Escapism
Get tips from top photographers at Travel Photography Live at London's Royal Geographical Society this month. As well as an exhibition of winning shots from the Travel Photographer of the Year competition, there'll be workshops, one-to-one critiques and talks from experts including Gavin Gough, who shot the image of a young monk in Bhutan, above.
• 17, 24, 27 & 28 July, tpoty.com
Big weekend
Abbotsford House, Sir Walter Scott's former home in the Scottish Borders, has reopened after a multimillion pound restoration. Admission to house and gardens (including an Ivanhoe play trail) costs £8.75 adults, £4.50 kids. And, from August, you can rent the seven-bedroom Hope Scott wing, complete with private courtyard and butler, from £3,150 for a three-night weekend.
• scottsabbotsford.co.uk. Sleeps 14
Cheap date
Under the Thatch has some great last-minute deals on cottages and villas this summer, including a 50% discount on Perez de Hita, a charming little Andalucían cave house sleeping four in the conservation town of Galera. The normal rate of £598 has been halved to £299 for available weeks in July and August.
• underthethatch.co.uk/perez
What's new?
Attraction
Missed out on seeing the northern lights? An interactive attraction which brings the aurora borealis to life has just opened in Iceland's capital. The Aurora Reykjavik Northern Lights Center uses multimedia technology to recreate the phenomenon all year round – the next best thing to seeing it for real.
• aurorareykjavik.is
Pop-up restaurant
The Hell Bay Hotel in Bryher on the Isles of Scilly has opened a pop-up Crab Shack. Every Monday evening, diners can eat Bryher crab and locally caught mussels or scallops, straight from the boat. Expect New England-style decor, live music and dancing. A night at the Hell Bay starts from £100 B&B.
• hellbay.co.uk
Hotel
No need to worry about bagging a room with a sea view at the Around the Sea guesthouse on Canada's Prince Edward Island. At the click of a button, the whole building rotates slowly through the day so all rooms get a view of the beautiful Gulf of St Lawrence. A night in the country's first rotating B&B will cost from £95 for a double suite with private deck and kitchen. • aroundthesea.ca
Glampwatch
The humble British caravan is having its glamping moment. A 1971 pint-size Cheltenham Sable is the latest addition for Happy Days Retro Vacations in east Dorset, and now sits alongside four flashy Airstream trailers. What "Elsie" lacks in size, she makes up for with retro charm, from vintage floral curtains to a pistachio-and-white exterior.
• Three-night weekends from £220 for two: happydaysrv.co.uk
Travel trash
The blogosphere has a new star. Sindy (yes, that's Sindy the plastic doll) has started a travel blog about Devon. (Exeter is home to Sindy manufacturer Pedigree, you see, so it's her spiritual home.) She may have recently turned 50 but she's still young at heart – you may even spot her strutting her stuff at Chagstock festival next weekend.
Where's cool now?
With temperatures in the UK soaring into the high 20s, spare a thought for the Tasmanians, who experienced lows of -12C this week. Or ditch the heatwave and join them. Learn to ski and snowboard this summer at Tasmania's Ben Lomond Snow Sports school, with a full day of lessons and equipment hire for $80pp.
• skibenlomond.com.au
Trend alert! To maternity and beyond
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge could not have timed the arrival of their first baby better. The middle of summer – traditionally a slow month for proper hard news – is a boon for the world's PR companies. It doesn't matter how irrelevant the product they are promoting – it could be a sandwich or a toolkit – PRs are frantically churning out baby-related press releases in the hope that they will somehow find their way into the millions of column inches that are about to be filled with royal sprog stories.
Naturally, the travel industry has gone into overdrive, creating spurious baby products wherever possible in a bid to grab some publicity. If the press releases are to be believed, you won't be able to stay in a London hotel without bumping into a group of women celebrating a baby shower, or a couple checking into a "royal" suite.
The most over-the-top example is the Grosvenor House hotel with its new nursery, opened in May, all "hand-crafted furniture and luxury experiences", and a price to reduce any new parent to tears: £2,251 a night. (Precisely what the "baby concierge" does is unclear. Proffer a solid gold dummy, one would hope.)
But it doesn't stop there. A stone's throw from Kensington Palace, the Kensington Thistle hotel has created two "royal baby rooms", one in pink and one in blue to mark the arrival, yours for a more affordable £160 a night. Over the river, the Marriott Hotel County Hall has also jumped on the bandwagon by introducing a "royal baby shower suite", where a package including tea, a glass of champagne and a Mamas and Papas goodie bag, will cost a princely £60pp.
Isabel Choat
