Every day at high tide for the past 70 years a unique occurrence has taken place: hundreds of fish gather at the shallows by Doctors Gully Road in search of a meal, including milkfish, bream catfish and the barramundi. Aquascene gives visitors the chance to get up close and personal with the fish, splash around with them and hand-feed them.

The DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum houses an impressive collection of 18th- and 19th-century furniture, ceramics, silver, and paintings from Britain and America. It’s a great place to see how design and craftsmanship evolved over time. The museum also hosts lectures, musical performances, and rotating exhibits.

Once the first free settlement in the Americas, founded by those who escaped slavery during the colonial period, the town of San Basilio de Palenque still stands today, and with it the unique culture of its inhabitants. A portion of the population still speaks palenquero, a creole tongue that emerged from a mix of several European and African languages, now used almost exclusively in San Basilio de Palenque. Music and dance occupy a place of paramount importance in residents' lives, with the Drums and Cultural Expressions Festival held annually in October. The palenque cuisine deserves a separate mention — a culinary tradition upheld by inhabitants of a small Colombian village has garnered international acclaim, with a cookbook written in the town receiving the highest prize at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in 2014. If your schedule happens to be too tight for a dedicated day trip (which earns our highest recommendation), try some of the tropical fruit sold by palenqueras in downtown Cartagena. The village was named Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2005.

The ‘Island of Smiles’ — Bathurst and Melville, which lie across the water 80 kilometres north of Darwin — proudly offers you thriving Aboriginal arts culture, fishing lodges and tours, pristine coastal views with breathtaking sunsets. Take a day trip from Darwin or stay overnight to enjoy island life just a bit longer. The people on Tiwi Islands are famous for maintaining traditional lifestyle, producing stunning artworks, vibrant fabrics and textiles.