How did an unremarkable logging city in Finland establish itself as the home of Santa Claus?

From avant-garde art to experimental food, the capital is enjoying a new wave of confidence and cultural vitality

Climbing and skiing the Alps’ highest peak demands time, effort and commitment — but there is a shortcut

Swaddled in a survival suit, Horatio Clare climbs aboard a snowmobile for a frozen four-day journey in search of polar bears

An heiress and an artist have transformed a tired building in Arles into an eccentric experiment in design

Beside a remote iceberg-filled fjord, a new camp is pioneering a very different version of luxury

Gordon Campbell Gray resurrects a formerly dilapidated hotel — and the world-class golf course it stands on

Enlarged, brightened, reinvigorated — and now free — the museum is enough to merit a weekend trip to Stockholm

High on the Hintertux glacier, Tom Robbins takes a pre-season ski lesson from an invisible coach

In the space of five years, Mikkel Borg Bjergso has opened bars from San Francisco to the Faroes and spawned a growing lifestyle brand

A network of ancient pilgrimage paths has been restored and now offers a quieter, more untamed, alternative to the Camino de Santiago

Cellars, vineyards, lessons in pruning, meetings with winemakers — and lots and lots of bubbly

Ryanair learns that vexing passengers is one thing but taking on pilots is another

Far from the stag and hen parties, the author finds gothic inspiration in the city’s opera houses, libraries and cafés

The group’s designers — and lawyers — have worked hard to transform a 1930s office building

Most Swiss wine never leaves the country, but an annual event in a former Zurich factory is the ideal place to try it

A new sport, ‘dragon racing’, combines the thrill of stand-up paddleboarding with the fun of competing as a team

A former papal apartment has been reborn as the Eternal City’s most exclusive place to stay

The little-visited county is a treat for walkers, birdwatchers — and fans of avant-garde architecture

Two hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle, the port city has seen soaring visitor numbers — with a little help from a British actress

Savour your memories while on hold to the call centre

From Eames to Le Corbusier, the Swedish capital’s newest private gallery, the Museum of Furniture Studies, is a chronicle of chairmaking

A new trip encourages families to put aside screens in favour of tree-climbing, river-swimming — and spotting bears

Can switching from dessert wines to dry whites help the Hungarian wine region restore its once-glorious reputation?