Tourism

​As the Ocean Cleanup Project readies its floating barriers for collecting waste plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a similarly green project much closer to its home has opened a floating park in Rotterdam's harbor. The Recycled Park features connected blocks made from waste plastic.​

Virgin Galactic's tourist-carrying spaceplane has taken a step closer to entering service after its chemical rocket engine was fired for the first time. VSS Unity reached Mach 1.87 (1,424 mph, 2,290 km/h) within 30 seconds of igniting its engine.

Timescope kiosk users can journey through time and watch historically accurate animated scenes of the locale. The latest addition to its portfolio has been installed at the Monument des Fraternisations in northern France, a site which commemorates the unofficial cease-fires of World War I.

An abandoned military base in Taiwan has been converted into the Penghu Qingwan Cactus Park, a leisurely landscape complete with greenhouses full of cacti, an artists’ village and sea views. Designed by CCL Architects & Planners, the tourist attraction has won a 2017 American Architecture Prize.

​Airships may indeed be well-suited to tasks like cargo transport, surveying and surveillance, but what really captures peoples' imaginations is the thought of travelling aboard one as a tourist. Well, according to Britain's Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), such a scenario could soon be a reality.

British architecture firm Studio Weave, in collaboration with collective Bruit du Frigo, recently completed this attractive little hiking shelter on the outskirts of Bordeaux, France. Raised atop a weathered steel platform, it's available for anyone who wants to stay, free of charge.

If you've ever dreamed of living in an Italian castle but don't have the deep pockets required, a new scheme by the Italian government may be of interest. It's handing out longterm leases to 103 castles, villas, and other historic buildings free of charge – providing you're willing to do some DIY.

New Atlas' Mike Hanlon recently spent several nights in the villages of the remote hill tribes of northern Laos. The villages are entirely self-sustaining, generate their own electricity, and life has changed very little in thousands of years.

China can now lay claim to the world's longest sightseeing escalator. Located in the Enshi Grand Canyon in Hubei province, it measures 688 meters (2,257 ft) long and has recently opened to tourists in central China.

The world's "largest observation wheel" is set to open in New York in 2018. The aptly-named "New York Wheel" was due to open next year, but the scale of the project has required that the launch date be pushed back. When it does open, visitors will be able to take in views out across New York Bay.

Pushing yourself out over the edge of a building may not seem like the wisest of ideas, but at the US Bank Tower in Los Angeles, US, you can now pay to do just that. As part of the new OUE Skyspace LA observation deck, a glass "Skyslide" has been installed on the side of the building.

Preliminary plans have been unveiled for a new aerial cable car tourist attraction for the Windy City. Should the Chicago Skyline proposal be realized, it would transport up to 3,000 people per hour and link Navy Pier, the Chicago Lakefront, the Chicago River Riverwalk, and downtown Chicago.