Things to Do in The Whitsundays & Hamilton Island

About 84 percent of the world’s uncut diamonds pass through Antwerp’s Diamond Quarter, an enclave of side streets just west of Central Station. Every year more than £32 billion in polished, cut diamonds pass through the four trading exchanges, regulated by the Antwerp World Diamond Centre and bringing massive wealth into the city. Although today the Diamond Quarter is also home to Indian, Lebanese, Russian and Chinese gem dealers, creating a vividly multicultural atmosphere, most of the city’s diamond trading is still run by the Hassidic Jewish community; more than 8,000 people are involved in the industry and there are even kosher banks exclusively dedicated to financing diamond deals. The nondescript shop fronts on the little tangle of streets centered on Hoveniersstraat hide diamond dealers, cutters – world-renowned for their skill – and polishers as well as kosher butchers, bakeries and synagogues. Some of the biggest, glossiest salesrooms offer tours of their workshops and expert advice on buying; the free ‘Antwerp Loves Diamonds’ map is available from the tourist information offices in Grote Markt and in Central Station, while the Antwerp Diamond Bus runs hop-on, hop-off services around all the areas of the city associated with the trade. 

Even though the United Arab Emirates has many historic forts, Dhayah Fort in Ras Al Khaimah is the only hilltop, fortified castle that’s located up in the mountains. When the Al Qawasim tribe was battling the British in the early 19th century, this isolated fort in the northern emirate was the last holdout before eventually falling in December 1819. More recently it housed the royal family until 1964, and after a very short period as a local prison, was opened to the general public as a place to celebrate Emirati history. With its tall, strong, fortified walls, the Dhayah Fort was specifically built for warding off invaders, though travelers today are welcome to climb to the top and enjoy the view. There aren’t really any artifacts on display—just a brief history of the fort—and the jewelry and artifacts that have been uncovered are displayed inside of the National Museum. If you visit as part of a full-day tour of Ras Al Khaimah emirate, your local guide will relay the battles and history behind the fort, and provide a lot more color to the visit—as if the walls could talk.

Few people know that Amsterdam has played an important role as a diamond center for more than four centuries, mostly because of the Dutch colonization in South Africa back in the 1800s. Since 2007, the Diamond Museum Amsterdam has helped visitors understand how diamonds are formed from a geological standpoint, through a process taking billions of years and beginning 200 kilometers underneath the earth’s surface. The museum’s permanent collection includes several world-famous pieces, such as the Katana, the Rembrandt Diamond, and The Ape Skul. Visitors can also witness diamond cutters and goldsmiths at work, turning stones into valuable and beautiful pieces of jewelry. The beam behind the museum has worked on the restoration of some of the most precious jewels in the world, including the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom and the Saxon dynasty's Dresden Green Diamond. The museum also offers a Diamond Workshop (€475), in which a Master Diamond Cutter teaches visitors the basics of cutting and polishing a diamond, before they are invited to cut and polish one themselves, to bring home as a souvenir. 

After you’ve seen the Taipei 101 and shopped the city’s mega malls, get a sense of what Taipei was like decades ago with a visit to Dihua Street. The street that once served as Taipei’s major commercial center during the late Qing Dynasty still caters to more traditional tastes.

You won’t find any souvenirs or trinkets here, but you will see a wide range of traditional Chinese goods, like tea, medicinal herbs, dried mushrooms and seafood, beans, rice and sweets, and many locals coming to shop. Dihua Street gets particularly busy in the days leading up to Chinese New Year when families come to stock up on traditional holiday foods. During this time, the street becomes a solid wall of people haggling for their ingredients.

If you’d like to sample some traditional Taiwanese foods, Dihua Street might be a good option. Most of the shopkeepers don’t speak English, but they’ll happily let you sample their products. You can always select dishes by looking around at what those around you are eating and simply point.

The word “haat” signifies an informal weekly market, the kind that often occur in rural areas of India. Dilli Haat was opened in 2003 to recreate the haat experience in the city and provide a place for craftspeople from throughout India to sell their wares without paying high maintenance costs. The result is an open air craft and food market with 200 stalls specializing in arts and crafts from each state of India.

Vendors rent space for periods of two weeks at a time, so the variety of goods is always changing. Unlike other craft and souvenir shops in Delhi, where you’re buying from an intermediary, Dilli Haat allows you to purchase directly from artists, many of them coming to the city from rural parts of India to sell their pieces. It’s one of the most fairly priced and authentic shopping experiences in the city.