Scenery destinations

The world's greatest open-air museum, where the temples and tombs of ancient Thebes line both banks of the Nile.

Egypt's laid-back southern gateway, where feluccas drift past Nubian villages and granite islands in the Nile.

Egypt's Mediterranean second city, mixing corniche breezes and fresh seafood with faded cosmopolitan grandeur.

The old imperial capital: thousands of temples, geisha districts and bamboo groves.

Hokkaido's hub for miso ramen, powder-snow ski trips and a famous February snow festival.

A city rebuilt around a moving peace memorial, with the floating torii of Miyajima offshore.

The 'Camelot of Africa', a former imperial capital crowned by a walled royal compound of seventeenth-century castles.

A palm-lined city on Lake Tana, the launch point for boat trips to island monasteries and the thundering Blue Nile Falls.

Korea's beach-and-seafood second city, terraced hillside villages tumbling down to the sea.

A volcanic holiday island of craters, waterfalls, lava tubes and coastal drives.

An open-air museum of the Silla kingdom — royal tombs, temples and a grassy old town.

The gateway to Volcanoes National Park, where misty rainforest peaks shelter the world's most famous mountain gorillas.

A breezy resort town on the sandy shores of Lake Kivu, Rwanda's favourite spot for lakeside lounging and golden sunsets.

A cool-climate highland city of art-deco streets, volcano craters and factory-outlet shopping.

Bali's quieter neighbour, ringed by empty white beaches and crowned by the volcano Mount Rinjani.

The launch point for Komodo National Park — dragon-inhabited islands, pink beaches and world-class diving.

The romantic 'City of Lakes', where white palaces seem to float on shimmering water beneath the Aravalli hills.

One of the world's oldest living cities, where riverside ghats and dawn rituals line the sacred Ganges.

Palawan's postcard bay of limestone karsts, hidden lagoons and turquoise island-hopping tours.

An island of the surreal Chocolate Hills, tiny tarsiers and calm river cruises through jungle.

The Philippines' surf capital, a laid-back teardrop island of coconut palms, lagoons and reef breaks.

A relaxed lakeside city beneath the Annapurna range, Nepal's base for trekking, paragliding and Himalayan sunrises.

The dramatic mountain airstrip town where Everest Base Camp treks begin, perched on a ridge deep in the Khumbu.

A breezy central-coast city of long sandy beaches, the Marble Mountains and a giant golden-handed bridge.

A lantern-lit former trading port, its UNESCO old town glowing with silk shops and riverside tailors.

Gateway to Ha Long Bay, where thousands of limestone karsts and sea caves rise from emerald waters.

The old imperial capital on the Perfume River, home to a walled citadel and riverside royal tombs.

A misty mountain town of cascading rice terraces, ethnic-minority villages and Vietnam's highest peak.

A perfectly preserved walled oasis city, its Itchan Kala fortress packed with minarets, palaces and mud-brick lanes.

A surreal landscape of fairy chimneys and cave hotels, where dawn skies fill with hundreds of hot air balloons.

Gleaming white travertine terraces of warm thermal water, crowned by the ruins of the ancient spa city of Hierapolis.

A breezy Aegean metropolis with a palm-lined waterfront, and the gateway to the magnificent ruins of Ephesus.

A yacht-filled harbour town beside Oludeniz's blue lagoon, one of the world's most celebrated paragliding spots.

The sacred hill capital of the last Sinhalese kingdom, curled around a scenic lake and home to the Temple of the Tooth.

A laid-back mountain village deep in tea country, famed for misty ridge hikes and the iconic Nine Arch railway bridge.

Sri Lanka's cool-climate 'Little England', a hill station of emerald tea estates, misty lakes and colonial-era cottages.

A UNESCO-listed royal town on the Mekong, where saffron-robed monks, gilded temples and French villas set a timeless pace.

A riverside adventure hub framed by jagged karst peaks, known for tubing, blue lagoons and hot-air balloon sunrises.

The gateway to southern Laos, launching loops through coffee-growing highlands, thundering waterfalls and Khmer ruins.

A remote village on the Nam Ou River, wedged between towering limestone cliffs and beloved by trekkers and slow travellers.

Brazil's carnival city of samba and sunshine, strung between granite peaks, rainforest and world-famous beaches.

Gateway to the thunderous Iguazu Falls, where hundreds of cascades roar through subtropical rainforest on the triple border.

The Amazon's jungle metropolis, launch point for river cruises and rainforest lodges, crowned by a gilded opera house.

A green, orderly planned capital at the foot of the Margalla Hills, crowned by the striking modernist Faisal Mosque.

A fabled Karakoram valley of apricot orchards and ancient forts, ringed by some of the highest peaks on earth.

The rugged gateway to K2 and the Baltoro glaciers, dotted with alpine lakes, cold deserts and hilltop forts.

A dramatic UNESCO-listed peninsula where a basalt monolith towers over kite-surf lagoons and luxury resorts.

The sunny southern port city with a redeveloped harbour, art warehouses and lantern-lit temples.

The east-coast base for Taroko Gorge — towering marble cliffs, blue rivers and Pacific coastline.

A former gold-mining town of lantern-lit stairways and teahouses clinging to a misty hillside.

Taiwan's largest lake, a serene mountain retreat of cycling paths, temples and morning mist.

A vertiginous mega-city of stacked bridges and cliffside towers, and the gateway to Yangtze cruises.

A poet's paradise of misty West Lake, arched bridges and terraced tea hills on the city's edge.

The Venice of the East, laced with canals, whitewashed water towns and exquisite classical gardens.

Dreamlike karst peaks rise over the Li River, a landscape printed on China's twenty-yuan note.

Towering sandstone pillars pierce the clouds, the otherworldly scenery that inspired the floating mountains of Avatar.

Chile's sophisticated capital, a valley metropolis of leafy barrios and rooftop bars framed by the snowy Andes.

A gloriously ramshackle port city where century-old funiculars climb hills stacked with rainbow houses and street art.

An adobe oasis town in the world's driest desert, base for lunar valleys, geysers, salt flats and starry skies.

A German-flavoured lake town in Chile's Lake District, gazing across Lake Llanquihue at the perfect cone of Osorno volcano.

A windswept city on the Strait of Magellan and the southern gateway to Torres del Paine's granite towers.

A cool-climate mountain town in coffee country, laced with cloud-forest trails, hot springs and hummingbirds.

The lush tea capital of Bangladesh, surrounded by rolling plantations, swamp forests and crystal rivers by the Indian border.

East Africa's safari capital, sitting beneath Mount Meru within striking distance of the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater.

A friendly coffee-farming town at the foot of Kilimanjaro, the classic base camp for climbing Africa's highest mountain.

Tanzania's 'Rock City' on the shores of Lake Victoria, famous for giant granite boulders balancing improbably over the water.

New Zealand's biggest city, spread across two harbours and dotted with volcanic cones, island vineyards and Pacific flavours.

The world's adventure capital on the shores of Lake Wakatipu, where bungy jumps and jet boats meet jaw-dropping alpine scenery.

A relaxed lakeside resort town framed by mountains, home of the famously photogenic lone willow standing in the water.

A lakeside town on New Zealand's largest lake, ringed by thundering waterfalls, geothermal fields and volcanic peaks.

The world's second-highest capital, cradling one of Latin America's best-preserved colonial old towns at 2,850 metres.

Ecuador's adventure playground at the gateway to the Amazon, packed with waterfalls, hot springs and canyon swings.

Macau's modern waterfront district of glitzy casinos, harbourfront promenades, museums and the soaring Macau Tower nearby.

A rugged northern emirate of desert dunes, beaches and the world's longest zipline down its highest peak.

Oman's graceful seaside capital, where whitewashed buildings, grand mosques and old souks nestle between mountains and sea.

The tropical capital of the south, where khareef monsoon mists turn the Dhofar mountains green above banana-fringed beaches.

Capital of the Musandam exclave, dubbed the 'Norway of Arabia' for dhow cruises through sheer fjord-like inlets.

The 'Green Mountain' of the Hajar range, terraced with rose gardens and orchards above dramatic canyon rims.

A dramatic coast of limestone karsts, hidden lagoons and the launch point for island-hopping to Railay.

The ruined former royal capital, where crumbling brick prangs and a Buddha head cradled in tree roots endure.

The thundering horseshoe cataract on the US border, best met head-on from a mist-soaked boat deck.

North America's only walled city north of Mexico, a slice of old Europe crowned by a fairytale château hotel.

A glass-tower Pacific port where mountains, forest and ocean meet at the city's edge.

A mountain-resort town inside a Rockies national park, gateway to turquoise glacial lakes.

A show-stopping coastal city beneath Table Mountain, where beaches, vineyards and dramatic capes meet a buzzing food scene.

The heart of the Cape Winelands, an oak-shaded university town of Cape Dutch architecture and world-class wine estates.

The lively gateway to Kruger National Park, set among the subtropical hills, rivers and fruit farms of the Lowveld.

South Africa's stately administrative capital, famous for streets that turn purple with jacaranda blooms every spring.

The tropical gateway to the Great Barrier Reef and ancient Daintree Rainforest, where reef meets jungle.

A colossal red monolith rising from the desert heart, a sacred site glowing crimson at sunrise and sunset.

The Riviera's sun-soaked capital, where a pebble beach meets a pastel Old Town and the Promenade des Anglais.

France's rugged Mediterranean port, a sun-baked melting pot ringed by turquoise limestone calanques.

An elegant wine capital of golden 18th-century facades along the curving Garonne river.

A Franco-German crossroads of half-timbered houses and canals around a rose-hued Gothic cathedral.

A medieval abbey rising from a tidal islet, cut off and encircled by some of Europe's fastest tides.

Germany's maritime gateway, a city of canals, red-brick warehouses and a raucous harbour nightlife.

The baroque 'Florence on the Elbe', painstakingly rebuilt into a riverside skyline of domes and palaces.

A romantic university town of red-roofed houses beneath a ruined castle above the Neckar river.

An alpine town gateway to Neuschwanstein, the fairytale castle that inspired Disney's own.

A dreamlike city of canals and gondolas, where palazzos rise straight from the water.

A dizzying ribbon of pastel villages clinging to cliffs above the turquoise Tyrrhenian Sea.

Five candy-coloured fishing villages linked by cliff trails along the rugged Ligurian coast.

A romantic Roman-era city of pink marble, home to a working arena and Juliet's fabled balcony.

Borneo's coastal gateway to Mount Kinabalu, island reefs and fiery sunsets over the South China Sea.

The famous blue-washed mountain town of the Rif, where every alley glows in shades of indigo beneath rugged peaks.

Morocco's stately seaside capital, pairing the Kasbah of the Udayas with wide boulevards and Roman-era ruins.

The classic gateway to the Sahara, where camel caravans set off across the towering orange dunes of Erg Chebbi.

Singapore's postcard waterfront — the boat-topped hotel, supertrees and a nightly light show.

A hillside city crowned by the Alhambra, Spain's most breathtaking Moorish palace-fortress.

A Basque seaside jewel ringed by a scallop-shaped bay and renowned for pintxos bars.

Switzerland's polished financial hub, blending a medieval old town with a pristine lakeside setting.

A cosmopolitan lakeside city of global diplomacy, framed by its landmark fountain and Alpine views.

A postcard-perfect lake town of covered wooden bridges, ringed by snow-capped Alpine peaks.

The adventure capital of the Bernese Alps, cradled between two lakes beneath towering peaks.

A car-free Alpine resort village sitting in the shadow of the iconic pyramid-shaped Matterhorn.

Switzerland's charming capital, a UNESCO old town of sandstone arcades looped by the Aare River.

A sun-kissed Italian-speaking lake city where Swiss precision meets Mediterranean flair.

Scotland's dramatic capital, a hilltop castle crowning a warren of medieval closes and Georgian squares.

The dreaming-spires university town of honey-stone colleges, hushed quadrangles and centuries of scholarship.

A serene university city where students punt along the Cam past willow-draped college backs.

An elegant Georgian spa town built in honey-coloured stone around steaming Roman baths.

A walled medieval city of Viking roots, a soaring minster and the crooked lanes of the Shambles.

Hilly bay city of cable cars, fog-wrapped bridges and the tech-fuelled northern California coast.