Travel

Christmas is coming and many shoppers are still stumped for ideas. If any of your nearest and dearest fall into the category of a globetrotter, the world is your oyster in terms of suitable presents. MailOnline Travel has put together a catalogue of more than 50 gift options to suit every budget. Highlights include a travel change box (top left), a swimsuit you can tan through (top centre), travel edition Monopoly (top right), a temple spa gift set (bottom right), a personalised travel pouch (bottom centre) and a Christmas edition Swiss army knife (bottom left).

Joanna Chrzanowska visited North Korea in September of this year and travelled all around, visiting places such as Pyongyang, the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea and the Diamond Mountain. During her time there she claimed that many parts resembled Europe and the US and even declared that one avenue could have been in downtown Los Angles (top left).

Miniature restaurants and shops fit for rodents have opened on a street corner of the small Swedish town, Malmo. A group calling themselves Anonymouse built the tiny scenes to make people smile, and are attracting a lot of attention. Residents and tourists have been posting their own shots of the scenes to Instagram, under the hashtag #Anonymouse, and some people are even bring their pet rodents to enjoy the Italian bistro and nut shop.

Travel experts at guidebook publisher Lonely Planet handpicked the locations and here explain why they're the hippest choices for the countdown to 2017. Their picks include Hangzhou in China for 'a peaceful way to see in 2017' (top left), Sydney (top right), for a glitzy New Year's Eve, Matera in Italy (bottom right) for a New Year's Eve 'in a jaw-dropping Unesco World Heritage-listed city' and Las Palmas in Gran Canaria for New Year's Eve on a gorgeous city beach.

Shafts of light illuminate a quiet back street (bottom right), boats drift along the bay (main) and barefoot children run beneath washing lines – these candid black-and-white images of everyday life in Hong Kong have been captured with a whimsical touch (bottom left). At just 15-years-old in 1949, Fan Ho headed to the frenetic metropolis from Shanghai and with a deft hand and an artful eye, began snapping the vibrant street life he encountered.

From filthy bare feet invading a head rest to scantily clad couples groping each other in their seats, flying for many is challenging enough without having to share the trip with these passengers from hell. Holidaymakers have shared stomach-churning photos of some of the most shameless fliers in the sky with US-based Instagram account Passenger Shaming. With a careless disregard for others, fliers have been captured flashing the flesh in tiny hot pants and without their tops and trousers. Men are pictured with their hands down their pants, scratching, while female passengers allow their long hair to selfishly hang over the entertainment screen behind them.

The hotels of the future have been revealed - and they are very different indeed from lodgings that travellers are used to today. Visitors can expect to sleep in beds that self-assemble, to have pre-programmed dreams thanks to neuro-technology (top left), eat food based on DNA analysis (bottom right), check in using DNA (inset) and stay in hotels that will be fully sustainable (bottom left). Health treatments, meanwhile, will be based on DNA, too (top right). The revelations come courtesy of Dr James Canton of the Institute for Global Futures in San Francisco, who produced an eye-opening report on the hotels of the future.

Icelander Bragi J Ingibergsson, who goes by the name of Brin, captured the images and has been taking pictures of horses since he was a kid. Brin, 55, said: 'I love taking pictures of horses, they are very playful. I don't get them to smile. It is a question of luck and patience to get horses smiling in pictures. It can be very difficult and take a long time in each photo session to get good photos of horses.'

This summer has seen more A-listers than ever descend on the White Isle, with the likes of everyone from Hollywood heavyweights to the TOWIE crowd jetting off for a hedonistic holiday of fun and frolics in the Spanish sunshine. And while there is certainly a multitude of achingly cool restaurants, bars and beach clubs to cater to every taste, can you really get a true VIP experience with just one night on the island? We headed off to Ibiza for 24 hours to find out...

MailOnline Travel's Harriet Mallinson rediscovers the glory of northern England at Northcote hotel's Gourmet Country Pursuit Experience. The break welcomes guests to the luxury hotel and its Michelin-starred restaurant for one or two nights with the option to add on a Land Rover driving experience (inset left) and/or a clay pigeon shoot (inset right).

Ten photos from across the globe and ten from Britain have been revealed as photo-sharing platform Flickr's best of 2016, selected from the billions of uploads this year. The top images included sunrise across a lagoon in Portugal (top left), a lonely tree growing out a lake in Australia (bottom left), a winding road through a woodland (bottom right), a star-studded sky in New Zealand (top right) and swans braving the elements in Finland (inset).

Cynics might argue that Mustique is where the poseurs take a break from posing. Unfair. More the case that Mustique (three miles long and one mile wide) is such a wonderfully disarming island that it effortlessly shoots down egos and, like some sort of miracle drug, brings out the best in people.

A Los Angles photographer has captured striking shots of the quirky yet global tourist destination of Venice Beach. Photographer Franz Steiner has his studio on the beach and here shares his talent and passion for photography in the fitness lifestyle scene of Venice Beach.

From 'moon bathing' on the roof of The Backstage in Zermatt (top left) and stroking shaggy sheepskins by the fire at Chalet Marco Polo in Val d’Isere (bottom left) to playing pool on a converted mini Cooper at Rock ’n’ Love chalet in Tignes (bottom right) and being right on the edge of the piste at Edelweiss in Corcheval (top right) - not to mention bulletproof windows at Chalet N in Oberlech (inset) - opulence can be found everywhere on the slopes, providing you have £400k to spare.

Users of a popular online forum site responded to the question 'What is a geography fact that blows your mind?' with a remarkable number of fascinating bits of information. The feed got an overwhelming number of responses, with facts ranging in topic from time zones to population density. MailOnline Travel has gone through and compiled some of the most interesting facts.

Archive pictures and video from 1984 show a Boeing 720 being flown into the ground and erupting in flames in California in a crash designed to test a new fuel additive and safety features. New galley and stowage-bin attachments, windows, seat designs and fireproof materials were on board and being put to the test. And afterwards footage of dummies placed in the seats would be carefully analysed. A serving airline captain told MailOnline Travel that the test underscored how real-life crashes are a necessity. The crash yielded new data on impact survivability that helped the FAA establish new rules regarding fire prevention and fire-retardant materials.

For people travelling via Reykjavik to North America, stopovers are available in Iceland at very low prices – in addition, the airline is offering stopover visitors the chance of a very special celebration with the help of an airline Stopover Buddy. As short breaks go, two nights in Iceland followed by two in New York is a winning combination: the perfect Christmas cocktail.

The Galapagos Islands are one of world’s most famous places for wildlife watching – and, with no big predators to fear, the animals don’t run away from human visitors so you can get extremely close to the sea lions, giant tortoises, iguanas and birds. It’s like directing your very own Planet Earth TV show.

Bette Nash began working for Eastern Airlines, now American Airlines, when she was 21, on November 4, 1957, when plane tickets were $12 and Dwight Eisenhower was president of the US. She has been with the carrier ever since. Though she has seen the industry change almost completely, she said that she feels blessed to be able to do her job, and as long as she has her health, sees no end in sight. The photo on the left shows Bette now - and the image on the right shows her in 1958 at the start of her career.

Elaine Filadelfo, from Virginia, tweeted (inset) about the exciting moment when Sue, a woman in her 60s, took her first ever flight, from Los Angeles to San Francisco, to visit her daughter. Filadelfo tweeted that Sue couldn't stop looking out of the window and uploaded a picture of her gazing at the clouds (left). There were a few nerves, though. When the plane left the gate there was a random thud and she grabbed the armrest, so Filadelfo held her hand for reassurance (right).

First there was the single-geared ‘fixie’ bike, then there was the unicycle, and then the electric unicycle. But hipsters could be ready to one-up themselves again with a new take on wheeled transport, which uses a treadmill instead of pedals. For riders of the Lopifit, getting from A to B is as easy as putting one foot in front of the other, with its quirky design enabling users to ride around by walking. The initial concept was created in the Netherlands. Now the Utrecht-based firm is distributing the bikes to several countries, including the US and Mexico.

Bewildering and breath-taking in equal measure, Planet Earth II has gripped TV viewers each week to become Britain's best performing Natural History programme of the past 15 years. David Attenborough (inset) and the camera crew captured the mesmerising drama of some of the most remote, severe and abundant habitats in the world - from the rich jungles of Costa Rica (bottom right) to the harsh deserts of Nevada (top left) and from the vibrant mountains of the Canadian Rockies (bottom left) to the mind-blowing diversity of the Galapagos islands (top right). If you’ve been inspired to journey to any of the 40 locations unveiled on screen, MailOnline Travel reveals how you can follow in the footsteps of the film crews on your next holiday.

If you're always looking for a unique holiday that no one else has experienced before, then a new glamping service offering you the chance to sleep in some of the world's most remote locations is sure to earn you bragging rights. Whether you're tempted by the idea of waking up in the Moroccan desert (top left), Bolivian salt flats (top right) or at the foothills of the Andes (bottom right), a bespoke luxury travel company will erect a temporary tent for you, with any interiors you desire.

Photographer Brian Mosbaugh captured the astonishing images of friends Logan Mitchell, 24, and Josh Beaudoin (inset and main), 34, as they swung around at the picturesque location in Moab, Utah. Josh said: 'I definitely wouldn't recommend a stunt like this to anyone but professionals, but it was amazing to do something that had never been done before.'

National Geographic has unveiled its top 52 images of 2016. Powerful images selected include a heart-warming shot of villagers having their eyes tested on a boat in a remote part of India (bottom left), a Norwegian research vessel tracking changes in the Arctic ice (top) and a Rüppell’s vulture tearing through a zebra's flesh in the Serengeti (bottom right).