LEGO Sets That Let You Travel The World

January is a month when many people— me included- are in the doldrums. The weather is cold, the days are short and dark, and we’ve just come off the high of the holiday season where we took fabulous vacations and ate and drank galore.

Rather than indulge my melancholy mood, I challenged myself to boost my spirits this winter by looking to products and activities that let me channel my longings to travel the world even though I’m stuck at home.

I’m kicking off my series of articles by talking about my newfound discovery of LEGO sets, a pastime using bricks to create images and structures that have entertained children for decades. Lately, the company is focusing on attracting adults too with more grown-up sets that engage us in the same way that a great puzzle can.

LEGO has a number of travel-themed sets in its collection- more than 40, in fact. The brand also has an Architecture Skyline Collection featuring famous buildings around the world including the John Hancock Center in Chiacgo, the Empire State Building in New York and Dubai’s Burj Khalifa.

Below, I’ve highlighted five that transport me away to everywhere from Paris to Egypt.

LEGO ICONS Eiffel Tower, $629.99

A towering five-feet tall- one of the tallest LEGO sets ever- completing the Eiffel Tower is no small feat. It has 10,001 pieces and is a collectible model that’s assembled in four sections. Builders follow the process that the French civil engineer Gustave Eiffel followed when he built the original tower. The set includes observation platforms, elevators, a broadcast tower and a French flag.

LEGO Architecture Great Pyramid of Giza, $129.99

Go back in time to the 26th century BC with this Great Pyramid of Giza model. It details its main tunnels and chambers and has two small pyramids, two mortuary temples, Sphinx statues and an obelisk.

LEGO Icons Colosseum, $549.99

It’s a staggering 9,036-piece model that shows off Rome’s majestic Colosseum. The model depicts the northern part of the outer wall’s facade, arches, columns of the Doric, Ionic and Corinthian and Corinthian pilasters.

LEGO Postcards, Australia, London, New York, Paris, $14.99

Doable in an afternoon, these travel-friendly sets are 255-piece models that make attractive decorative pieces anywhere in your home.

LEGO Ideas The Globe, $229.99

A fan designer created this three-dimensional globe and brought it to LEGO. It spins and has glow-in-the-dark tiles decorated with the names of continents and oceans. The best part? You can use the dots that come with set to mark everywhere you’ve traveled to.