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This week’s roundup of CNN Travel stories features a five-star luxury hotel in Turkey, a fairy-tale castle with a Nazi underground compound, and the bikini incident on an Australian bus.
Canadian winters are not for the unprepared.
Temperatures can drop as low as -4°F (-20°C) in Toronto and Montreal, so when the cold reaches, people head to warmer places, deep underground.
Toronto’s PATH and Montreal’s RÉSO are vast underground cities within cities where urbanites work, shop, commute and socialize while being completely protected from the harsh weather above. Look here.
In contrast, summer temperatures in Qatar can reach 49 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Celsius), and locals try to avoid the intense heat. But thanks to a new innovation in the form of air-conditioned “forests” on Gewan Island, people can now comfortably stroll outdoors rather than sheltering inside or in frigid shopping malls.
Crystal Walk’s boardwalk stretches for about a third of a mile (450 meters) and is shaded under man-made branches covered in 10 tons of crystal, which gives it its name. Here’s how it works:
Finally, while the climate crisis makes winemaking an increasingly precarious business, one Namibian winemaker has devised a way to produce award-winning wine in one of the world’s driest places.
At the Neurath Wine and Wildlife Estate on the edge of the Namib Desert, grapes are grown under nets to avoid hungry baboons. That means there’s plenty to enjoy for primates who love to drink. That’s how they cracked the code.
underground poland
Here are two more subterranean stories. One is evil and the other is salty.
The first is for CNN subscribers. In Poland’s Owl Mountains, an underground Nazi complex exists beneath the fairy-tale-like Baroque castle of Kusien. It is connected to one of the Third Reich’s most mysterious construction projects and, according to legend, is connected to a lost train loaded with stolen gold.
About a four-hour drive from Krakow is the Wieliczka Salt Mine. Part cathedral, part industrial relic, part theme park.
Up to 9,000 visitors descend on the mine, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978, each day. There are more than 150 miles of tunnels spanning nine levels underground, and visitors are encouraged to lick the walls.
This villa costs $50,000 per night. This is what you get for your money
Robert De Niro and his business partners are rapidly expanding the Nobu hotel chain across Europe, with new openings in Italy, Poland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. CNN also attended the opening of a new hotel restaurant on Rome’s iconic Via Veneto. Look here.
Paradise Bay, on Türkiye’s Bodrum Peninsula, is a hotbed of exciting new five-star hotels. Luxury villas here cost around $50,000 per night.
Popular with A-list celebrities, Villa Makaz is one of the most established hotels. “Whatever people want, whatever their wildest imaginations are, our team can collectively make it happen,” general manager Andrew Jacobs said.
Eating on the Underground – It’s a London thing
Eating on the London Underground is usually frowned upon, but one of the city’s most unusual dining experiences takes place inside a decommissioned carriage at the northern end of the Victoria Underground line. Supperclub.tube accommodates up to 36 guests and enjoys a multi-course tasting menu served between moquette seating and polished chrome hardware.
Bikinis are now banned on Sydney buses after low-key complaints.
Local residents say passengers wearing swimsuits are “disgusting” and “uncomfortable”.
Italy’s famous “Lover’s Arch” collapsed on Valentine’s Day.
It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
Good luck to women with Chinese Zodiac predictions.
Let’s see what happens in 2026 as we enter the Year of the Fire Horse.
Civil rights movement icon. Massive avalanche. Royal scandal.
What do you remember about that week?
