The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
It’s time to rethink these misunderstood destinations
Brash Las Vegas, crime-ridden Colombia, bureaucratic Brussels? Give them a chance, urges Chris Leadbeater
We all have our travel blindspots – but we are not always correct in our preconceptions. What if that notoriously lurid city, risen from desert sands, actually deals in art and culture? What if that brash, flash gambling paradise in the American West has more than slot machines? What if that South American country, full of narco-terrorists and guerillas in every film portrayal, is actually a Latin paradise alive with fine scenery and epic history?
The 10 destinations below have all been jeered, feared or sneered at by a broad selection of the travelling public. But from Dubai to Vegas via Brussels, Toronto and the Dominican Republic, all deserve closer appraisal by those who have long waved them away. You never know, your next holiday might turn out to be somewhere you always swore you hated...
LAS VEGAS
THE PERCEPTION A money-grabbing casino maze where livelihoods are lost in windowless rooms. An unrepentant party zone where The Hangover-style stag parties roam the corridors.
THE REALITY
While the idea that Las Vegas has fully transformed itself from lecherous bad boy to tea-quaffing saint has been rather overstated (you can still misplace both your fortune and your moral compass in one of its five-star temples), the most notorious city in the United States is a much more rounded destination than it was 20 years ago. There are attractions that genuinely tick the “family-friendly” box, such as the Discovery Children’s Museum (discoverykidslv.org) and the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay (mandalaybay.mgmresorts.com). Sphere (thespherevegas.com), which opened in September, is surely the planet’s most innovative entertainment venue; a world of LED screens and wraparound sound. And there are first-rate restaurants at almost every turn – the sumptuous Chinese fare of Wing Lei at Wynn (wynnlasvegas. com); or the French finesse of L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon at the MGM Grand (mgmgrand.mgmresorts.com).
HOW TO DO IT
A six-night stay at Wynn Las Vegas, flying from London Heathrow on April 29, costs from £2,686 per person through Virgin Holidays (0344 472 9646; virginholidays.co.uk).
MALAGA
THE PERCEPTION
A tacky and meritless gateway to the Costa Del Sol, only briefly glimpsed by lobster-red tourists as they speed to the sunbeds of Fuengirola and Marbella.
THE REALITY
This is one of Spain’s greatest cities. Never mind its location within one of Europe’s cheaply cheerful package-holiday hotspots, Malaga is a serious rival to Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia when it comes to culture and cuisine. The Alcazaba (alcazabamalaga.com) rises on its hilltop as one of the finest remnants of Moorish rule in Andalusia – not quite as majestic as Granada’s Alhambra, but not far off. The cathedral is a Renaissance spectacle whose soaring bell-tower gives Seville a run for its euros, while the Mercado Central de Atarazanas, or Shipyard Market (see visita.malaga.eu) is awash with fresh foodstuffs. The Museo Picasso (museopicassomalaga. org) offers a wealth of works by the city’s most fabled Cubist son – and if you cannot find something to buy on the pedestrianised drag of Calle Marques de Larios, you must be one of the world’s pickiest shoppers. That all of this is served up under flawlessly blue skies only adds to the charm.
HOW TO DO IT
A three-night stay at the city’s five-star Gran Hotel Miramar costs from £856 per person, including flights from the UK, through Kirker Holidays (020 7593 2288; kirkerholidays.com).
Mountains that once bristled with enemy weapons have returned to their greatest purpose – skiing
MARSEILLE
THE PERCEPTION
A grimy, scary city on the otherwise pristine canvas of southern France.
THE REALITY
Marseille divides opinion. It always has. When Louis XIV had Fort Saint-Jean – the fortress which guards the entrance to the harbour – built in the 1660s, he insisted that its cannon were pointed inland, at the rebellious locals, rather than out to sea, at possible enemies. In some ways, little has changed. If you do not know Marseille, you may be wary of it; a metropolis that looms large in headlines about crime rates and riots.
But spend a weekend in its company, and France’s second biggest city transcends its reputation. There are excellent restaurants on the Vieux-Port; stay-all-evening eateries where the bouillabaisse is formidable. There are cultural highlights aplenty: the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations (mucem.org), which now fills out the fortress; art exhibitions amid the cloisters of the Centre de la Vieille Charité (vieille-charite-marseille.com); and hilltop basilica Notre Dame de la Garde, which is arguably more beautiful than its Paris namesake. Better still, the Mediterranean gleams on the doorstep, in the limestone inlets of the Calanques – now a national park (calanques-parcnational.fr).
HOW TO DO IT
A three-night stay at the four-star NH Collection Marseille, flying from Glasgow on June 3, costs £481 per person through easyJet Holidays (0330 551 5165; easyjet.com/holidays).
DUBAI
THE PERCEPTION
One enormous overpriced beach resort, filled with gurning influencers.
THE REALITY
Alas, the influencers part is fairly accurate. Spend a few days in the glitziest of the seven (United Arab) Emirates, and you are guaranteed to spot a chorus line of glamorous twentysomethings pouting into their camera phones. However, the suggestion that Dubai is a cultural desert as arid as the actual desert which swells out behind it is misplaced. The Museum of the Future (museumofthefuture.ae) looks just as it sounds, gazing into tomorrow from a metallic ring-like structure as innovative as the exhibits within. The Pearl Museum (pearlmuseum.ae) looks back to the area’s original way of making a living. And if this doesn’t feel like enough of an enticement, there is always the view from the observatory of the Burj Khalifa (burjkhalifa.ae), the skyscraper that ranks as the world’s tallest building. (For more on Dubai, see page 17.)
HOW TO DO IT
Original Travel (020 3958 6120; originaltravel.co.uk) offers From the Desert to the Sea, an eight-day holiday that calls on the Dubai desert as well as the city, before hopping over to Oman and the beach at Zighy Bay. It costs from £7,055 per person, including flights.
BRUSSELS
THE PERCEPTION
A dull kernel of bureaucracy; the heartbeat of the EU. Booooooooooring.
THE REALITY
The European Union was founded, in its modern form, in 1992. The city most closely associated with it first dotted the map of north-western Europe more than a millennium earlier, in AD 979. In other words, there is a great deal more to Brussels than the political institutions within it.
The Grand-Place is one of the continent’s foremost urban squares, its cobbles framed by elegant Baroque guildhalls. The Royal Museums of Fine Arts (fine-arts-museum.be) rival the Louvre in a collection featuring Van Dyck, Van Gogh, Matisse, Rubens and Rembrandt. And, this being Belgium, you are never very far from a beer. The city’s eulogised Cantillon brewery (cantillon.be) is open for tours on Saturdays.
HOW TO DO IT
Three nights at five-star Hotel Le Plaza, heading out by train from London on April 11, cost from £352 per person with Eurostar (0343 218 6186; eurostar.com).
ZURICH
THE PERCEPTION
A tedious temple to financial services that no Alpine horizon can enliven.
THE REALITY
In one sense, admittedly, the perception is correct. Switzerland’s biggest city is a major hub for the banking and insurance industries, home to the Swiss Stock Exchange. But there is much more to its outlook than grey suits and flow charts. It is a remarkably good-looking place, spreading out at the northerly tip of the lake of the same name. That glacier-born waterway acts as a mirror, recasting the parks and pleasure gardens along its edge – the Rentenwiese, Belvoirpark – in reflection. And there are major museums beyond the shoreline: the Asian and African art of the Museum Rietberg (rietberg.ch); the modern sculptures and installations of Kunsthaus Zürich (kunsthaus.ch); and the football trophies and trinkets of the FIFA Museum (fifamuseum.com). You can eat well, too. If you have a hankering for classic Swiss fare, the breaded veal steaks and cheese fondues of the Chuchi restaurant at the Hotel Adler (hotel-adler.ch) should squarely hit the spot.
HOW TO DO IT
A three-night stay at three-star Hotel Adler, flying from Gatwick on April 11, costs from £440 per person through Expedia (020 3024 8211; expedia.co.uk).
TORONTO
THE PERCEPTION
Canada’s, and North America’s, dullest city. Brussels with skyscrapers.
THE REALITY
It is difficult to pinpoint the source of Toronto’s reputation for being a little on the drab side. Maybe it is the weather (it can certainly be chilly outside the summer); perhaps it is the fact that, for all its tall buildings, it does not have the swagger of New York.
But then, where does? And if we are to avoid every city which lacks the flair of the Big Apple, we will be left with a very short travel list. Besides, at ground level Canada’s biggest city is hardly a dullard. Key avenue Queen Street West is thronged with cafés, restaurants and, in the case of the wellnamed Graffiti Alley, extravagant swirls of urban art; Kensington Market is alive with food stalls and second-hand stores; and the Art Gallery of Ontario (ago.ca) is stuffed with bright treasures, including works by the Torontonian “Group of Seven” landscape painters of the 1920s. The same buzz applies at a more elevated level too. The CN Tower (cntower. ca) is taller than anything New York has to offer – and serves up a splendid view of a Great Lake (Ontario) to boot.
HOW TO DO IT
Bon Voyage (0800 316 3012; bon-voyage.co.uk) offers a 13-day Heritage Trail: Eastern Canada road-trip which compares and contrasts Toronto with Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City and Niagara Falls, from £2,225 per person, including flights and car hire.
COLOMBIA
THE PERCEPTION
A South American hellhole where you are as likely to be kidnapped as have an enjoyable holiday; a place where every other person you meet is part of the drugs trade.
THE REALITY
It is 30 years now since Pablo Escobar died and 20 since Colombia began to emerge from the fug of civil war and narco-terrorism that engulfed it in the second half of the last century. While
department), sing of a civilisation that thrived before the Spanish conquest.