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Fab Four Tours: ENLIGHTENMENT

Jet setting isn't all about the food and fun and sightseeing. People and culture, arts, and energy are what give a place a soul and keep you coming back for more. In other words: addictive brain candy. The Fab Four may be strangers, but it's okay to bite. They'll be friends before long.

Creativity springs like the many wildflowers in the cultural hub of the Alps, Zurich, during the month-long Zurich Festival (June 17 - July 10), where the city's numerous cultural institutions pull out all the stops. Think opera, fine art, dance, and drama (although the real drama is saved for Charles Vögele Fashion Days in November) with a slight pause until the Zurich Theatre Spectacle and a cavalcade of street performers presenting the magic of open-air theater take the reins August 18–September 4. Make like a true patron of the arts and bed down at The Dolder Grand (book it now), an extravagant castle-like ode to the belle époque atop the Zurichberg hill overlooking the city. Spectacular Swiss design also takes precedence at home-accessories shop Uniqum (concrete fruit bowl, check!) and with the superstar Freitag brothers at their eponymous shop, a tottering stack of freight containers in Zurich West selling cult bags and wallets upcycled from used truck tarpaulins and bike tubes. Enlightenment can also be edible with over 170 years of craftsmanship behind every truffle at Sprüngli, Switzerland's most famous chocolate maker.

Amsterdam offers an equally rich calendar of cultural entertainment, drawing from its rich history of moneyed merchants supporting the arts. (Remember Rembrandt? Oh right….) Throughout summer the Vondelpark Open Air Theatre offers a variety of free performances from classical music to cabaret and youth theater in the city's favored greenway. But all of this is just a prelude to the Uitmarkt Amsterdam on August 26, 27, and 28, which is the official opening of the cultural season and offers more than 450 free performances on 30 stages, where half a million visitors just like you get a preview of the goodness to come. If you prefer your festivals with a more intimate vibe, the 50-year-old Jordaanfestival feels like a village come to life right in the city, September 16–18. And for culture you can bring back with you, The Frozen Fountain and Moooi Gallery are Valhallas for high-end Dutch furniture and accessory design. Dream dreams of a covetable future at the just-opened Conservatorium Hotel, a music school turned Design Hotel member with 128 elegant rooms and suites.

Although the Grand Hyatt (book it now) is the only place to be when the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival "Berlinale" rolls into town, for the rest of the year, look no further than the Conservatorium's Design Hotel sister, the Cosmo Hotel, when you want to sup at the table of creativity that has made Berlin Germany's (and arguably Europe's) go-to melting pot of choice for avant-garde artists and the those that follow them. Near to Museum Island and trendy Friedrichshain, the property prides itself on its personalized concierging, which will snag you a table at that new hipster eatery or arrange personalized art tours at the galleries of the moment. Whatever those may actually be, you can't go wrong with a visit to the Collectors Room, Thomas Olbricht's eclectic 16th-century-to-contemporary collection in the Mitte, or the CFA Gallery, a highlight of the 300-gallery (and growing) scene. Gays in Berlin also have two special places: Schwules Museum, a gay history-cum-art museum (that's actually been known to show paintings made of cum) and the Prinz Eisenherz Buchladen, one of Europe's oldest surviving queer bookstores, started in 1978. Craving more culture? Head to Hamburg October 16-21 2012 when Germany's largest Gay & Lesbian Film Festival attracts 15,000 visitors for its 130-strong repertoire. For culture of a more spirited sort, strap on some lederhosen and get ready to dance to polka at Rosa Wiesn, Oktoberfest's beer-drenched bratwurst party down in Munich September 30 and October 1 2012.

For spirits, full stop, the Assistentens Kirkegaard in Copenhagen houses the gravesites of Danish literary greats Hans Christian Andersen and Søren Kierkegaard, overtaken by frolicking city folk communing with their past—and each other. For a design treat, check into the massive (814 rooms!) Bella Sky Comwell, Scandinavia's largest design hotel, recently opened in May about a 10-minute metro ride from downtown. If you'd like to be closer to the cultural action—and there's plenty with Jazz (July 1-10), Fashion (August 3-7), Design (September 1-10), and Queer Film (October 21-30) festivals all coming in quick succession—opt for the Hotel Fox instead. Twenty-one international artists have turned the 61 rooms (all viewable on the website) into unique habitation expressions, everything from the boyhood fantasy world of Racing Cars to the high Swiss kitsch of Heidi. Take some brilliance home with shopping stops at Designer Zoo, a co-op studio/storefront for innovative local artisans, and the Royal Copenhagen for all of your old-school Danish, blue-and-white porcelain needs—in production since the 18th century. As with all the Fab Four, though contemporary scenes may be bursting, none of this cultural enlightenment is a flash in the pan!