Traffic surveillance and vehicle rentals

Traffic surveillanceand vehicle rentals
Visitors who rent cars on Oahu, beware: Unmarked white vans on the side of the highway are harbingers of potential speeding tickets, Travel Weekly magazine reports.
Starting this month, workers from private companies in unmarked white vans using laser-speed detectors on 14 island highways will photograph cars and license plates of speeders who go even 1 mph over the limit.
In addition, 10 city intersections will be equipped to record and cite those who run red lights.
Rental car companies will give police information on renters caught on film running red lights or speeding.
Theater ticket boothgoes to temporary site
The TKTS booth at New York's Duffy Square is renowned as the place to get deeply discounted, same-day Broadway and Off-Broadway theater tickets. Equally renowned are its long lines, which some savvy visitors avoided before Sept. 11 by going to a sister site located downtown at 2 World Trade Center.
Now the lower Manhattan service has been restored in a trailer at the Bowling Green Park Plaza, several blocks south. The new temporary location is at the foot of Broadway across from Battery Park, very close to the Bowling Green Station on the No. 4 and 5 subway lines.
The hours are Monday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. It's closed on Sundays. At this TKTS only, matinee tickets must be bought the day before. The TKTS booths, operated by the Theatre Development Fund, accept only cash or travelers checks. Information: www.tdf.org.
British museums droptheir admission fees
Britain has abolished admission fees to many of its major museums.
Last month, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London stopped charging its $7 admission. Other museums, such as the Natural History Museum ($8) and the Science Museum ($9), both in London, stopped charging Dec. 1.
The policy does not affect such landmarks as Kensington Palace and Hampton Court. But it does include such sites as the Natural History Museum, National Maritime Museum and Museum of London, all in London, and various museums in Manchester, York, Liverpool and other cities.
A cool attraction:Quebec's ice hotel
Quebec's hottest new hotel opens for business Tuesday and is expected to last through March, weather permitting. The Ice Hotel, 20 minutes north of Quebec City, is carved out of 11,500 tons of snow and 350 tons of ice. It has 31 rooms and luxury suites where you can sleep on a bed of ice).
The Hilton Quebec suite even has a working fireplace that "pushes the limits of the impossible," according to chief executive Jacques Desbois.
Inspired by a similar concept built in Sweden a decade ago, Canada's Ice Hotel has 18-foot-high hallways, a movie theater, indoor and outdoor skating rinks, a spa with a "snow bath" and an ice bar.
The hotel is set in the Duchesnay Ecotourism Station, which also has cross-country skiing, snowmobiling, dog sledding and ice fishing. Visit www.icehotel-canada.com for more information.
'Harry Potter' tourfollows sites from film
A 10-day tour of Britain that visits sites featured in the movie "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" is being offered in spring and summer by a veteran European tour company.
In England, the tour includes the London Zoo's reptile house, Christchurch College in Oxford, Lacock Abbey and Alnwick Castle. It ends in Edinburgh, Scotland, and includes a visit to one of the cafes where J.K. Rowling wrote the book on which the film is based.
The tour leaves on four dates. The price is $1,960 per person, double occupancy, for the March 23 and March 30 departures, and $2,390 for June 23 and July 21. The price includes round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, lodging, bus transport, some meals, tips, taxes and service charges.
Contact a travel agent or Image Tours Inc. at (800) 964-3170 or www.imagetours.com.