Travel News

The trend for house swapping, where holidaymakers move into one another's homes, is increasingly popular. Here we reveal how to do it and examples of how it can all work out. For example, David Adams and his wife Judith have been swapping their three-bedroom 250-year-old cottage in Shropshire (pictured top left) for 15 years. A Palm Desert home in California could be the Adams' next swap (top right). Meanwhile, Jennie Macdonald and Patrick Crouch of Cornwall have swapped their home (pictured bottom right) for properties abroad for the past eight years using homebase-hols.com. Their most far-flung swap was a recent exchange for an extravagant villa in Bali (bottom left).

MailOnline's Ted Thornhill checked into the lavish 336-room St Regis Doha after flying in from London in Qatar Airways' amazing Qsuite (inset). The hotel and the cabin were big on luxury. You enter the hotel's presidential grounds through a large arch and go past two 50ft stainless steel replicas of the Arabian oryx before ascending up a massive ramp to the hotel's entrance, which is always a hive of activity, writes Ted. Once inside you'll find 12 restaurants - including one by Gordon Ramsay - and a jaw-dropping bronze scale replica of one of the most desirable Ferraris ever made, La Ferrari.

An expert in Italian wine is running a 'wine retreat' at the stunning Torre alle Tolfe wine estate in the heart of the Chianti region, just three kilometres (1.9 miles) from the medieval city of Siena. It has 17 bedrooms, a 17m by 6m swimming pool, beautifully landscaped gardens and offers views of rolling countryside smothered in vines, olive groves and forests. Guests will leave with the globally recognized WSET-Level 1 wine qualification.

MailOnline Travel's Sarah Fitzmaurice (inset) flies on a Boeing 777 from Sydney to Abu Dhabi, then on an A380 to London. Here she charts all the ups and downs, from the lack of privacy in the 777 cabin (bottom left and top left) to the glory of the A380 seat (top right). The food, meanwhile, is mostly mouthwatering (bottom right). Read on for the full verdict.

The IKEA Hotell is in Älmhult where Ingvar Kamprad, late founder of flatpack furniture retailer IKEA, grew up and started the global business. Älmhult is home to IKEA's HQ, as well as the recently opened IKEA Museum and the IKEA Hotell. Around 90 per cent of its inhabitants work for the company.

Death-defying swimming pools are apparently set to become the latest architectural trend in central London. That's according to a firm that has designed the world's first 360-degree infinity pool, which will sit on top of a 55-storey, 722ft (200m) skyscraper called Infinity London. The 600,000-litre pool features see-through acrylic sides and a transparent floor, so people below will be able to see the swimmers far above. Swimmers will access it through a rotating spiral staircase based on the door of a submarine, rising from the pool floor when someone wants to get in or out.

This group of 23 islands in the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Hawaii and Papua New Guinea, has been uninhabited since it was evacuated in 1946 to become the site of the U.S Navy's nuclear test campaign. And now adventure event operator Rat Race Adventure Sports has outlined plans to host an event there for intrepid explorers, something it says is '110 per cent one-of-a-kind, never-been-done, world-first stuff'. The main image shows a nuclear test in 1946. The bottom right snap shows a helicopter conducting an aerial survey of the atoll in 1978.

A grand three-Michelin-starred Swiss restaurant has been named the number one in the world in a poll of private jet lifestyle magazine readers. The voters, all readers of Elite Traveler, certainly know a thing or two about posh restaurants, because they eat in them. They voted Restaurant de L'Hôtel de Ville (top left) in Crissier, Switzerland - where the tasting menu costs 390 Swiss francs (£310) - as the top restaurant on planet Earth. In at second place on the list is Alinea in Chicago (top right), while New York's famed Eleven Madison Park comes in at number three (bottom left). Flying the flag for Britain is Heston Blumenthal's The Fat Duck (bottom right), which comes first in the UK and 11th globally.

Pictures of the world's wackiest phone booths? We thought it was a good call, so we scoured the world to find them. We found a seagull-shaped calling kiosk in Turkey, a brain-shaped booth in Brazil and one in Alaska chipped out of a block of ice. Another, in Osaka, was transformed into a giant fish tank. Some of the booths featured here were artist installations - but some are permanent fixtures. Dial into a world of weirdness...

Prestigious Bristol-based travel guide Sawday's, which specialises in finding special places to stay and eat at, has announced the winners of its annual best pub awards. Along with an overall winner, other gongs were also handed out for best pub with rooms, best community pub, best pub for families, favourite newcomer and most authentic pub. Pictured from top left, clockwise: The Fleece Inn, Worcestershire; The Wellington Arms, Hampshire; The Lister Arms at Malham, Yorkshire, and The Mason Arms in Oxfordshire.

From glacier gazing in Alaska to speedboat rides in Florida, these are the trips that melted the TripAdivsor switchboard last year. As it were. Pictured are the top attractions in South Dakota (top left), Alaska (top right), Illinois (bottom left) and Hawaii (bottom right). Which is your favorite?

If you want to push the boat out and book a holiday that's firmly in the 'paradise' category, then try one of these stunning private island hotels. And what we mean by private island hotel is that, yes, the hotel is the only piece of accommodation on the island. MailOnline Travel has scoured the globe and found some of the most enticing, from the Arctic wilds of Finland to the sunny reaches of St Vincent and the Grenadines. Surrounded by nothing but water and no roads in sight, these idyllic outcrops invite travellers to unwind and switch off.

Do you have what it takes to be an elite soldier? Swapping the beach for more brutal surrounds, an expedition travel company is offering SAS: Who Dares Wins-style trips to put intrepid travellers through their paces. Trident Adventure is run by ex-Special Air Service soldiers and most recently they ventured to the Arctic wilds (pictured), battling temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius and tackling untraversed landscapes on cross country skis.

Grandparents Peter and Chris Lloyd, from Cumbria, embarked on the epic 18-month journey after deciding to 'do something a bit different' in retirement. The married couple of 37 years nourished themselves with local delicacies and spent most nights inside a tiny tent pitched wherever they could find shelter. At the end of their journey, the unconventional pair from near Carlisle in Cumbria didn't fly home but instead opted to book a cabin inside a 400m-long container ship. Pictured are the pair in China (top left), Tajikistan (top right, inset), Georgia (bottom right) and Kazakhstan (bottom left).

Yet more spell-binding images have emerged as photographers vie to win gold at a prestigious annual photo contest. The Cewe Photo Award invites amateur and professional photographers from around the world to enter and to date, more than 175,000 snaps have been submitted covering 10 subject categories. The competition's organisers have let MailOnline Travel reveal the latest images as the deadline looms. Pictured from top left, clockwise: A grizzly bear mother and cub in Russia, sheep herding in Shanghai, a European bee-eater in Slovenia and a macro shot of housefly eyes.

It's opening in two days' time and now, finally, Disneyland has revealed a picture of its finished $1billion Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge attraction, complete with the cast that'll entertain guests during their visit. The picture was posted to Instagram by Josh D'Amaro, the president of Disneyland Resort, with the caption: 'So proud to introduce you to the inhabitants of Batuu! I want to thank this amazing team for their incredible dedication and passion. Yesterday's Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge cast rally was unforgettable. This photo is one for the ages!' The picture was then re-posted by John Boyega, the actor who plays Finn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and its sequel, Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Pictures from inside the attraction were posted to Twitter by Disney's CEO, Robert Iger, from a tour he gave to Steven Spielberg, Star Wars director JJ Abrams and Star Wars producer Kathy Kennedy (bottom left and right).

William Hanson checks into The Lowell hotel in New York City 'which sits, with ankles demurely crossed, between Madison and Park Avenue'. He falls in love with almost every aspect of it, especially the afternoon tea. The hotel is for those who appreciate discreet, subtle service and quality surroundings, he writes.

These are some of the jaw-dropping winning images in the annual BigPicture: Natural World Photography Competition, which received 6,500 entries from photographers around the world. The winning images will be featured in the annual BigPicture photography exhibition, set to open on July 26 at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. Pictured is a jaw-dropping shot of Senja Island in Norway (top), a gorilla embracing his caretaker at a sanctuary for orphaned gorillas in the Congo (bottom left) and an unusual underwater shot of a bear hunting for salmon in Russia (bottom right).

It was comedian Al Murray playing his Pub Landlord character who said: 'Australia, great place but they’ve just done around the edges. They need to work towards the middle.' But as these pictures show, the middle really is terrifically dramatic. And the edges, too, can be jaw-dropping. Discover Australia's sensational scenery and the extraordinary stories behind it. Pictured clockwise from top left: Wilpena Pound, Whitehaven Beach, King George Falls, the crumbling Twelve Apostles and Lake Hillier (inset).

Whistlestop on the Pier can only seat eight people inside, while another 20 can eat outside in the bracing fresh air. But the compact restaurant on Bangor Pier - with stunning views of Snowdonia and the Menai Strait in North Wales - scooped the prize for traditional restaurant of the year in the Welsh Food Awards 2019. The owners say they pride themselves on utilising local ingredients and suppliers for the authentic Welsh feel, including burgers that are handmade using beef from Welsh black cattle reared on Anglesey and eggs from 'happy hens' near Llanfairfechan.

Romania may well be the home of Dracula, but the country definitely won't fill you with horror, as these incredible drone photographs show. They were taken by Radio Free Europe photographer Amos Chapple, from New Zealand, during a recent road trip through the southeastern European country. His images reveal ancient fortified churches, charming towns and rugged mountains - scenery that looks like it's come straight from a fairy tale. Pictured clockwise from top left: A giant rock bust of King Decebalus on the border of Serbia, the village of Biertan, a remote chapel near the medieval market town of Carei, the 236ft church spire in Surdesti and (inset) the circular village of Charlottenburg.

The China Southern Airlines flight from Guangzhou Baiyun International was at 37,000 feet and en-route to Beijing Capital International Airport when the glass shattered. Shocking images taken from inside the cockpit after the plane landed show both the front windscreen and side windows splintered due to the impact of the hail. Paint from the nose of the aircraft was also damaged.

The beach in Oahu has been selected as the best stretch of sand by Stephen Leatherman, a coastal scientist and professor at Florida International University, who compiles the annual 'Dr Beach' list. Kailua Beach Park (top left) came top thanks to its soft sand, clear water and stunning views. Second in the list is Ocracoke Beach, North Carolina (top right); third is Grayton Beach State Park in Florida (bottom left) and fourth is Coopers Beach in New York (bottom right).