Brussels travel guide

From its breathtaking medieval centre to its 21st-century temple to Surrealism, the new Magritte Museum, Brussels offers the visitor a great deal more than just beer and chocolate.

Brussels's compact city centre is clustered with bars, restaurants and museums set along cobbled streets which open suddenly into the Grand-Place. With its ornate guild houses, impressive Town Hall and buzzing atmosphere, it would be difficult to find a more beautiful square in the whole of Europe.

Léopold II's Parisian-style boulevards (Belliard and La Loi) are lined with embassies, banks and grand apartment buildings, while Sainte Cathérine, the Art Nouveau district of St-Gilles and Ixelles draw an arty crowd with their cool shops and restaurants.

The Bruxellois take pride in their self-effacing, intellectual sense of humour, underpinned by a strong appreciation of the bizarre. The city has a long-running love affair with the Surrealist art movement, pioneered by René Magritte, and with classic comic strips, epitomised by Hergé's boy hero, Tintin. There's a telling irony in the fact that the city's best-known landmark is the Manneken-Pis, a tiny statuette of a urinating boy.

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Strasbourg travel guide

Situated on the Franco-German border, lovely Strasbourg has been passed back and forward between the two countries for years. The result is a city and people with a distinctive local identity, combining the reputed efficiency and energy of the Germans with the joie de vivre and sophistication of the French.

Strasbourg is far enough away from the capital to be truly independent on a cultural level, with its own opera, France's only national theatre outside Paris and two international music festivals.

The Grande Ile (Big Island), in the midst of the River Ill, is the ancient heart of the city, with the vast main square, place Kléber at its centre. Close by is place Gutenberg - named after 15th-century Strasbourg resident Johannes Gutenberg, famed for his development of printing.

Strasbourg's great landmark is the Cathédrale Notre-Dame in the Vieille Ville (Old Town), which has remained unchanged since the Middle Ages. Around the Cathedral clusters an impressive array of museums, cafés and restaurants.

Stunningly picturesque Petite France, in the Grande Ile's southwestern corner, is Strasbourg's medieval quarter and a UNESCO World Heritage site. With its bridges and canals, half-timbered houses and narrow streets, it could not be more different from the ultra-modern City of Europe in northeast Strasbourg where the EU institutions are located.

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Calgary travel guide

Calgary stands at the point where the vast Canadian prairie meets the jagged, snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains. Its young, glittering skyscrapers rise out of older suburban neighbourhoods and seem oddly superimposed on this breathtakingly diverse western landscape, as though dropped from the sky onto the confluence of the Bow and Elbow Rivers.

Accordingly, the land is never far from the minds of the people of Calgary. The oil that lies beneath it drives the city's vibrant economy; the distant mountains attract legions of skiers and snowboarders during the chilly winters; and, during balmy summers, cattle roam the flat expanse of grassland, marking this out as cowboy country.

As well as being the gateway to the Rocky Mountains, Calgary has grown into a tourist destination in its own right. Its cowboy reputation draws over a million visitors annually to Calgary Stampede, a raucous celebration of Western heritage, where the city transforms into a giant party town and every second person seems to be wearing a cowboy hat; even the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge couldn’t resist during their 2011 visit.

Calgary isn’t shy in putting itself forward and has beaten competing Canadian cities to host both the new National Sports Hall of Fame and the upcoming National Music Centre, which opens in 2014. A snazzy new, hands-on science centre opened in October 2011.

Many have likened the Calgary of today to a Canadian Dallas, a comparison that is not without merit. Like Dallas, Calgary is a confident, often brash cowboy town that grew wealthy on oil, where they play country and western music in noisy taverns and eat thick and juicy steaks in the restaurants. As an image, however, this captures only a small part of what the city and its people are actually like.

Calgary is also a city of diverse and vibrant neighbourhoods, where its citizens relax in cafés, stroll the scenic streets or take in the opera, although they are just as likely to head off to the great outdoors. Beyond the city, the stunning summits and aquamarine lakes of the Rockies, in particular Banff National Park, are unmissable, while visitors can delve into dinosaur history in Alberta’s Badlands.

Today Calgary is known as the New West, a casual, oil-rich, vibrant city growing faster than its infrastructure can keep pace with, expanding its cultural life as new blood follows its prosperity. Technology and production industries have grown immensely as oil and gas production has increased, propelling this one-time, one-horse cowboy town into a radically evolving 21st-century city.

Calgary is not resting on its laurels however. Ongoing reinvestment in its buildings and services suggests it clearly aims to keep one step ahead of its rivals. A light rail line extension is under construction, with others in the pipeline, and glitzy skyscrapers continue to go up – the latest is a Norman Foster-designed behemoth nicknamed The Bow. This is now the city’s tallest tower and is expected to be completed in 2012, coinciding with Calgary Stampede’s centenary celebrations.

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Durban travel guide

Located on South Africa's sublime Indian Ocean coast, Durban is a tropical, urban gem that has lost its reckless air in favour of a growing sophistication.

The golden child of KwaZulu Natal is the country's third largest city. Its leafy north western suburbs offer upmarket guesthouses, trendy bars and stylish restaurants, while the city centre nonchalantly displays flamboyant colonial edifices and art deco delights.

Durban's attractive, sweeping beaches are complemented by rejuvenation evident along the seafront, such as the huge uShaka Marine World theme park. Whale-watching, wreck-diving, fishing, kitesurfing and luxury cruises are amongst the myriad attractions scraping the city's edge.

But what really sets Durban apart from other South African cities is its rich ethnic mix. More than half of Durban's 3.5 million inhabitants are Zulu, but almost one fifth of the population is made up of Indians, creating a potent, vibrant cocktail. Visitors are sure to be enthralled by what Durban has to offer.

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Dubai travel guide

After the previous decade’s highs and lows, Dubai is finally maturing into a more orderly city.

The crane-ridden skyline, characteristic of the boom years, has given way to a more measured and controlled pace of development following the global recession – a timely recovery as the United Arab Emirates Federation celebrated its 40th anniversary last year. Nevertheless, this vibrant east-meets-west city retains its ability to build, surprise and tantalise.

The economic turmoil of the last few years has wrought painful changes to Dubai’s retail, rental and property markets, and led to the plug being pulled on numerous high profile building projects. In other areas, the impact has been more stark: a host of more affordable mid-market and budget hotels have sprung up in a city previously renowned for its ostentatious accommodation. A more telling sign of the zeitgeist is perhaps the planned opening of a British bargain basement store Poundstretcher set to open in the opulent Madina Mall, famed for its designer brands.

Were it not for the Arab Spring of 2011, which saw a revolutionary wave of pro-democracry protests across 12 countries in the region, Dubai’s fortunes may well have dwindled further. But political instability in disaffected countries has spurred companies, individuals and tourists to relocate and rebook from the trouble spots to the Middle East emirate.

Today, Dubai’s impressive infrastructure continues to be its trump card.

The highways flow more readily than the pre-downturn era, thanks predominantly to the Dubai Metro, which now boasts a second line, the Green Line, which serves as an inner-city loop. Dubai International Airport has expanded; Emirates’ vast Terminal 3, matched only in ambition by its steady stream of A380s, have helped fuel the passenger volumes, along with the rapid growth of low-cost airline flydubai, operating from Terminal 2. By 2016, it is expected to overtake London Heathrow as the world’s largest international airport.

And in stubborn defiance of the recession, Dubai continues to push the boundaries when it comes to hotels; evidence of this is the luxurious Turkish-themed Jumeirah Zabeel Saray hotel, complete with its own theatre and vast spa, and idyllic One & Only The Palm, both on the Western Crescent of Palm Jumeirah. Across the water next to Dubai Marina, the luxury Grosvenor House Dubai recently opened a second tower – the two towers are now connected by a walkway – with 106 rooms and suites and the stylish B’Attitude spa offering five hammam pools. Indeed, Dubai is attempting to boost its appeal by positioning itself as the Maldives of the Middle East for spa holidays.

Meanwhile, new areas of interest are emerging, namely the ‘New Dubai’ district, encompassing Palm Jumeirah, Dubai Marina, The Walk and Jumeirah Beach Residence.

So while large-scale developments are thinner on the ground than yesteryear, and Abu Dhabi is steadily rising in prominence as an alternative choice for holidaymakers seeking sun in the region, Dubai hasn’t lost all its taste for size and grandeur. With its plethora of hotels and well-developed infrastructure, it remains the premier travel destination in the Middle East.

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Toulouse travel guide

Toulouse, in the heart of southwest France, combines medieval architecture with bohemian music, delicious food and constant innovation. As the region’s largest city, Toulouse disguises both its size and cutting-edge aerospace industry with leafy green canals, tiny cobbled streets and some excellent cuisine.

Fuelled by the energy of its student population, Toulouse’s calendar bursts with outdoor concerts, arts festivals and food markets. It’s the home of one of France’s finest rugby teams, several Michelin-starred restaurants and more than one UNESCO World Heritage site. Its centuries of rich history are, quite literally, visible in its pink-brick walls – which is why the city is also called La Ville Rose (the pink city).

Above all, Toulouse is a place where people know how to enjoy life. The Tour de France may zoom through and the adrenaline of the slopes is only a drive away, yet residents still know how to take it easy. Top priorities include dining together with plenty of cheese, bread and wine.

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Taipei travel guide

Formerly called 'Formosa' (Portuguese for 'beautiful'), Taiwan is relatively small, although its population numbers almost 23 million, making it the second most densely populated country in the world after Bangladesh. A gateway to the massive Chinese market, Taiwan has a strong relationship with the West.

The political issue of its relationship with China has eased somewhat and direct flights to the mainland have been introduced. Taiwan has plenty to offer, from truly unique scenery to exciting sporting activities and colourful festivals, not to mention the most varied Chinese food on earth.

Taipei, the capital city, has a long established reputation as a gourmet's paradise, boasting cuisine from every region of China. It is also home to new boutique hotels and trendy bars that have sprung up in a flurry of construction culminating in the opening of the 'world's tallest building', Taipei 101 (now overtaken by Burj Khalifa in Dubai).

The constructing of parks and much-needed infrastructure in also underway. Perhaps a result of this growth, Taipei's cultural scene has blossomed giving local sculpture, art and architecture a distinctly Taiwanese edge.

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