Natural features
Lauterbrunnen Valley
Lauterbrunnen, Bern, Switzerland
A deep glacial valley with sheer rock walls and 72 waterfalls, including the Staubbach Falls, which drop 300 m right beside the village.
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Historic sites
Sassi di Matera
Matera, Italy
Matera's Sassi are ancient districts of cave houses carved into the side of a ravine, inhabited for perhaps 9,000 years.
Natural features
Raja Ampat
Papua Barat Daya, Indonesia
An archipelago of 1,500 islands off West Papua with the richest marine life on earth, around 75% of all known coral species.
Natural features
Vallée de Mai, Praslin
Baie Sainte Anne, Seychelles
A palm forest, a UNESCO site, home to the coco de mer palm with the largest seed in the plant kingdom, and the rare black parrot.
Tours and activities
Transfăgărășan Highway
Cârţişoara, Sibiu, Romania
A spectacular mountain road across the Făgăraș Mountains, Romania's highest, built in the 1970s for military reasons, twisting up through hairpin ben…
Walks and treks
Trolltunga
Ullensvang, Vestland, Norway
A spectacular rock ledge sticking out horizontally 700 m above Lake Ringedalsvatnet, one of the most famous photo spots in Norway.
Natural features
Volunteer Point penguins, Falklands
Falkland Islands
The largest king penguin colony in the Falklands, on a white-sand beach, with gentoo and Magellanic penguins too.
Historic sites
Topkapı Palace, Istanbul
Fatih, İstanbul, Turkey
The palace of the Ottoman sultans for nearly 400 years, on a point above the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn, with courtyards, pavilions tiled in Iznik…
Historic sites
Lake Ohrid and Ohrid Old Town
Ohrid, North Macedonia
One of Europe's oldest and deepest lakes, shared with Albania, with Ohrid town on its shore, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Tours and activities
Nile felucca and cruise, Aswan
Aswan, Egypt
Sail the Nile at Aswan on a felucca, a traditional wooden sailing boat, past Elephantine Island and the Botanical Garden, at sunset.
Tours and activities
Middle Rhine Valley and the Lorelei
Bornich, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
The stretch of the Rhine between Bingen and Koblenz is lined with steep vineyards, medieval castles on almost every hilltop, and pretty wine villages…
Natural features
Killarney National Park
Killarney, Kerry, Ireland
Ireland's first national park, with lakes, woods and mountains next to the town of Killarney.