Another winter travel wallop, New Zealand’s Luxury Lodges, London’s Langham Hotel, Russia travel tips, Orkney’s Balfour Castle Feb 12th

New Zealand Lodges

 A sweep of sophisticated new luxury lodges is giving travellers fresh impetus to explore the beauty of New Zealand.

Voted our readers’ favourite country in the 2013 Telegraph Travel Awards, New Zealand has unquestionable appeal. Its dramatic Alpine scenery, Polynesian culture and spread of extreme-sports activities have long lured adventurers and backpackers, but a sweep of new luxury lodges are now providing British travellers reluctant to travel all that way – expect to spend 24 hours on a plane to get there –  with new incentives to visit.

London’s Langham hotel takes a theatrical turn

 The Langham’s luxury suites provide an unusual stage for a series of Tennessee Williams plays.

There is something innately theatrical about the daily life of a grand hotel. Persuade a member of staff in any of London’s great grandes-dames to show you last night’s “incident log”, and your jaw may drop. Even at the spiffiest places, reports of “naked woman found wandering in sixth-floor corridor” are more common than you’d think.

Spotlight Russia: 7 golden travel tips

Away from it all in Orkney’s Balfour Castle

On a serene stretch of the Orkney Islands, Balfour Castle is offering exceptional luxury in the wilds of Scotland.

There are many reasons to visit Orkney, the remote archipelago 20 miles or so off the north coast of Scotland: wild landscapes, lashing seas, extraordinary prehistoric remains (the Neolithic village of Skara Brae should surely be as famous as Stonehenge, even if the rings of stones are less impressive), not to mention sights relating to World War II (the Nissen huts turned “Italian chapel”, built by prisoners of war, on Lamb Holm, the Churchill Barriers, Scapa Flow)…

Another winter travel wallop

Just stay home. That’s the message from officials in the path of the South’s latest nasty winter weather.