San Juan Botanical Garden has more than 200 species of tropical and subtropical vegetation, and it is the Universidad de Puerto Rico's main attraction. Stroll around the lotus lagoon, walk along the bamboo promenade and admire the orchid and palm gardens.

The beguinages of Flanders and the Netherlands are always oases of calm and stillness, where you might still expect to see an old beguine mumbling her prayers in a doorway. Two of Ghent’s three beguinages have been included on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Although the Old St Elizabeth Beguinage, in Begijnhofdries in Ghent, is no longer enclosed by a wall, making it simply part of the city, it still has a unique atmosphere. Today the Old St Elizabeth Beguinage is known as ‘holy corner’, a place of religious tolerance, because it has no less than three different churches: one is Roman Catholic, one is Orthodox and the other is Protestant. From bleachfield to orchard This open beguinage grew into something of a ‘beguine city’ in the 13th century, with a church, the ‘Grootjuffer’s House’, an infirmary, a chapel, more than a hundred houses for beguines, a bleachfield (a field where linen was laid out to bleach) and an orchard. After the French Revolution, with increasing industrialisation, the inhabitants moved to their new beguinage in Sint-Amandsberg in 1873.

The next unmissable landmark is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built allegedly on Jesus's burial place. A historically accurate and possibly emotional way to reach the church is through the Via Dolorosa: this street of the Old City is said to have been walked by Jesus on his way to crucifixion. Every Friday, Roman Catholic believers walk the same street in a procession and stop at nine Stations: spots that commemorate significant events in Jesus's last hours. The last four Stations are located inside the church.