UNESCO has just unveiled 25 new sites that should be on every traveller's radar

Travellers' bucket lists have just been given a substantial boost with the unveiling of UNESCO's latest additions to the World Heritage List. Twenty-five sites have been granted the international recognition and protection of World Heritage status, adding to the 1273 already established across 173 countries. The new sites include the funerary complexes of the Xiongnu nobility in Mongolia, the Normandy stretch of coastline where the D-Day landings took place and the sacred site of Sarnath, India, where Buddha delivered his first sermon in the 6th century BCE. whc.unesco.org

Apres-ski recovery just got a lot more interesting, with Elemental, a new hot/cold therapy with a difference at the alpine ski village of Hanmer Springs on New Zealand's South Island. The retreat offers not just cascading geothermal and sulphur pools, a steam room and sauna but, as the "cold" part of the therapy, a snow room, where a custom snow machine produces falling powder designed to stimulate the circulation and "invigorate". hanmersprings.co.nz

The Sydney Opera House waterfront has a new venue, the first to open in a major redo of the global icon's dining precinct. The all-day Winnie's Cafe and Bar is named for the first woman to perform here, pianist Winifred Atwell, who played for construction workers nine years before the House officially opened. Also on the waterfront, Adina Sydney Darling Harbour is back after an almost year-long refurbishment. First opened in 2000 for the Olympics, the hotel has been reoriented to face the harbour with floor-to-ceiling windows framing the views, and rooms and public spaces refreshed. sydneyoperahouse.com; adinahotels.com