Destinations Archives

Casa del Plátano, Icod de los Vinos, Tenerife: practical guide for first-time visitors

Casa del Plátano is a restored Canarian hacienda in Icod de los Vinos housing the self-styled only dedicated banana visitor attraction in Europe. The visit covers an indoor museum on the history of banana cultivation in the Canary Islands and a working two-level banana plantation…

Temppeliaukio Church in Helsinki, Finland.

Visiting Temppeliaukio Church, Helsinki: practical guide for first-time visitors

Temppeliaukio Church — the Rock Church — is a Lutheran church hewn directly into a granite outcrop in the Töölö neighbourhood of Helsinki. It was opened in 1969 and designed by brothers Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen. This guide was updated in June 2026: The adult…

Visiting Arktikum, Rovaniemi: practical guide for first-time visitors

Arktikum is a science centre and museum in Rovaniemi, Finnish Lapland, sitting on the bank of the Ounasjoki river beneath a 172-metre glass corridor that points due north. This guide was updated in June 2026: Two things to know before you go: the standard adult…

Visiting the St. Beatus Caves, Lake Thun: practical guide for first-time visitors

The St. Beatus Caves (St. Beatus-Höhlen) are a stalactite cave system on the northern shore of Lake Thun in the Bernese Oberland, around 10 km from Interlaken. Fourteen kilometres of cave have been explored; one kilometre is open to visitors year-round. This guide was updated…

Swiss National Museum, Zurich: practical guide for first-time visitors

The Swiss National Museum (Landesmuseum Zürich) on Museumstrasse 2 is Switzerland's most visited museum of cultural history, covering the country's past from prehistoric times to the present day. This guide was updated in June 2026. Two things to note before you go: the adult admission…

Visiting the Groeningemuseum, Bruges: practical guide for first-time visitors

The Groeningemuseum on Dijver 12 in central Bruges holds six centuries of Belgian painting in one compact building, from the Flemish Primitives — Jan van Eyck, Hans Memling, Gerard David — to Magritte and Raoul De Keyser. This guide was updated in June 2026. Two…

An elephant at the AfricaMuseum in Tervuren, Belgium.

Visiting the AfricaMuseum, Tervuren: practical guide for first-time visitors

The AfricaMuseum — formally the Royal Museum for Central Africa — is Belgium's national museum for Central Africa, housed in a grand neoclassical palace on the edge of Tervuren Park, 15 kilometres east of Brussels. This guide was updated in June 2026. Note that many…

Visiting Villa Palagonia, Bagheria, Sicily: practical guide for first-time visitors

Villa Palagonia — known throughout Sicily as the "Villa dei Mostri" (Villa of the Monsters) — is an 18th-century Baroque mansion in Bagheria, 15 km east of Palermo, famous for the grotesque tuff-stone statues that line its perimeter walls. This guide was updated in June…

Visiting the Norman Palace, Palermo: practical guide for first-time visitors

The Norman Palace (Palazzo dei Normanni) is Europe's oldest continually inhabited royal palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site at the heart of Palermo, and home to the breathtaking Palatine Chapel — the finest surviving example of Arab-Norman-Byzantine art in existence. This guide was updated in…

The Technik Museum in Speyer, Rhineland-Palatinate.

Technik Museum Speyer, Germany: practical guide for first-time visitors

The Technik Museum Speyer is one of Europe's largest private technology museums — over 150,000 square metres on the edge of the historic city of Speyer in Rhineland-Palatinate. It's home to the largest aerospace exhibition on the continent including an original Soviet space shuttle. This…