You may be safely ensconced in your home amid the global Covid-19 pandemic, but that does not mean your wanderlust has to wane. So if you are itching to get out and see the world, try these four virtual holidays.
Create Japan's hot springs at home
Sink into the warm waters and let yourself relax. Enjoy the soothing sounds of flowing water and the sight of cherry blossoms stirring in the wind.
A group of Japanese inn owners in the country's oldest hot-spring town, Arima Onsen, have joined forces to share the joy and healing properties of their bathing facilities. They are broadcasting a series of virtual-reality videos on YouTube, depicting the traditional hot-spring experience.
There are four videos on the channel so far and each offers up a peaceful setting for you to immerse yourself in.
To enjoy the tour, all you have to do is take a soak in your tub, don a pair of VR goggles with 4K capability and select your favourite hot-spring bath scene. Bath salts are recommended, but not mandatory.
Tour Ancient Egypt
Pictures on the stone walls show Queen Meresankh III with her children, and mother, Queen Hetepheres II. Elsewhere, Meresankh's unique underground chapel contains beautifully carved and painted scenes of servants, artisans and funerary priests, as well as the rich burial goods that would have been placed in her tomb: statues, fine furniture, boxes containing food, clothing and jewellery.
Meresankh III was the granddaughter of Egyptian pharaoh Khufu, for whom the Great Pyramid of Giza is believed to have been built. The Egyptian Tourism Board is now offering a virtual tour of her tomb, thanks to 3D modelling by Harvard University. Virtual visitors can navigate the tomb, taking in the reliefs and decorative features on the upper-floor chapel, and photos of the original excavation and YouTube reconstruction videos. Most striking is a row of 10 statues cut into the rock wall in the tomb's northern chamber, all of which represent women – uncommon in Ancient Egypt's male-dominated society.
Travel down a rickety staircase until you are in the tomb’s burial shaft, five metres underground, to see where Meresankh’s black granite sarcophagus was discovered.
Lost for 4,000 years and discovered by archaeologist George Reisner in 1927, the archaeological site is being given a new lease of life by the most modern of technologies. You'll even see the footsteps in the sand, left behind by others who have been there before you.
Windows into the African wild
A leopard struggles to climb a tree with its morning meal – an antelope – in its mouth; lions lie prostate in the middle of a dirt road; and two male elephants indulge in a friendly tussle. And, there is not a single tourist in sight.
Game lodges across Africa are live streaming their daily game drives, as well as 24-hour webcam coverage of their surroundings, offering you the opportunity to spot the continent’s astounding wildlife in real time.
Tintswalo Safari Lodge in South Africa's Manyeleti Game Reserve broadcasts daily safari highlights via its Instagram page and has also set up a live wildlife webcam so people can experience the anticipation of being on a safari and waiting for animals to appear.
If a Kenyan safari adventure is more your speed, head over to a live stream of the Ol Donyo Lodge waterhole, which sits in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro. Clouds gather dramatically over a luscious green landscape as the bushes in the foreground rustle. Is it a big cat emerging for a welcome drink? Or merely a couple of skittish birds?
A Greek wellness retreat
Enjoy the benefits of a fully fledged wellness retreat with a new five-week virtual experience from Euphoria Retreat, a holistic well-being destination in the Peloponnese region of Greece.
Dubbed the "Euphoria Healing Journey Through the 5 Elements", the free programme will focus on the properties of water, wood, fire, earth and metal. The resort's founder, Marina Efraimoglou, says the team thought extensively about what they could offer in these times that "would be of substantial value and as close as possible to the healing journey you would experience at Euphoria Retreat".
The result is “a free, five-week, immersive virtual retreat that will give you the necessary tools to handle these times, that will help you embrace change and find the inner balance and strength to the part of the new world”.
Every Tuesday and Friday, Efraimoglou and Mary Vandorou, Euphoria's spiritual mentor, will host a 45-minute session on the features and characteristics of each of the elements, as well as a guided meditation. Every Wednesday, a video will be uploaded showing energy and qigong exercises to support the element of the week, while on Thursdays they will demonstrate yoga asanas and pranayamas. Sessions on Saturday will focus on theta healing techniques.
The specs
Engine 60kwh FWD
Battery Rimac 120kwh Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide (LiNiMnCoO2) chemistry
Power 204hp Torque 360Nm
Price, base / as tested Dh174,500
The Gentlemen
Director: Guy Ritchie
Stars: Colin Farrell, Hugh Grant
Three out of five stars
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
The specs: 2018 Mercedes-AMG C63 S Cabriolet
Price, base: Dh429,090
Engine 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8
Transmission Seven-speed automatic
Power 510hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque 700Nm @ 1,750rpm
Fuel economy, combined 9.2L / 100km
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
The End of Loneliness
Benedict Wells
Translated from the German by Charlotte Collins
Sceptre
Match info:
Portugal 1
Ronaldo (4')
Morocco 0
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FINAL RECKONING
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Starring: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg
Rating: 4/5
BMW M5 specs
Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor
Power: 727hp
Torque: 1,000Nm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh650,000
LILO & STITCH
Starring: Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Maia Kealoha, Chris Sanders
Director: Dean Fleischer Camp
Rating: 4.5/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE's final round of matches
- Sep 1, 2016 Beat Japan 2-1 (away)
- Sep 6, 2016 Lost to Australia 1-0 (home)
- Oct 6, 2016 Beat Thailand 3-1 (home)
- Oct 11, 2016 Lost to Saudi Arabia 3-0 (away)
- Nov 15, 2016 Beat Iraq 2-0 (home)
- Mar 23, 2017 Lost to Japan 2-0 (home)
- Mar 28, 2017 Lost to Australia 2-0 (away)
- June 13, 2017 Drew 1-1 with Thailand (away)
- Aug 29, 2017 v Saudi Arabia (home)
- Sep 5, 2017 v Iraq (away)
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Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
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Newcastle United 0 Tottenham Hotspur 2
Tottenham (Alli 61'), Davies (70')
Red card Jonjo Shelvey (Newcastle)
