Unleash your inner palaeontologist in Drumheller

CANADA // Dinosaur lovers get weak-kneed in Drumheller, a dust- blown town in southern Alberta where the arid terrain preserves bones galore. Paleontology pride runs high here, and nowhere more than at the Royal Tyrell Museum. One of the planet's preeminent dinosaur institutions - chock full of fierce-looking skeletons with names such as 'Hellboy' - it's also an active research centre with fossil digs you can join. Kitschy but no less awesome is the world's largest T rex, a 26m (85ft) fibreglass fella who looms over the town like Godzilla and dares you to climb the steps up into his mouth. The Dinosaur Trail extends the theme beyond town on a drive into the surrounding badlands, an eerie landscape of hulking, mushroom-like rock formations that underscores the prehistoric mood.