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Culture holidays

The Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre.

Peter Jackson put a small town on the map with a thrilling attraction

It’s a region best known for its sauvignon blancs and scenery, but the Oscar-winning director behind The Lord of the Rings has added a very different attraction.

  • Jane Richards
The ceiling at the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia.

After 144 years, the ‘greatest modern building on Earth’ passes a new milestone

Here it is as if architectural modernism never happened, and we kept creating places with joy, natural patterns and a whiff of the sacred.

  • Nicholas Boys Smith
Wading out into the waters of Waikiki Beach was the only way to dispose of the lei.

Hotel cleaners wouldn’t let me throw something out. I had to resort to drastic measures

Within hours of arriving in Honolulu, I have enough flowers around my neck to open a small florist.

  • Justin Meneguzzi
UNESCO-listed Zhangjiajie is among the most astonishing landscapes in China, and inspired the movie Avatar.

Australians are flocking to ‘the world’s most important country’ in record numbers

Many parts of this nation have sights to rival anything France or Japan has to offer, but few Australians have ever heard of them. It’s time to change that.

  • Brian Johnston
The leafy facade of retro-style cafe Salon de Amanto.

Once-forgotten ghost town is now one of the coolest neighbourhoods in Japan

Just 20 years ago, this part of Osaka was barely known, even to the locals. One man sparked a complete transformation.

  • Barry Divola
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The ancient UNESCO World Heritage-listed village of Ait Benhaddou was built from adobe and raw brick.

The country capturing the imagination of travellers like no other

Tourism is hitting record numbers in this southern Mediterranean nation. Hotels are numerous, food is spectacularly good and prices are pleasingly low.

  • Sue Williams
Get an after-hours tour of the Art Gallery of South Australia.

You don’t have to fly to Europe to get a culture fix

Tour operators are noting renewed interest in shorter, localised Australian travel.

  • Julietta Jameson
Western Arrernte artist Albert Namatjira painted some 2000 pictures of the West MacDonnell Ranges.

The part of Australia so beautiful it defies explanation

In the outback, some secrets remain secret. I come away from it understanding that this part of Australia isn’t a place to be explained. It’s a place to simply be present.

  • Julietta Jameson
One of the world’s most ancient cities, the 3,000-year-old Varanasi is the spiritual capital of India.

I’ve never felt more alive than in this astonishing city of the dead

If happiness is defined as “the state of pleasurable contentment of mind” then this ancient city, for all of its horrors and delights, is my unlikely happy place.

  • Anthony Dennis
Purple reign … FOSO dazzles under the night sky.

The Hills Hoists are alive in stunning new light installation

This latest light installation from the creator of Uluru’s Field of Light is as mesmerising as the location, at the junction of the Murray and Darling rivers, surrounded by the 40,000-year-old Perry Sandhills.

  • Sue Wallace