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.

Guided colonial Quito tour ● Otavalo Valley - cultural centre ● Famed 'Avenue of Volcanos' ● Overnight at historic hacienda ● Cotopaxi Forest Reserve

Gold Museum, Lima ● Scenic Nazca Lines overflight ● Mysterious Machu Picchu-a must see! ● Exploring the "Sacred Valley of the Incas" ● Scenic 'vistadome' train to Cuzco ● Beautiful, ancient Cuzco

Krakow's Wawel Castle and medieval market square ● Wieliczka's subterranean salt cathedral ● Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial ● Warsaw's rebuilt Old Town and Museum of Polish Jews ● Gdansk's European Solidarity Centre ● Malbork's massive Teutonic fortress

Charming, historic Cartagena ● Lively Bogota ● Verdant Hills ● coffee plantations Unspoiled villages, friendly locals Cathedral of Salt ● Colonial treasures

Barcelona: Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance ● Santiago de Compostela: Place of Pilgrimage ● Bilbao's Guggenheim ● Arab, Jewish, Christian, Roman, Visigothic legacies

George Town's UNESCO-listed multicultural streetscapes, where Chinese clan houses, Hindu temples and colonial landmarks share the same block ● Cameron Highlands tea estates and mossy montane forest on the roof of the peninsula ● Singapore's Marina Bay and the story of a city-state that reinvented itself in a generation ● Kuala Lumpur's Merdeka Square and the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia ● Ipoh's colonial railway station, limestone cave temples and celebrated local cuisine ● Langkawi mangrove and wildlife cruise through ancient karst formations on the Andaman Sea

Flight-seeing over Kaieteur Falls, the world's highest single-drop waterfall ● three nights at remote Kabalebo Nature Resort, home to 250+ bird species ● Essequibo River motorboat excursion to Sloth Island for wildlife spotting ● guided tour of the Ariane Space Centre ● full-day excursion to the infamous Îles du Salut penal colony ● exploring Paramaribo's UNESCO-listed colonial centre

Reykjavik city tour ● 'Golden Circle' tour: Geysers, waterfalls ● Arctic terns, puffins, guillemots ● Bubbling mud craters ● Spectacular Snaefellsnes Peninsula