European fur traders realized the value of beaver pelts, particularly in the manufacture of the all-weather, all-purpose hat worn by every man of any substance. To keep up with demand the beaver was extensively trapped, and the French voyageurs pushed further and further west along the lake and river systems in pursuit of the animal, thereby opening up much of the interior. The beaver was hunted to the point of extinction in much of eastern Canada, but had a reprieve when the beaver hat went out of fashion in the late nineteenth century; today beavers are comparatively commonplace. Central Ontario, inland from the coastal strip bordering Georgian Bay, is largely defined by the Canadian Shield, whose endless forests, myriad lakes and thin soils dip down from the north in a giant wedge. This hostile terrain has kept settlement down to a minimum, though latterly the very wildness of the land has attracted Canadian holidaymakers, who come here to hunker down in their lakeside cottages – hence the moniker “cottage country”. The centre of this is the Muskoka Lakes, a skein of narrow lakes and rivers, and their main supply towns, Gravenhurst and Bracebridge.

Hotel review: London Marriott Hotel Park Lane

Get a transportation pass – A day ticket with unlimited travel in city center zones costs 8.80 EUR, and a week pass is 36 EUR — much cheaper than paying per ride. You can use your tickets across the train, tram, and bus network, saving you a fortune if you plan on seeing a lot of the city. Berlin is pretty safe, but like all big cities, there is petty crime (such as pickpocketing). Be careful on busy public transit and around crowded tourist attractions, especially in Alexanderplatz. Whenever possible, withdraw money from inside a bank where you know there are security cameras and/or guards. Located in the southern part of the city, this park is actually the site of an old airport that was used during the Berlin Airlift (when the Soviets tried to blockade the city).

Akbank International Jazz Festival

Explore its rich history and modern innovations by visiting the glass factories, where master craftsmen skilfully mould molten glass into intricate shapes. Discover a fascinating variety of glassware, from exquisite jewellery to ornate chandeliers. See ancient techniques passed down through generations and learn about this age-old craft. Take a fascinating day trip to the Venetian islands of Burano and Murano, each with a special charm that complements the glamour of Venice. The key to packing for Italy is to pack the minimum that you need.

Enjoy 50% off books, get free tickets to events, access exclusive content and go behind the scenes when you join our Travel Club. The history and culture of France are closely linked – see France culture which looks at artists, language, architecture, French film directors… You can also use our index of places in France to find any place you are looking for when planning your trip.

How long do I need for my trip?

From the ancient Mughal city of Lahore to the snow-capped peaks of the Karakoram Mountains, Pakistan is a diverse nation defined not just by its natural beauty … After the tragedy of the Yugoslav wars that ravaged the Balkan region in the 1990s, Bosnia-Herzegovina has begun to emerge from that torrid time as a compelling… Your browser is not supported for this experience.We recommend using Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Safari. However, outside the cities, there are excellent opportunities for trekking in Vietnam, allowing you to explore beautiful landscapes, such as rice fields, jungles, and smaller villages. Vietnam has a widespread availability of Wi-Fi networks, ranging from local restaurants and coffee shops to upscale resorts. As a customer, you can typically access these Wi-Fi networks for free.

Nestled on a narrow land strip stretching from the swampy coast into the Arabian Sea, it functions as an island connected to the mainland by bridges and causeways. The Edinburgh International Festival, or the “Official Festival”, was the original Edinburgh Festival, conceived in 1947 as a celebration of pan-European culture in the postwar era. Inevitably, Edinburgh’s nightlife is at its best during the Festival, which can make the other 49 weeks of the year seem like an anticlimax. However, at any time the city has plenty to offer, especially in the realm of theatre and music. The best way to find out what’s on is to pick up a copy of The List, a fortnightly listings magazine covering both Edinburgh and Glasgow. One of the city’s best commercial galleries, regularly featuring shows by Scotland’s top contemporary artists.

DK Italy

With our go-to travel insurance provider, Heymondo, you get great value and 24/7 support wherever you are. The sheer size of the country prevents any sort of overarching statement about the typical American experience, just as the diversity of its people undercuts any notion of the typical American. If you’re on a budget, the best time to visit Lisbon is during the shoulder season.

Hokkaido Full Immersion Tour

We had never used a tour agency before, but when we looked into the Rough Guides for guidance for our 5+ week trip to Vietnam and Cambodia, there seemed to be a good culture and values fit for us. We wanted to be as independent as possible, but the relationship also brought additional value in that we learned about landscapes that we didn’t know existed and the team helped us navigate the logistics. Everything was seamless; we could count on everything going smoothly on our trip, even the parts that were not planned and executed by the expert in Asia. For true paradise, head to the hundreds of stunning islands off the mainland, where you’ll find white sand, coconut palms, and turquoise water.

A handy guide to the Australian lifestyle

So it’s important to plan well and know what kind of trip you want to make. You can also travel by train for most of the trip and only rent a car for a few days when you really need it. Mumbai’s local trains carry an estimated 7.5 million commuters each day between downtown and the sprawling suburbs in the north. Carriages are packed for most of the day, with passengers dangling precariously out of open doors to escape the crush.

Best places in Greece to visit

• Our pick of the best national parks to visit in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.
• Since 1998, we at To Tuscany have been working hard to become experts in our field.
• Most travelers fall somewhere in the middle, however, and a reasonable daily budget per person for food, transport and activities is around €120 on top of flights and accommodation.
• Look out, too, for roasted milk-fed lamb, grilled lamb chops, and saltimbocca alla Romana, thin slices of veal cooked with a slice of prosciutto and sage on top.
• The hop-on-hop-off bus is a convenient way for tourists to see the major sights quickly and efficiently.
• Our competent advisors can also make your hotel reservations for you.

Authentic ethnic food from countries of the nearby Caucasus (Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia) is common in Moscow. Japanese food, including sushi, rolls, tempura, and steakhouses are very popular in Moscow. Other Asian cuisines including Vietnamese, Thai, and Chinese are becoming increasingly more common. Parking illegally can lead to a hefty fine of 2500 руб and your car being towed. If you are driving to Moscow, park as soon as you can at a safe place such as your hotel and use public transit. Expect to pay 80 руб/hour for the parking within the Boulevard Ring and the district, 200 руб/hour – between Boulevard Ring and Garden Ring, 40 руб/hour between Garnen Ring and Third Transport Ring.

Italy Travel Guide

The most famous external style is Shaolin kung fu, developed in the Shaolin Temple in Henan province and known for powerful kicks and animal styles – notably eagle, mantis and monkey. The classic Shaolin weapon is the staff, and there’s even a drunken form, where the practitoner sways and lurches as if inebriated. The Chinese are good at “small ball” games such as squash and badminton, and, of course, table tennis, at which they are world champions, but admit room for improvement in the “big ball” games, such as football. Nevertheless, Chinese men follow foreign football avidly, with games from the European leagues shown on CCTV5. There’s also a national obsession among students for basketball, which predates the rise to international fame of NBA star Yao Ming, who plied his trade for the Houston Rockets.

Free Wi-Fi in Berlin

Organized by IKSV, the İstanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (wiksv.org), it uses venues ranging from historic buildings like the Topkapı Palace to urban-chic warehouses. Istanbul is undoubtedly far safer than most European or North American cities, and cases of mugging and assault against tourists are rare. Though Ankara is now the official capital, Istanbul is still very much the beating heart of Turkey. It’s loud, bold and fast-moving, with a cultural and creative energy that makes it one of the most exciting cities in the world. The ‘Real Alcazar de Sevilla’ is the number 1 attraction of Seville Spain.

Main hiking areas

While I’m not a huge fan of modern or contemporary art, this is an excellent museum if you are. If you take a couchette, using the “Thello” sleeper for the stage from Paris to Milan doesn’t add much to the cost. Booking for these continental routes usually opens three months before the day of travel. Discounts for under-26s are sometimes available and advance booking is essential. If you’re planning to include Italy as part of a longer European trip you could choose to invest in an InterRail pass. Seeing the sights of Italy is always a treat but you’ll also love immersing yourself in Italian culture.

Tourist information offices are the best places to ask about taekwondo action, including longer programmes. There are also occasional performances and tournaments at the home of Korea’s national sport, Kukkiwon (Mon–Fri 9am–5pm; free), a hall near Gangnam station. Unless you’re staying at a higher-end hotel or serviced apartment, you may find it tricky to get a swim in Seoul. There are municipal pools in most parts of the city; enquire at a tourist office for your nearest option. In summer, a number of outdoor pools open up around the Hangang; most convenient are those on Yeouido. Of these, Hongdae is by far the busiest, its streets lined with bars, clubs and restaurants, and full every day of the week from early evening on.

Cosenza Super Street Food

• The crypt’s two other star tombs are those of Nelson and Wellington, both occupying centre stage and both with more fanciful monuments upstairs.
• The Agawa Canyon Tour Train takes a day to cover the first 200km of track and back (late June to mid-Oct departs daily at 8am, returns 6pm; $84; $102 in autumn).
• In addition, the country’s largest market and most popular shopping district lie within this area, as does Namsan, a small mountain in the very centre of the capital.
• Travelers visit this iconic destination to cruise along the emerald waters, marvel at the limestone karsts and islets, and explore hidden caves and floating fishing villages.
• You can have a virtual play on medieval instruments such as the crumhorn or sackbut, prepare your own edition of Shakespeare, and feel the thatch, hazelnut-shell and daub used to build the theatre.
• Download our digital guide to Berlin history onto your mobile and experience the most exciting stories about the Reichstag and many other interesting locations in Berlin with the visitBerlin app About Berlin.

Its urban focus, Vancouver, is the country’s third largest city, known for its spectacular natural setting, fabulous food and a laidback West Coast hedonism. Off the coast lies Vancouver Island, a microcosm of the province’s immense natural riches and home to Victoria, a devotedly anglophile little city. It’s also well worth journeying over to the island’s west coast to take in the rugged beauty of Pacific Rim National Park’s Long Beach, Clayoquot Sound and surf town of Tofino. The second largest country in the world (after Russia), Canada covers an area the United Kingdom could fit into 41 times over.

MNAC ends on a high note with its modern Catalan art collection, which is particularly good on modernista and noucentista painting and sculpture, the two dominant schools of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The evolution from the Romanesque to the Gothic period was marked by a move from murals to painting on wood, and by the depiction of more naturalistic figures in scenes of the lives of saints and royalty. By the time of fifteenth-century Catalan artists like Jaume Huguet and Lluís Dalmau, works showed the strong influence of contemporary Flemish painting, in the use of denser colours, the depiction of crowd scenes and a concern for perspective.

Even so, KVNP retains a genuinely off-the-beaten-track character by comparison with most other comparably wildlife-rich savannah reserves in East Africa. Lynchpin of the nascent northeastern safari circuit, Kidepo Valley (KVNP) is Uganda’s third-largest national park after Murchison Falls and Queen Elizabeth, and it vies with these two as Uganda’s most alluring safari destination. It has a remote location in the extreme northeast of Karamoja subregion, more than 500km from Kampala, bordering South Sudan to the northwest, and only 5km from the easterly border with Kenya. There are also a few reputable cultural programmes that offer the opportunity to interact with the Batwa Pygmies who were evicted from the forest interior following the gazetting of the national park. A peculiarly African road hazard – one frequently taken to unnecessary extremes in Uganda – is the giant sleeping policeman, or ‘speed bump’ as it’s known locally. A lethal bump might be signposted in advance, it might be painted in black-and-white stripes, or it might simply rear up without warning above the road like a macadamised wave.

However, this will not allow you to explore more than the iconic sites. Venice’s renowned events like the Carnival in February and the Venice Biennale in odd-numbered years draw a diverse array of international visitors, adding a unique cultural dimension to the visit. If you have a keen interest in contemporary art and international culture, timing your visit to coincide with the Venice Biennale can be https://softfootprints.com/ a fantastic idea.

• Nearby, the old mining towns of Jinguashi and Jiufen are deservedly popular for their historic streets and teahouses, while the Northeast & Yilan Coast National Scenic Area contains some of the most rugged coastline on the island.
• As well as its outstanding natural beauty and internationally renowned cuisine, the region is also the home of Renaissance art and the ancient Etruscan civilisation.Whether you’re feeling lazy or active, thrifty or extravagant, we’ve got you covered.
• The participants, who line up all the way along South Bridge Road waiting for their turn, are supposedly protected from the heat of the coals by the power of prayer.
• Monday is meant to be no-street-vendor day throughout Bangkok, a chance for the pavements to get cleaned and for pedestrians to finally see where they’re going, but plenty of stalls manage to flout the rule.
• With the exception of silk, local materials are frequently of poor quality and for suits in particular you’re far better off using English or Italian cloth.
• From the ancient ruins of Pompeii to the enchanting streets of Florence, a plethora of remarkable day trips awaits.
• If you love the art and history of Italy, then Blue Guides is for you!
• This colossal amphitheatre, once a stage for gladiatorial battles and grand spectacles, embodies the city’s ancient magnificence.

Venice: a city shaped by history and water

In the summer of 2004, he lived among the Kuna Indians on the San Blas Islands of Panama. Because of his wealth of knowledge and experience, Richard has been invited to contribute articles to many outdoor-focused websites, such as Florida Rambler, and has been profiled on travel websites such as JohnnyJet. Richard is an avid traveler who flies up to 10 times a year and has visited 18 countries. I often think that travel is, to quote Lawrence Durrell, about spirit of place; the traces that we leave behind and the stories that connect us through time.