Fabled Damascus, one of world’s oldest cities ● Water wheels of Hama ● The fluted columns of Apamea ● Ancient Palmyra, home of Queen Zenoubia ● The lively souqs of Aleppo ● Group dinner at Syrian family home featuring local specialities

Budapest walking tour ● Byzantine, Moorish, Romanesque and Hungarian legacies ● Holloko, Hungary's most beautiful town ● Eger: narrow streets, arcaded buildings, wrought-iron gates ● Southern Transdanubia - region of undulating hills, forest clad ridges and rural ambience

UNESCO World Heritage Casbah of Algiers ● Roman cities of Timgad & Djemila in mountain settings ● Dramatic Constantine "City of Bridges" spanning spectacular gorges ● Ancient Phoenician & Roman coastal sites at Tipaza & Cherchell ● Traditional M'Zab Valley oasis towns & Sahara edge ● Mysterious pre-Roman Numidian royal tombs

Acropolis and Ancient Agora with expert Athens city tour ● Mycenae's Lion Gate and Epidaurus Theatre in the Argolis ● Byzantine frescoes and fortifications at hilltop Mystra ● Temple of Zeus and Olympic Stadium at ancient Olympia ● Apollo's sanctuary and Pythian oracle at spectacular Delphi ● gravity-defying monasteries perched atop Meteora's stone pillars

Lake Titicaca & Isla del Sol, Tiwanaku Ruins, historic towns, the vast Altiplano and Uyuni salt flats

Toledo, Granada, Cordoba - World Heritage cities ● Madrid: City tour & Prado ● Granada & the Alhambra ● Arab, Jewish, Christian, Roman, Visigothic legacies ● Andalucia: Orange groves, flower-filled patios

Vilnius's baroque Old Town and Trakai's island castle ● Hill of Crosses memorial ● Rundale Palace's Baroque interiors ● Riga's Art Nouveau district and Central Market ● Curonian Spit's sand dunes ● Tallinn's medieval Old Town

Partial Canal transit ● Parque Metropolitano & Amerindian Village ● Chiriqui Highlands & La Amistad Park ● Bocas del Toro: White sands & coral reefs

The Colosseum, the Forum, and the Pantheon — Rome at its most monumental ● the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's at the pace they deserve ● Assisi, where Giotto changed Western painting, and Siena, where the Middle Ages never quite ended ● San Gimignano's towers and the Chianti road home ● Volterra, Pisa, and a sunset dinner on the Ligurian coast ● two days in Florence — the Uffizi, Michelangelo's David, and the Gates of Paradise.