Ciudad Vieja is a walkable Old Town constituting most of the old A Coruña which dates back to the mid-19th century. In this area you can find the city’s flamboyant and unmistakable landmark, ayuntamiento.

Without the novels of Zane Grey, it is quite possible that Hollywood greats like John Wayne, Shirley Temple, and Randolph Scott would have been lost on the world. Grey’s outstanding Westerns became movies that launched the careers of cinema mainstays, and his novels have been published in over 20 languages, with estimated annual sales between 500,000 and one million copies worldwide. Now his cabin stands as a historical site for visitors. While not everything in the cabin is original, certain pieces allow visitors to visualize Grey’s life in the early 20th century. Find cowboy boots, Grey’s original saddle, a writer’s chair, a cot, and a bear rug.

Once the first free settlement in the Americas founded by those who escaped slavery during the colonial period, the town of San Basilio de Palenque still stands today, and with it the unique culture of its inhabitants. A portion of the population still speaks palenquero, a creole tongue that emerged from a mix of several European and African languages, now used almost exclusively in San Basilio de Palenque. Music and dance occupy a place of paramount importance in residents' lives, with the Drums and Cultural Expressions Festival held annually in October. The palenque cuisine deserves a separate mention — a culinary tradition upheld by inhabitants of a small Colombian village has garnered international acclaim, with a cookbook written in the town receiving the highest prize at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in 2014. If your schedule happens to be too tight for a dedicated day trip (which earns our highest recommendation), try some of the tropical fruit sold by palenqueras in downtown Cartagena. The village was named Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2005.