mark your calendars for the city's massive annual book fair at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.... MORE

The Czech Republic is home to a significant Vietnamese population. But the question for dedicated food-lovers in the city has been: where can I get quality Vietnamese food in Prague? The answer, finally, is yes: at the new restaurant Ha Noi.... MORE

Five Days Off is a musical festival and so much more.... MORE

Kimberly Bradley Handmade fabric purses by Claire Chaplain at Les Jolies Choses boutique in Berlin. BERLIN | Every city has its own brand of handbag obsession. If New York is about big-name luxury, Berlin might just be about carrying a bag no one else has - a unique, not necessarily expensive piece, preferably Handmade in Berlin. [...]... MORE

To make the most of Seine-side living head to the to the Pont des Arts, an elegantly restored 19th-century foot-bridge that, on most summer nights, becomes the city center's prime location for do-it-yourself picnic dining.... MORE

The exhibit "Giotto e il Trecento" ("Giotto and the 14th Century"), the first major exhibit on this most important artist from the middle ages, has been extended, through July 29, at the grandiose Complesso del Vittoriano.... MORE

Bastille Day, the French holiday commemorating the storming of the Bastille in 1789 and celebrated all over the world tomorrow, will of course be most intensely feted in the French capital.... MORE

The Royal Armory -- one of the richest and most important collections of arms and armor in the world -- certainly still has plenty of material on view to lure visitors to its galleries, but perhaps this summer is the time to check out one of the other royal residences that virtually ring the Spanish capital.... MORE

Ror a certain kind of shopper - call it the Colette and 10 Corso Como crowd - Beijing can feel as empty as Tiananmen Square on a blistering-hot day. However, a scattering of independent boutiques has recently emerged to help fill that void. And the latest one is called FEI SPACE, which opened in May.... MORE

Sandya Mierswa is taking good advantage of the seeming fecundity of Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood with her spot, Praxis Mamunette.... MORE

A garden center may not be the most obvious place to find one of London's most desirable eateries, but the restaurant and cafe at Petersham Nurseries has won several awards and an enviable reputation.... MORE

If you are the fan of the speakeasy-style bar trend that's all the rage in New York - and has made in-roads in London and Santiago, Chile - turn your attention to Paris's entry: the aptly named Experimental Cocktail Club.... MORE

The Rooms of Red Bull series allows professional and amateur artists across a wide array of disciplines work together to create and exhibit new works.... MORE

Through July 20, London will host Free Range 2009, an annual art show that displays an enormous collection of work from thousands of students from art and design colleges around Britain.... MORE

In this country that takes its smoking very seriously, a ban on lighting up indoors will take effect on July 19, a change that will surely please smoke-averse travelers.... MORE

For visitors who don't have room left in their suitcases for more souvenirs, the Istanbul Culinary Institute offers a very portable -- and useful -- memento: a quickie course in some of the basics of Turkish cooking.... MORE

London's love for the ukulele is undeniable -- and growing.... MORE

For those who seek more of a challenge from their dining experience, Hong Kong offers private kitchens -- restaurant "speakeasies" in unlicensed spaces.... MORE

Today, numerous boutique theaters waving the art-house flag have become easily accessible staples of Berlin's cultural scene. Scratch a little further under the surface and it gets even more underground.... MORE

London's Association of Independent Music, a non-profit trade organization for independent record companies and distributors in the U.K., will host a weeklong celebration of independent music from July 4 to 10.... MORE

The Prins Claus Fund Gallery is showing a small exhibition of the work of Kaveh Golestan, a photojournalist whose work in Iran, where he started shooting in 1975, was published in the pages of newspapers and magazines around the world, especially Time.... MORE

Staying fit in Mumbai, with all its heat, humidity and lack of green space, can be a challenge. Enter a new way to stay in shape: Bollywood dance.... MORE

An excellent way to enjoy summer evenings in Rome is to walk along the banks of the Tiber, where, for the sixth year in a row, a boardwalk has been set up on the Trastevere side of the river.... MORE

This week, Berlin's fledgling cutting-edge fashion scene gets a major boost. After four years in Barcelona, Bread & Butter, the world's most important urban wear trade fair, is back home in Germany's dynamic capital.... MORE

This is the last week to visit "Beato Angelico - the Dawn of the Renaissance" at Rome's Capitoline Museums, an exhibit that's as enchanting as it is frustrating.... MORE

Summer means jazz festivals are sprouting up all over Europe, but only in Istanbul does that mean enjoying cool sounds under the hot Turkish sun aboard a boat on the Bosporus.... MORE

Even if the government goes through with its crackdown on al fresco dining Central and Soho, there are still plenty of places to sit outside in the summer night with your grilled seafood and your glass of wine.... MORE

To solve the problem of who to include in its forthcoming exhibition, "Gay Icons," on display from July 2 through October 18, the National Portrait Gallery decided to hand the decision over to panel of 10 prominent gay figures in contemporary culture and society.... MORE

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, 81 miles west of Prague, is the anti-Cannes.... MORE

As happens with many Spanish celebrations, Gay Pride "Day" has rather miraculously been stretched out into nearly two weeks of parties, performances, parades, rallies, exhibitions, conferences, and lots and lots of late-night festivities.... MORE

To make the most of Rome's balmy summer nights, the gay scene migrates to the capital's suburbs where parking is easier and you can rock on till the wee hours without fearing the complaints of sleep-deprived neighbors.... MORE

For the urban Hindu, there are pilgrimages, and Mumbai has several, one of which takes you to a 200-year old temple in the center of town.... MORE

Paris's summer music festival line-up kicks off with the Solidays, which runs this Friday through Sunday at the Longchamp Racecourse by the Bois de Boulogne in eastern Paris.... MORE

The best place to relax in the business district of Admiralty if, say, you have a break between meetings, is the Edward Youde Aviary in Hong Kong Park.... MORE

Sure, there's that run for the roses in Kentucky each spring, but in Turkey, the biggest horse race of the year is the Gazi Derby, in which three-year-old thoroughbreds compete for cash and national glory. The race is being run this weekend.... MORE

How would you choose the 10 most significant scientific inventions of the last 100 years? Starting this Friday, June 26, the innovative candidates in question will form a "Centenary Journey" trail around London's Science Museum.... MORE

The Fusion Festival, which runs from this Thursday, June 25, through Sunday, on a former Soviet military air base outside the city, is not your typical summer festival fare.... MORE

Highlights from Istanbul's Gay Pride Week.... MORE

Marking the 50th anniversary of London's famous in Soho, BFI Southbank is paying tribute to the venue's legacy by hosting a celebration called Jazz in June through June 28.... MORE

From June 25 to 27, Hong Kong's Foreign Correspondents Club will open to the public. The occasion? A jazz festival.... MORE