Coffee
buzz surrounds festival

The third
international coffee festival will be held in Buon Ma Thuot in the Central
Highlands on March 10 - 13.

At the event, more
than 160 foreign and local coffee firms will showcase their technologies,
products, and services at 500 booths.

There will be an
international seminar on coffee attended by representatives from the world’s
biggest coffee producers, including Brazil, Columbia, Indonesia, and Ethiopia.

Ethnic groups from the
Central Highlands and artists from coffee-growing nations will put on
performances.

Brazilian football
legend Pele will be among the attendees.

Tour operator
plans underwater weddings in Nha Trang

HCM City-based tour
operator Vietravel has unveiled plans to organise underwater weddings for a
record nine couples in Nha Trang on Valentine’s Day, February 14.

The Viet Nam Dive
Centre, or Vinadive, a branch of Vietravel, said it will organise the 30-minute
underwater nuptials with traditional Christian rituals like exchange of rings
and kissing of the bride.

Other rituals like
popping the champagne and cutting the wedding cake in front of the two families
and friends will be held on board the Vinadive off Mun Islet off the central
city.

The day before the
wedding, Vinadive instructors will teach the couples to dive.

For Valentine’s Day
this year, Vinadive is offering the package at VND8 million per couple, a
discount of VND2 million.

The centre organised
Viet Nam’s first underwater wedding in 2007.

Further information is
available at Vinadive, Biet Thu Street, Nha Trang and
.

2,000 cruise
tourists visit Nha Trang

More than 2,000
passengers and crew on board three cruise ships visited Nha Trang on Wednesday.
Minerva, a Marshall Islands-flagged vessel brought 400 passengers, mainly
American tourists, Princess Dauphine (Portugal) came with 300 visitors from
Australia and Europe, and Nautica (Marshall Islands) had 700 Americans.

According to Khanh Hoa
Province tourism authorities, the city had also welcomed 1,800 foreign visitors
on board the cruise ship Artermis (Bermuda) on February 5.

In the first five days
of the lunar year – starting on February 3 — the city welcomed 96,000 visitors,
including 19,000 foreigners, a year-on-year increase of 9 per cent.

Hotels, resorts
make ‘best’ list

Four hotels and
resorts in Viet Nam have found a place in Conde Nast Traveller’s 17th Annual
2011 Gold List of World’s Best Places to Stay.

Sofitel Legend
Metropole Ha Noi, Life Heritage Resort Hoi An, Evason Ana Mandara & Six Senses
in Nha Trang, and Park Hyatt Sai Gon were the ones making the list published in
the magazine’s January issue.

The list was selected
by readers.

Life Heritage and
Evason were also among Conde Nast Traveler’s 20 Best Resorts in Asia last
November.

Last year the Conde
Nast Traveller Readers’ Choice Awards ranked Evason Ana Mandara & Six Senses
eighth followed and Life Heritage Resort Hoi An, ninth.

Trekkers race
to summit Ta Cu

Thousands of local and
foreign visitors gathered in Tra Cu Mountain in Binh Thuan Province on Wednesday
to watch a contest to trek to the top.

The 15th annual
contest attracted 250 male and female athletes from Binh Phuoc, Dong Nai, Tay
Ninh, Binh Duong, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, and Binh Thuan Provinces.

The course measured
6.3km for men and 5.3km for women, including the 2,300 steps leading up to Linh
Son-Truong Tho Pagoda.

Ta Thanh Xinh of Binh
Thuan won the men’s open division in a time of 40 minutes. Nguyen Ngoc Quang of
Dong Nai and Tran Cong Binh of Binh Thuan came second and third.

In the women’s
division, Nguyen Thi Diem My of Binh Phuoc was first followed by Nguyen Thu Hiep
of Ba Ria-Vung Tau and Nguyen Thi Dung of Binh Phuoc.

Travel firms
call off Egypt tours

Vietnamese travel
agencies have cancelled tours to Egypt though it is the high season due to
security concerns following spreading unrest in the country.

Viet Media Travel
cancelled tours departing on February 4 and 5 for which 62 persons had booked.

Perfect Tour Travel
and Vietravel also cancelled trips scheduled to start during Tet last week.
Vietravel said it will resume the tours when the political situation in Egypt
stabilises.

VN welcomes
470,000 foreigners

Viet Nam welcomed
470,000 foreign visitors in January, a year-on-year increase of 8.9 per cent,
according to the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism. The largest number
came from Cambodia, followed by France, China and Japan.

HCM City received
310,000 of them, a 10 per cent rise.

The figures include
overseas Vietnamese, mostly from the US, Australia, and France.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News