Short cuts

A room at the Eccleston Square Hotel

European rail travel: High-speed rail links across Europe have improved dramatically in recent years but booking tickets for international rail journeys has remained complicated and the preserve of a few specialist agencies. Now Tripadvisor, the Massachusetts-based travel website, has taken a key step in simplifying and opening up the process, thanks to a collaboration with Rail Europe, the specialist travel agency linked to SNCF, the French national railway. Tripadvisor’s website already allows travellers to search for flights between two cities but now it also shows the times and ticket prices for rail connections if a suitable one is available. The service is currently limited to Europe (although available to book in the US and Canada too), with more countries due to launch soon.

www.tripadvisor.com

London: A hotel claiming to be the most “high-tech” in Europe opens in the UK capital next month. The 39-bedroom Eccleston Square Hotel, on a garden square near Victoria station, boasts 46-inch 3D televisions and electronic control pads for every possible room function, from lighting and curtains to music and alarm call. Every room comes with an iPad2, from which guests can manage room service, spa bookings or bicycle rental, while bathrooms incorporate “smart glass” walls that turn opaque at the touch of a button. Each electronically adjustable bed, from Swedish company Hästens, is worth £12,000 and has an automatic massage feature. Doubles from £300.

www.ecclestonsquarehotel.com

Atlanta: Hartsfield-Jackson airport, which claims to be the world’s busiest according to passenger numbers and aircraft movements, has been awarded the title of “most efficient airport” in the annual report from the Air Transport Research Society. The report considers factors that include delays, costs and passenger numbers. Meanwhile Delta, whose hub is Hartsfield-Jackson, has opened a new lounge at the airport, especially for children flying without their parents. The lounge caters for children from the age of eight upwards.

www.atrsworld.org

www.delta.com

Jukkasjärvi: The Ice Hotel, built from snow and ice in Swedish Lapland, 125 miles north of the Arctic circle, has opened for the first time in summer. In winter, the hotel has 60 rooms but the summer version, constructed using several thousand tonnes of ice inside a storage hall where the indoor temperature is -5C, will have just three rooms, plus a bar and area where visitors can try ice sculpting. Doubles from SKr2,100 (£200).

www.icehotel.com

Liverpool: Britain’s largest newly built museum for more than a century opened last week in Liverpool. The £72m Museum of Liverpool, on the city’s waterfront, is described as an “urban history” museum, charting the city’s role in art, industry, war, sport, music and popular culture.

www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk