Escapism
The festival season starts early for those who go to the Transahara festival (3-7 April) near Merzouga in eastern Morocco for chilled-out fun and winter sun. This will be the festival's seventh year but it's still small scale, with visitors limited to 1,000. Tickets cost €160 but the organiser, Nomads Tribe (nomadstribe.com), has packages with tent, meals and transfers (from three cities) from €400.
Snow watch
Conditions are excellent across much of the Alps, with more fresh snow and sun forecast this week. In France, there's 216cm in Courchevel, 283cm in Tignes and lower, better-value resorts, such as Châtel are looking good with 210cm. Switzerland, Austria and Italy also have great on- and off-piste conditions. It's a similar story in the US and Canada.
• See skiclub.co.uk for details
Cheap date
Leicestershire may not be the most obvious destination, but there's a lovely weekend to be had combining a night in a gorgeous stately home, Stapleford Park Hotel, with a gourmet tour to taste Melton Mowbray pork pies at Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe, local cheeses and real ales at Belvoir Brewery, for £175 per couple (or £109 staying at other hotels).
• Valid until 31 December, book through goleicestershire.com/short-breaks
What's new?
Road trip
Tour operator Balkan Road Trip has a shortened version of its Bosnia tour. The five-day trip, from Dubrovnik to Sarajevo, encompasses a history of the Srebrenica massacre, visits to the Mostar waterfalls, Turkish bridge, a white water-rafting session and a Bosnian cookery lesson. From £249pp for departures from May and June, including B&B, local guide and minibus transport.
• 0845 2357 8289, balkanroadtrip.com
Hotel
The first Nobu hotel has opened in Las Vegas. The Nobu Hotel Caesars Palace, which is located on the Strip and has 181 rooms, is a collaboration between chef Nobu Matsuhisa, actor Robert De Niro and film producer Meir Teper. It has a 327-seat Nobu restaurant, fitness centre, shopping mall, spa, casino and nightclub.
• Doubles from £163, nobucaesarspalace.com/visitlasvegas.co.uk
Art breaks
The third annual Art Nouveau Festival is at Paris's Pompidou Centre (centrepompidou.fr) until 11 March. Exploring themes of childhood, dreams and experience, it is presented by over 100 artists. On the same theme, Travel Editions has a three-night trip to Lille and Antwerp, including professor-led walking tours of art deco and art nouveau architecture in these cities, from £629pp, including train travel.
• traveleditions.co.uk
Travel trash
Studio Banana Things (studiobananathings.com) has launched the Ostrich Pillow (£65), aimed at weary travellers who wish to take a power nap. "Its soothing cave-like interior shelters and isolates your head and hands, perfect for a power nap … on the train or while you wait at the airport," reads the blurb. Er, but does it have "rob me" printed on it, too?
Weird world
A forthcoming film, Buzkashi Boys, set in Afghanistan, depicts a game in which horse riders compete for possession of a headless goat. The sport can also be witnessed (more safely) in Uzbekistan, and Shéhérazade Voyages has a nine-day trip, from 16 March, that also includes the 2,500-year-old new year celebration of Navruz, on the vernal equinox.
• sheherazade-tour.com
Changing laws: ski hosting, drink-driving, and Florida licences
• A ruling in France this week, against British ski operator Le Ski, has resulted in a ban on UK ski operators providing their own ski hosting services. Unofficial ski guides working for operators will no longer be allowed to show guests around the slopes, after the court ruled that such informal tours compromise safety, and that only qualified ski or snowboard instructors and guides who work for local ski schools such as ESF, can legally lead groups.
British firms such as Crystal, PlanetSki and Esprit deny taking custom away from local ski schools, saying theirs is a social service, to help guests find their way around a resort. For actual tuition, they say, they send thousands of clients to ski schools each year. All British operators have been made to suspend hosting services in France. Le Ski is appealing against the decision.
• A French law introduced last July that made it a legal requirement for drivers to carry a single-use breathalyser, was supposed to bring in on-the-spot fines for drivers caught without one from 1 March 2013, but this has been delayed. At the moment, drivers without a breathalyser will face a caution if stopped. The limit in France is 50mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood – lower than the UK's 80mg. France's interior minister, Manuel Valls, said that thanks to the new law, there were fewer road deaths in 2012 than in 1948, and an 8% drop on 2011, to 3,645. The tests can be bought online for £2.99 at frenchbreathalyzer.com.
• In Florida, a rule requiring foreign, non-resident drivers to have an international driver's licence has been lifted. Now they only need a valid licence from their own country.
