Things to Do in Amman

The flower market is probably the most colorful and definitely the best smelling of the many Mongkok area markets. The vibrant stretch of road houses over 100 specialty shops and flower wholesalers. Here you'll find everything from delicate orchids to hearty cacti as well as scores of flowers, bonsai trees and exotic plants.

It's easy to walk through the market, buy a local bouquet at a reasonable price and take colorful photographs. The best time to visit is the week before the Lunar New Year when the market is extra active with locals buying elaborate good fortune arrangements. You can also combine this with a visit to the adjacent Yuen Po Street Bird Market and Garden.

Fontvieille Park leads from the Circus and Heliport to the Columbus Hotel and opens out onto the Princess Grace Memorial Rose Garden. The Fontvieille District is constructed on land reclaimed from the sea in the 1970s, built to combat the chronic land shortage in the densely populated principality. Designed by Italian architect, Manfredi Nicoletti, the district is located in the Western part of Monaco and features a port and heliport.

Fontvieille Park offers a charming green space in the district, with many small lakes and ponds bordered by verdant palms and olive trees, ducks and swans swimming in the crystal water.

Walk along the Sculpture Path over four hectares to discover 100 contemporary and local monumental art works, by artists like Arman, Blake, Botero, Calder, César and more. Look out for “The Washerwoman,” (Renoir - Guino 1917) in one of the the beautiful pools of the Fontvielle Gardens, just by the circus tent and the unfurling angel wings of “The Messenger” by Blake.

The nearby Princess Grace Rose Garden is an oasis of calm and serenity where the scent of some 4,000 roses perfumes the air. Visit a pantheon of exotic birds and animals in the Zoological Gardens, ride the merry go round or experience the dazzling panorama of the Cote d’Azur on a helicopter ride.

Perched on top of a hill overlooking the Arabian Sea, Fort Aguada and its lighthouse once guarded the Portuguese colony against Dutch and Marathas invaders. Built in 1612, the fort is the best preserved and most impressive of any in Goa.

While the large moat and 79 cannons once served to protect India’s Portuguese colonies, Fort Aguada, named after the freshwater springs within its walls, also replenished water supplies of passing ships. The four-story Fort Aguada Lighthouse, built in 1864, is the oldest lighthouse of its kind anywhere in Asia.

The fort sits just over 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) south of Sinquerim Beach, and much of the walk is uphill. Unless you plan to take a taxi or bus, get an early start to tour the fort before the sun beating down on the bare stones makes things too hot for comfort. The fort has few shaded areas, so bring plenty of sunscreen and water with you.

Set in Capitol Hill in a unique building that blends Streamline Moderne and Greco Deco, this independent research library contains the world’s largest collection of William Shakespeare’s printed works. Endowed by Shakespeare memorabilia collector Henry Clay Folger (a former chairman of the Standard Oil Company and a member of the Folger Coffee family), the library was opened 316 years to the day after the Bard’s death, on April 23, 1932.

In addition to its permanent collections and rotating art exhibits, the Library houses the three-tiered, Elizabethan-style Folger Theater, which each season stages three of Shakespeare’s plays, as well as literary readings and lectures.