Travel in brief 11 Feb

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 www.vietnamdive.com.
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.