Know as Europe’s hottest city, both for its location on a geothermal ridge and its pulsating night life, Iceland’s capital is in the midst of an economic renaissance and a business trip there provides the perfect excuse to sample some clean living. David Neville Williams enjoys a fjord fiesta

Famed for its coffee houses and red light district, Amsterdam’s not-so-well-kept secret is also one of the most picturesque capitals in Europe. Laced with peaceful canals lined with leafy greenery and elegant terraces, there’s a great deal of joy to be had just wandering through its cosy, cobbled streets. Even better, hire a bike – […]

Notorious for the famous Bermuda Triangle, where countless ships have disappeared over the centuries, Bermuda was once known as ‘Devil’s Island’ by the sailors who knew its treacherous waters. Yet it is blessed with a gorgeous Caribbean climate, long strips of white beaches and sparkling blue oceans that make it a hedonistic paradise and a […]

On an isolated rock constantly contorting between ice and fire, Reykjavik appears to thrive against the odds with weird and wonderful citizens that have one foot in the ancient Viking sagas and the other in the cities trendy clubs and bars. Indeed, the Friday night runtur – a wild pub crawl around the compact city […]

The founding of the Ford Motor Company in 1904 changed the course of history, as far as Detroit was concerned. Already a prominent manufacturing base, it was to become a boom-town that doubled in size over the next two decades, with tens of thousands of immigrant workers flocking to fill the factories of the new […]

For more than a millennium, the ancient Hohokam tribe tended the desert in which Phoenix now sits, irrigating it with a series of canals bringing water from the rivers running from the White Tank Mountains. Then, in the centuries preceding Columbus, they vanished, leaving their ruined waterways as their only legacy. Phoenix was born out […]

Few cities manage such a perfect balance of old and new as the Estonian capital. Of all the former communist capitals Tallinn’s cityscape is one of the most untouched by twentieth century rebuilding projects, making the World Heritage old town as one of the most beautifully preserved medieval centres in the world. Yet explore the […]

Few cities have served as the cultural and political centre of an area as large as China for so long; and while the likes of Rome and Constantinople have faded in their influence, Beijing is perhaps more important than ever. There is hardly a building in this historic capital that doesn’t have some national significance, […]

Few cities can boast such stunning surrounds as Cape Town, or such an iconic natural monument as Table Mountain at their heart. More than just a pleasing wallpaper for the horizon, the spectacular scenery is something of an adventure playground for the city’s residents and add spice to what is already a beautiful and fascinating […]

You don’t visit Sydney. You experience it. Passing through its slick layout and perfect weather without eyes glazing green is an impossibility; envy being the overriding emotion when you realise that all these people actually get to live there. As smooth as the sails of its Opera House, you’ll glide just as easily through its […]

Few places on earth can be as picture perfect as this tropical paradise; ivory beaches and azure seas that fold peacefully into still, shallow lagoons, with clear blue skies undisturbed but for the perfect halo that gathers over a snow-capped, conical volcano. Kick back with a cocktail and soak up the sun, go diving amid […]

Australia is a highly urbanised nation, with the majority of the population squeezed into a few cities clinging to the coast. Inside lies the Australian outback, the largest desert outside of the Sahara, where you can walk for hundreds of miles through haunting landscapes of red, yellow and ochre without encountering so much as a […]