Uzbekistan tourist visa waiver
Uzbekistan has abolished its tourist visa for British citizens. If you fancy visiting the central Asian country, Regent Holidays has a nine-day Essential Uzbekistan guided tour from £1,860pp B&B. The tour begins in Tashkent, the capital, and covers Samarkand (on the Silk Road) and Bukhara, with its many mosques and madrassas (020 7666 1258, regent-holidays.co.uk).
Soho House motels in the UK
Watch this space . . . the popular private members’ club Soho House intends to branch out into US-style motels with diners at locations across the UK in 2018. The first of its “roadside hotel” chain — to be known as Mollie’s — will be in Oxfordshire. Each will have 30 to 40 rooms and “very reasonable” prices available to members and non-members alike. The group hopes to break into the budget hotel market of Travelodges and Premier Inns, which it regards as lacking flair.
Handy guide to London’s blue plaques
John Lennon (34 Montagu Square, Marylebone) and Graham Greene (14 Clapham Common North Side, Clapham) are among more than 900 entries in a fascinating new guidebook, London’s Blue Plaques (September Publishing, £16.99). Artists, politicians and poets (among others) who have been honoured are listed by neighbourhood, with handy maps and biographies. Lennon lived with Yoko Ono in a flat on Montagu Square in 1968 while working on the White Album.
New off-grid cottages in Wales
Go off grid — using electricity from a garden windmill and water from a spring — at two new properties in Sugar & Loaf’s portfolio of stylish Welsh cottages; both are close to Crickhowell in mid-Wales (01873 776238, sugarandloaf.com). Blackthorn Cottage, which sleeps four, is in the Crickhowell hills with a log stove in the kitchen, a wood-burner in the eco-chic living room and a wood-fired sauna. A three-night stay is from £392. The elegant and isolated Hillside Barn, which also sleeps four, has more log stoves and a wood-fired sauna. A three-night stay is from £357. Both are perfect for walkers.
Give up smoking (but it will cost you)
Want to give up smoking in 2017? The SHA Wellness Clinic in Alicante, Spain, has created seven-day anti-tobacco breaks with psychotherapy and Chinese medicine. You stay at the plush SHA Wellness Clinic (shawellnessclinic.com). The price? A mere £6,370 full board; the equivalent of 796 packets of cigarettes (or 15,920 smokes).
Tom Chesshyre