Cultural Tours

Watch dawn turn the Taj Mahal's marble from soft pink to brilliant white ● cross the Thar Desert by jeep to a Rajasthani campfire of music and dance ● wander Amber Fort's Sheesh Mahal, a mirror palace built to glow by a single candle ● marvel at Khajuraho's thousand-year-old sandstone towers, carved top to bottom with celestial dancers ● ride a boat past Varanasi's ghats at dawn as the Ganga Aarti lights the Ganges ● see Gwalior's Jai Vilas Palace chandeliers, once tested for strength with ten elephants

Cruise Lan Ha Bay overnight past limestone karsts, then explore Hanoi's Old Quarter and a water puppet show ● Wander lantern-lit Hoi An and cruise Hue's Perfume River past the Forbidden Purple City ● Descend into the Cu Chi tunnels and tour Ho Chi Minh City's Reunification Palace and War Remnants Museum ● Drift through the Mekong Delta's floating markets by boat at dawn ● Confront Cambodia's history at Phnom Penh's Tuol Sleng Museum and the Killing Fields memorial ● Walk among the towers of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom's Bayon, then journey on to Banteay Srei's carved pink sandstone

Two full days among the temples of Angkor, including Banteay Srei's extraordinary rose-pink carvings ● an overnight cruise on the karst-studded waters of Lan Ha Bay ● three evenings in Hoi An's UNESCO-listed Ancient Town ● the Cham Dynasty's remote spiritual centre at My Son ● Cambodia's history confronted honestly at Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek ● a Thai cooking class in Chiang Mai, from market to table.

Churches of Lalibela ● Colourful Timkat festival ● Spectacular Simien Mountain scenery ● Tribal south, kaleidoscope of cultures ● Christian churches, gilded monasteries ● Traditional villages, Omo Valley

'Experiential' Tokyo sightseeing ● Bullet Train to Hakone ● Hakone Outdoor Museum ● Historic Takayama ● Kyoto: Temples & shrines ● Hiroshima: Peace Memorial Park ● Nagasaki: feudal castles, samurai houses, Meiji-era villas

Krakow's Wawel Castle and Wieliczka salt mines ● Auschwitz-Birkenau and Warsaw's Museum of Polish Jews ● Gdansk's Solidarity Centre and Malbork fortress ● Vilnius's Old Town and Trakai's island castle ● Hill of Crosses and Rundale Palace ● Riga's Art Nouveau district ● Curonian Spit ● Tallinn's medieval Old Town

Guided tours of all major towns and cities visited ● Ancient Greek Temples at Agrigento and Paestum ● Compelling Pompeii ● Rome - The Vatican & the Sistine Chapel ● The Accademia & Michelangelo's David

Cruise Sun Moon Lake, then ride the ropeway above it ● Tainan's Confucius Temple, Chihkan Tower and the Dutch-built Fort Zeelandia at Anping ● A Tokyo fish market at full tilt, then a sushi and miso class you eat for lunch ● Lake Ashi beneath Mt Fuji and a kaiseki dinner in yukata at a Hakone ryokan ● Kyoto's Golden Pavilion, Ryoan-ji rock garden and the Philosopher's Path at cherry blossom peak ● Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park and Itsukushima Shrine standing in the sea at Miyajima.

Seoul: city tour & the DMZ ● Welcome dinner at top of Namsan Seoul Tower ● Unique & beautiful Jeju Island Immersion in Korean culture, ancient & modern ● Hakone Outdoor Museum ● Kyoto: Temples & shrines ● Hiroshima: Peace Memorial Park