Quirky Guide

Antony is a freelance travel journalist and former news editor with backpacking anecdotes from across the globe.

If you are idling away your holiday in the crystal clear waters of the Caribbean, be prepared for a pack of noisy porkers heading your way.

Falling asleep in a Calvados barrel is no longer just for alcoholics. In Normandy, it’s also a quirky way for anyone to enjoy a good night’s rest.

Flowers for Mother’s Day and tool-kits for Christmas are so lame. Why not splash out on a shrunken head or the skeleton of a conjoined twin?

Hundreds of bison grazing beside Native American teepees are a surprising sight in the middle of France.

Water appears to flow uphill, people seem to change height and trees grow at apparently strange angles in the Mystery Spot outside Santa Cruz, California.

Best known as the spiritual home of country music, Nashville isn’t where you would expect to find a full-size replica of the Parthenon.

Dress up as a straw bear and dance for the locals, who might give you some food or drink out of sympathy.

While some lucky kids can expect Santa at Christmas, others will have to make do with an old hag.

Home to a bloodied t-shirt from someone stabbed to death with a dildo, plus the murder weapon. Unsurprising the museum lacks its own restaurant.

Large amounts of salt can be bad for you − unless that salt is smothered on walls and pumped out of a machine in a therapeutic clinic.