Sydney, capital of New South Wales and one of Australia’s largest cities, is best known for its harbourfront Sydney Opera House, with a distinctive sail-like design. Massive Darling Harbour and the smaller Circular Quay port are hubs of waterside life, with the arched Harbour Bridge and esteemed Royal Botanic Garden nearby.

Once considered the “country cousin” among Australian cities, Brisbane is today the nation’s third-largest metropolis – and one of the most desirable places to live in the country. Lying on the banks of the meandering Brisbane River, this cosmopolitan city boasts elegant 19th-century sandstone buildings, a lively cultural scene and superb parklands. Brisbane is also your gateway to uniquely Australian adventures, be it the theme parks of the Gold Coast or Queensland’s dazzling beaches.

The beaches south of Brisbane form Queensland’s Gold Coast. Travel tip: Brisbane is pronounced “Bris-bin.”

Airlie Beach is your gateway to the Whitsunday Archipelago. These 74 islands feature pristine fringing reefs, calm, lagoon-like waters, and superb beaches. The archipelago is one of Australia’s premier playgrounds.

The Whitsundays were once mountains. Rising seas at the end of the Ice Age formed the Whitsunday Passage between the islands and the mainland.

For over a century, Bali has fascinated the Western imagination. The island embodies the very essence of the exotic and mysterious East. Steep hillsides of tropical green reveal terraced rice paddies while plantations of coffee, banana, cacao and fragrant spices line the roads. Monkeys haunt the grounds of a sacred temple in a forest, while traditional villages produce intricately stylized batik, superb jewelry and beautiful paintings. And Balinese dance, with its angular movements and rhythms, remains somehow stirring and shocking. Bali may be accessible, but it remains forever exotic.

For all Bali’s scenic beauty, the island has weathered great natural disasters, from the 1963 eruption of Mt. Agung to a massive earthquake in 1976. The island emerged relatively unscathed from the great tsunami of 2004.

Note: All motorcoaches are equipped with air-conditioning.

Singapore – the very name summons visions of the mysterious East. The commercial center of Southeast Asia, this island city-state of four million people is a metropolis of modern high-rise buildings, Chinese shop-houses with red-tiled roofs, sturdy Victorian buildings, Buddhist temples and Arab bazaars. Founded in 1819 by Sir Stamford Raffles of the fabled East India Company, the city is a melting pot of people and cultures. Malay, Chinese, English and Tamil are official languages. Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Hinduism and Christianity are the major faiths. Singapore is an ever-fascinating island boasting colorful traditions, luxurious hotels and some of the finest duty-free shopping in the world.

Lying just 85 miles north of the Equator at the tip of the Malay Peninsula, the island was a haven for Malay pirates and Chinese and Arab traders.

Hailed as the “Pearl of the Andaman Sea,” this island off Thailand’s long southern coast boasts a colorful history. A crossroads for trade, Phuket has been a melting pot of Thai, Malay, Chinese and Western influences. Its importance over the past 500 years stemmed from the island’s natural resources, which include tin, hardwoods and rubber. In the past half-century, Phuket has enjoyed wide popularity as one of the premier travel destinations in Southeast Asia. Travelers are drawn to the island’s beaches, crystalline waters, and dramatic, forested hills.

Sri Lanka conjures up the exotic and the mysterious. Once known as Ceylon, the island boasts a fantastic landscape that ranges from primeval rain forest to the bustling modern streets of Colombo, the capital. A visitor to Sri Lanka has a wealth of options. Relax on some of the world’s finest beaches. Explore the temples, halls and palaces of the last Sinhalese kingdom at Kandy. Or take a guided tour of an elephant orphanage. Colombo also offers an array of charms, from the Royal Botanic Gardens, once a royal pleasure garden, to the Pettah Bazaar, where vendors hawk everything under the sun.

Colombo and Sri Lanka were shaped by Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim and European influences. Colombo also serves as a gateway for Overland Adventures to India.

Oman is commonly described as a Persian Gulf State. Strictly speaking, no part of Oman lies on the Persian Gulf: the nation occupies the southeastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula. Salalah, its second largest city, is an anomaly in Arabia as it benefits from the climatic effects of the yearly monsoon. The city is an oasis where tropical fruits grow abundantly. But as you travel outside the city, along the white beaches of the coast or into the serene mountains, one is soon reminded of the vast desert of the Arabian Peninsula.

Salalah is the birthplace of Oman’s reigning Sultan Qaboos. The city is surrounded by coconut, banana, guava and papaya groves.

The port of Aqaba has been an important strategic and commercial center for over three millennia. Originally called Elath, the home of the Edomites became in Roman times a trading center where goods from as far away as China found entry to Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. Today Aqaba is Jordan’s only seaport, and the city serves as an intriguing gateway for travelers. In the surrounding desert lies the lost city of Petra – a city that may date to 6,000 B.C. – and Wadi Rum, where an English soldier mystic named T.E. Lawrence found his destiny as “Lawrence of Arabia.”

Perched at the apex of the Gulf of Aqaba, Aqaba offers internationally renowned diving opportunities and the richest marine life in the entire Red Sea. The old fortress on the waterfront dates to the 14th-century. Passengers should drink only bottled water while ashore. Please respect local customs and dress accordingly, avoiding exposed shoulders and knees.

Italy’s third-largest city, Naples is a bustling metropolis famed for it stately buildings, crowded streets, pizza – and notoriously bad traffic. However, this beautiful city is rich in centuries-old culture and customs. Naples is also your gateway to the Isle of Capri, the fabled Amalfi Coast and the ruins of Pompeii, buried in ash by the cataclysmic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D.

Naples boasts an ideal location, with both the ruins of Roman cities and the stunning Amalfi Coast in easy reach.

Your gateway to the Eternal City, Civitavecchia has served as Rome’s seaport since the 13th century. The port has a long and venerable history. The emperor Trajan built a pleasure villa near the modern city, while Bernini and Michelangelo designed the harbor fortifications.

Yet the Eternal City eternally beckons. The ancient capital of the Western World and the center of Christianity for nearly 2,000 years, Rome provides an inexhaustible feast. Visit the ruins of the Forum, view the splendors of the Sistine Chapel, or climb the Spanish Steps, once the heart of Rome’s Bohemian Quarter.

Rome has been a magnet luring the world’s greatest artists, architects, and philosophers since the days of the Caesars.

Livorno is the gateway to glorious Tuscany. Visit Florence – the cradle of the Renaissance – home to the Duomo, the Uffizi and the Ponte Vecchio. Here the Medici fostered a city-state whose cultural legacy is as great as classical Athens. Giants like Dante, Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Galileo infused the West with a new creative spirit. Then there is Pisa, Florence’s rival for political power. Pisa, a brash, commercial seafaring town rivaled the great maritime powers of Venice and Genoa. The city was a leader in art and architecture second only to Florence.

Toulon has been the great bastion of the French navy since 1494, when Charles VIII chose its superb harbor as the site for a naval shipyard. Today, Toulon is homeport for the French navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier “Charles de Gaulle.” The city is also the capital of the Var and provides an excellent gateway to the riches of Provence and the Cote d’Azur. To the north and west are medieval Provencal hilltop villages and superb vineyards. To the east lie the fabled coves and beaches of the Cote d’Azur, the setting for the legendary resort of St. Tropez. And everywhere there is the miraculous fusion of sky and sea that forms the essence of Southern France.

Toulon’s Upper Town bears more than a strong resemblance to Paris – in the 1840s, the prefect of the Var was that same Baron Haussmann who gave the City of Light its elegant boulevards and architecture. Haussmann first tried his hand at urban renewal here in Toulon

The 1992 Summer Olympics revealed to the world what Europeans and seasoned travelers already knew – Barcelona is one of the world’s greatest treasures. Vibrant and earthy, commercial and cultural, this city of two million residents is the capital of Spain’s autonomous region of Catalonia. Stroll along the wide, tree-lined promenades of Las Ramblas and marvel at the spires of Gaudi’s Basilica La Sagrada Familia. Or visit the former Olympic Ring on the hill of Montjuic – also home to world-class parks, fountains and museums. Barcelona, which nurtured such artistic giants as Picasso, Dali, Miro and Casals, is definitely a traveler’s paradise.

Palma is the capital city of the island of Mallorca, which is one of Spain’s Balearic Islands. The city is tucked into the protected Bay of Palma, creating an impressive view from the Mediterranean Sea with its imposing Gothic Cathedral towering above the old town and remnants of medieval walls that testify to its ancient history. Mallorca has a varied history, from the Roman occupation in the 2nd century to Moorish control from the 9th to the 13th century. Later reconquered by the Spanish kings, it rose to wealth and power due to its strategic position along the seagoing trade routes between Africa and Europe.

Today, Palma is the largest city, and also the main tourist area, with beaches on either side of the city that overflow with resort hotels. If you venture beyond these environs, the island’s natural beauty abounds, and life continues in a predictably underdeveloped atmosphere of simplicity. This aspect has long been an attraction for writers, painters and musicians that find inspiration here.

Two main languages are spoken on Mallorca – Castilian Spanish and the Balearic dialects of Catalan – hence the different versions of names and spellings throughout the Balearic Islands.

Tangier – the very name conjures up an air of mystery and adventure, a place where Berber tribesmen, Europeans and assorted adventurers meet and mingle in the narrow streets of the Kasbah. The city’s history and culture does little to dispel that sense of mystery. Founded by Carthaginians in the 5th century B.C., the city has seen great powers and would-be conquerors come and go; the city always abides. There is also the Tangier of the mind. Since the 19th century, European and American painters, poets and writers have been drawn to the narrow streets of old city. Delacroix first immortalized Tangier’s landscaped and publicized its charms, giving Europe a taste for the exotic. And American writers like Paul Bowles, William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg made the city a veritable suburb of modern American literature.

For many, the word Casablanca conjures up Hollywood’s vision of an exotic city of intrigue. But the reality is far removed from film fantasy, more complex and fascinating. Casablanca is Morocco’s largest city, the busiest port in North Africa, and home to nearly four million people. An important trading center since the days of the Phoenicians, Casablanca is an evocative blend of more new than old, more familiar than exotic. It is a modern commercial city with an old heart that is home to narrow, cobbled alleys, bazaars and souks, minarets and medinas.

Casablanca is a modern city with beaches bordering the Atlantic and broad, tree-lined avenues. The city is also your gateway to Morocco’s interior and the exotic “Imperial Cities” of Rabat and Marrakech.

Draped across seven hills, Lisbon was once the center of a vast maritime empire that stretched from the west coast of Africa to the Spice Islands of the East Indies. Then, on November 1, 1755, a violent earthquake destroyed two-thirds of the city in the space of 10 minutes. Only the Alfama, the old Moorish quarter, survived. Today, Lisbon is a stately city of Neoclassical buildings and wide plazas. Eternally linked to the sea, Lisbon’s magnificent harbor is spanned by the longest suspension bridge in Europe.

As the cultural heart of Spain’s celebrated Basque country, the shining city of Bilbao is filled with Gothic architecture and landmarks that herald its centuries-old history. But the more modern additions to this post-industrial port town — namely, the spectacular Guggenheim Museum — seem to be drawing the most attention these days.

Founded in the 7th century by St. Fin Barre, Cork is your gateway to romantic Ireland. Stroll down narrow country lanes or see the Lakes of Killarney. The intrepid visitor may scale the narrow passages of Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney Stone. The region around Cork is also home to one of the densest concentration of prehistoric monuments in Western Europe. And, in a land where fable and fact blend to become folklore, it was near Cork that the great Tuatha De Danaan, a race with magical powers, was driven underground by the conquering Celts.

Cobh was the single most important port of emigration from Ireland.

Glasgow was Scotland’s great industrial center during the 19th century. Today, the city remains the commercial and cultural capital of the Lowlands. Lying on the banks of the River Clyde, Glasgow boasts some of the finest Victorian architecture in the entire United Kingdom, including the stately City Chambers. Elegant Princes Square offers excellent shopping, and among the host of museums and galleries, the Burrell Collection features a superb treasure trove of paintings and art objects.

This great industrial port grew to prominence as a result of trade with the Americas. That tradition continued in the ’60s as the Beatles mounted the first wave of rock ‘n’ roll’s “British Invasion”. Actually, the city possesses cultural charms beyond the Beatles. Liverpool is home to two of the finest neoclassical buildings in Europe. At nearby Port Sunlight, magnate William Lever built a model industrial village and created the Lady Lever Gallery. The museum is home to a superb collection of English paintings and furniture.

Visible for miles from sea, the White Cliffs of Dover are an instantly recognizable symbol of England. Modern highways make Dover the doorstep to London – Britain’s ever-fascinating capital. Visitors to this great city have a wealth of pleasures to choose from. Explore the notorious Tower of London and view the Crown Jewels. Visit Windsor Castle or see Westminster Abbey. The choices are fascinating and endless. Dover is also your gateway to Kent’s green countryside, dotted with old medieval towns and castles.

Dover has played a major role in world history since the days of the Norman invasion. Today 13th century Dover Castle dominates a harbour filled with cross-channel ferries and merchant and passenger shipping.