If a super-luxe liner isn’t your thing, there are plenty of other fish in the sea – try pink dolphin-spotting on the Amazon or a trip round Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay in a wooden junk The small ship Among tour operator Noble Caledonian’s fleet of vessels is the Island Sky , a small, elegant ship that was refurbished last year. Noble Caledonian says: “We promise there will be no organised entertainment, fancy dress, deck games or any of the usual big ship experiences.” We like the look of the Island Retreats trip , a low-key journey from Portsmouth to the Scilly Isles, Channel Islands, Brittany and Normandy. • From £1,895pp for six nights’ full-board, including most shore excursions (020-7752 0000, noble-caledonia.co.uk ) The yoga cruise Star Clippers is offering two one-week yoga cruises in Greece and Turkey this summer on one of its tall sailing ships. The Southern Cyclades trip from 6 August and the Northern Cyclades trip from 13 August will both feature twice-daily yoga sessions on deck with a qualified teacher, plus meditation and lectures on the philosophy and practice of yoga. There will be a focus on vegetarian food. • From £1,295pp for seven nights, including flights from London and full board. Departures on 6 and 13 August (0845 200 6145, starclippers.co.uk ) The anti-cruise Hurtigruten’s fleet of ships has been carrying freight, fish and Norwegian families up and down the coast for more than 100 years, and tourists can tag along too. These days the ships have a few creature comforts, but are still a down-to-earth alternative to super-luxe cruise liners. • From £651pp for a full-board six-day cruise south from Kirkenes to Bergen, calling at 34 ports (0844 448 7654, hurtigruten.co.uk ) The river ride Aqua Expeditions was the first company to offer luxury cruises on the Amazon river in Peru, and it is launching a second vessel on 29 April. Passengers can fish for piranha, and take excursions into the remote Pacaya Samiria reserve, to view pink river dolphins, red howler monkeys and three-toed sloths. • From around £1,460pp (flights extra) for a three-night full-board Amazon Discovery Cruise (+51 1 368 3868, aquaexpeditions.com) The geology journey Aurora Expeditions is celebrating 15 years of exploring the European Arctic with a two-week voyage focused on geology from 2 September. A palaeontologist/geologist will be joining the Jewels of the Arctic trip, which visits Spitsbergen, Greenland and Iceland, to share his knowledge of volcanoes, fjords and rocks. • From around £4,980pp (flights extra)for 14 days, with meals and trips (+61 2 9252 1033, auroraexpeditions.co.uk ) The tropical tour The Tui Tai is a three-masted schooner that sails around remote islands in northern Fiji. The cruise is geared towards adventurous outdoorsy types who want to kayak to remote beaches and giant waterfalls, but appreciate a massage when they get back. • From £4,295pp for seven nights including flights from London, all meals and activities including scuba diving and spa treatments (01494 678400, turquoiseholidays.co.uk ) The gourmet cruise New wine and gastronomy cruises will be plying the Upper Rhine Valley between May and October this year. The four-day, three-night trips on recently built river cruisers are run by CroisiEurope and include a five-course dinner prepared by the ship’s chef, and a wine tasting with master sommelier Serge Dubs. • Around £375pp, starting in Strasbourg, including full board (+33 3 8876 4066, croisieurope.com ) The independent cruise Captain your own river cruiser on the river Sarthe in France, which has 82km of navigable waterways from Sablé-sur-Sarthe to Le Mans. Or try river cruise camping, where you sail by day in a small Skellig vessel and pitch your tent each night at campsites bordering the river. • From £660 for up to four for a week’s hire of a live-aboard cruiser, or £310 for three days on the smaller boat (+33 2 4395 1442, uk.anjou-navigation.com ) The bygone boat Almost 100 years ago, Emperor Khai Dinh sailed around Ha Long Bay in Vietnam in a wooden junk. Now you can too, with a number of operators offering one- or two-night cruises on authentic replica boats. • From around £88pp for a two-day/one night trip, including full board and excursions (+84 933 44 6542, bhayacruises.com ) The Cuban cruise Voyages Jules Verne has a new trip for 2011: a cruise right around Cuba, starting and finishing in Havana. You’ll stop off at four Cuban destinations – Isla de la Juventud, Trinidad, Santiago de Cuba and Cayo Saetie – and one on Jamaica, Ochos Rios. This is the first time that the Cuban authorities have granted permission for this particular itinerary, as cruises have previously only visited Havana and Santiago de Cuba, so it’s a unique holiday. • From £1,295pp for 14 days, including flights, seven nights’ full-board on the ship and six in a five-star Havana hotel (0845 166 7003, vjv.com ) Cruises Wildlife holidays Boating holidays Sailing holidays Cuba Vietnam Fiji Amazon Rachel Dixon guardian.co.uk
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PM says it is ‘fine’ to offer his children’s friends work placements David Cameron has undermined one of Nick Clegg’s flagship policies for improving social mobility, saying it is “fine” to offer his children’s friends internships and even admitting that he has given a work placement to a neighbour. The government has put more accessible internships in desirable professions at the centre of a drive to give poorer children better opportunities. Earlier this month Clegg, the deputy prime minister, admitted securing a “definite leg-up internship” through his father’s influence in a Finnish bank. He said it was wrong that his career had been boosted by parental connections. But in an interview in the Telegraph Cameron said he was “very relaxed” about offering work placements to people he knew. “I’ve got my neighbour coming in for an internship,” he said. “In the modern world, of course you’re always going to have internships and interns – people who come and help in your office who come through all sorts of contacts, friendly, political, whatever.” Earlier this month Clegg, the deputy prime minister, told the Commons : “As a teenager, yes, I did receive an internship, as, I suspect, did many people around the chamber. Good for you if you did not. All of us should be honest and acknowledge that the way that internships have been administered in the private sector, the public sector, political parties and – I discovered when we came into government – in Whitehall as well, under 13 years of Labour, left a lot to be desired.” Clegg later claimed professional life should be “about what you know, not who you know”. He said: “The whole system was wrong. I’m not the slightest bit ashamed of saying that we all inhabited a system which was wrong.” The revelation that the deputy prime minister was helped through his father’s connections cast a shadow over the government’s announcement of the drive to end unpaid internships. Cameron said Clegg was “trying to make a fair point”, but happily admitted that as a young man he, like his deputy, was helped out by his family connections. The prime minister, who this week was also caught in a row over whether he will wear a morning suit at next week’s royal wedding, denied he was trying to rewrite his background. “People know who I am,” he said. “I’m not trying to rewrite my background. I went to a fantastic school, I adored my parents.” But he added: “I suppose when I got into politics I was always called the Old Etonian David Cameron. ” In the Telegraph interview Cameron also spoke about a recent visit he made to the grave of his son, Ivan, who died in 2009. He said: “The first person who says to you, ‘Soon you’ll think of the happy memories of him and you won’t be so sad’ … well, you want to deck them. But actually, it is true that, suddenly, some happy memories burst through the cloud.” Cameron also likened welcoming Lady Thatcher to No 10 as an “out of body experience”. David Cameron Conservatives Nick Clegg Liberal-Conservative coalition Social mobility Amy Fallon guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Most wire accounts are putting the day’s death toll among protesters in Syria at about 75, making it what al-Jazeera calls the”deadliest day” yet in the nation’s unrest. President Obama condemned the “outrageous use of violence” by the government of Bashar al-Assad, notes the BBC , and the AP warns that…
Continue reading …The chances of Lindsay Lohan going to jail just dropped by a bunch. A judge in LA today reduced her theft charge from a felony to a misdemeanor, reports the Los Angeles Times . The charge still carries a possible jail sentence of a year if she is convicted at trial,…
Continue reading …It’s the perfect ending, really. Jon Kyl has officially removed from the Congressional Record his comment that 90% of Planned Parenthood’s business is abortion, notes Ben Smith’s blog at Politico. That, you’ll recall, is the statement that drew scorn because it’s so wildly inaccurate and then ridicule because Kyl’s office…
Continue reading …A slew of stories warning about the health risks of sitting too much has led to an uptick in interest about desks that allow people to stand, writes Todd Wasserman at Mashable . Exhibit A: Traffic has quadrupled in recent weeks to standupdesks.com . “Right now, such desks are tiny niche…
Continue reading …Toyota’s global car production, disrupted by parts shortages from Japan’s earthquake and tsunami, won’t return to normal until November or December—imperiling its spot as the world’s top-selling automaker. “To all the customers who made the decision to buy a vehicle made by us, I sincerely apologize for the enormous…
Continue reading …Two New York City residents hailed a cab at LaGuardia last weekend and asked the driver to go 3,000 miles west. He complied, and the three are expected to arrive in Los Angeles this weekend. Investment banker John Belitsky is picking up the $5,000 tab for the epic…
Continue reading …Pakistan has been pressing the US to ease off on its drone attacks, and the Pentagon made clear today it has no intention of doing so. A strike on an al-Qaeda haven in North Waziristan killed about two dozen people, reports the BBC , including at least five women and four…
Continue reading …A California teenager is in hot water after police say he created a fake Facebook account and used it to threaten classmates, reports the Los Angeles Times . The 17-year-old at Millikan High School in Long Beach faces charges of making criminal threats and obstruction of justice. “Posting a threat online…
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