Flights of fancy for April fools

Cheapflights brings you five destinations that have been the site of some infamous April Fools’ hoaxes.

Eight years before Sweden received colour television, the news programme on the only channel ran a segment suggesting that a nylon stocking placed over the screen of a black and white television would convert it into a colour TV. Thousands of Swedes fell victim to the prank, and it was not until 1970 that colour television reached Sweden. Return flights, London to Stockholm, from £107 - search using Cheapflights.co.uk

American radio stations have managed to come up with various pranks over the years – one station in Salt Lake City purported to have switched to playing year-round Christmas Music, while listeners in Boston tried to find a fictional city where radio DJs had claimed Pearl Jam were hosting a free concert. Return flights, London to Boston, from £279 - search using Cheapflights.co.uk

The most infamous prank to take place on England’s very own shores was the result of a hoax on a BBC television programme that ran a story showing the Swiss harvesting pasta from Spaghetti trees. You might not be able to grow these trees in reality, however you can fly to Switzerland. Return flights, Edinburgh to Geneva, from £159 - search using Cheapflights.co.uk.

In 1978, April Fools’ Day in Sydney, Australia, saw a local millionaire tow an iceberg into the harbour, using a boat, in order to cut it up and sell small ice cubes to the public. His April Fool was outwitted by the rain which revealed that the so-called iceberg was in fact revealed as white plastic sheets covered in foam and shaving cream. Return flights, London to Sydney, from £649 - search using Cheapflights.co.uk

Alaskans residing in the city of Sitka were alarmed one April Fools day when a long dormant volcano began to emit clouds of black smoke. In reality, a local man had flown up to the volcano’s crater with old tires and then set them on fire in an alarmingly successful attempt to fool everybody down in the city. Return flights, Glasgow to Anchorage, from £499 - search using Cheapflights.co.uk.

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