Travel News

From gazing at hippos to watching the Indian Ocean lap towards your doorstep, these stunning hotel views don't require you to move from your bed. MailOnline Travel has scoured the world to find some of the best spots to wake up at, including the Royal Lancaster London (top left), the Loisaba Star Beds in Kenya (top right), the OZEN by Atmosphere resort in the Maldives (bottom right) and the Iso Syöte Hotel in Finland (bottom left).

If you're into trains and dining out, then these railway restaurants are certainly on the right track. MailOnline Travel has scoured the world for eateries housed inside old train carriages, with quirky spots in India, New York and Paris coming into signal. Pictured, from top left, clockwise: Le Wagon Bleu in Paris, The Spotgate Inn in England, the train diner at 1880 Town in South Dakota and the Sahib Sindh Sultan in India.

If you've always dreamed of witnessing the world's highest mountains in all of their glory then keep scrolling now. Professional adventurer Jack Wheeler - who has visited every country in the world and broke world records for being the first to skydive on the North Pole and for being the youngest to climb the Matterhorn at just 14 years old - now runs expeditions around the world, with one of his most popular tours taking passengers through the Himalayas by helicopter. Pictured from top left, clockwise: Makalu, the Annapurna Sanctuary, views towards Dhaulagiri Base Camp and a chopper swooping in to land at Everest Base Camp.

A heart-wrenching photography series captures the plight of refugees in Paris, with whole families living in the streets. French photographer Vladimir Antaki started investigating the migrant crisis in his hometown last October in a bid to capture the 'faces of men, women and children that the public doesn’t want to see'. His project, titled Family Portraits, shows peopled from Kosovo, Romania, Albania, Turkey, Bulgaria and Syria who have fled their country for political or economic reasons.

If you're looking to immerse yourself in nature, then an unusual hotel on a remote island in the Caribbean aims to tick that box. Le Domaine des Bulles, which is situated on Île Petite Grenade off Martinique, features four bedrooms housed in bubble-like sleeping pods. The spacious domed structures are transparent, allowing guests to gaze at the stars or leafy surroundings from the comfort of their beds.

The public transport system in the Swedish capital is often referred to as one of the world's longest galleries with 90 of the 100 stations displaying colourful public works of art. Now over one million trips are taken on the Stockholm Metro everyday with most passengers able to appreciate the public art. Pictured are stations T-Centraalen, top left, Stadion, top right and Kungsträdgården, bottom.

Scientists have discovered a 100 acre island off the coast of Georgia which was carved by last autumn's deadly Hurricane Irma. The furious storm ripped through the Atlantic last September, leaving a trail of destruction behind. And recently-recorded drone footage reveals that the strong winds - which reached a high of 185mph - helped shift a sand bar to create a new isolated piece of land which has been christened Little Blackbeard Island.

Shots exposing the age of excess in Dubai and touching portraits of shunned LGBTQ residents in South Korea, are among the winning images that have been announced in the 2018 ZEISS Photography Awards.The contest , now it its third year, challenged photographers to tell 'untold stories' through the use of imagery. Pictured from top left, clockwise: Body building in India by British photographer Mark Leaver, excess in Dubai by Belgian photographer Nick Hannes, acts of Americanism by U.S. photographer Sarah Blesener and being LGBTQ in South Korea by Gowun Lee.

Never-seen-before timelapse footage reveals what it takes to build a mega cruise liner, with lengths of steel painstakingly moved into place and hours of welding to make the vessel fit for the water. The two-minute-17 second film shows the construction of MSC Cruises' new mammoth boat, the MSC Bellissima, at a shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France. To start the 4,500- passenger ship - which is costing around £700 million to build - is just a couple of decks high, but gradually the sped up clip shows how engineers work around the clock to add more rows of cabins with the help of cranes.

The infographics show how early pioneers in the British Isles left their mark through county place names that are still in place today and reflect Roman, Celtic and Anglo Saxon language. One interesting translation is Cornwall, which literally means 'People of the Horn. While in Northern Ireland, Derry can be translated into Oak Grove, and in Wales, Denbighshire literally means Little Fortress.

The self-built prototype, called Trailer, is located in Bath and also has a spacious interior with an open plan room taking up the whole ground floor while a ladder leads to a second living space. The building is designed to be legally transported on public highways and has been made using recycled materials including doors from a skip and scavenged insulation.

Swapping champagne glasses for plastic beakers and glossy magazines for board games, one luxury hotel in Singapore is offering a range of suites specially geared towards children. The five-star Shangri-La Hotel Singapore has five rooms which have been decorated in different themes for their pint-sized guests, with inspiration including 'safari' (pictured bottom right), 'space' (top right), 'castle' (top left), 'treetop' and 'underwater' (bottom left). The rooms, which average £815 (1,500 Singapore dollar) a night, include a range of child-friendly perks such as kids TV, stuffed toys, specialised bath products and miniature bathrobes.

Vertigo-inducing photos have emerged of a pro skier bombing down a terrifyingly-steep slope in Italy. Markus Eder, who lives in Austria, appears to be a small dot on the near-vertical run found in the Italian alpine commune of Alagna Valsesia. Hurtling along at high speed, the nimble sportsman had to navigate his way down the narrow snowy pass, avoiding the craggy rock sides.

New hotel, Cherry Twins, in Kiev, Ukraine, offers seven different themed-rooms, developed with the help of sexologists, with hopes of encouraging guests to explore their most erotic fantasies. Pictured: the 50 Shades of Grey-inspired Domination Room (left), the Torture Room (top right) and the Medical Room (bottom left).

Ted Thornhill is pleasantly surprised by Johannesburg's hipster credentials. For instance, excellent eateries such as Marble and Che (bottom right), the latter serving up a steak sandwich of his dreams. He is just as taken with Richard Branson's nearby luxury safari lodge, Ulusaba (the other three pictures). Here he explains the joys of combining an urban safari with a truly wild one...

EXCLUSIVE. Rare pictures have emerged of Concorde in a hangar at London Heathrow after it returned from its maiden voyage to Bahrain in the Middle East in 1976. What makes them extra remarkable is that they were taken by someone who snuck into the hangar dressed as an engineer. In her disguise, Rosalind Griffiths, who was 20 at the time, excitedly posed next to the history-making supersonic airliner and snapped the cockpit and cabin.

It seems that Rich McCor’s imagination knows no limits. He’s the paper artist and photographer who creates intricate cut-outs to re-imagine landscapes around the world. And his latest work is as brilliant as ever. MailOnline first reported on his work in 2015 – and he’s still producing superbly crafted scenes, as these images show.

If you thought living a fairy-tale life was only possible in fairy-tales - think again. That's because there are castles by the moat-full that it's possible to stay at, from spooky 19th-century Cumbrian fortresses to glamorous French chateaus. Here MailOnline Travel rounds up some of the most wished-listed castles on Airbnb and others available from luxe rental service Le Collectionist that you can spend the night in. Pictured are Dairsie Castle, Scotland, top left, Thornbury Castle, Bristol, top right, Chateau des Songes, Bordeaux, bottom left and Castello di San Fabiano, Italy, bottom right. Plus, inset, Langley Castle in Hexham.

The world's biggest and most expensive ever cruise ship is just days away from setting sail on its maiden voyage. Royal Caribbean's 'Symphony of the Seas' is currently docked in in Malaga, Spain where it dwarfs nearby apartment blocks, The ship, which weighs 228,000 tonnes, is at 1,188 feet long just 20 metres shy of the length of the Empire State Building. It boasts a total of eight decks, with enough room for 8,000 guests, featuring 20 restaurants, six bars, an ice rink, surf simulator and zip wire.

This is the incredible mountain chalet that is set in rural Alaska and can only be reached by helicopter. Stunning shots show the Sheldon Chalet against the snowy backdrop of the Denali National Park as the Northern Lights linger in the night sky. Other striking images show the spacious interior with a large open fire as a centrepiece while expansive windows offer perfect views, worthy of the $2,330 (£1,658) per night price tag. The Sheldon Chalet is perched on a ridge 6,000ft above the Don Sheldon Amphitheater, ten miles from the summit of Denali National Park.

Romanian photographer Aurel Paduraru visited the country last autumn with his wife and toddler and was blown away the colours of the scenery and the churches dotted on the landscape. And luckily he had his camera with him to capture these images of the country, which has a mixture of alpine mountains, green countryside and a small dramatic coastline. He said: 'I will remember Slovenia for all of my life because I feel like a part of my heart remained there.'

Set on top of a hill in Malibu, California, the three-bedroom two bathroom pyramid-shaped property looks out over Malibu Canyon as well as Point Dume and is located in a gated community. The home can also command high-daily rental fees and it's in high demand with production companies and event planners with many movies and TV shows requesting permission to shoot scenes there.

EXCLUSIVE. How would you like to have the Champs-Elysees all to yourself? Or to peer down from the Eiffel Tower on to the City of Love, but without the hordes of tourists? Well, you can. All you have to do is fly to Hangzhou in south-eastern China, writes Leigh Mcmanus. There you'll find 'Sky City'. A replica of Paris that was built for 10,000 - but no one turned up. Pictured is the city's 350ft replica of the Eiffel Tower (inset and top left), its grand apartments (bottom left), its French-style shops (top right) and farmers tending to crops in the development (bottom right). 

In the UK it has to measure more than 2,000 feet while in the US the peak usually has to be over 1,000 feet. But in China, 60cm (1.9ft) is apparently enough for a rock to be classified as a mountain. Welcome to Jing Mountain in Shandong Province. It's China's smallest mountain and can be conquered with just one step.

Qantas made history for the first 17-hour non-stop flight from Perth to London. The trip is the fastest route from Australia to Europe and passengers have shared their in-flight experience after the historic Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner landed in Heathrow on Sunday morning.

It transports passengers 6,800ft to the top of a mountain at a maximum gradient of 48 per cent. And the world's steepest train ride has been caught on camera - and it is enough to make your stomach churn. The Pilatus Railway has been running safely for nearly 120 years and transports about 300,000 passengers a year from the Alpnachstad station at Lake Lucerne in Switzerland to a terminus near the top of Mount Pilatus. The stunning views en route include Lake Lucerne (inset).

Fascinating footage has been released of a robot’s-eye-view (right) of a driverless vehicle trial at Heathrow Airport. The clip comes from a ‘cargopod’ vehicle that spent three and a half weeks running autonomously along a cargo route around the airside perimeter. The trial collected over 200km of data for Heathrow, cargo operator IAG Cargo and the software firm providing the self-driving tech, Oxford-based Oxbotica.

Cornwall has been revealed as the number one destination for family holidays in the UK by the AA. Research to mark National B&B; Day showed that the county on England's rugged southwestern tip is home to the most number of B&Bs; catering to children of all ages, with 72 family friendly lodges in total. The AA also ranked the top nine B&Bs; across the country for parents to take their children. Pictured from top left, clockwise: Trecarne House in Cornwall, The Commercial Hotel in Aberdeenshire, Double-Gate Farm in Somerset and Stoke Gabriel Lodgings in Totnes, Devon.

These are the perfect properties on which to live out your castaway fantasies - private islands for sale in some of the world's most exotic locations. Pictured from top left, clockwise: Soneva Fushi in the Maldives, Jumbo Island in Ontario, Lataro Island in the South Pacific and Iguana Island off Nicaragua.

Krakow has emerged as the cheapest European city for a bargain break for Brits this spring. That’s according to Post Office Travel Money, which surveys the price of 12 typical city break items annually – including food and drink, accommodation and must-see attractions – across 36 European cities to produce a ‘City Costs Barometer’. Eastern Europe continues to dominate the list of best-value capitals for UK tourists, taking the top seven places. London comes 25th on the list, with Amsterdam offering the very worst value for money.

If you're looking to beat those winter blues and are yet to book a break, National Geographic Travel has revealed its Best Spring Trips for 2018. If you're a nature fanatic, the travel site recommends heading to the wilds of Sri Lanka, where the gnarled mangroves are abundant with lizards, macaques, water buffalo, crocodiles, and the occasional elephant. But if you're looking to explore a culture, then going on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem during Easter is tipped as a 'once-in-a-lifetime experience'. Pictured: A local woman cruising down the Amazon River (main), cherry blossom in Tokyo (bottom left), an ice wall in Svalbard (top left), Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulcher (bottom right) and the Namibian desert (top right).

With waves being whipped by gale-force winds and giant swells forming, a stunning photography series captures a violent storm at sea. Surrey-based photographer Rachael Talibart ventured to Newhaven Beach in East Sussex when Storm Imogen hit on February 7, 2016, and started clicking away. Her powerful images capture the true force of nature, and she told MailOnline Travel that 'witnessing the sea at its wildest is so inspiring - it is frightening and exhilarating in equal measure'.

Incredible photos reveal the progress being made on what is set to be the world's highest statue. The £226.9million Statue of Unity in western India will be 597 feet tall when it's finished in October - that's almost twice the height of the Statue of Liberty and nearly 100 feet higher than the current record holder, China's Spring Temple Buddha. It's being built on Sadhu Island in the state of Gujarat, with the waters of the Narmada river surrounding it. Images reveal that the foundations have been laid for the structure along with central support pillars but there is still a bit of work to do before it takes on the form of the late political and social leader Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, whom it will honour.

A new cutting-edge superyacht boasts a silent mode in a bid to offer guests the ultimate luxury - peace and quiet. The 164ft-long aluminium-constructed Home, built by Dutch shipyard Heesen, is decked out with a hybrid diesel electric propulsion system, which minimizes noise pollution and fuel consumption without sacrificing speed. London-based professor Barry Smith, who founded the Centre for the Study of the Senses, helped guide the boat's development and he said that Home runs at 'a sound of around 46 decibels - the level of softly falling rain'. Pictured: Home in action (main), one of the yacht's bedrooms (inset left) and a lounge area (inset right).

The American road trip is one of the quintessential bucket list getaways - and here's how to do it without being surrounded by honking horns. Thanks to Geotab, a company specializing in GPS and vehicle tracking services, the quietest roads in the U.S have been revealed. Using the latest traffic count data available from the Highway Performance Monitoring System, its analysts went about pinpointing the least travelled highways. Coming in at first place was Alaska's deserted State Route 11, followed by Utah's US Route 50, Maine's US Route 201 and Arizona's US Route 160.

Boasting the world's tallest airport slide, a free 24-hour cinema, rooftop swimming pool and butterfly park, Singapore’s Changi has been named the best airport in the world for the sixth consecutive year. It is the ninth time Changi has claimed the top gong at Skytrax’s World Airport Awards, thanks to the enthralling amenities on offer in its four terminals. South Korea's Incheon International Airport and Tokyo Haneda rounded out the top three, while London Heathrow cracked the top 10, rising up one place to number eight.

From Droitwich salt springs to Loch Lomond, a geography professor is using a millennium-old manuscript (right) to hunt the UK's ancient and mythical features (see left).  Andrew Evans has found 26 fantastical features documented in an ancient book called Wonders of Britain that was written by a monk between the 9th and 12th centuries. Many of these 'wonders' - which range from a lake with 60 islands on it to a shape-shifting burial mound - have been forgotten or only recorded in legends. Since then, Dr Evans has been travelling around the country using this manuscript to hunt down and locate these ancient features. Anglesey, the island situated off the north coast of Wales (inset), is home to four of the wonders described in the script.

Newly-released point-of-view footage shows Blackpool Pleasure Beach’s much-anticipated £16.25million 'Icon' roller coaster in action for the first time, with its carriages unveiled as stunning 16-seaters with a copper-gold design. The clip was filmed using a GoPro attached to the front of one of the carriages, resulting in a thrilling rider's-eye-view of the twists and turns. Those who have the courage to step on board will zoom around the track at up to 52mph and will experience acceleration four times that of a Lamborghini Gallardo super car, or around the same amount of G force felt by Formula 1 drivers.

It’s Fred Flintstone’s dream destination. These are the stunning cave pool suites at the Kayakapi Premium Caves hotel in Cappadocia, Turkey – the last word in prehistoric-style glamour. The caves were used as shelters and houses from the ninth century right through to 1961, but now they’re luxurious lodgings that come with plunge pools, air conditioning, iPhone docking stations, Wi-Fi and Nespresso machines. The hotel ranks 12th in the world on TripAdvisor.

From leopards staring into the camera lens to stunning storms, these are the incredible winners of the 2018 Sony World Photography Awards. They are the top shots in the 'open' competition and 'national awards' and come from photographers in the U.S, Australia, Argentina, Cambodia, China, Kenya, Saudi Arabia and beyond. Pictured: A flash of lightning over the Ecuadorian Amazon (top left), women walking over a bridge in Myanmar (top right), light shining over Tokyo post-typhoon (bottom right) and an upturned car attracting attention in the Czech Republic (bottom left).

From sleeping in an igloo to spending a night in outer space, one hotel is helping guests live out their wackiest travel fantasies with a range of immersive suites. Fantasyland in Edmonton, Canada, has dozens of themed rooms with no expense sparred when it comes to detail. Pictured from top left, clockwise: The 'igloo', 'truck', 'space' and 'Victorian coach' themed rooms at Fantasyland.

The magical moment a diver and a boat full of tourists had a thrilling close encounter with a 45ft gray whale and her calf in Mexico has been captured on camera. The thrilling encounter was filmed by diver Andrea Izzotti, 49, who said that he thought the whale's skin would be hard because of the barnacles, but when he touched the adult female's body, he said it was 'incredibly soft'. The nature lover, from Genoa, Italy, captured the memorable scene last week with his GoPro camera.

London has been named the second-best rated destination in the world and number one in the UK in TripAdvisor's tenth annual Travellers’ Choice awards for Destinations. Paris takes the world title this year, with Rome rolling in at third place and Bali bouncing in in fourth. Interestingly, New York, a long-time favourite with travellers worldwide, slips down from fifth in 2017 to tenth place. The award winners were determined using an algorithm that analyses the millions of reviews and ratings for hotels, restaurants and attractions collected in a single year from TripAdvisor travellers worldwide.

‘It’s the best in the world, hands down.’ That’s aviation expert Alex Macheras’s verdict on the QSuite business class cabin – which features double beds (main) - on board Qatar Airways’ brand new A350-1000. Mr Macheras (right) flew on the delivery flight of the hi-tech aircraft from Airbus HQ in Toulouse, France, to Qatar’s HQ in Doha, at the end of February. And he had a very comfortable flight indeed.

Ambrose Letoluai welcomed MailOnline Travel's Sadie Whitelocks into his grandmother's home in a remote part of north Kenya. The 24-year-old wildlife conservationist comes from the colourful Samburu tribe. Women in the cattle herding community are known for wearing bright jewellery that carries great significance. Meanwhile, the men traditionally have more than one wife and the families can become very large.