Slideshow: Titanic Belfast

Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images

The Titanic Belfast Experience is a new £90 million visitor attraction location in Belfast's Titanic Quarter, on the original site of the Harland and Wolff shipyard -- birthplace of RMS Titanic.

Launch slideshow

For Titanic buffs, life is about to get a whole lot better.

The 100th anniversary of the sinking of the storied ship is quickly approaching , and cities on both sides of the Atlantic are ramping up efforts to commemorate the April 15 centennial with an extensive array of events and celebrations — from museum openings and special musical and theatrical performances, to recreated meals and graveyard tours. “Anyone with a connection to the Titanic seems to be doing something to mark the anniversary,” said Charles Weeks, professor emeritus of marine transportation at the Maine Maritime Academy and a member of the Titanic International Society.

Here’s a roundup of some of them: 

Ireland
“Titanic Belfast” is scheduled to open March 31 in a new six-story structure overlooking the slipways where the Titanic was built. The venue will feature nine galleries of interactive exhibition space that explore a range of stories, from the people who built the ship to the technology and science that located the wreck. A few of the exhibits include: recreations of the ship’s decks and cabins; an undersea exploration center; and the Shipyard Ride, which uses special effects, animations and full-scale reconstructions to recreate shipbuilding in the early 1900s. 

“It is the largest Titanic experience in the world,” said Bernard McMullan, a communications and public relations executive for Tourism Ireland. Several weeks of events in Belfast's recently developed Titanic Quarter will be held in conjunction with the attraction’s opening.

Photoblog: Inside Titanic Belfast

Just outiside Belfast is "TITANICa The Exhibition," currently at the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum in Cultra, which features more than 500 objects recovered from the Titanic's wreckage. Other Titanic tributes launched in Ireland include a yearlong series of events and activities in Cobh, County Cork, the ship’s last port of call. Only four of the 123 people picked up there survived. “Titanic 100” includes a memorial, Titanic-themed trails and boat tours, exhibitions, concerts and tours of local pubs “where people enjoyed a farewell drink before they boarded the doomed liner,” according to Tourism Ireland. 

England
The city of Southampton, where the Titanic began its fatal journey, will open the SeaCity Museum on April 10. The disaster had a devastating effect on the people of Southampton, as most of the crew lived there and more than 500 households lost at least one family member, according to the town’s website. Exhibitions will focus on themes such as the hidden history of Titanic's crew and the international fascination with the story of the Titanic, and will feature a “disaster room” and hands-on activities. 

France
La Cité de la Mer, a center in Cherbourg dedicated to deep-sea adventures, will open a new permanent exhibition on April 10, 100 years to the day the Titanic sailed there to pick up passengers. “Titanic — Return to Cherbourg” aims to recreate life onboard the ship through the testimonies from survivors and witnesses, along with exhibits, concerts, theatrical performances and guided tours. 

Canada
Nova Scotia, which boasts some 20 Titanic-related sites, will hold commemorative events on April 14 and 15. “Titanic Eve - Night of the Bells” is an evening walking procession featuring stops at Titanic-related landmarks, interpretative presentations, live performances and a moment of silence at the exact time the Titanic began to sink. Flares will be set off to symbolize the ship's call for help. The Titanic Spiritual Ceremony, an interfaith memorial service, will take place at the Fairview Lawn Cemetery, with musical performances and a wreath-laying in honor of the 121 Titanic victims buried there. The Nova Scotia Archives has set up a new “virtual archive” where people can pull up Titanic-related files. Some events, including exhibits at The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, will extend into summer and autumn.

Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada’s easternmost province and the closest to where the ship went down, will host exhibitions, concerts, film showings, re-creations, music events, theatrical performances, lectures, tours with Titanic experts, and visits to Cape Race, where the Titanic’s distress signal was received. Local dishes that the lighthouse keepers and residents dined on in 1912, and music inspired by the Irish immigrants and musicians who perished, will also be featured. 

Atlanta
The St. Regis Atlanta will pay tribute to St. Regis founder Col. John Jacob Astor IV, who died in the sinking along with his butler. Throughout April, the hotel will serve a signature cocktail and afternoon tea menu created for the occasion, and offer a special package in the Empire Suite, for $3,300 a night, the same price in 1912 for the crossing in one of two deluxe parlor suites aboard the Titanic. On April 10, a complimentary cocktail reception will offer guests and the public hors d’oeuvres inspired by the last dinner served on the Titanic, and will feature sabering (a ceremonial opening using a sabre) of 100 bottles of Heidsieck Champagne, a label served on the Titanic.

Branson, Mo., and Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
Titanic Museum Attractions will host “A night to remember: An original musical tribute to Titanic,” on Saturday, April 14. Musical performances and appearances by descendants of passengers and crew will highlight the production. Both museums are in the shape of a ship, and boast hundreds of artifacts and exhibits that detail the story of the ship’s history and fate, to let visitors “experience what it was like to walk the hallways, parlors, cabins and grand staircase of the Titanic.”

Denver
The Molly Brown House Museum, named for the American human-rights activist and philanthropist who survived the sinking, is holding guided tours, musical performances, special teas, lecture series and a special exhibit, “The Unsinkable Molly Brown: Denver’s Heroine of the Titanic,” which runs through Dec. 31. The “Steerage Class Shindig” will recreate the experience of third-class passengers with “a hearty meal, a rollicking band and a fine pint.” 

Orlando, Fla.
“Titanic The Experience” takes visitors back in time through live interactive interpretations by storytellers in period costume, full-scale room re-creations, memorabilia and artifacts recovered from the wreck site, including a 3-ton portion of the ship's hull, the captain's wheel and personal belongings from Titanic passengers and crew.

Springfield, Mass. 
The Titanic Historical Society will host a Titanic Centennial Memorial Weekend (April 20-22) to unveil and dedicate a new memorial. It will also feature guest speakers, visits to the nearby Titanic Museum, a raffle with collectibles, and a gala dinner and costume contest. “We’ve been doing these types of events for many years before the movie,” said Karen Kamuda, vice president of the society. 

St Louis, Mo.
Titanic Centennial Weekend (April 13-15) will include an Edwardian Champagne reception, an exhibit of Titanic-related artifacts, and a screening of the 1958 film "A Night to Remember." The signature event, “The Last Dinner on the Titanic,” will recreate the 11-course meal served on the Titanic’s last night. Between courses, guests will be entertained by live period music, and will receive a boarding pass and an envelope with the name and historical biography of an actual first-class passenger. Guests will experience “the elegance, grandeur and luxury of the R.M.S. Titanic, while enjoying a gastronomical extravaganza from another era,” organizers say.  

New York metro area
A trolley tour on April 7 will take visitors through Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, the final resting place of some passengers on the Titanic.

At the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center, the world premiere of “Titanic Tales: Stories of Courage and Cowardice” will be performed on April 12 at 8:30 p.m., part of the Center’s Target Free Thursdays series. The original piece weaves together survivors’ recollections, taken from testimony given at the American and British boards of of inquiry, with music of the period, including works performed by the Titanic’s band on that fateful night.

The Jane Hotel in the West Village welcomed surviving crew members from the Titanic by offering care and dry clothes, though in 1912 it was the American Seaman’s Friend Society Sailors’ Home and Institute. To commemorate the centennial, the hotel is offering two signature cocktails until April 18 in the Jane Ballroom: the Bourbon- based “Unsinkable Molly Brown," and the Champagne-based "ST-705," named in honor of the 705 passengers who survived. 

NYC Discovery Walking Tours will offer a two-hour “Titanic History Tour” in Greenwich Village, with stops at The Seaman’s Lodge, where survivors took shelter, the Titanic Memorial Arch, and sites associated with passengers John J. Astor, Isidor Straus and others. The public tour is offered on April 14 at 1 p.m. and April 15 at noon for a cost of $20. Call 212-465-3331 for reservations, meeting place and information about private tours.

The Titanic International Society will host a weekend of remembrance April 27-29 in Secaucus, N.J. It includes a candlelight memorial service, with readings and music, and a luncheon cruise around New York Harbor that will pass the intended destination of the Titanic and the pier where the rescue boat Carpathia docked. Charles Haas, the society’s president, said there was a general sense that after the centennial, interest in the Titanic might wane, but he does not concur. “I’m especially optimistic about the number of young people who are fascinated by the Titanic story,” he said.

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For some Americans, Presidents Day is a low-key holiday spent shopping the sales and catching up on sleep. For others, it’s a great opportunity to spend the long weekend visiting historic sites, museums, restaurants and hotels with presidential pasts.

But where to go? You might head for one of the official presidential libraries and museums operated by the National Archives or choose a spot from this list of presidential sites around the country put together by Lonely Planet.

There are also these special Presidents Day events to consider:

Washington, D.C. 
In Washington, D.C., Ford’s Theater, the site of the April 14, 1865, assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, is hosting a Presidents Day open house on Feb. 20. Among the free activities scheduled are storytelling, Civil War-themed ranger talks and a presentation by costumed actors that includes a reconstruction of Lincoln’s assassination.

Every Four Years: Presidential Campaigns and the Press, a new exhibit opening at the Newseum Feb. 17, traces the way the media has covered presidential campaigns from "William McKinley's 1896 front porch campaign to Barack Obama's 2008 Internet campaign." In addition to notable TV campaign ads, the exhibit includes campaign artifacts such as handwritten notes taken by John F. Kennedy during a 1960 presidential debate and the "Florida, Florida, Florida" white board used by NBC's Tim Russert on election night 2000.

Bonus: The Newseum’s exhibit, First Dogs: American Presidents and Their Pets, runs through 2012.

George Washington Birthday Celebration Committee, Alexandria, Va.

An actor portrays General Washington during a previous George Washington Birthday Parade in Alexandria, Va.

Virginia
As the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents, Virginia proudly calls itself the “The Mother of Presidents” and has dozens of historic sites paying special Presidents Weekend tribute to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor and Woodrow Wilson.

There will be free admission on Feb. 20 at George Washington’s estate at Mount Vernon, where a costumed General Washington will be on hand for activities to include the traditional wreath-laying ceremony at Washington's Tomb, music and military performances and a (shh!) surprise birthday party.

During Presidents Weekend, actors portraying founding fathers George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison will be visiting Colonial Williamsburg.

Alexandria will be marking the 280th anniversary of George Washington's birth with a celebration that includes a Birthnight Banquet & Ball (Feb. 18), a Revolutionary War Reenactment (Feb. 19) and the George Washington Birthday Parade (Feb. 20). Historic sites around Alexandria, such as Gatsby’s Tavern Museum, where early patrons included George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe, will offer free admission on Presidents Day as well.

Bonus: A free, self-guided walking tour of 21 of the 140 sites in Alexandria associated with George Washington is available for free (PDF).

Massachusetts
In Boston, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is celebrating Presidents Day with discounted admission from Feb. 18-26. An activity-filled Family Festival Day on Feb. 21 includes the opportunity to meet actors playing presidents and first ladies such as Thomas Jefferson and Dolley Madison.

Sleep like a president
Presidents Day weekend activities can include sleeping where a past president got some shut-eye.

“Every president from Eisenhower to George W has stayed at the Greenbrier in West Virginia, a historic hotel that still brings in weekend splurgers,” says Robert Reid, U.S. travel editor for Lonely Planet. 

Another option: the Presidential Suite at the Waldorf Astoria New York. Every American President since Herbert Hoover has stayed in the suite, which is decorated with the personal desk of General Douglas MacArthur, one of John F. Kennedy’s rocking chairs and other presidential artifacts.

Presidential treatment doesn’t come cheap. A weekend night in a two-bedroom executive suite at the Greenbrier is about $900, while nightly rates for the Waldorf Astoria’s Presidential Suite begin at $10,000 – and include a background check.

Find more by Harriet Baskas on Stuck at The Airport.com and follow her on Twitter.

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• Museums highlight Black History Month
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Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution

Thomas Jefferson, who owned about 600 slaves, wrote his rough draft of the Declaration of Independence on this mahogany lap desk.

Throughout February, museums, cities and cultural venues around the country are marking Black History Month with a variety of temporary exhibitions and special events.

In Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture is presenting "Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: Paradox of Liberty" at the National Museum of American History through Oct. 14.

The exhibit includes artifacts excavated at Monticello and objects from the Smithsonian’s collection, including a set of slave shackles and the lap desk Jefferson used to write the first draft of the Declaration of Independence. “At the time he was espousing the opinion that all men are created equal, Jefferson owned approximately 150 slaves,” said James Gordon, spokesman for the National Museum of African American History and Culture. “During his lifetime, Jefferson owned about 600 slaves so, in fact, in his eyes all men weren’t equal.” 

Philadelphia is spotlighting its African-American legacy this month with exhibits, plays, storytelling events, music and more. Included in the line-up is an exhibit at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts featuring more than 100 paintings by Henry Ossawa Tanner, who lived in Philadelphia after the Civil War and became the first prominent African-American painter to gain international acclaim. (The exhibit runs through April 15.) Visitors may also download a free app for a tour showcasing 21 of Philadelphia’s most iconic African American-themed murals. The tour follows a trolley route through Philadelphia's culturally diverse neighborhoods.  

Through Aug. 20, the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., is hosting “For All the World To See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights,” which features images relating to the struggle for racial justice during the period of the modern civil rights movement. 

The National WWII Museum in New Orleans is paying tribute to the more than 1.2 million African Americans who served with a month-long schedule of programming and an exhibit honoring the Tuskegee Airmen and the “Red Ball Express” drivers.  

And in San Francisco, the Museum of the African Diaspora is hosting an exhibit titled “Collected: Stories of Acquisition and Reclamation,” which includes more than 100 objects that help tell stories about the contributions of people of African descent to American history and culture (through March 4.)

For more events and exhibits around the country marking Black History Month, see http://www.africanamericanhistorymonth.gov/.

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The automobile gave rise to new roadside industries in America, such as the motor inn.

Industrial cities such as Detroit may not be typical vacation destinations, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t worthwhile places to visit. Think of Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

So, quick: What do you know about Detroit? They make cars, right? That’s why the city’s nickname is Motown and the basketball team is called the Pistons. It turns out that you don’t have to go on a tour of a car factory or watch a car-themed sports team for entertainment when in Detroit. You can always go to a museum.  About cars.

Actually The Henry Ford museum is about Americana, but considering the museum’s namesake founder and its location in Dearborn, Mich., the Detroit suburb where Ford’s world headquarters is located, it is no surprise that the museum’s signature exhibit is of cars.

A freshly revamped 80,000-square-foot exhibit, “Driving America” opened to the public Sunday. While the museum’s previous automotive exhibits were presented from the perspective of the people in Detroit who designed and built cars, (they show other things too, including an upcoming visit by the touring “Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit,” which arrives March 31), this exhibit is designed from the perspective of the general population, explained Bob Casey, automotive curator.

That means looking at the car’s impact on society, with the rise of previously non-existent traffic laws, taxes on gasoline, roadside industries to support drivers and a rise in consumer interest in safety.

The Henry Ford

The "Driving America" exhibit features a 1949 Airstream Trailwind travel trailer and a 1959 Volkswagen Westfalia camper.

Courtesy The Henry Ford

The Henry Ford integrated 18 touchscreen kiosks into the "Driving America" exhibit

Of course there is plenty of Detroit iron to see, along with cars from other places. The car on display that probably summarizes the change in public attitudes toward personal mechanized transportation is the locomotive-like Roper, of 1865.

When Sylvester Roper built a series of steam-powered, self-propelled carriages and motorcycles in the middle of the 19th century, the cars were regarded as curiosities, which people would pay to see drive around at the fair but had no interest in owning.

But near the turn of the century, opinion had changed, so when the Duryea car appeared in 1896, there was a public frenzy of interest in buying cars that launched the industry.  “By 1896 there was a huge change in the public’s attitude,” Casey said.

This change drove the car’s influence on society through the 20th century, as illustrated by the roadside diner and Texaco gas station exhibits.  Some of these influences have waxed and waned, as shown by a “talk like a trucker” demonstration.  No, it's not a lesson in cursing cars that cut you off in traffic, but a primer on citizens band, or CB radio, slang of the 1970s.

But the cars themselves are the real reason people go to a car museum.  Casey said that visitors most often ask the whereabouts of the ’65 Mustang.  His personal favorite is the 1906 Locomobile that won the famous Vanderbilt Cup race on Long Island in 1908, because he recalls reading about that car in a book when he was in junior high school, he said.

I was irresistibly attracted to the 1935 Miller Indy Car, for its amazing technology from eight decades ago.  But the best part is that with 130 vehicles and 60 display cases, “Driving America” is likely to have your favorite, too.

If that isn’t enough, the museum has an Imax theater and is co-located with Greenfield Village, Ford’s re-creation of an American town in the 19th century.  And if you are really hoping to get a little grease under your fingernails, there is the option of going on a tour of Ford’s Rouge factory, which once made the Model T and now makes Ford F-150 pickups.

If you go
Admission: adults, $17; seniors, $15; children 5-12, $12.50; children 4 and under, free.

Hours: 9:30 a.m. - 5 p.m., seven days a week, closed Thanksgiving and Christmas.

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Emelinda E. Cabrera

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History's collection of some 126 million items makes it the most popular natural history museum in the world.

There’s a woman so captivating that millions travel just to set eyes on her. Even if da Vinci’s Mona Lisa isn’t your type, you can’t argue with the numbers: last year 8.5 million people streamed through the Louvre, which houses her, making it the world’s most-visited museum.

Slideshow: See the world's most visited museums

Artistic masterpieces and scientific artifacts clearly interest travelers at least as much as attractions like the Eiffel Tower (visited by 6.7 million). We dug deeper to find out which 20 museums worldwide are considered must-sees worth the price of admission.

The Louvre Museum, ranked No. 1, benefits from broad name recognition and an enviable art collection, but it also has the good fortune of being located in France, which — along with the U.S. — drew the most international tourists in 2010, according to the World Tourism Organization. More than half of the 20 most-visited museums are located in Paris, D.C. and New York City.

Yet there are also some surprises. The only Asian museum to make our most-visited list — the National Museum of Korea — welcomed roughly 3 million people last year, about twice as many as did Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum. Since South Korea isn’t a top destination for international travelers, this museum’s ranking reveals the power of domestic tourism, especially in a developed country with a sizable affluent population.

Wherever their home base, budget-conscious travelers flock to museums as an inexpensive or even free way to spend an afternoon. Museums, too, have struggled with the recession, and some increasingly rely on their permanent collections as fodder for special exhibitions.

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, for instance, reduced its exhibition budget by 39 percent yet still attracted 326,000 more visitors than in 2009 by leveraging its extensive in-house collection, which spawned a massively popular Picasso show. However, not all museums can replicate that success; Chicago’s Art Institute and Field Museum both saw attendance rates drop by hundreds of thousands from 2009 to 2010.

The Methodology: To tally up the world’s most-visited museums, we gathered the most recent data supplied by the museums themselves or from government agencies, industry reports and reputable media outlets. Whenever available we used 2010 data. Institutes that don’t sell tickets gave us estimates as best they could. While we left out palaces and sacred spaces that house art, we did include the Vatican Museums because admission is separate from St. Peter’s Basilica. The Vatican Museums attract a broad audience, not just religious pilgrims, and have had a significant cultural influence. “The Vatican Collections: The Papacy and Art” remains the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s third most popular show in its 141-year history, drawing more than 896,000 visitors during its three-month run in 1983.

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Fort East Martello Museum

Robert the Haunted Doll is the most popular -- and most feared -- item at the Fort East Martello Museum in Key West, Fla.

If you’ve got ghosts, goblins and witches on the brain, but are a little too old for trick or treating, consider a jaunt instead to one of these spooky museum exhibits.

Seattle’s Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum recently opened “Can't Look Away: The Lure of Horror Film.” The exhibit examines the role horror plays in the human experience and includes both classic horror films and iconic artifacts such as Jack Torrance's axe from “The Shining” and Bram Stoker's “Dracula” manuscript. A monster timeline (Who came first: Frankenstein or The Mummy?) and a soundproof booth where visitors are filmed screaming while watching horror film clips are included.          

The Halloween season is a busy time of year for Robert the Haunted Doll, the most popular – and feared – item at the Fort East Martello Museum in Key West, Fla. The straw-filled toy is more than 100 years old, and many believe it to be the ultimate embodiment of evil. Blamed for a wide range of strange events and mishaps in his early years, Robert spent many years locked away in an attic where, local legend has it, the doll taunted schoolchildren and other passersby from a window. “Robert is now locked safely behind glass,” said museum spokesperson Michael Gieda, “and while he still gets blamed for some mischief, we’re sure – well, pretty sure – that he can’t get out.” 

In Harpers Ferry, W.Va., the haunted cottage known as the Booth House is also home to the Paranormal History Museum, a shrine to psychic phenomena, ghosts and hauntings. In the museum’s Exhibition of the Supernatural, guests can learn about psychic history and séances, conspiracy theories, and the secrets, myths and legends surrounding mysteries such as Sasquatch, the Figi Mermaid and, of course, vampires.

Castle Halloween Museum

The Castle Halloween Museum in Benwood, W. Va., features 35,000 antiques, postcards, folk art items, artifact and other Halloween memorabilia.

At the Castle Halloween Museum in Benwood, W.Va., curator and collector Pamela Apkarian-Russell displays 35,000 antiques, postcards, folk art items, artifact and all manner of other memorabilia related to the history and celebration of Halloween. “It has nothing to do with haunted houses. This is a social history museum,” said Apkarian-Russell. “We’ll show you costumes and candy containers, and we’ll tell you what’s really Halloween-related and what’s not. But no one is going to jump out at you from a closet.”

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Find more by Harriet Baskas on Stuck at The Airport.com and follow her on Twitter.

The distinctive facade of the MAS Museum in Antwerp, Belgium, alternates between red sandstone and glass panes. A close look at the 203-foot-tall structure reveals 3,185 silver hands, the symbol of Antwerp.

Canadians aren’t known for controversy, but Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum stirred up passions when it unveiled “The Crystal” addition in 2007. Architect Daniel Libeskind’s angled steel, aluminum and glass structure looks as if it crashed into the side of the Neo-Romanesque museum — which is either brilliant or appalling, depending on whom you ask.

Slideshow: World's most beautiful museums

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the museums we’ve selected fit different definitions of the term. They aren’t confined to major cities, but will inspire you to consider destinations that may not be on your radar and to make a museum a part of your next trip.

After all, they’re more than just a pretty façade. A beautiful museum like the Royal Ontario stirs our emotions and challenges us. As Alain de Botton, author of "The Architecture of Happiness," says: “We used to build temples, and museums are about as close as secular society dares to go in facing up to the idea that a good building can change your life (and a bad one ruin it).”

Good museums often draw beauty from their surroundings, whether by incorporating local materials or using surfaces that can interact with the shifting light and weather. At Brazil’s Museu Oscar Niemeyer, the glass-encased Annex (“The Eye”) tops a 60-foot-wide yellow pillar above a pool. The mutating reflection of the sky in the glass exterior and in the water below makes each viewing feel unique.

In one famous case, a beautiful museum actually made its location more attractive: Frank Gehry’s buzzed-about Guggenheim put Bilbao, Spain, on the tourist map when it opened in 1997. The museum’s titanium panels look like fish scales, and its 50-foot atrium is partially illuminated by light streaming from the “metallic flower” of the roof.

Justin Davidson, architecture critic for New York magazine, admires the Guggenheim Bilbao for working within its context and for drawing on the past. “The spirit of the Bilbao is essentially Baroque,” he says. “The curvature of its surfaces and in the quality of its forms — I think Gehry reinvented the Baroque for the contemporary age.”

Even though beauty thrives on reinvention, that doesn’t mean the contemporary always trumps the classic. There’s a timeless appeal to a museum like the Hermitage in St. Petersburg or the original Guggenheim in New York.

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