of one specimen's razor sharp teeth in the spot where a YouTube shark video recently captured a great white thrashing around inside a dive cage. The six-day trip had the aim of showing the world’s most feared creatures in a different light.

Pictured, top left, wreckage from the TransAsia Airways Flight 235 which crashed into Taiwan's Keelung River in 2015 after the pilot switched off the wrong engine; top right, the remains of Air Florida Flight 90 which crashed into the Potomac River in Washington because the pilots failed to properly de-ice the plane; bottom right, wreckage from the 1977 collision between two Boeing 747s at Tenerife Airport, the result of miscommunication with Air Traffic Control; bottom left, the site of Airblue Flight 202's crash in Pakistan in 2010, after which the pilot was blamed for his 'harsh' treatment pf his co-pilot; and, inset, in 1994, Aeroflot Flight 593 from Moscow to Hong Kong crashed over Siberia after the relief pilot's children took the controls, centre (stock image).