Glasgow

A lively, cosmopolitan city and Scotland's largest, Glasgow has seen a rebirth in recent years as a centre of style and culture. Music, art and architecture play a large part in Glasgow life. The Royal Scottish Orchestra, the Scottish Opera and the Scottish Ballet are based there, and it is home to an impressive selection of world-famous art collections and museums.

Provand's Lordship, Glasgow's oldest house, is a tiny surviving reminder of the medieval city. Glasgow's centre is now farther west in a grid of streets developed in the 18th-19th centuries, with a magnificent mix of Victorian and Art Nouveau architecture. The late 20th century has added St Enoch's Square shopping centre, with Europe's largest glass roof, and the revitalized riverside boasts Glasgow's most recent attraction, the titanium-clad Science Centre.

The Botanic Gardens, which are noted for their orchids and begonias, are dominated by Kibble Palace, a Victorian conservatory where white statues stand out amid the luxuriant tree ferns. Skirting the gardens is the Kelvin Walkway, leading through a wooded gorge.

In the grounds of Pollok Park, this prodigious collection of art and artifacts was donated by Sir William Burrell to Glasgow and includes Egyptian, Greek and Roman earthenware and sculpture, oriental rugs, medieval doorways and paintings by Degas, Sisley and Manet. The Royal Exchange of 1780, once a tobacco lord's mansion, is now home to Glasgow's biggest gallery. It is divided into four themed spaces - earth, air, fire and water - and includes art by David Hockney, Andy Warhol and Scottish artists Ken Curry and John Bellany.

Britain's biggest science centre boasts an interactive science mall and the unique 100m (328ft) rotating Glasgow Tower, which gives fantastic views over the Clyde valley.

Within the vast neo-Gothic buildings of Glasgow University, Scotland's oldest museum was opened in 1807, and includes one of the world's finest collections of coins and medals. The art gallery contains many paintings by James McNeill Whistler, and works by Scottish artists.

The People's Palece, opened in 1898 as a cultural centre for Glasgow's East End, the 'palace' museum tells the city's history from 1175 and includes Winter Gardens and a fine Victorian conservatory. Nearby, the former Templeton Carpet Factory of 1889 was modelled in bricks and tiles on the Doge's Palace in Venice.