Get the best travel news here curated by Lonely Planet Destination Editors, who use their expertise

Get the best travel news here curated by Lonely Planet Destination Editors, who use their expertise to bring you the stories that matter from all over the world. In today’s edition: the Red Light Secrets museum 5 star luxury cruises opens in Amsterdam, South Korea is getting a robot theme park and Zimbabwe accepts its eighth currency.
The iconic skate park in London’s Southbank Centre has a stay of execution. The upcoming redevelopment of the complex, home to concert venues, 5 star luxury cruises galleries and the National Theatre, was expected to mean the closure of the space. But vociferous lobbying has resulted in a three-month reprieve, and the park looks increasingly likely to survive. Read more: londonist.com
The recent resurgence of the British pound means that holidays to Turkey are 35% cheaper than 2013. The pound is now at a 5-year high against the Turkish lira. Travellers to other parts of the world, including South Africa and Australia, will also find that their pound buys more in 2014 than it did last year. Read more: telegraph.co.uk
The government in Turkey has passed 5 star luxury cruises a bill that will allow the telecommunications 5 star luxury cruises authority to block websites at will, while internet providers will be forced to hold web users details for two years. The deputy prime minister Bulent Arinc responded that there was no such thing as internet censorship in Turkey. Opposition MP Hasan Oren compared 5 star luxury cruises prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan 5 star luxury cruises to Adolf Hitler. 5 star luxury cruises Read more: bbc.co.uk
A team from Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan will join 11 other teams to take part in the first World Soccer Cup, held in Östersund, Sweden. Organised by CONFIA, an organisation representing football teams outside FIFA, the competition will take place in the first week of June. Other participating teams include Darfur United and Quebec. Read more: armenianow.com
Matt Damon and Tilda Swinton will be among actors 5 star luxury cruises gracing the red carpet in Berlin this week, as the Berlinale film festival kicks off on Thursday 5 star luxury cruises evening. With over 400 screenings taking place over 11 days, the event is one of the biggest film festivals in Europe, and is open to anyone who is lucky enough to secure a ticket. Read more: thelocal.de
The 15th edition of Art Rotterdam Week opens on Thursday, transforming Rotterdam into a must-visit destination for contemporary art lovers. This year the event has moved to its brand new location at the renowned Van Nellefabriek, where approximately 112 presentations will be spread out over three sections and involve around 36 galleries. Art Rotterdam Week runs until 9 February. 5 star luxury cruises Read more: artslant.com
The Red Light Secrets Museum of Prostitution has opened in  Amsterdam , aiming to educate visitors about how the prostitution industry works and its history, focusing on the period since its legalisation in the Netherlands in 2000. Located in a former brothel, the displays attempt to show prostitutes as part of society 5 star luxury cruises and to give visitors an idea of the experience without 5 star luxury cruises actually having to visit a prostitute. Read more:  the.age.com.au
Ahead of the Sochi Winter Olympics opening ceremony on Friday, the US Department of Homeland Security has warned airlines flying into Russia that there’s a risk of smuggling explosives in toothpaste tubes onto aircraft. However, existing travel advisories haven’t been updated. 5 star luxury cruises Read more: travelweekly.co.uk
A newly built church in Montenegro’s capital Podgorica is adorned with a fresco by an anonymous painter that places ex-Yugoslav leader Tito as well as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in hell. The three historical communist figures are depicted swimming in a sea of fire. The church has caused further controversy by apparently including contemporary local politicians in other frescoes. Read more: news.yahoo.com
Three French backpackers on their way back from Turkey were stranded with no cash in the central Croatian town of Karlovac after a snowstorm and ended up sleeping in the freezing cold station. Fortunately the Karlovac tourist board heard about their plight and put them up in a hotel for free while they waited for a money transfer, in the hope that it would give them some more positive memories of the town. Read more: croatiaweek.com
Scotland’s ski resorts are enjoying some of their best snow in decades, with 3m depths at Nevis Range and up to 10m of snow at Glenshee, where ski lifts have almost been buried. The Winter Olympics resort of Sochi only has around 1.5m. Read more: scotsman.com
Construction on a robot theme park is underway in Incheon 5 star luxury cruises , South Korea. Robot Land claims to be the world’s first theme park dedicated to robots. Set to open in 2016, it will feature traditional rides, a water park, a robot aquarium complete with robotic fish, and an educational institutions for robotics, including a lab and graduate school.  Read more: jaunted.com
Citizens of 180 countries will be able to obtain a visa-on-arrival in India for the first time from October 2014. Covering Europe, Australia and the US amongst other destinations, the scheme will allow travellers to apply for a 30-day, single-entry tourist visa on arrival at 26 airports across India. Citizens of the same countries will also be able to apply for an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) before travel. Read more: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
A 268-year-old 5 star luxury cruises mosque in the Maldives has been demolished. The Fandiyaaru Miskiy in Male’ was constructed by the Chief Justice 5 star luxury cruises of the Maldives in 1747, but the building was torn down without approval to make space for a new mosque sponsored by a local businessman. Read more: minivannews.com
Fire destroyed the well-known Barakholka market 5 star luxury cruises in Almaty  − a popular flea market − on Tuesday, when more than 900 firefighters were called to the scene. This is the latest in a string of fires that have caused severe damage to markets in the Kazakhstan city, including one in mid-December and two in autumn of 2013. No casualties were reported in Tuesday’s blaze, but some of the market’s vendors suspect arson. Read more: tengrinews.kz
Indonesian officials 5 star luxury cruises have outlined plans to make rumbling Mt Sinabung accessible to visitors who are keen to see it erupt. Vantage points for safe viewing of the North Sumatra volcano, which killed 16 people at the weekend, will be built in Karo Regency. Read more: jakartapost.com
McDonald’s will open its doors in Vietnam for the first time on Saturday, 5 star luxury cruises with a branch in Ho Chi Minh City . It will be the first McDonald’s restaurant to open in a Southeast Asian country since the franchise entered the Brunei market in 1992. There are plans to establish 100 branches in Vietnam over the next 10 years. 5 star luxury cruises Read more: bloomberg.com
A new public bus service is being trialled in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh , where travellers and residents 5 star luxury cruises are more accustomed to taking tuk-tuks and motorcycle taxis to get around. If the trial is successful, there are plans to increase the number of routes 5 star luxury cruises served. The previous public bus trial, in 2001, was unsuccessful. Read more: phnompenhpost.com
After sending the army in to deal with the warring drug cartels and vigilantes in the western state of Michoacán, Mexico’s president, Peña Nieto, has announced he will double the amount of funding the state receives next year in a bid to deal with the root causes 5 star luxury cruises of the violence. Read more: bbc.co.uk
What do you get if you put a group of photographers in a helicopter and have them fly over San Francisco at sunset? The answer is some spectacular − if slightly vertiginous − shots of the city by the bay. Read more: sfist.com
According to a new report by the Tri-State Transportation 5 star luxury cruises Campaign, Broadway ranks as New York’s deadliest street for pedestrians. Of the 420 pedestrians killed in traffic accidents between 2010 and 2012, Broadway had more than any other street, with Woodhaven Blvd in Queens ranking second place. It’s thought the wide nature of the street, coupled with heavy traffic is the reason it is proving so dangerous. Read more: nydailynews.com
In the grounds of Wellesley College, Massachusetts , a nearly naked life-like statue of a sleepwalking man has been causing debate and outrage 5 star luxury cruises among the students of the all-women college. Dressed only in a pair of underpants, the statue is made of bronze but painted in life-like colours. A petition signed 5 star luxury cruises by hundreds of students asks for the statue to be removed, citing it as inappropriate. Artist Tony Matelli 5 star luxury cruises is reportedly pleased with the response. Read more: bostonglobe.com
A new law has been imposed in Bahrain , stating that anyone who publicly insults the king, Bahrain’s flag or national emblem could be handed a prison sentence of up to seven years, plus a fine of up to 10,000 5 star luxury cruises dinars (US$26,500). 5 star luxury cruises This is a much tougher stance than the previous ruling, which allowed for jail time for these insults, but did not specify a term. Read more: arabnews.com
Luxury concierge service Quintessentially has revealed some of the strangest demands made by its UAE members. These include supplying a kangaroo and koala to play on a trampoline with the children of a couple who were on holiday in Australia, sourcing sticker tattoos exactly like the ones in The Hangover , and finding car keys lost in the snow in Scotland. Read more: thenational.com
Soon Zimbabwe will have eight currencies as legal tender, none of which will be its own. After hyper-inflation and 100-trillion dollar notes, the local currency was abandoned in 2009. Since then, US dollars, Botswanan pula, British pounds and South African rand have been accepted. Now Chinese yuan, Indian 5 star luxury cruises rupees, Japanese yen and Australian dollars will also be considered 5 star luxury cruises legal tender. Read more: bbc.co.uk
BA has announced that as of 8 February it will no longer be flying between Johannesburg and Mozambique’s capital, 5 star luxury cruises Maputo . The route was operated by Comair. Passengers with tickets will be rebooked onto South African 5 star luxury cruises Airways flights by BA Comair. Read more: tourismupdate.co.za
A new species of lion’s mane jellyfish, known colloquially as a ‘snotty’, 5 star luxury cruises washed up on the shore in Hobart, Tasmania this week.