Travel briefs
Best castle hotels in Europe, according to TripAdvisor:
The list is topped by the Glin Castle in Glin, Ireland, with a $491 average nightly rate, followed by Castle Stuart, Inverness, Scotland, $614; Thornbury Castle, Thornbury, England, $394; Domaine de la Tortiniere, Tours, France, $310, and Borthwick Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland, $273.
Next up on the list is the Chateau de Bagnols, Lyon, France, average nightly rate $1,335, followed by Castelletto di Montebenichi, Bucine, Italy, $242; Ashford Castle, Cong, Ireland, $527; Parador de Jaen, Jaen, Spain, $205, and the Hotel Castle Liebenstein, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, $173.
Learn to tango, make a quilt, blend Scotch whisky or brew beer. These experiences and 96 more can be part of your next vacation, as described in the recently published book, The 100 Best Worldwide Vacations to Enrich Your Life, by Pam Grout (National Geographic, $19.95).
A tango vacation in Buenos Aires can last anywhere from three days to a month; details at www.argentinatango.com.
Canada PEI -- www.eslhome stay.ca -- organizes eight-day quilting vacations on Prince Edward Island.
At the Glengoyne Distillery 15 miles north of Glasgow, Scotland, you can take a two-hour course or get a whole day of tutorials in Scotch whisky. Details at www.glengoyne.com.
If your taste runs more to beer than the hard stuff, BeerTrips.com offers trips to German beer regions as well as to Belgium, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and other locales known for excellence in suds.
Other trips described in the book range from teaching English in Palestinian refugee camps in the Middle East, organized by Project Hope, to a five-week business course in China, offered by World Link Education. Classes are taught in English but basic Mandarin instruction is part of the curriculum. AP
Thousands of England's historic sites and monuments are endangered by threats ranging from neglectful landlords and wet weather to burrowing rabbits, the country's heritage guardian said.
English Heritage has surveyed about 70,000 buildings, monuments, parks, battlefields and shipwrecks and says one in 12 is in danger of neglect, decay or ''inappropriate change.'' It's urging local authorities to do more to protect sites in their areas.
The threatened monuments span many centuries of English history and include eroding Iron Age hill forts, crumbling Victorian railway stations and ruined abbeys.
English Heritage chief executive Simon Thurley said these and other monuments -- ''the vandalized standing stones, the crumbling pillbox on the beach, the overgrown country park and the rusting colliery winding gear against the sky ... are places, buildings and landscapes that have the potential to shape the quality and even the course of our lives.''
The organization said it hopes to compile a database of all threatened heritage sites in the country.
AP