Escapism
After nearly 20 years, the Foreign Office has lifted its advice not to travel to Jammu and Srinagar or use the Jammu to Srinagar highway after a fall in violence. The warning meant many tour operators avoided the area and travel insurance was not valid there. Wild Frontiers has an 11-day Kashmir-only trip next April, including a three-day lake journey and trekking in the Himalayan foothills, for £1,850pp excluding flights (wildfrontiers.co.uk).
Cheap date
November is ideal for hiking in the French Pyrenees, when there is beautiful autumnal scenery before it gets covered in snow (when you can ski there). L'Ancienne Poste (ancienneposteavajan.com) is a six-bedroom lodge in the village of Avajan. Two-night breaks until 10 December from €120pp B&B, including guided walk. Ryanair flies Stansted-Lourdes from around £50 return.
Weird world
The tourist board for Oakland, port city for San Franciso, has recruited local hero MC Hammer in a bid to reposition it as a tourist destination rather than a crime capital. The rapper's recommendations include watching a show at an art deco theatre, strolling around Lake Merritt and eating barbecued food at Jack London Square.
• oaklandloveit.org/mc-hammer
Where's hot now?
San Salvador, Bahamas 28C
Late November is a good time to visit: after the hurricane season but before December price hikes. San Salvador has great diving and now a new operator, Lagoon Tours (lagoon-tours-bahamas.com), runs eco-activities, such as nature walks.
• BA (ba.com) flies Heathrow-Nassau from £773 return. Bahamasair (bahamasair.com) flies from Nassau to San Salvador from £80 return
Mandela drive: New anti-apartheid museum
Fifty years ago this year, a 45-year-old Nelson Mandela, leader of the armed wing of the of the anti-apartheid African National Congress (ANC), was arrested while posing as a chauffeur. His car was stopped by armed police along a quiet section of the R103, two miles outside the small town of Howick in Kwazulu-Natal Province – about five hours south-east of Johannesburg. Having successfully avoided capture for 17 months, Mandela was returning from a visit with the ANC President Chief Albert Luthuli when he was finally caught. It was the beginning of 27 years of imprisonment in the maximum-security prison on the infamous Robben Island.
That once obscure patch of tarmac has now become home to the Nelson Mandela Capture Site (thecapturesite.co.za). Set among rolling hills and farmland, the free attraction consists of a small museum detailing the beginnings of apartheid and the ANC's and Mandela's struggle against it. The most moving aspect is the sculpture Release by artist Marco Cianfanelli. It is made up of 50 steel column constructions – each between 6.5 and 9.5 metres tall – set into the landscape. A brick pathway brings visitors towards the sculpture where, at a distance of 35 metres, a portrait of Nelson Mandela, pictured, looking west, is created from the columns.
It is an understated monument to the country's struggle for freedom, very moving in its simplicity.
There are other museums in South Africa where visitors can learn about the struggle against apartheid. Johannesburg has two: Liliesleaf Farm (liliesleaf.co.za), used secretly by ANC activists in the 1960s and the place where many prominent ANC leaders were arrested, leading to the Rivonia Trial; and the Apartheid Museum, (apartheidmuseum.org), a comprehensive and emotional journey through the history of the system – and its impact.
Doug McKinlay
What's new?
Hotel
One-room hotels are big right now. Dutch design company Droog has opened the super-stylish Hôtel Droog (hoteldroog.com, €300 per night) on Staalstraat in the heart of Amsterdam, on the top floor of its hip retail complex, which also features a restaurant, clothes shop, beauty store and gallery. Another quirky one-room hotel, a pop-up called Sleeping Around (sleepingaround.eu, €199), a luxurious bedroom in a shipping container, pictured, is moving around Europe, and people can suggest possible locations. It is currently in Antwerp.
Food
New York is home to more than 3,000 food trucks, every hipster's favourite dining option. To help visitors narrow down the options, Thomson Hotels New York has launched a Food Truck Concierge service, also available as an iPhone app, to discover the locations and opening hours of trucks. It also has special offers, available through thompsonhotels.com, using promo code FOODTRUCK.
Pub
The cookery writer behind the companion recipe book to the TV show Game of Thrones is doing a stint at The Royal Oak (01793 790481, helenbrowningsorganic.co.uk/pub, also a B&B) in Bishopstone, Wiltshire, until 21 November. Sariann Lehrer recreated medieval food from the show, then released A Feast of Ice and Fire.
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Pretentious travellers
• Guy at beginner's scuba lesson in a pool with a titanium diving knife strapped on his ankle
@snowkaz84
• Shared hostel room with handlebar moustached man, with a servant ... helping him dress
@Hannah6Marie
• Doing Tefl course guy patted himself on back every time he answered question
@jamescouling
• She turned up to a first timers' snowboarding class in top to toe Chanel ski wear, including a custom made Chanel board!
@rachyboo2u
• I took anti-sickness tablets in Nepal, got sniggered at by lady. Land to see her covered in vomit. baha
@midwifehippie
• On beach in Goa, being repeatedly told "just let go" by 18 year old gap yah. She then tried to sell me a bangle
@jamesglynn
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