Cash-conscious tourists in the UK have flocked to visitor attractions with free entry, according to figures just released.
Britons staying at home for their vacations, and overseas tourists attracted by the weak pound helped Britain’s leading attractions welcome 10.9 per cent more visitors in 2009 than the previous year.
The British Museum topped the list with 5.57 million visits, followed by the National Gallery (4.78 million) and Tate Modern (4.74 million). All these have free entrance except for major exhibitions.
Of the attractions charging, Blenheim Palace enjoyed a surge in visitors, welcoming more than half a million – 43.6 per cent more than in 2008. Blenheim, where Winston Churchill was born, is a unique example of English baroque architecture, set in 2,000 acres of Oxfordshire parkland landscaped by Capability Brown.
The Association of Leading Visitor Attractions has said there’s a feeling of optimism in the tourism industry about the immediate future, but it’s called for more government funding to promote Britain to potential tourists abroad.
by Andy Moreton
If you’re coming to the UK this year, Luxique can guide you to the perfect accommodation, with a wide selection of luxury hotels in London. We can also help you book luxury hotels in many other parts of the UK, including the university city of Oxford, close to Blenheim Palace.
Just over a month after it was formally opened, the world’s tallest tower, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, has been closed to the public.
The observation deck on the building’s 124th floor is currently out of action because of unspecified technical problems. The owners said they were carrying out ‘maintenance and upgrade’.
One report says about 60 people were stranded there for more than an hour four days ago because of a power supply fault. They were brought down by service elevators.
Tickets to the observation deck had been a sell-out since the opening day and it’s thought this unexpectedly high traffic contributed to the problems. Guests who hold tickets will be offered the option to re-book or receive an immediate refund.
by Andy Moreton
See the wonder that is Dubai – Luxique offers a selection of a dozen of the finest luxury hotels in Dubai City.
I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone organised a parachute jump from the world’s tallest building – the Dubai tower I wrote about last week.
Omar Al Hegelan and Nasser Al Niyadi, two experienced base jumpers, leapt from 2,716 feet (828m), taking just one-and-a-half minutes to reach the ground at speeds up to 136 mph.
Al Niyadi, who already holds a world record for the first Mount Everest sky dive, described the feat as ‘the best experience ever’.
“When we were at the top of the building I was thinking ‘this is crazy’. I was a little nervous but I wanted to jump from the highest tower in the world to record an achievement for my family and for my country,” he said.
Originally named the Burj Dubai, the tower was renamed Burj Khalifa in tribute to Dubai’s financial rescuer – its oil-rich neighbour, Abu Dhabi (Sheikh Khalifa is its President).
When news of the sky-dive appeared online, one message board contributor suggested:
“If its economy continues as it is, it will not be long before we see the royal family of Dubai jumping from the top … without a parachute.”
by Andy Moreton
See the over-the-top phenomenon that is Dubai – Luxique offers a selection of a dozen of the finest luxury hotels in Dubai City.
A major restoration project has been completed on the 2,500-year-old monumental gateway to the Acropolis in Athens.
The seven-year project, costing 6.5 billion euros (£5.85 billion /$9.3 billion) involved lengthening the roof on the ancient marble building known as the Propylaea. The Culture Ministry said 255 blocks of marble had been taken down from the monument so that experts could remove metal clamps used by previous restorers. These had rusted and had also caused extensive cracking.
The Propylaea is the only Acropolis monument to retain large sections of its ancient roofing. The hilltop temples are also undergoing extensive restoration, expected to continue beyond 2020.
by Andy Moreton
Luxique offers top-class luxury hotels in Athens with views of the Acropolis, including the sumptuous King George II Palace and Grand Bretagne.
Even though it recently hit something of a financial black hole, Dubai continues to astound.
Its latest contribution to the wonders of the world is the tower called Burj Dubai, which has just been officially opened. At 2,716 feet (828 metres) high, it’s the tallest building on earth – its spire can be seen 60 miles away.
Constructed with 28,000 glass panels, it has 160 habitable floors. It sets the record for the highest occupied floor, the highest observation deck – on the 124th floor – and the highest mosque.
The opening ceremony included a spectacular firework and light show around the tower, while a screen revealed its exact height which had previously been kept secret.
Burj Dubai will be home to about a thousand luxury apartments, 49 floors of offices and eventually a 160-room Armani-branded hotel.
Steve Rose, writing in Monday’s Guardian newspaper in the UK, commented:
“We’re going to need a new word. The Burj Dubai doesn’t scrape the sky; it pierces it, like a slender silver needle, half a mile high. It’s only because Dubai never has any clouds that we can even see the tower’s top. And, judging by the images released so far, the view is more like looking out of a plane than a building. It has made reality a little less real.”
by Andy Moreton
Luxique offers you a choice of a dozen of the finest luxury hotels in Dubai, including the world famous Burj Al Arab, the award-winning Jumeirah Beach and one of the newest luxury hotels, the Grand Hyatt Dubai.
The ancient wall painting fragments that caused a feud between Egypt and the Louvre Museum in Paris (see my article Luxor Relics Repatriated ) have been returned to Cairo.
The five frescoed pieces – believed to be from a 3,200-year-old tomb in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor – arrived by air last week.
French officials had maintained that the Louvre had acquired the fragments, known as steles, in good faith. But Egypt’s antiquities department said the Louvre bought the fragments in 2000 and 2003 despite knowing they’d been stolen in the 1980s. It broke off ties with the museum in October, saying they would be restored only when the fragments had been returned.
Egypt is stepping up demands for the restitution of many relics, including the Rosetta Stone, on display in the British Museum, and the bust of Queen Nefertiti in the Neues Museum in Berlin.
“Everything which was stolen from us should be given back,” said Zawi Hawass, the head of the antiquities department.
by Andy Moreton
If you’re travelling to Luxor to see the wonders of the Valley of the Kings, take a look at Luxique’s two selected luxury hotels: the Old Winter Palace and the Hotel La Moudira.
There’s been a warning that the ornate tombs built for the pharaohs in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens could vanish within 150 to 500 years, partly because of tourism.
Apparently, the breath of thousands of tourists every day, coupled with poor ventilation, is damaging the carvings and painted decorations inside the chambers.
Egypt’s authorities have taken action to protect the tombs by implementing new ventilation systems and setting a cap on visitor numbers.
For the long term, it’s been decided that some original tombs will eventually be closed to tourists and replaced with replicas. These could include the most visited - those of the boy king, Tutenkhamun, and Queen Nefertiti.
“A team of experts is currently using laser technology to examine these tombs in order to build the replicas, which would then open to visitors in a place near the Valley of the Kings,” said Zahi Hawass, the Head of Antiquities.
by Andy Moreton
Luxique has carefully selected seven of the best luxury hotels in Egypt for your trip of a lifetime, including the sumptuous Al Moudira in Luxor - only two-and-a-half miles from the Valley of the Kings.
The French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, has outlined his blueprint for a bigger, greener Paris.
As I reported earlier in the year, ten leading international architects were asked to look ahead to the future and design a plan for the French capital that would please both the eye and the environment.
Last week, President Sarkozy unveiled those ideas and declared it a priority to reshape the city and its suburbs into a single ‘Greater Paris’, a 21st-century metropolis able to compete as an economic hub with London, New York and Tokyo. He said the government would draw up a Bill by October to release 35 billion euros (£31 billion / $46 billion) of new funds.
What seems certain to be developed is an 80-mile automatic metro line looping around the city, bringing the alienated outlying districts – the banlieues – into the picture. There would also be more flexible planning laws that would allow as many as 70,000 new housing units a year.
One of the most ambitious of the plans was by the French architect, Antoine Grumbach, who foresaw the city extending to the Channel port of Le Havre via Rouen along the Seine, maximising the green possibilities of the river and with a fast rail link.
Mr Sarkozy liked that idea and also said that he’d favour lifting the ban on building skyscrapers in Paris. “Why ban building towers if they are beautiful, if they fit harmoniously into the urban landscape?” he said. “The only reproachable thing is ugliness.”
by Andy Moreton
Luxique has a super selection of luxury Paris hotels – both classic and modern.
