How do you get around by truck in a land where winter makes the roads impassable? As Condé Nast Traveller (March) reported, Canada hit on a novel solution: make seasonal roads out of ice.
The Lupin ice road, "the world's longest heavy-haul ice road", links the Lupin gold mine, just south of the Arctic circle, with the town of Yellowknife, 350 miles away. But how is it made?
"Work begins in January, when the temperature has dropped below zero and ice has formed on land and on the lakes that make up 87% of the route. With the aid of ground-penetrating radar, a fleet of vehicles - an amphibious military vehicle and an army of plough trucks, lightweight Snowcats and converted schoolbuses fitted with pumps - clears the lakes of snow and thickens the ice to at least 4ft (1.2 metres) by pumping water up through boreholes. Between the lakes, the longest of which stretches for 60 miles, there are 50 land bridges. These are also cleared, and then flooded. In less than six weeks the road is ready to receive its relentless convoy of heavy traffic."
But is it safe? As John Zigarlick, who is in charge of the road's creation and maintenance, admitted: "No matter how long you work on it and how many times you go over it, you always have that feeling in the pit of your stomach at the beginning of the season."
Another icy land, Bhutan, is also thinking about its communications. The Himalayan kingdom - which only introduced television in 1997 - established its first mobile phone network in November, wrote Malika Browne in Wanderlust (February/March).
"One got the sense that, far from being behind the times, the highly venerated king and head of state, Jigme Singye Wangchuk, simply waited until the technology had been perfected abroad before importing at just the right moment," said Browne. "After all, why mess around if you can go straight to 3G technology? The handsets I saw around Thimphu were the very latest and smallest on the market, and the ring tones - puzzlingly for that part of the world - were mostly We Wish You a Merry Christmas."
Less adventurous travellers might prefer to pop across the Atlantic, where British holiday-makers are likely to find something to make them feel right at home: the black cab. Travel+Leisure (March), a US magazine, reports that a Massachusetts company has started selling London cabs to US customers, with lefthand drive. As the magazine reported breathlessly, they have "as much legroom as a first-class airline seat".
If you'd rather go to London to see your cabs, Travel+Leisure offered a brief guide to culinary London from Nigella Lawson. The domestic goddess suggested American tourists try Villandry in Great Portland Street, where "you go in for two things and come out with 20, having spent a week's salary". Those without Ms Lawson's income, it should be said, go in for two things and come out with one, having spent a week's salary.
Travel+Leisure, however, does specialise in the swanky end of travel, so we should not be surprised. In its readers' poll to find the best-value hotel in the world, top place went to the Peninsula in Bangkok, where the room tariff is a hefty $300 a night. And when the eighth best-value resort in the world - the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge in Tanzania - is going to set you back $550 a night, it is, perhaps, time to be checking room availability at the Travelodge.
Finally, a note for those who like to demand refunds. Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel (March) reported an unmissable offer for seasickness-prone passengers taking day trips with Phillips Cruises in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Anyone who loses their lunch to the waves while aboard the "supposedly rock-stable" boat will get a full refund. That's worth an afternoon bent over the loo.
