Plitvice Lakes — 16 terraced emerald lakes and cascading waterfalls ● Hermitage of Blaca — cliff-clinging monastery reached by coastal boat on Brac ● Hvar summit hike to cave monastery above Adriatic island vineyards ● Napoleon's Road — stone-walled vineyard paths across Korcula's interior ● Mostar's reconstructed Ottoman bridge and Museum of War and Genocide Victims ● Kotor's medieval walls above the Mediterranean's only fjord

Gehry's Guggenheim Bilbao and hands-on Basque cooking class ● Roncesvalles pilgrim blessing and beech forest walk ● Roman road sections through Navarre and medieval Estella ● Cruz de Ferro stone ceremony in the mountains above Astorga ● Final approach into Santiago's Plaza del Obradoiro on foot ● Celtic Galicia — Roman walls of Lugo and O Cebreiro highlands ● Finisterre lighthouse — the Atlantic edge where the medieval world ended

Ladakh's high desert monasteries at 3,524 meters ● climb to Khardung La Pass at 5,470 meters ● Bhutan's annual Tsechu festival with masked dances ● Nepal's Kathmandu Valley UNESCO sites ● sunrise over eight Himalayan ranges from Nagarkot ● Tiger's Nest monastery viewpoint at 900 meters above Paro Valley

Guided colonial Quito tour ● Four-night luxury Galapagos cruise ● Exciting guided shore excursions ● Condor spotting in Cajas National Park ● Beautiful, colonial Cuenca ● Ingapirca Inca ruins

Daily guided game drives through Africa's best game parks ● Meeting local tribal groups ● Maasai Mara/Serengeti: endless plains ● Karen Blixen "Out of Africa" Museum ● Snows of Kilimanjaro from Kenya's Amboseli Park ● Ngorongoro Crater: natural wonder ● Great Rift Valley

Six lesser-visited Dodecanese islands via ferry ● Nisyros' active volcanic crater ● medieval Rhodes & neoclassical Symi ● Athens' marble Acropolis & Parthenon ● Ancient Agora & Archaeological Museum ● modern Exarhia neighbourhood & Central Market

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 ● The "painted monasteries" of Bucovina ● Bran Castle, mythical home of Dracula

Port Wine region, the Douro Valley ● Lisbon: Colonial elegance ● Santiago de Compostela: Place of Pilgrimage ● Bilbao's Guggenheim ● Comprehensive Barcelona city tour ● Arab, Jewish, Christian, Roman, Visigothic legacies

Istanbul's Byzantine and Ottoman masterpieces including Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque ● legendary ruins of Ephesus and the marble-paved Arcadian Way ● Cappadocia's otherworldly landscapes with underground cities and rock churches ● traditional gulet cruise along the pristine Turquoise Coast ● ancient Troy and Gallipoli's historic battlefields ● Konya's spiritual heritage and whirling dervish traditions