Destinations Archives

St Bavo’s Cathedral, Ghent: Ticket prices, hours, parking & visitor guide (2026)

St Bavo's Cathedral in Ghent, Belgium is a Gothic cathedral that houses the Ghent Altarpiece and features a crypt containing the remains of earlier Romanesque structures. My 2026 guide presents the key practical details required for guests, including updated opening hours, ticket prices, how to…

Gravensteen, Ghent: Ticket prices, hours, parking & visitor guide (2026)

A 12th-century fortress rises in central Ghent, its grey stone walls and circular towers jutting above the Leie River. This is the Gravensteen, or Castle of the Counts, and it looks somewhat out of place in Belgium. Count Philip of Alsace built this stronghold in…

Whitelady Waterfall, Devon: Ticket prices, hours, parking & visitor guide (2026)

Devon's tallest waterfall plunges 30 metres down a moss-covered cliff into the River Lyd, tucked inside what may be the deepest gorge in southwest England. The path down to the Whitelady Waterfall involves a steep descent through temperate rainforest — one of the rarest habitats…

The Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Six great Kuala Lumpur attractions to add to your Malaysia itinerary

Top attractions in Kuala Lumpur include the Petronas Twin Towers, Merdeka Square, the Batu Caves and the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia. The Petronas Twin Towers Between 1998 and 2004, the Petronas Towers were the tallest buildings in the world. They’re still the tallest twin towers,…

A model of the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi, on display in the Architecture Gallery of the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur.

Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia: Discovering Islamic architecture in Kuala Lumpur

From mudbrick mosques rising out of the Sahel to turquoise-tiled minarets in Central Asia, Islamic architecture is far more diverse than most people expect. Kuala Lumpur’s Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia brings these global traditions together under one roof. The Great Mosque of Djenné in Mali…

Mount Vernon and slavery: Confronting the uncomfortable legacy behind George Washington’s estate

Behind the grand mansion and formal gardens of Mount Vernon lies a quieter, more troubling story. Visiting the reconstructed slave quarters at Mount Vernon forces a reckoning with George Washington and slavery, and with choices that shaped the early United States. It looks like a…

The Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin, Germany.

Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin: Ticket prices, hours, parking & visitor guide (2026)

A neoclassical temple rises on a plinth above Museum Island, housing Germany's finest collection of 19th-century art. The building looks more suited to ancient Athens than industrial-age Berlin — which is precisely what architect Friedrich August Stüler intended when he modelled it on a Greek…

Magritte Museum, Brussels: Ticket prices, hours, parking & visitor guide (2026)

The world's largest collection of René Magritte's work occupies a five-storey neoclassical building on Place Royale in Brussels, Belgium. Over 200 paintings, drawings, sculptures, and films trace the Belgian surrealist's career from his early commercial work to the bowler-hatted men and impossible skies that made…

Douglas Coupland's Digital Orca in Vancouver, Canada.

A complete guide to visiting Digital Orca in Vancouver (2026)

A pixelated orca breaches from Jack Poole Plaza in three-dimensional blocky form, its black-and-white cubes catching light off Vancouver's harbour. The Digital Orca sculpture turns an icon of Canada's West Coast — the killer whale — into something that belongs equally to video games and…

The Hiram M Chittenden locks in Seattle, Washington.

Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, Seattle: Salmon, ships and the city’s overlooked soul

A short trip north of downtown reveals a side of Seattle that guidebooks often skim past. At the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, engineering, ecology and local identity quietly intersect. In the hotel lobby stands my very unofficial tour guide. “Howdy,” she says. “I’m going to…