Kidz rool

The grown-ups running Dubai have had a tricky time of late — property crashes, stalled developments, that sort of thing. So here’s a solution: put the kids in charge. The vast Dubai Mall has announced plans to open KidZania, a theme park run by children, for children. It’ll be a scaled-down city where youngsters aged 2 to 14 can try 75 professions, including mechanic, vet, model, scientist, bus driver, pilot, even banker (they couldn’t make a worse mess of that one). No plans to include property developer yet, though.

Tat’s all, folks

Some hotels have in-house barbers. Others have in-house beauty therapists, writers and artists. But here’s the first one with its own tattooist. Mr Cartoon sets up his Ink Suite today in the fancy Marcel at Gramercy, New York (hotelmarcelnewyork.com; doubles from £126), and he’s not just any old skin-doodler: Beyoncé, Christina Aguilera, Eminem and 50 Cent all wear his work, and there’s normally a one-year waiting list for his services. (Hotel guests get to skip the queue.) Don’t go too fancy on the tat, though: rumour has it he charges £12,000 to do your back.

Swedish blue

Scandinavians can be a melancholy lot, but Stockholm has spent decades trying to assure us that it’s a vibrant, colourful city. We wonder if its latest design hotel is setting the cause back a bit, though. Skeppsholmen (hotelskeppsholmen.com; doubles from £134) looks comfy enough — a stylishly converted 1699 barracks, right on the waterfront — but the design concept does make you wonder. “The artistic theme uniting the hotel and its facilities is ‘Fog’,” they say. “This is to reflect the surrounding waters and evoke an atmosphere of contemplation.” Cue long, wistful stare into the middle distance. Sounds more Ingmar Bergman than Abba to us.

Dr Dolittle delight

The Westcliff hotel, in Johannesburg (westcliff.co.za), is offering guests the opportunity to walk with lions. At nearby De Tweede Spruit Valley nature reserve, the beasts are being bred to repopulate reserves in South Africa — and for the first year or so, prior to release, apparently they love to go for walks with humans. As part of the package, you’ll also get the opportunity to play with lion cubs. Awww...

Calling all space cadets

Next month, in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Spaceport America (spaceportamerica.com) will be opening its doors for hard-hat tours. The site, presently under construction, will be the world’s first “purpose-built commercial space facility” when the last tarpaulin is pulled off in 2011, and visitors will be able to crane their necks at the 10,000ft-long runway and the vertical-launch facility. Okay, it’s not exactly walking on the moon, but it’s still quite a step for mankind.

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