Travellers' Checks | Opening soon: A Texas Chainsaw Massacre themed hotel - beware the chilli
Also in travel news this week, new GPS-based app Flyover Country tells you about places you're flying over, driving or hiking through, and new rules for Venice canal boats hit tourists, writes Adam Nebbs
Looking down Flyover Country is a new app that shows places of interest that you are flying over - from the seat of your plane, and without the need for an internet connection. To get started, just tap your places of departure and arrival on the map, click to download the flight path, and then save it for offline use during your flight. Your device's GPS function will show your location, altitude, speed and heading, as well as many numbered points of interest on the map (there are several choices of map format), which link to Wikipedia articles when tapped. It's a fun way to try and identify what you're looking at far below if you have a window seat on a clear day, and much more informative than the seat-back map if you're wondering what's down below on a night flight, flying over cloud or sitting away from a window. The app was developed with funding from the United States National Science Foundation, which is why there are also options to view geological formations and dinosaur fossil locations, although these can be turned off to save memory. Short-haul regional flight paths from Hong Kong use up about 15MB for the initial download, which is best done from home with a Wi-fi connection, and these can be deleted after your flight. It can also be used for road trips, hiking, cruises and other ground-level activities. Flyover Country is free of charge but you'll need Android 4.1 or iOS 8.3 or later for the GPS function to work in airplane mode. For more information, visit fc.umn.edu.
Be prepared for longer queues for the city's vaporetti, or public water buses, if you're planning to visit Venice this summer. Residents have long complained (and rightly so) about tourists crowding them out in high season, and now the local government has decided to give them boarding priority at eight of the busiest vaporetto stops. The trial separation between Venetians (who pay €1.50 [HK$13] per single journey ticket) and foreigners (who pay €7.50) is due to begin in June, at stops on the Canal Grande and the islands of Burano, Murano and Lido.
Cheung Chau an island divided as visitors equal resident population over holiday
