Travel News

If you don’t have a head for heights, these pictures might give you sweaty palms. That’s because they show some of the world’s most precariously perched structures – monasteries, temples, churches, castles and houses placed on rocky outcrops and cliff edges by builders with nerves of steel. Some are so inaccessible that only those with a jet pack or serious rock climbing skills can visit. Amazingly, some of the buildings featured here have stood strong in the same place for hundreds and even thousands of years, despite their seemingly hazardous locations. One of the oldest most precariously perched buildings is the Hanging Temple of Shanxi (top left), which was built into a cliff face in China in 491. Other surely-that's-not-safe structures include the chapel of Saint-Michel d'Aiguilhe (bottom left) near Le Puy-en-Velay, in southern France, which is built on a volcanic plug, and the Monastery of the Holy Trinity perched high on top of a rock in Meteora in central Greece.

Billionaires, cheque books at the ready - because the best superyachts in the world in 2018 have been recognised at the Monaco Yacht Show. An awards ceremony that took place on Tuesday evening at Le Méridien Beach Plaza Hotel in Monte Carlo handed out gongs for three categories - 'best interior design', 'best exterior', and 'environment'. The winners all have eye-watering price tags - up to £133 million ($175 million) - and have jaw-dropping features, including state-of-the-art gyms, helipads and interiors resembling five-star hotels. Pictured: The Illusion Plus, which is valued at £110.3 million ($145 million), took home the interior design award.

To some this clip of two planes flying side by side may look like the beginning of a plane horror story from Air Crash Investigation. But watch, and wait for it. What you’re actually witnessing is a thrilling – yet perfectly safe – parallel landing at San Francisco International Airport.

The gallery at the Fairmont Maldives Sirru Fen Fushi that opened in July featured semi-submerged exhibits that disappeared and reappeared as the tide went in and out. But Abdulla Yameen, the outgoing president of the tourist nation, ordered the sculptures to be demolished by police (pictured on the right).

Most drivers fill up their cars at gas stations (petrol stations to Brits) without giving a second thought to what the building looks like. And for good reason – most of them are extremely dull and functional. But not all of them, as a brand new photography book has revealed. The wittily titled It’s A Gas! delves with aplomb into the heady world of gas stations, picking out some of the most fascinating and coolest examples around (yes, really) – past and present. Pictured is the bomber gas station in Milwaukee, top left, an abandoned station in California, top right, a Japanese-temple-style service station in Wisconsin, bottom left, the striking San Agustín de Guadalix in Spain, bottom right, and a 1950s station in Germany, inset.

If any award can lay claim to being the ‘Oscars of the UK hospitality industry’ then it’s this one - by the AA. Each year it hands out gongs for ‘hotel of the year’, ‘restaurant of the year’, ‘pub of the year’, ‘chefs chef’, ‘hotel group of the year’, ‘co hotel of the year’ and ‘AA customers’ choice’. And 2018’s winners are in following 12 months of jumping on mattresses, quaffing wine, scoffing fine food and running fingers along windowsills to check for dust. Here are the results…

India has a lot of airports, but few can match this one for views. In fact, few anywhere can. The Pakyong Airport near Gangtok is India's 100th airport - and has been carved out of a mountainside. The airport - the first to open in the Sikkim state - is close to the Indian Himalayas and is very near to Tibet, Bhutan and Nepal. It is nestled in a deep valley and at 4,500 feet is one of the highest airports in India. It is set across 990 acres and engineers spent nine years working on the project in treacherous conditions. They toiled on rocky slopes in monsoon rains and during seismic activity and brought equipment up precarious mountain roads. 

It might look like an optical illusion. But this is a real life cafe in South Korea cleverly designed to give customers the distinct impression that they're inside a cartoon. Cafe Yeonnam-dong in Seoul opened last year and everything inside from the decor to the furniture and crockery have a striped black-and-white cartoonish aesthetic.

The Bloomberg Initiative for Road Safety has transformed a number of junctions in countries including India, Brazil and Colombia with striking colours that it claims makes them much safer. And it has released fascinating before-and-after pictures that reveal how they have become far less hazardous for cars, cyclists and pedestrians. Turning speeds have been reduced and those on foot and using pedal power have clearly marked ‘safe zones’.

Almost no other city in Europe has seen as much change over the past 100 years as Berlin. In 1918 the city was the grand centre of the German Empire, it partied through the Roaring Twenties, was largely destroyed during the Second World War and was then divided by a wall. Twenty-eight years after the wall came down and Germany was reunited, it has become one of the hippest destinations in the world. The city's turbulent history and subsequent transformation has been captured in a fascinating series of then-and-now pictures, which feature famous landmarks in the German capital. The 'now' pictures were taken by photographer David Koster, who then overlayed them with archive pictures to illustrate how the city has evolved. Koster painstakingly researched every site on Google Street View to make sure his pictures were taken from the exact same angle.

Here's a tourist attraction that'll get you thinking - India's first ever brain museum. It's housed inside the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (Nimhans) in Bangalore - formerly the Bangalore Lunatic Asylum. It has just recently opened up to visitors, who can peer at brains in display cases - and even hold them. It also houses other organs, including the lungs of a heavy smoker (bottom right).

There are 49 abandoned stations on the 249-mile-long London Underground network – and they have all been detailed on a fascinating map of it. It has been created by Franklin Jarrier, who not only names these ‘ghost stations’ - marked in grey on the map - but indicates the date they closed. What’s more, his map shows the actual layout of the Tube’s various tracks and shows the overground network, too, along with its abandoned stations. The level of detail is astonishing - even platform numbers are pinpointed.

These fascinating vintage black-and-white pictures shed light on what life was really like in Europe in the early 20th century - before World War I. The amazing images show a variety of scenes from across the continent from a grand 1904 tour, including police on a horse and cart in London, a man taking his poultry to market in Germany and fishermen wearing clogs on a dock in Holland. But not only are the old photographs absolutely mesmerising, their origin is just as fascinating - because who took them remains a complete mystery. They were bought by a Minnesota photography enthusiast who has spent years trying to trace their provenance. Pictured are policemen in London, top left, a man taking birds to market in Germany, top right, the famous Charles Bridge in Prague, bottom left, fishermen in the Netherlands, bottom right, and farmers moving a huge hay bale in Austria, inset.

Here's our pick of the world's most famous hotels that are soaked in history. The list includes a First World War refuge that is now a hotel, top right, the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong, top left, that was used by the Japanese as their post-invasion HQ in 1941, Moscow’s Hotel National, bottom left, which played host to Lenin and Trotsky, and Cliveden House, bottom right, that was embroiled in a political scandal.

Tourists may not associate Britain with thrilling animal encounters, but it turns out there is one area of the UK where you can get up close and personal with amazing creatures - Pembrokeshire in Wales. Here BBC presenter Lizzie Daly has pinpointed the locations where you may catch a glimpse of blue sharks, basking sharks, porbeagle sharks (bottom right), minke whales (bottom left) and pelagic seabirds. Plus the TV star has discovered the best places for seeing all sorts of other wonderful creatures such as giant spider crabs (top left), seals and puffins (inset).

Who needs bar staff? Amazing footage has emerged online of a robotic beer dispenser in Japan that pours the perfect pint. The machines are said to be very popular across the country, especially in restaurants offering all-you-can-eat-and-drink packages.

The coolest neighbourhoods in the world have been named by the influential Time Out guide, and it’s Embajadores in Madrid (top left) that takes the top spot. But it’s the area that’s come 11th that is the most interesting – Peckham (bottom right), in London. It’s a part of the UK capital that was once a byword for decay and the butt of jokes – and indeed featured in sitcom Only Fools and Horses – but is now lined with video arcade bars, cult nightclubs and street food pop-ups. The list was put together by local Time Out editors, city experts and 15,000 people surveyed across the world and also features the likes of Fitzroy in Melbourne (10th, bottom left), Enmore in Sydney and Highland Park in Los Angeles (ninth, top right).

Sometimes it pays to dig a little deeper if you're a tourist - especially in a city with as many layers of history as London. So join MailOnline Travel for a subterranean exploration of the UK's capital. We'll be taking in WWII bunkers, 'ghost stations', bizarre underground postal trains, the bit beneath Tower Bridge you probably didn't know existed and following a lost river from Hampstead to the Thames.

As one pilot who saw this video commented – this is what you don't get to see from your window seat. Footage has emerged on the internet of a dramatic head-on close pass by an aircraft in between two other planes flying on top of each other travelling in the same direction - and which are separated by just 2,000ft. The video has been filmed from the cockpit of the lowest plane, which is at about 38,000ft, and begins with a view of another aircraft right above it, moving along the same bearing. But then a third plane appears and shoots right in between them - head-on - at what looks to be a separation of just 1,000ft from the planes above and below.

Steven Payne, from Chichester, bought a space hopper on eBay and hopped 76 miles from Italy to Grenoble in Switzerland. During the 17-day journey he endured altitude sickness, a twisted knee and washed in streams. And of course, being an English eccentric, he dressed entirely inappropriately...

The Tsar's Gold train is a ‘hotel on rails’ that travels the length of one of Russia’s greatest engineering feats, the century-old Trans-Siberian Railway. Sky TV's Chris Skudder hopped on board. He says it was an 'epic, mobile history lesson aboard a classic mode of transport'.

The limelight for outrageously luxurious hotel rooms on America's east coast normally falls on New York. But now Boston boasts a suite that's as sweetly swanky and attention-grabbing as anything in the Big Apple. Welcome inside the new 4,800-square-foot John Adams Presidential Suite at five-star Boston Harbor Hotel in Massachusetts, which costs an eye-watering $15,000 (£11,476) per night, making it the city's most expensive guest room.

Waking up in a cottage made entirely from chocolate may seem like something out of a fairy tale - but now holidaymakers can make it a reality. A small French house that has been crafted almost entirely from 1.5 tonnes of the sweet treat is now taking bookings. The Chocolate Cottage is located in the magnificent glass house - L’Orangerie Ephémère - in the gardens of the Cité de la Céramique in Sèvres, just outside Paris. It measures 18 square metres and is big enough for four guests. And all the chocolate elements in it are edible.

The first assembled 777X jetliner has rolled off the Boeing production line at the manufacturer's Everett factory in Washington state. Pictures show a 'static' 777X in a hangar at the gigantic factory. This means that this particular 777X isn't destined for the skies but will be used for a year-long series of tests in a nearby building.

Forget Mykonos and the South of France - celebrities are abandoning their old, overcrowded haunts for a new hotspot. Growing its glam factor, luxury tourism in Turkey is up up up. From Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell to Nicole Kidman, Lucy Liu, and Tom Hanks - Turkey is quickly gaining traction as one of the Med's most sought-after destinations. The resorts they're flocking to are D Resort Göcek (top left); the Çırağan Palace Kempinski (top right, inset); Cornelia (bottom right) and Mandarin Oriental Bodrum (bottom left).

The stunned passenger noticed the creepy-crawlie as it walked across the flight safety instructions on board a Thai Airways Boeing 777 flying from Hokkaido, Japan, to Bangkok. The flyer, who is only known as 'Jane', said that the insect was only a short leap from her meal during the flight.

The UK has plenty of weird and wonderful architectural follies - from a pineapple-shaped landmark (bottom left) to a mini castle with its own library (bottom right). Here's our pick of the best architectural follies where you can spend the night. The list includes a triangular landmark with a turret kitchen near Exeter (bottom right) and Hadlow Tower in Kent (bottom left).

The cellar at the Milestii Mici winery in Moldova is so massive that the owners felt it necessary to put up street names to stop visitors getting lost. The subterranean wine kingdom was formerly a limestone mine that was converted into the huge wine cellar in the 1960s. When the mine closed, it became the perfect wine cellar for the neighbouring vineyard as the limestone walls retain humidity and keep the temperature cool, which are the ideal conditions for vintage red wine.

If you're looking for something to inspire your next adventure then this stunning gallery of breathtaking landscapes might fire a spot of wanderlust. The Weather Channel has revealed some of the scenic submissions in its annual It's Amazing Out There Photo Contest, which is now in its fifth year. Pictured from top left, clockwise: Reflection Canyon in Utah, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, a stormy shore in southwestern France and a view of Yosemite National Park in California.