Travel headlines for the weekend of 2/4/07.

There was a bumper crop of worthwhile features this weekend – including a special on Africa from the LA Times, and coverage of who’d-a-thunk-it destinations like Johannesburg and LA’s Valley – so I’ll cut the preamble and get down to business.

“I can’t say I’d recommend the food, the service, the accommodation or the location, but for a sobering and memorable experience, a night at Liepaja prison is hard to beat.”

According to a recent USA Today article, there’s a new breed of backpacker on the loose: the flashpacker. Sounds a bit dirty for America’s squeaky clean broadsheet, doesn’t it?

The NYT asks “Is Qatar the Next Dubai?�- they’ve got man-made resort islands too! It seems like mere weeks ago, Dubai was the next Dubai. And the cannibalizing cycle of the “Next Big Thing� spirals on…