Travellers' checks

Local travel agent Charlotte Travel is selling a couple of guided tour packages to Sri Lanka that cover many of the island's better known sights and would be a good introduction for anyone visiting for the first time. The shorter of the two is a five-day tour (or four-day if you don't include day one's trip from Colombo airport to the hotel) that takes in the city of Colombo, the tea country around Nuwara Eliya (above), as well as Kandy, Matale, Dambulla and Sigiriya. Priced from HK$9,030 it will be available until mid-July and then again throughout September and October. A similar, eight-day tour also takes in a safari at Yala National Park and a visit to Galle, and starts from HK$11,580 for travel throughout June, September and October. Prices include economy-class flights with Cathay Pacific, ground transport, guide and entry fees. For full details and reservations, visit www.charlottetravel.com.
hk/en. Note that as of last year, most nationalities now require a visa to enter Sri Lanka, which should be obtained online at www.eta.gov.lk/slvisa/.
 

Hotel affiliation group The Leading Hotels of the World (LHW) has been highlighting its member hotels' and resorts' links to the movie world this year. Having first tipped its hat to the Oscars with a list of properties used for film locations, the group is now giving a nod to the Cannes Film Festival, promoting rooms named after Hollywood stars. "Reserve a suite named for a movie legend," prompts LHW, "and write your own story of romance and adventure." Suggestions include the Ava Gardner Suite at the Splendido Mare in Portofino, Italy. Gardner actually stayed up the hill at sister property the Hotel Splendido while filming a couple of scenes for The Barefoot Contessa (above), in 1954, but the Splendido Mare, which opened in 1998, somehow gets the naming rights. For a more tangible experience, at a fraction of the price (and with a fraction of the comfort) you could pop round the Portofino peninsula to Rapallo and stay at the old Hotel Riviera, where Ernest Hemingway both wrote and set his short story Cat in the Rain - and while there, console yourself with the knowledge that Gardner also starred in two film adaptations of his books in the 1950s. Other suggestions from LHW include the Marlene Dietrich Suite at the Hotel Lancaster in Paris, France, and the oddly named Presidential Suite Paltrow at the Capri Palace Hotel & Spa on the Italian island of Capri. For a full list, go to www.lhw.com/press-center.