
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving Sleepy Hollow is a real place. And the characters in Washington Irving's story are based on real people, as is the phantom Hessan soldier, or rather he's based on reported sightings, and documentation th…"

Ancient Incan bathing pools and resting place just outside of Cusco. Stone structures were erected and carved out of the stone of local caves to take better advantage of this spot near thermal springs to make it into a very modern bathing building. Three…"

Sabah, Borneo, is known for being an Eden-esque paradise of exotic plants and animals – home to giant rafflesia flowers, orang utans and delicate orchids in the jungles, and off shore an impressively colourful array of marine life. Sabah's skies a…"

Much of the art, artefacts and sculpture in this museum, and books in the library, come from the collection of one man: Esprit Calvet, who left his collection to the foundation who runs the museum in 1810, though since then other legacies and the Louvre …"

The Rondane National Park has ten mountain peaks higher than 2,000 metres and wild reindeer. Of course it offers the visitor much more than the spectacular view of the ridge of mountain peaks, with pine and birch surrounded lakes and reindeer grazed mea…"

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park covers not just the Great Smoky Mountains, but also the Blue Ridge Mountain range, and is the most visited park in the U.S. It's also one of the largest protected areas in the country. Within that vast space are …"

Rising out of the Bernese Alps to an elevation of 3,970metres, the Eiger is the rockier, steeper end of the chain of three peaks including Jungfrau (the Maiden) and Mönch (the Monk). Eiger means Ogre. It's also famous for being in the title of a f…"

This resort boasts the highest skiable peak in the Catskill Mountains, and with that comes the reliable snow cover and the promise of long downhill trails, but it's not yet as popular as some of the other Catskills resorts. It doesn't quite have the off…"

This is one of the best known diving spots in the Seychelles:a plateau made of boulders crowded with colourful tropical fish, some swimming in schools, some followed by white reef tip sharks or grey stingrays. "

This resort is in Slovenia's largest ski area, part of the Pohorje range. That equals cross country options, along routes that in summer are walking trails though seemingly endless forests, as well as the smooth white slopes to ski. Around 60kms worth …"

Krvavec is a ski resort rising out of thick forests at the top of the Kamnik Alps, it's small, and though there's room to stay on site, a lot of people drive down from Kranj or Ljubliana to ski the resort's 35kms of downhill pistes – which breaks u…"

The ski resort of Cerkno is on the slopes of Črni vrh, which peak at 1291 metres. Rising up to that peak are 70 hectares of ski grounds, including 18kms worth of groomed runs across 20 different pistes and 5kms worth of cross country pathways. One of t…"

Mount Kanin is Slovenia's highest ski resort, with skiing over 2000 metres, above Bovec and the Soča Valley. Sella Nevea and Trbiž in Italy and Arnoldstein in Austria are just around the mountain from the resort at Mount Kanin, so many people combine th…"

This 19km gorge and the countryside around it have long been considered one of the most beautiful spots in Taiwan. The marble of the gorge has been much admired, as it's been revealed by the waters of the river that's exposed it, and there are deposits …"

This dive drifts along the outer edge of Lohifushi Island, past a slope covered in corals from close to the surface to 20 metres below. The slope curves around into an sort of underwater bay, and the coral gets thicker, home to all sorts of marine …"

This cave dive is journeys though several caves and caverns along the Vaadhoo Channel. They're not deep caves, but as you swim though them they get shallower and shallower, but because you're enclosed the water has a different colour to it, even as…"

Along North Male Atoll's outer reef, this site is known for attracting a colourful myriad of fish, and sprouting gardens of soft corals. It's a drift dive though a strong current, and along a steep wall sliding from 10 to 25 metres underwater. The smal…"
"The Maldive Victory is under about 35 metres of water, with a strong current, so even with the dive line to descend to it it's still a challenging dive, best suited for experienced or intermediate divers. Once you get down to the ship divers are sh…"

Small reef fish, nudibranchs and bigger pelagics like tuna and sharks, especially grey reef sharks, and eagle rays live amongst the predominantly hard coral here, some of which has grown up in the shape of a lion's head, other sections of which has grown…"

This dive is just off Kanifinolhu Island, only about 5mins by boat, hence the name. It's got caves and a drop off and slopes down to a sandy floor at 30 metres down, and it's decorated with both hard and soft corals, which marine life collects arou…"

The corals that grow on this 300 metre long banana shaped reef are like plates, so much so that they're nicknamed plate coral, though their real name is Acropora. The north, or top end, of the banana has caves and overhangs, and open topped tunnels wher…"

White cliffs line this stretch of coast, but it’s not chalk, it’s ice, which creaks and groans painfully as it gradually crumbles into the see at the very end of it’s ancient journey down the length of these glaciers. When the bay was …"

Even if you're not usually that impressed with shopping malls, this one has a fair chance of impressing you. It's not just really, really big, and filled with hundreds of shops, it's also won architectural awards and has it's own ski slope. Yes, that's…"

This is one of the world’s most photographed beaches and it adorns many posters advertising trips to Turkey. An aesthetically pleasing arc of sand then pebbles surrounded by a dipping valley then forested mountains, a dead calm bright blue lagoon a…"

Great science centre for kids and young adults, with hands-on experience with masses of machines and gadgets, from JCB diggers to working gyroscopes, plus Europe's largest outdoor high tech adventure playground. The centre is divided into four pavilions …"

Eureka!, the National Children's Museum features over 400 interactive exhibits which inspire children aged 0-11 to learn about themselves and the world around them through imagination, play and discovery. Eureka! is based on the North American model of …"

If you're going to learn Italian, or brush up on your linguistic skills, Italy is obviously the best place to do it. And if you can combine classes with a stay somewhere scenic, maybe with a slightly monastic feel to it, then you might have a better cha…"

Only the fourth largest of Switzerland’s lakes but no less surrounded by old and pretty towns and sweeping alpine scenery. Long and spindly with narrow sections coming off like octopus legs, Lake Lucerne is shaped by the mountains it hugs the bases of, …"

This peak is the highest point in Cuba. It rises out of the Sierra Maestra range to 1,972metres. Castro camped out on the jungle slopes of these mountains during the Cuban Revolution, and in the area now called the Turquino National Park which surrou…"

The Malecón de La Habana is both a road and a sea wall running eight kilometres along Havana's coast between the river mouth in Havana Harbour and Vadado. Along the road are monuments to General Maximo Gomez, Generl Calixto Garcia and Antonio Maceo, as …"

This narrow wedding cake of a building in dark pink stone is wedged between Red Square and Manege Square, and presents visitors with a huge range of national historic artefacts from the remains and tools of the prehistoric tribes who are the first human …"

(11th November 1821 - 9th February 1881) Dostoyevsky's final resting place is under his rather severe, sold stone monument and bust in the Tikhivn Cemetery within the Alexander Nevsky Monastery. An acclaimed author at only 25, for his first novel Poor …"

Felix Yusupov murdered Rasputin, the notorious advisor to Tzar Nicholas II, in the basement of this palace in 1916 – which is supposedly one of the acts that brought about the Russian Revolution. The pale yellow building was built in 1770 but added to…"

The Izmailovsky Bazaar is drolly referred to as Russia's earliest attempt at capitalism – because it has the kind of bustling commercial activity of any flea market. At one end it's become a bit of a souvenir centre, sporting an army of nesting dolls an…"

This museum's main exhibitions tell the story of a battle, that though it only lasted one day, was a huge event in Russian history. This was the battle between Napoleon's troops and the Russians under Field Marshall Kutuzov in August 1812, who is the on…"

It used to be that if you were visiting Moscow from the west it was considered good manners to bow to this hill to pay homage – the name of the hill comes from the Russian for 'take a bow'. These days much of the hill is covered by the tanks and other…"

This theatre and the companies that share its name are synonymous with Russian artistic excellence – among the oldest and most respected opera and ballet companies in the world, but the name Bolshoi actually means 'grand', implying that these are the gra…"

Mostly famous in the west for the cold war novel, and film, by the same name, or its mention in the song 'Winds of Change', Gorky Park is actually an amusement park, complete with a HUGE Ferris wheel, other rides and one of the test units from the space …"

These steaming and brightly coloured volcanic craters are part of the huge geothermal field spreading out from around Lake Taupo on New Zealand's North Island. The rocks have been stained by sulphur and other colourful minerals which makes them appear m…"

Looking something like big glowing maggots, these glowworms are a New Zealand home grown speciality, and this cave is the best place to see them doing their gently, and beautifully, glowing thing. The guided trip though the cave system starts from t…"

The Maori translation of this name is 'big splash' – which says it all really. It's not just a big splash – the geyser shoots up about 30metres – it's also a fairly regular splash – it goes off about once an hour. These two facts make it one of the bes…"

This charming little wood cottage comes complete with white picket fence, original fireplace and chimney, red roofed verandah and matching attic windows for eyes – but it's not for sale. This is Wellington's oldest building and was built (to last) in 18…"

Not topped by a single tree but by a single memorial tor – to Sir John Logan Campbell, who was the first white owner of the land and was the one to bequeath it to the rest of us as a park – this hill was once the cone of an active volcano that spewed lav…"

Auckland's main public space, where they hold bid public concerts and events, rallies, protests, markets and any other kind of major gathering you can imagine. The square is surrounded by the Edwardian era Auckland Town Hall, the city's main theatre v…"

This is the oldest zoo in New Zealand, it was built in 1906, but the real reason it's interesting – beyond being a zoo that is, is for its conservation programs and its collection of local creatures. For the rare and endangered team there's the Sun Bear…"

If you want to know about Christchurch history this is the place to come – from the Maori groups to the settlers to the great Antarctic explorers Scott and Shackleton, to more modern adventurers and recent events in the city's history – here are over two…"

The southern tip of New Zealand may seem cool now, but it used to be much cooler – covered in glaciers, which are what created this breathtaking landscape that best resembles a heart monitor read out of troughs and peaks. Scenic treasures, the Milford S…"

This mountain is probably famous and well photographed because of its name, which in turn is because of its shape – that of a Bishop's Mitre. The location, just behind equally photogenic Milford Sound, probably helps as well – photos where the peak's re…"

From the air this long, thin lake looks like a thunderbolt of dark blue surrounded by green and brown mountains. It's almost like a wide zig-zagging river – it runs for 30 kilometres then turns east, then for another 20 kilometres before turning south a…"

This mosque is Malaysia's most important – the headquarters – and has a capacity of 15,000 to reflect that importance. The relatively modern design reveals the mosques relative youth – it went up in 1965 and is a miracle in reinforced concrete and steel…"