Leading article: Under the sea

You probably can't wait until next February to stay at the $1,500-a-night (£845) five-star Poseidon underwater hotel in the Bahamas. That's when construction is to start.

But if Poseidon sounds too much like a 1970s disaster movie, you could try to book at its rival on the Jumeirah coastline of Dubai. There, the Hydropolis "underwater ultra-luxury hotel" is expected to be finished next year.

It will lie not far from the two vast man-made resort islands Dubai has under construction. These are so big, apparently, they'll be visible from space. So you'll be able to look out for them on your next holiday. But you can sleep with the fishes a long time before that. The Jules (as in Verne, geddit?) Undersea Lodge is already open off the coast, and down a bit, of Florida. For just $1,350, plus tax, you get not just a room but an entire five fathoms wedding ceremony complete with notary, chef and small wedding cake. (Guests are each $60 extra).

The lodge has two bedrooms, in case you fall out, and a DVD player, in case you grow bored watching the fish. A similar feeling of claustrophobia could be induced by taking a capsule hotel in Tokyo, but, hey, where's your sense of adventure? In Japan you would have the chance to buy an iyagemono, which we might helpfully translate as a no-thank-you souvenir.

How ingenious we humans are at devising ways of passing the time. Though as Beckett's tramp observed, it would have passed anyway.