Explore Sonoma County’s history, with a trip to the town of Sonoma. Sonoma is home to the last Spanish-Mexican mission built in California, the location of California’s oldest winery: Buena Vista Winery, and the state’s oldest, continually operating family winery: Gundlach Bundschu. Sonoma State Historic Park preserves the Sonoma Mission and the Sonoma Barracks, as well as the nearby historic home of General Vallejo. Shops, tasting rooms, restaurants, bakeries, and a historic theater line the streets around the Sonoma Plaza — an eight-acre town square, the largest in California.

High mountains and deep valleys frame Valldemossa, the village where the island's first two 'celebrity tourists', composer Frederic Chopin and author George Sand, lived in 1838. Once here, make sure to visit the village's main attraction: The Carthusian Monastery of Valldemossa. Originally built as a royal palace in 1309 and later converted into a monastery of the Carthusian order, the Carthusian Monastery of Valldemossa is an impressive complex that houses a palace, a church, an old pharmacy, an art collection of some of the greatest modern Spanish and local artists, and the cells where the monks lived for 400 years to find peace and rest. Each cell has its own exit to the garden terrace with blossoming magnolias and a wonderful view over the valley.

The chilling, heartbreaking exhibits of the Red Terror Martyrs' Memorial Museum are guaranteed to leave no visitor indifferent. Atrocities commuted during Mengistu’s Derg regime are laid bare, to be processed at your own pace or with an English-speaking guide. The museum operates on donations alone; entry is free of charge.

Fort George was built in 1769. This impregnable fortress is still the home of one of Scotland’s kilted battalions and houses the Regimental Museum of the Queen’s Own Highlanders.