Lonely Planet

PHOTOGRAPHS: AF ARCHIVE/ALAMY, TONY BAGGETT/ISTOCK/GETTY, WALTER BIBIKOW/AWL IMAGES, FEDERICA GENTILE/GETTY, CHRISTER JUE/STRINGER/GETTY, SERGEKA/GETTY, TINOLOHITT/ALAMY, WESTERDBL/GETTY, ZOONAR GMBTT/ALAMY20 Lonely Planet Traveller October 2017The atolls of the Maldivesare top scuba locations,so why limit yourself tothe same patch of coraleach day? The FloatingResort sails around thearchipelago to a new divespot each day and pricesstart from a reasonable –for this part of the world,at least – £1,545 perweek all-inclusive(scubaspa.com).Je t’aimeTHE CHAMPION HAS BEEN CHOSEN: the 2,700-strong community of Kaysersberg saw offcompetitors to become France’s favourite village in the TV contest Le Village Préféré desFrançais. Winning ingredients in its appeal include half-timbered houses clustered along theRiver Weiss, a ruined castle perched above, and hillsides bedecked with vines that translateinto fine rieslings and gewürztraminers. If past winners of the programme are anything to goby, this Alsatian village will get a lot of visitor love. See it the slow way on a gastronomicwalking tour with UTracks, taking in three other winsome villages (from £530; utracks.com).``````BEAT THE BURDENLuggage: something you lug. Fortravellers with a few hours to kill ina city, an alternative to the stationleft-luggage office is long overdue.New startup CityStasher takes thecrowdsourcing approach, finding avariety of shops and willing hotels totake your bag, some open 24 hours.Use its maps to find the best spots inmore than 20 UK cities (from £4 forunder three hours; citystasher.com).