Cultural

Thought Dubai only catered to the rich and famous? This United Arab Emirates city might court visitors with expensive tastes, but beyond the skyscrapers and Western brands is a desert destination with enough cultural and hip hotspots for a bragworthy weekender that surprisingly - won't break the bank.  So if you're longing to escape the cold, here is an alternative plan for a two-day short break in this Middle Eastern playground.

What are you doing this evening? Bet they won't be as memorable as catching a glimpse of the magical Northern Lights after a day cross-country skiing through stunning scenery or after tackling a World Cup slalom in a frozen forest.  Unlike the Alps, Scandinavian countries can add more to your winter experience.  The snow here last for up to six months, and it offers more than a day on the piste, with some amazing adventures.

Going to Indonesia? Let us help you plan your break. With five islands offering distinct holiday charm you might want to plan how you enjoy them, along with the amount of time you spend on each. The is Java for culture and Moyo for sea lovers, with a rich wildlife and unique flora and fauna is Sumba, plus the others you would definitely want to see.

Skip the beaten path and explore the overlooked sights of western France on the way to Bordeaux. The country’s fifth largest city, tucked away in the south western corner, is an eight-hour drive from Calais. Fortunately, there are countless stops along the way, all easily accessible by car, helping to break up the trek.

There are few islands that can rival Malta for its magical mix of culture, history and natural beauty. Thanks to its enviable position in the middle of the Mediterranean, this island has been much coveted as a naval base, conquered by a succession of world powers for more than 7000 years, from the Romans to the Knights of St John. Today, it’s Malta’s fantastic climate and unusual story that attracts visitors, although the rich influence of its former rulers is never far from view.

Amazingly, it’s just a four-hour drive on the A4 through Antwerp and north into the Netherlands to get to the start of the famous Dutch flower route. Flowers have long been the stuff of romantic gestures, but blooms are a big deal in the Netherlands, the country which has dominated the global flower trade since tulip mania caused the world’s first commodity boom here during the Dutch Golden Age.

Sliced bread. The electric guitar. Non-iron shirts. History is littered with examples of well established ideas that, at a stroke, were tweaked and elevated to a higher plane even when it didn’t seem necessary. The Californian road trip is already iconic. Its promise of louche adventure and itinerant escapism on vanishing point highways and winding coastal routes has long since been immortalised in popular culture and is as quintessentially American as the stars and stripes.

To be bored of Italy is to be bored of bliss. Whether pouring that second glass of prosecco on the edge of a glistening Lake Como, sampling pistachio gelato outside the Colliseum or stealing another forkful of tomato laden fresh pasta in a Tuscan ristorante, there really is no destination more reliably decadent and delicious new world of Italian splendour still to be discovered. Discover the magical hidden villages just beyond the beaten track.  Pack a bag, grab your passport and start your next adventure with one of these gorgeous unspoilt hideaways.

There is only one horse race in the world that can be won without a rider, but not without a headdress. Steeped in rich, often bizarre tradition, this July dash around Siena’s Piazza del Campo is a unique experience. Unless you go to the one in August as well, that is. If you go to either, you will join a throng of 50,000 sardines packed into the middle of the square to witness 75 seconds of chaotic, heart-palpitating action.

Samoa has one of the South Pacific’s most beautiful and varied coast-lines, complemented by a lush mountainous interior. An ideal island getaway, visitors here can pick and choose between paddling round kiddie pool lagoons of vast breadth but knee-high depth, to catching the spray off gargantuan waves crashing into craggy sea cliffs. Or both, because more often than not such lazy lagoons and hard-pounded precipices are just a few minutes’ drive apart, and surrounded on all sided by waterfalls, swimming holes, cave pools, white sand beaches and rainforest trails.