by A musical pleasure in Budapest
The spectacular House of Music is located in the beautiful Budapest City Park. After passing through the mushroom-shaped main entrance, you’ll find a museum dedicated to the history of music. From the beginnings of music to the present day, including Gregorian chant and Hungarian folklore, the House of Music is a fascinating place. With a great audio guide and for just 1,000 guilders (£2.25), it’s well worth a visit.
danny baker
Advice from Guardian Travel readers
Every week we ask our readers for recommendations from their trips. A selection of advice will be presented online and may appear in print. To enter the latest contest, visit the Reader Tips home page.
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Antiquity in Merida, Spain
In Mérida, the small and friendly capital of Extremadura, I was surprised by the ancient monuments. The Roman amphitheater, the theater, the 755 meter long Roman Bridge and the Moorish fort are impressive – it is surprising that the city is not overrun with tourists. You can walk everywhere: stroll through quiet streets and find the Temple of Diana or a porch or arch next to houses and shops. The beautiful and central Plaza de España, with its towering palm trees, is a great place to recharge your batteries.
Melinda Leftley
Literary West Yorkshire
Based on the lovely White Lion (double from £120 B&B) in Hebden Bridge, we devised a cultural tour of the north. The highlight was our visit to locations from Benjamin Myers’ The Gallows Pole about Cragg Vale based counterfeiters. I read the book during our trip and also visited the atmospheric Heptonstall, where Sylvia Plath is buried, and Hardcastle Craggs.
Penny
Three Erics in Morecambe
Culture? Morecambe. Lunch at the Midland Hotel to appreciate the view and the work of Eric Gill and Eric Ravilious. Stroll through the prom to take a selfie with Eric Morecambe, the statue of television’s great cultural icon and son of the city. Return for coffee at the art deco café Brucciani and finally a band performance at the converted former train station The Platform. Keep track of the street scenes you spot in the TV series The Bay (described by The Guardian as Broadchurch in Morecambe) along the way. Stay at Broadwater Guest House (doubles from about £130 for two nights, B&B), which features interesting 20th-century antiques.
Stephen Shaw
Art on Bournemouth beach
I stumbled upon The Russell-Cotes gallery in Bournemouth on a stiflingly hot day last summer, and what a delight it is, with its panoramic sea views, shady garden and intriguing art. Housed in an impressive late Victorian art nouveau building, it has an excellent two-storey layout with elegant sculptures such as Othello by Pietro Calvi, The Bathers by Edward Bowring Stephens and Samuel by Giovani Benzoni, completed in 1859. Merton and Annie Russell -Cotes traveled the world in the late 19th century, so the collection is quite geographically eclectic, including works from Sierra Leone and Congo. The ceiling is ornate and tiled art nouveau and the paintings include Pre-Raphaelites, with works by Rossetti, such as Venus Verticordia, among others. In winter it has special “candlelight nights”.
Nigel Cox
Roman enchantment on Hadrian’s Wall
The place that really blew me away this year was here in the UK, visiting Hadrian’s Wall for the first time. I went to Sycamore Gap in June (I didn’t realize at the time how lucky I was to see the tree). I really wanted to go there but I didn’t expect to feel so moved by a wall. It feels ancient and has such a strong identity that I put my hands on it and imagined soldiers protecting it thousands of years ago. I visited the Great Wall of China a few years ago and Hadrian’s Wall is much smaller, with fewer visitors, but just as charming. It is rugged and you can climb and clamber around it, admiring the ancient heritage of it. You must see it.
Sara Collings
Fortress ruins in Catalonia
Away from the crowds of the Costa Brava, near the town of Ullastret (10 miles inland), are the ruins of an ancient Iberian fortress, the Ciutat ibèrica d’Ullastret, dating back to the 6th century BC. It’s great to visit with children as that the site is surrounded by a huge wall to capture the imagination. The site is on a hill overlooking the countryside. There is a small museum that includes a skull with a spike stuck in the head. Adult admission costs €7.
Bernard
The attraction of science in Geneva
It may not be art, but I found a visit to Cern, the particle physics research center, overwhelming. I spent two days touring the site, during which I got to see all of their fascinating (and highly photogenic) equipment up close. It is an extraordinary experience to see scientific research being carried out on the outer margins of knowledge. Admission is free.
Norman Rimmel
The ancient Georgian wine method
The traditional and old of Georgia. qvevri The wine-making method is UNESCO-listed and after familiarizing ourselves with ruby-red Saperavi wine, master craftsman Zaza Kbilashvili, whose winery is in Telavi, eastern Georgia, demonstrated how to make clay pots. The clay is mixed with water and shaped by hand before being dried, coated with concrete and fired in a kiln large enough to hold 10 huge 1,400-litre pots. After baking at 1200°C for a week, they are coated with beeswax. The qvevri are then buried in the ground and whole grapes are added and left to ferment naturally. After the tour, we sat surrounded by a sunken qvevri and tasted the wine. Amazing.
Roy Messenger
Winning tip: Karen Blixen and a trio of trains, Denmark
I had a fantastic day leaving Copenhagen using only one railway line. First stop, Hamlet’s Kronborg Castle in Helsingør (a 20 minute walk from the station) which was a fantastic history lesson, then back to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (a short walk from Humlebæk station) with exciting installations and beautiful sculptures, including a Henry Moore with views of the sea and Sweden. Finally, we toured Karen Blixen’s home (about a mile from Rungsted Kyst St station) and her final resting place. Her decor and objects collected throughout her fascinating life made you want to move in immediately. Then it was time to head back into town for dinner with our hearts and heads full of everything we had drank.
Kate Copeland
