15 Top Trips For Culture Lovers
Written by Nick Redman
If summer is for beaches, ice cream and indolence, chances are that come autumn you’ll want to start planning a getaway with a little more get-up-and-go. A slice of India rich in colours, flavours and ancient wonders, perhaps, or an autumnal American landscape? Maybe, looking ahead, a luxurious spring train ride through the Canadian Rockies, or a long weekend exploring the diverse traditions of Sicily? And, let’s be honest, what’s a trip without a sprinkling of culture and history between all those leisurely lunches? That doesn’t have to mean relics in dusty museums – how about a week absorbing the glamour of an Italian coast beloved of golden-era celebrities? Or basking amid the heavenly gardens and exotic palaces of Moorish Spain? On these pages we visit the dramatic flower island of Madeira, where well-to-do Europeans would go to escape winter at home as early as the 1850s. We also explore one of the continent’s greatest rivers, the Danube, which has seen visitors since Roman times. There’s nothing like immersing yourself in a destination with a good story to tell. And there’s nothing better than seeing it for yourself. That’s the thinking behind this selection of adventures to escape to in the coming months. And don’t worry, relaxation is factored in, too.
1.LAKES YOU’LL LIKE
The lakes of Lombardy — chiefly Garda, Como, Iseo, Maggiore and Orta — seem like visions from the past, so timelessly jade are their depths, so timewarped their rarefied waterfront hotels and ochre villas, so epic their mountain backdrops. Exploring their green shores and dinky villages could take a lifetime, but if you can only spare a weekend, go for Como, less than an hour by train north from Milan. It’s cinematic from the outset: you’ll recognise Villa del Balbianello, standing on an outcrop, from 2016 Bond movie Casino Royale. Eyes peeled, too, for Villa Erba, which stole the limelight in 2004’s Ocean’s Twelve. Stay in luxury at landmark Villa d’Este (villadeste.com), with its pontoon pool on the lake; or unfussy Hotel Olivedo (olivedo.it), in the hamlet of Varenna. Got a week? Loop in majestic Lake Garda, where the lovely resort town of Sirmione centres on a cartoon-crenellated castle.
2. MADEIRAN MAGIC
Fasten your safety belts — arriving at the flower island of the Atlantic is an exhilarating descent to a runway built over rocks and surf. (Cruises also visit, if you’d rather a sea approach.) That’s how Madeira introduces itself — vertiginous, volcanic in origin and carpeted in flowers, from bird of paradise blooms sprouting from roadsides to purple jacaranda trees in the streets of the capital, Funchal. It’s a great place to base yourself, somewhere like The Vine Hotel (hotelthevine.com), which has a spa and red wine-based treatments. Nights are about seafood dinners in lamplit taverns, and performances of plaintive fado singing in dark bars. Beyond town, quintas are elegant converted manor houses with luxury on tap (visitmadeira.com). Book one and the island’s your oyster: favourite places include the dramatic north coast, ribboned with waterfalls, and Monte Palace, a tranquil botanical garden.
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3. A LOVE SONG TO SICILY
It’s an Italian island but Sicily could well be its own country, so diverse are its cities, villages, beaches, historic sights, food and drink. Many visitors kick off in the capital, Palermo, to glimpse its Baroque palazzi, shouty markets and mighty cathedral. And the city is as much about bite-seeing as sightseeing: take a food tour with culinarybackstreets.com and sample treats such as panelle and arancini. The eastern town of Taormina, in the shadow of Etna, is unmissable, with palatial hotels (San Domenico starred in the second season of The White Lotus). Allow time to see the Greek theatre and the dramatic belvederes overlooking the Mediterranean. Best history fix? The Valley of the Temples, Agrigento: exquisitely chiselled, Instagram gold.
4. ITALIAN RIVIERA ROMANCE
It’s just as well the most photogenic coastal village in Liguria exists — you couldn’t make Portofino up. So pretty is the jumble of buildings around the tiny harbour it was destined to be a superstar magnet, from Maria Callas to the Beckhams. Umbrella pines and palms frame world-class homes and hotels: the historic Splendido (belmond.com) is lottery-winner territory. After martinis at Bar Jolly, dine on pesto pasta by moonlight at DaV Mare, on the cobbles of the piazzetta below. Must-visit towns close by, reached by public boat, include Santa Margherita Ligure, with its wedding-cake architecture and gelato parlours; and Rapallo, where a cable car soars to a religious sanctuary with spectacular views of the coast.
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5. GREAT SCOT!
Some of the best beaches in the world belong to outcrops off the Scottish mainland. It’s possible to island-hop idyllically here or spend time wildlife-watching, be it golden eagles, dolphins or orcas, which are regular visitors to Shetland and Orkney in the summer months. For first-timers, Arran comes up trumps: less than 60 minutes by sea from Ardrossan, from its coast to its purple peaks it’s Scotland in miniature. Beaches? Lewis and Harris (technically one island) has Luskentyre and Seilebost, both with Caribbean -white sands and blue waters. Skye delivers hotel-wise, too, home to the Three Chimneys gourmet restaurant, with Scandi-trendy rooms (threechimneys.co.uk). And as for spotting those orcas? Try wildernessscotland.co.uk .
6. TOUJOURS PROVENCE
From the town of Cassis in the west, to Menton, east towards Italy, unfurls one of the world’s great holiday playgrounds: the French Riviera, a stretch of coastline steeped in artistic, literary and cinematic allure — think F Scott Fitzgerald, Brigitte Bardot and Henri Matisse. Nice makes a great first base, particularly hotel Le Negresco, which has welcomed guests as diverse as James Dean and Elizabeth II. Wander the city’s Baie des Anges, visit the Matisse and Chagall museums to admire the artists’ brilliance , then hire a car and head east for the belle-epoque architecture of gorgeous Menton, surrounded by the high Maritime Alps. Or go west — and inland — for medieval villages dotting the slopes, among them lavender-scented Grasse. Meanwhile, coastal legends include Cannes and Saint-Tropez — where beachy hot spot Le Club 55 serves sea bass and lashings of chilled rosé over long lunches .
7. SPANISH HIGHS
Andalusia is pure picture-book Spain: blue bays and cloudless skies; olive groves and hilltop pueblos blancos; leisurely lunches of fish and white wine. In essence, the place you daydream about on a shivery wet Monday morning in January, en route to the office. Start in Málaga, birthplace of Picasso, where a museum dedicated to the artist attracts crowds, as does a Roman amphitheatre and an old town of cobbled alleys. Further west are the great cities of Seville, with its Moorish Royal Palace, Córdoba, home to a huge mosque from Moorish times, and Granada, where the Alhambra palace rolls out lawns and fountains. Andalusia is famed for the Costa del Sol , but the Costa de la Luz, facing the Atlantic around Cadiz, is unmissable. Conil de la Frontera, with its sandy shores, merits a couple of days, along with the sugar-cube villages of Vejer and Arcos further inland.
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8. FJORD FOCUS
Norway is home to one of the most historic seafaring companies on earth: Hurtigruten (hurtigruten.com), the cruise company that started out as a goods delivery service in 1893, plying ports along the 780-mile coastline between Bergen and Kirkenes to become one of the world’s premier cruise brands. Join them on their home turf (or surf) to explore the gaping Norwegian fjords: great elemental crevices of fathomless water, endless sky and rock. The Coastal Express, a classic 12-day itinerary, promises to reveal “the heart and soul of Norway’s coastline ”, with visits to Geirangerfjord, fed by foaming waterfalls, before crossing the Arctic Circle and reaching Norway’s eastern edge at Kirkenes, which lies further east on the map than both St Petersburg and Istanbul. Other lines visiting the fjords include sovereigncruise.com and cunard.com .
9. IRELAND FLING
The Wild Atlantic Way is heaven for motoring holiday enthusiasts, unspooling for 1,500 miles along the ocean-bashed western shores of Ireland. Starting point — or culmination, depending on which direction you drive — is County Donegal’s Inishowen Peninsula; Kinsale is the southern full stop, in County Cork. However much (or little) of it you take on, the landscapes will be splendid, with plenty of pale sandy beaches, pubs with rooms — and Guinness. So, which part to focus on? It’s almost impossible to narrow it down. But these are two of the highlights: Keem Strand, County Mayo, with Demerara-sugary sands and a backdrop of bottle-green hills; and Blasket Sound, County Kerry, best seen from Dunmore Head after a blustery hike to the top.
10. A PASSAGE THROUGH INDIA
Whether you travel by train, bus or private car, the cities of Delhi, Jaipur and Agra constitute the best bite-size slice of India that can be sampled in a week to ten days. Expect a fabulous sensory assault in the capital: the graceful civic architecture of New Delhi, by Edwin Lutyens, is almost transatlantic in its grandeur, while Old Delhi has awesome landmarks including the Red Fort. Some 270km south-west through Rajasthan is Jaipur, the Pink City. Busy with textile and gemstone bazaars, it is home, notably, to the magnificent Hawa Mahal, or Palace of the Winds, with a vast, honeycomb-like facade of windows. Finally, Agra lays claim to the porcelain-pure, unmissable Taj Mahal.
11. AUTUMN IN AMERICA
People travel far for a helping of flame-orange autumn foliage, and the USA doesn’t disappoint, whether you make for New Mexico or New York. High on the wish list is the eastern state of Vermont, where landscapes become gaudy canvases of yellow, tangerine and red when the air turns crisp and cold. The state has almost 80 designated scenic drives on byways, ranging from 14 to 400 miles. The Lake Champlain Byway reveals horizon after horizon of ochre and scarlet maples above still, glassy waters; meanwhile the village of Stowe, with its spired church, is filmic in its leafy beauty between early September and mid-October. Over in Colorado, the turning aspens make sensational viewing in spots like Steamboat Springs and Crested Butte, the celebrated winter sports resorts. Meanwhile, south in New Mexico, fall is very special, with the cottonwoods yellowing along the banks of the Rio Grande.
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12. CANADA’S COOLEST JOURNEY
Coyotes and caribou, bighorn sheep and bears… the wildlife in the Canadian Rockies is something to behold in spring, as the deep freeze of winter softens and slowly warms. For bucket-trip travellers there’s only one way to see the changing season: by rail, aboard the Canadian (viarail.ca), which passes prairies and peaks on its four-day, four-night journey between Toronto and Vancouver. The train has panoramic-view “dome” carriages to maximise the experience of the ride, as you pass thick forests and silver lakes in sharp sun, rivers swollen with meltwater and photogenic cities — not for nothing is Saskatoon dubbed “the Paris of the prairies”. There are three classes: economy, sleeper plus and prestige. The last includes à la carte menus prepared by onboard chefs, a sleeping space with a shower, even a personal concierge supplying fine Canadian wines.
13. ANIMAL MAGIC IN BOTSWANA
For a safari with legendary star power head to Chobe Lodge, in Botswana: opened in 1973, it’s famously where Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton married for the second time in 1975 (they first wed in 1964, divorcing a decade later). If the place exuded animal magnetism back then, when it was the first five-star lodge in the country, today its appeal has only increased, with Moorish design elements and Moroccan lanterns flickering, as guests sip world-class South African wines and wonder what to have for dinner. The largest population of elephants on the African continent (120,000) is here, in Chobe National Park, and the river teems with crocodiles and hippos, viewable on cruises. Accommodations are worthy of a celebrity, with comfy rooms and luxury suites (including a honeymoon option for budding Burtons and Taylors). Book as part of a country tour, also taking in the Okavango Delta, with desertdelta.com
14. THE BLUE DANUBE
Rising in the Black Forest and emptying 2,850km further east into the Black Sea, the Danube is one of the world’s great rivers. It passes through ten countries, making a river cruise a wonderful way to holiday. Join vikingrivercruises.co.uk, for example, on its eight-day voyage from Budapest to Regensburg, Bavaria, and you’ll get to see Vienna, the vineyard-coated slopes of the Wachau Valley and the flamboyant cathedral of Passau. Or join Riviera Travel for a festive trip that includes a Christmas dinner on board and the chance to explore the Yuletide markets of snow-dusted Bratislava.
15. ISTANBUL: A TURKISH DELIGHT
In the long-weekend-break stakes, Turkey’s glorious former capital flies largely under the radar. Which is great news for the select crowd who have been and are smitten. Scarcely further by plane than Athens, Istanbul is a cauldron of culture — Greek, then Roman, later Ottoman, and now its own special creation. Three days could be spent merely exploring the postcard sights: there’s Hagia Sophia, a church turned mosque bathed in light; the ornate Blue Mosque, named for its vibrant tiled interior; and Topkapi Palace, old home of the sultans, with its priceless exhibits. Explore Beyoglu — the 19th-century European area, lined with outlandish Art Nouveau apartments and peppered with fashionable cocktail bars. Or board a ferry for a short, breezy voyage to the Asian districts across the blue Bosphorus Strait.
