Art tips

The great Modernist designer Le Corbusier’s only architectural project in Africa was a seaside home for Belgian industrialist Lucien Baizeau who was based in Tunis. Built between 1928-1930, Villa Baizeau is on the ancient Roman site of Carthage. No one has lived there since the family left in 1961. The villa is currently in the hands of the Tunisian intelligence service and beside the Presidential palace so it is not open to the public. It's also not well known outside of Tunisia. The villa has never been featured in exhibitions about Le Corbusier’s many architectural accomplishments and it's not even in Le Corbusier’s list of works on Wikipedia.

San Diego may be known for its 70 miles of golden coastline, but California’s second largest city after Los Angeles isn’t just about sand and surf (though that doesn’t hurt). Throughout town, visitors find local treasures, such as rare plants, multicultural celebrations, and a vibrant arts scene. To maximize your time, we consulted San Diegans ranging from a chef to a nature expert and a scientist for their favorite spots. Here’s what to see and do.

In the winter of 1969, Santa Barbara’s coastal ecosystem was blitzed by three million gallons of crude oil. Responding to the catastrophic spill, and the ongoing assault of ecosystems throughout the United States, Senator Gaylord Nelson called upon American youth to rally for the environment as strenuously as they’d protested the Vietnam War.

Swimming coach Emma MacDonald set up Wild Hebridean Swimming in 2022 after moving back to Mull. The company offers holidays for open water swimmers, but also retreats for those who can only tread water or do a bit of doggy paddle. These involve short dips in the clear waters of the Inner Hebrides, where there are seals, underwater kelp forests and waterfalls. Longer swims can be arranged on request. The programme also includes a guided walk on Iona, the burial place of 48 Scottish kings including Macbeth. Guests stay at Achaban House, which has woodburners and a wood-fired hot tub, where there is a choice of activities, including yoga and massage. From £895 including all meals and wine, next retreat 8-11 March, wildhebrideanswimming.com

As one of the world’s leading wellness destinations, Bali has no shortage of retreats promising to uplift and inspire travelers. But what often sets a hotel apart in a crowded space isn’t just its offerings or prized location, but its heart and soul. And The Asa Maia, a 10-room family-owned boutique hotel in Uluwatu, has a lot of it. A hotel permeated with Indonesian culture and design, this sanctuary combines holistic healing modalities, local art and organic food to nourish guests and transform their lives.

After you’ve taken in the ultra-modern landmarks of central Seoul, make like a local and head to one of the city’s vibrant neighborhoods to unwind.

The Spanish capital is a cultural and social behemoth that attracts visitors from around the world and they keep coming back for more. Madrid has something to tempt every traveler and will have many of them dancing until sunrise thanks to its thriving nightlife.

Finland’s biggest city is also its most stylish. Once the home of influential local architect and designer Alvar Aalto, the capital’s art nouveau core is today complemented by contemporary Nordic architecture and offbeat design hits, including clothing and home furnishings company Marimekko’s flagship store and the subterranean Amos Rex Art Museum. Adding another dimension to the city is the harbour district of Jätkäsaari, a former backwater that’s reinvented itself in the past two decades with sleek apartment blocks anchored by restaurants, cafes, shops and a new public sauna.

Modern Japan wouldn’t be what it is today without the influence and input of the region of Kansai — and its cities Osaka and Kyoto — which have significantly influenced the country’s political, cultural and economic development. Kyoto served as Japan’s capital for over a millennium and is today known as the nation’s cultural epicentre, attracting millions of travellers to the city’s streets each year. 

Los Angeles has long been the West Coast’s star attraction, offering a heady blend of Hollywood glamour and glorious sunshine. Yet recently, away from the plush red carpets and swaying palm trees, it’s been LA’s revitalised downtown, thriving art scene and diverse culinary offerings that have stolen the limelight. While it’s hard to do the wonders of this sprawling, multi-layered city justice in just a couple of days, it’s still plenty of time to get a taste for what makes LA a blockbuster hit. Here's how to spend 72 hours in LA.

While Rome’s charms may be, as they say, eternal, it’s never been a city particularly prized for its hotels. Until recently, upmarket lodging in the Italian capital usually meant an ostentatiously decorated pile meant to evoke the city’s 16th- and 17th-century palazzi, stuffed with gilded furniture and vague nostalgia. Over the past year or so, an entirely new breed of luxury hotel has emerged, one that pays tribute to the modernist architects who remade much of Rome in the Rationalist style in the early-to-mid-20th century. The Bulgari hotel, for example, opened last summer in a hulking 1930s government building designed by the prominent Trieste-born architect Vittorio Ballio Morpurgo. And the Edition hotel moved into a bank partly attributed to Marcello Piacentini, the architect responsible for the EUR district, the neighborhood of massive edifices constructed under Mussolini. Other notable new offerings take their style cues from 21st-century Scandinavia, deftly blending northern design aesthetics with Italian Renaissance art and Roman artifacts. Here, a closer look at five new accommodations that break with tradition.

It’s a controversial opinion, but Rome’s major sites are overrated. Crowded, costly and utterly devoid of charm, the city’s most visited landmarks have been cheapened in the age of mass tourism into little more than a box-ticking – or selfie-taking – exercise.

To me, a gallery or museum is a special place for self-reflection because everything is curated. It’s a safe space, somewhere to enjoy a moment of quiet and see how I’m moved by what I’m experiencing. You don’t need to necessarily understand or intellectualise what you’re seeing. A gallery can be used as a space to connect to yourself or notice your feelings about what’s happening in the world around you.

River cruise lines have taken note of travelers wanting more immersive cultural experiences that take them deep into the communities they visit.

Whether you’re looking for the perfect destination for a wedding, a friends getaway or a weekend away with the family, Las Vegas fits the bill. As the Superbowl proves, the city has also become a mecca for sports fans and, as my husband and I recently discovered, it’s a surprisingly romantic place to spend Valentine’s Day.

“It’s fantastically therapeutic,” says Bhaggie Patel, ceramic artist and co-founder of Manchester’s Imprints of Earth ceramics studio. “Sometimes I’ll be sitting at the wheel and I’m so engrossed in what I’m doing, I don’t realise it’s turned dark outside.” Bhaggie is leading me in a one-to-one throwing class, teaching me how to turn an amorphous lump of clay into something useful, maybe even beautiful: a pot, perhaps, or a mug or bowl.

Life in Maastricht and our province of Limburg is sweet: our local specialities are proof. Two dishes stand out: limburgse vlaai is a delicious pastry with a sweet filling. There are lots of flavours, but the best is rijstevlaai, made with a rich rice-pudding centre. You won’t find that anywhere else in the Netherlands.

I’ve been working as a visual artist and designer for more than 10 years, creating artworks through a variety of methods, including ceramics, painting and textiles. My work is a visual documentation of the places I visit, mostly in the form of landscape painting. Whether it’s a sleepy Ghanaian beach lined with fishing boats, or a bustling market in Brixton, creating abstract and dynamic compositions of meaningful memories is the core of my practice.

February is a rough month for a lot of us. The climate, particularly in New York City, is bleak and dreary. The excitement of starting a new year has waned, and seasonal affective disorder often peaks during the mid-winter slump.

While the positive effects of exercise on our mental health have long been known, the benefits of art are only starting to be fully appreciated. Research by the Mental Health Foundation suggests that art helps boost confidence, making us feel more engaged and resilient. It can also alleviate anxiety, depression and stress.

Watching my kids respond to art is one of my favourite things. When we visit galleries, I’ll often overhear the two of them chatting about which artwork they like best (it’s usually related to whether or not it’s pink and involves a horse), or catch them using their bodies to mimic sculptures. When we took my National Art Pass on its inaugural outing to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, in West Bretton, a few miles outside Wakefield, they had a field day (quite literally), cackling away as they attempted to contort themselves into the shape of Erwin Wurm’s anthropomorphised hot water bottle and incorporeal pink suits, and, rather more disturbingly, Damien Hirst’s half-skinned pregnant giant, the Virgin Mother.