2 . If you need a reason to treat yourself to a short break this autumn, one of the latest exhibitions is sure to inspire you. The exhibitions follow a path of time and subject with your tastes.

Kunsthistorisches-Vienna

2 November 2022-13 January 2023

To mark the 450th anniversary of one of the greatest painters. Vienne will host the world’s first exhibition for Bruegel this autumn.

Three nights’ price from £795, saving £208 at the Grand Hotel in November and December

◆Includes entrance to the Kunsthistorisches Museum

Mauritshuis-The Hague

11 November 2022-6 January 2023

Peaking in the 18th century, British landowners enthusiastically collected Dutch paintings to display in their country houses. This unique exhibition brings together some of the finest masterpieces of the Dutch Golden Age.

Three nights’ price from £876, staying at the Des Indes Hotel

◆Includes entrance to the Mauritshuis Museum

Doge’s Palace-Venice

31 September 2022-6 January 2023

Celebrating 500 years since the birth of the Venetian painter Jacopo Tintoretto, the Doge’s Palace has brought together 50 paintings from New York, London, Paris, Madrid, Vienna and Berlin here, still visible on the wall of the main hall.

Three nights’ price from £859, staying at the American Dinesen Hotel

◆Includes water taxi transfers and entrance to the Doge’s Palace.

Uffizi Gallery-Florence

December 2022-20 January 2023

To mark the 500th anniversary of Leonardo’s death, his Codex Leicester ,containing sketches(素描)and notes on water and the environment, has been loaned from the personal collection of Bill Gates.

Three nights’ price from £723, saving £136 at the Deli Orafi Hotel in December

◆Includes entrance to the Uffizi Gallery

4 . As a popular tour operator, Travel China Guide designs a lot of China tour packages (旅游套餐) for foreigners with the best-selling travel deals to wonderful must see destinations and offers the best quality services. We warmly invite you to join us on an exciting vacation. Today we will offer you a three days’ private Zhangjiajie in-depth tour.

Welcome to this charming city, Zhangjiajie. Your guide and driver will pick you up at the airport and drive you to the hotel we booked for you ahead of time. The rest time of the day remains free for you to relax.

Today, your private Zhangjiajie tour will start with a visit to the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon, where you will have a chance to experience the world’s longest and highest glass bridge, Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge. In addition to an unforgettable experience, it will also give you a special angle to enjoy the beauty of the Grand Valley

Afterwards, your guide will lead you to the Baofeng Lake where you will take a scenic boat ride. When you finish visiting the scenic area, the driver will send you back to the hotel.

Today your Zhangjiajie tour will continue to go to the Tianmen Mountain, known as the most beautiful “Hanging Garden” in the world. Tianmen Mountain is named after a natural wonder, Tianmen Cave, which is a naturally formed hole among thousand-metre high cliffs. In addition to this wonder, you may also see different old trees, green vines and rare animals there.

Your three-day Zhangjiajie tour package will come to an end here. You will then be driven to the airport and we will say goodbye there. If you want to have your China tour schedule further, we will be glad to provide detailed information.

5 . Florence and Tuscany

WITH AN EXPERIENCED TOUR MANAGER THROUGHOUT TOUR

Tuscany embodies much that Italy is famous for, possessing more historical monuments than any other country on earth. Its cities, Florence, Siena and Pisa, together with smaller towns and medieval villages like Lucca and San Gimignano, house some of the world’s finest artistic treasures. Combine this with the beauty of it’s countryside, an enviable climate and one of the world’s great cuisines, and you have all the ingredients for a superb holiday.

Discover the city of Florence on a fascinating tour with a local guide

Experience the wonders of the Uffizi art gallery

Marvel at the medieval splendour of Siena on a tour led by a local guide

Visit San Gimignano, whose mighty high-rise towers dominate the surrounding countryside

See Pisa, its Leaning Tower and explore charming Lucca

Explore the beautiful Tuscan countryside

Enjoy authentic Tuscan food at a rural farmhouse

Return flights, plus all hotel transfers

Seven nights in four-star and three-star superior accommodation, with breakfast and four dinners

The services of Our experienced and insightful tour manager

Departures April to October2023

No regional flight supplement

EIGHT DAYS FROM £1, 289 PER PERSON

With us, you’re covered

 Fully flexible booking*

 Which? Recommended Provider for 10 years

 Unbeatable value, protected by our Price Promise

Prices based on two people sharing. Single rooms available at a supplement. Additional entrance costs may apply. Travel insurance is not included but is strongly recommended. This holiday is operated by and subject to booking conditions of Riviera Travel, ABTA V4744 ATOL 3430 protected, a company independent of News UK. Subject to availability. Images used in conjunction with Riviera Travel. For further information please write to Riviera Travel, New Manor, 328 Wetmore Road. Burton upon Trent, Staffs, DE14 1SP quoting The Times.

KR853. *Free 2023 booking amendments until balance due date. Book by December 31, 2022 See website for full details.

7 . Situated at the heart of Beijing, the Palace Museum is approached through the Gate of Heavenly Peace (Tian’an men). Because of its centrality as well as restricted access, the palace was called The Forbidden City. It was built from 1406 to 1420 by the third emperor of the Ming dynasty, the Yongle Emperor who was determined to move his capital northward from Nanjing to Beijing. The Ming dynasty fell to the Manchu Qing in 1644 and in 1911 the Qing dynasty was overthrown by the republican revolutionaries.     1    

    2    Measuring 961 meters from north to south and 753 meters from east to west, it covers an area of 1,110,000 square meters. Each of the four sides is pierced by a gate: the Meridian Gate (Wu men) on the south, the Gate of Divine Prowess (Shenwu men) on the north, the Eastern and Western Prosperity Gates (Donghua men and Xihua men). Once inside, visitors will see a succession of halls and palaces spreading out on either side of an invisible central axis(轴线). The buildings glowing yellow roofs levitating above red walls is a magnificent sight.

The southern portion of the Forbidden City centers on three main halls “Hall of Supreme Harmony (Tathedian), Hall of Central Harmony (Zhonghedian). and Hall of Preserving Harmony (Baohedian).     3    Mirroring this arrangement is the Inner Court comprising the northern portion of the Forbidden City. The Inner Court is comprised of not only the residences of the emperor and his wives but also venues for religious activities.

    4    These were precisely designed in accordance with a code of architectural hierarchy(等级制度), which designated specific features to reflect the paramount authority and status of the emperor. No ordinary people would have been allowed or would even have dared to come within close proximity to these buildings.

    5    ‘The collection, displayed in gallery halls throughout the complex, is becoming increasingly more accessible with digital technologies. The Museum’s website, established in 2001, is dedicated to presenting a ”Digital Palace Museum“ by which the wealth of cultural heritage contained in the Forbidden City may be effectively spread worldwide.

8 . Banff National Park is Canada’s firstborn national park and was recognized in 1885. Located in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, Banff includes 6,641 square kilometers of glaciers and ice fields, thick coniferous forest, and alpine(高山的) scenery. The Icefields Park-way spreads from Lake Louise, connecting to Jasper National Park in the north. Provincial forests and Yoho National Park are neighbors to the west while Kootenay National Park is situated to the south. The main commercial center of the park is the town of Banff, in the Bow River valley.

The Canadian Pacific Railway was contributory in Banff’s early years, building the Banff Springs Hotel and Chateau Lake Louise hotel in the park and attracting tourists through widespread advertising. In the early 20th century, roads were built in Banff, at times by prisoners of World War I, and through Great Depression-era public works projects, As Banff has over three million visitors annually, the health of its ecology has been endangered. In the mid-1990s, Parks Canada launched a two-year study to preserve ecological integrity.

Banff National Park has a subarctic climate(副极地气候) with three ecoregions. The forests feature lodgepole pine at lower heights and Engelmann spruce at higher ones below the tree line, above which are chiefly rocks and ice. Mammal(哺乳动物) species such as the grizzly bear, cougar, wolverine, moose and bighorn sheep are found along with hundreds of bird species. Reptiles(爬行动物) are also found but only a restricted number of species have been recorded.

The mountains were formed from sedimentary rocks(沉积岩) which were pushed east over newer rock formations, between 80 and 55 million years ago. Over the previous few million years, glaciers have at times covered most of the park, but today are found only on the mountainsides though they include the Columbia Icefield, the largest continuous glacial mass in the Rockies. Erosion(侵蚀) from water and ice has molded the mountains into their existing shapes.

9 . Rural homestays (民宿) have become the fastest-growing part in the bed-and-breakfast market since the COVID-19 pandemic, fueled by travelers who seek a more relaxing, pleasant and experiential lifestyle that is close to nature, a recent report found.

Tujia, a domestic online homestay service provider, said there are nearly 800,000 domestic rural homestays available online nationwide. Most people who took rural trips are urbanites (都市人), and most of them come from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou of Guangdong province, Chengdu of Sichuan province and Chongqing.    1    

Among those who booked rural homestays, more than 60 percent of the total were born in the 1980s and 1990s.    2     Now, the booking volume of rural homestays accounts for about 40 percent of the total short-term rentals compared with 30 percent before the pandemic, according to Tujia.

Zhou Cheng,a 33-year-old rural homestay operator, has been involved in the business for more than a decade.    3    In 2010, he started operating a rural homestay in Lijiang, Yunnan province in Southwest China, and annual income was about 200,000 yuan (S30,500), which is less than one-tenth of his current annual income.

    4    That revenue (收益) accounts for 60 percent to 70 percent of the total revenue. Most travelers stay for two days and one night, and their total spending on catering (餐饮) and accommodation together is around 2,000 yuan per person. At his homestay business, there are 13 employees in total. All of them are local villagers and their monthly income is around 4,000 yuan per person, Zhou said.

The development of rural homestays has changed the trend of previous one-day tours to suburbs into more in-depth trips.    5    In the long term, the potential room for future growth of rural tourism and rural homestays is remarkable, with the backing of favorable policies related to the revitalization of rural areas.

10 . Bioluminescence (生物荧光) is to California as the Aurora Borealis is to the Arctic. These events occur when single-celled organisms, known as dinoflagellates (甲藻), suddenly give off a kind of light after being disturbed. They’re most common in spring and into summer, especially during years with a combination of good rains and warm weather. Here are a few tips to help you witness bioluminescence:

Monitor Social Media

The first reports of a bioluminescence event are likely to show upon Instagram and Twitter, which are easily searchable. You can also setup a warning on Google that will round up news coverage.

Check With Aquariums

Such institutions as the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla, the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey might post updates on their websites or social media feeds, especially if bioluminescence is happening locally.

Find a Dark Location

If bioluminescence is ongoing, try to find a stretch of coast that’s as far away from light as possible. Get out before the moon rises for the best conditions and some experts also suggest that two hours after sunset is a good bet Give your eyes time to adjust and use your flashlight’s red light, which will keep your vision adjusted to the darkness.

Track Hotspots

The best displays can vary from night tonight, so check again on social media for updates. The environmental website Treehugger named San Diego one of the world’s eight best places to see bioluminescence. Meanwhile, north of San Francisco at Point Reyes National Seashore, To males Bay is a dependable spot for bioluminescence and you can go out on guided trips with Blue Waters Kayaking.