Travel updates: Tyrol, London, Berlin and Ravello

Tyrol
Summits of mountains throughout the Alps are crowned with crucifixes but a new structure in the Austrian Tyrol offers a very different take on the concept. The Jakobskreuz, on the 1,456m summit of the Buchensteinwand, is a 30m-high, three-dimensional cross, which visitors can go inside. An elevator gives access to five viewing platforms looking out over the Pillersee Valley, a popular route for pilgrims following one of Europe’s many “Ways of St James”, while rooms inside the cross will host seminars and workshops. bergbahn-pillersee.com

London
Shopping and packing are pet hates of many men, so a new service from London-based company The Chapar may prove popular. For between £150 and £1,000 it will deliver a prepacked suitcase full of new clothes tailored to the customer’s tastes, destination, and duration of the trip. Customers sign up online, then have a telephone conversation with a stylist; the suitcase arrives 48 hours later. Cost depends on the clothes chosen; any items the customer doesn’t like can be returned and deducted from the bill. thechapar.com

Berlin
Deutsche Bahn is to cancel a range of sleeper services as part of a plan to restructure its lossmaking European night train network. Services from Hamburg, Berlin and Munich to Paris, and from Amsterdam, Basel and Prague to Copenhagen will be cancelled at the end of this year. Trains from Warsaw and Prague to Amsterdam will terminate at Cologne. Last year the routes resulted in a loss of €12m; a spokesperson said the carriages would be redeployed on more popular routes in order to make night train services viable in the long term. Other European operators have also cut back night trains as budget airlines and high-speed daytime trains make sleepers less attractive. www.citynightline.de

Ravello
The restaurants and hotels of Ravello have always made much of their dramatic outlook over Italy’s Amalfi coast but one property hopes to trump rivals with a unique new table-with-a-view. The Belmond Hotel Caruso, housed in a former 11th-century palace, has launched a floating aluminium table for two which hooks to the far edge of its infinity pool, perched 300m above the sea. A barefoot waiter walks along the edge of the pool to deliver a four-course meal, which costs €5,000. Wine is extra. belmond.com

Photographs: Wurzenreiner; Tyson Sadlo