Madrid

As a tourist destination, Madrid is filled with fascinating areas to explore. There are the wide, gracefully tree lined major avenues and boulevards, the trendy and cosmopolitan buildings, and, in contrast, the old areas that twist and wind with quaint streets and cozy cafes. Together, these combine to provide many days of discovery of the treasured past and the exciting present of Madrid. Madrid is located in the center of the Iberian Peninsula and has served as the capital of Spain since 1562. Its southern and elevated location allows for warm, dry summers and cool winters, providing excellent traveling weather all year round. One cannot help but notice a prominent green expanse on the map of Madrid. Parque Del Retiro is more than a nature walk. In fact, many visitors return several times during their stay for the wide variety of entertainment provided by street performers, boaters, skaters, and puppeteers. The city offers many interesting museums, with the world-famous Prado National Museum leading the way. Housed in an 18th-century building, the Prado features the works of Rubens, Goya, El Greco, Bosch, Velazquez, Titian and many others. Madrid’s most famous contemporary art museum is the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. Its centerpiece is Picasso’s enormous antiwar masterpiece, Guernica. The highly acclaimed works of the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection are displayed at the Villahermosa Palace.

London

Some seven million Londoners live in the greater London area, a parcel of land that covers more than 609 square miles. Actually, The City Center of London is just 1 mile square, but fans out into many picturesque villages, boroughs, and corporations that add to its historical significance and its charm.     As Europe's largest city, London is host to more than 25 millions visitors a year; yet, it is never too crowded to be enjoyable. There is always time for tea and a leisurely stroll through London's famous parks and gardens. Popular destinations abound, including theatres, concert halls, shops, restaurants, sports venues, world famous landmarks, and hundreds of restaurants with cuisine from around the world.  Festivals and musical, theatrical, and sporting events occur year round.     London offers the best of British food, fashion and cultural pursuits, but its multicultural population gives it an international flair, as well. Nearly 40 ethnic groups with populations of 10,000 or more call London home. Together with a multitude of visitors from around the globe, they give the city its vibrant mix of languages, dress, festivals, and lively street life.

Lisbon

The city of the seven hills, where we “little lettuces”, as we call our selves, like to wonder around, up and down.From this land, mostly from Belém, great explorers left in huge sailing boats just a few hundred years ago. Since then, things have changed. Lisbon has no longer the power it once had, that’s no news… But this has left a legacy that has been kept well alive. Long wide Avenues are today full of nice cafés, shops and street artists that keep the streets busy while the small bairros add to it a very particular feeling. Old buildings, churches, cathedrals and a Castle are just a few of its offerings. The city where Fado still says much of its inhabitants, Lisbon is now struggling to get into the vanguard of high fashion, design and trendy offerings, maintaining most of the good old traditions. You can still find an excellent Marisqueira in Bairro Alto, a popular night hang out, or choose for a top chef design restaurant in Santos, the new design district. At Sintra you can discover a whole new world, walking the village narrow streets that resemble a little bit to Alfama, or visiting its Castle, Palaces and beautiful gardens.Lisbon is blessed with a unique light. After all, Cristo Rei has been embracing this city form the other side of Tagus river for quite a while...

Istanbul

Istanbul sits on the Bosphorus Strait, where Europe and Asia meet. Once the capital of both the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, the city is home to landmarks of astounding beauty such as Topkapi Palace, the Blue Mosque and the Grand Bazaar.

Hong Kong

Whether flying over the city or navigating into the port via the temperamental South China Sea, the magnificent islands suddenly take form as if in a mirage, enticing the traveler to a closer look at this oasis of ancient tradition commingled with sleek, corporate towers. With 150 years of British colonial influence woven into 5,000 years of Chinese culture, Hong Kong is a city of contrasts. From the ancient Chinese temples, to an upbeat entertainment district with its karaoke bars, Hong Kong truly enchants visitors with everything from food, art, architecture, to the traditional festivals.

Hanoi

New foreign motorcycles fly past "tai chi" practitioners going through their slow, deliberate movements. Ho Chi Minh lies motionless as beautiful, historic Hanoi, with its tree-lined boulevards and lakeside pagodas, moves tentatively into the future.

Florence

Florence (Firenze in Italian) is the capital of the region of Tuscany, on Italy’s northwest coast. Florence is a small city, located in the Arno River valley, and surrounded by olive-planted hills on the north and south. It extends west and slightly east along the Arno valley with suburbs and light industry. The centro storico (historic center), where visitors spend most of their time, is a tight tangle of medieval streets and piazze (squares). Most of Florence, and the majority of the tourist sites, lie north of the river, within a vintage artisan’s working-class neighborhood wedged between the Arno and the hills on the south side.

Cape Town

With the skyline dominated by the majestic bulk of Table Mountain, and surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the feel of this city, is of a people looking to the future.

Buenos Aires

Incredible nightlife and fascinating architecture; stunning women and sultry tangos; huge steaks and first class football; Maradona and Evita....Life is a celebration in glamorous B.A.!

Budapest

Budapest is a thriving city of over two million people. Budapest and Vienna were twin capitals of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, making it much easier to understand the stunning architecture that fills the city.    The numerous sights can occupy travelers for weeks. The most prominent structure on the skyline is the castle, which easily provides a full day of exploration. A trip through the district of Watertown takes one back in time to gas-lit streets and asymmetrical houses. The numerous bathhouses and natural spas soothe and relax their patrons. The National Opera house performances are sell-outs, and can be counted among the world's best.

Berlin

Berlin pulses with life; it is a city that never sleeps. The capital of Germany is paved with cobbled streets dating back 750 years. At the same time, it is gloriously modern.     For nearly 30 years, Berlin was really two cities: East and West Berlin, with a wall in between that was meant to be impenetrable. In 1989 all that changed. The wall came down, and the two parts of the city were reunited. In the years since 1989, Berlin has been not only reborn, but reinvented.     The speed of change has been astounding, with the city's entire center of gravity shifting from west to east. The action ( sights, restaurants and nightlife) is now found in eastern Berlin. It's an exciting scene and, for anyone familiar with the eastern streets of a few years ago, a slightly unbelievable one. Much of the new city is already in place: parliament sits in the renovated Reichstag; Potsdamer Platz, once leveled to a field in the Wall's death zone, is now a bustling quarter with 110 new shops, 30 restaurants, a theater, a film museum, and a casino; and the city's world-class collection of European art has been reunited in the Gemaldegalerie.  A fresh vibrancy is everywhere: on the boulevards, in the art and flea markets, in the 300 trendy night-spots and the 7,000 pubs and restaurants. Visitors can enjoy three opera houses, two great concert halls and 35 theatres, plus cabarets, musicals and revues. Art-lovers can tour 170 excellent museums. this revitalized Berlin has been called the "New York City" of Europe.     One of the most popular activities in Berlin is river cruising. Tourist boats cruise the city's waterways, stopping at picturesque parks and castles.     The city of Berlin lies in the middle of the state of Brandenburg, just a few miles from countless lakes, historical castles, stately homes, abbeys, heaths, pine forests, river valleys and tree-lined country roads. Few cities have such a wealth of unspoiled natural and cultural attractions in the direct vicinity. Berlin is linked to its surrounding areas both by the Spree and Havel rivers and by their common historical heritage, reflected in the many fascinating sights.   

Barcelona

Barcelona is the most cosmopolitan and economically active city in Spain, and has always managed to stay ahead or abreast of the latest international trends. This is evident in the architecture, which so accurately reflects the zest for life of this city of vivid colors and boundless energy. Barcelona is a progressive, commercially sophisticated, upper middle class European city, while at the same time being traditionalist and typically Mediterranean. Wherever you stay in Barcelona, the excellent public transportation system gives easy access to the entire city. A visitor might choose to stay in the old town near the bustling boulevard known as La Rambla within walking distance of centuries old, architecturally splendid buildings. Another choice would be the spacious Eixample district with its wealth of shopping opportunities and fine restaurants. Whatever the choice, Barcelonians will be delighted to have you sharing the beauty of their city.

Bangkok

In the midst of dynamic growth as a fast paced modern commercial center, Bangkok manages to preserve its cultural heritage to a marked degree. The soaring roofs and gleaming spires of the Grand Palace and the city's many historic temples: Temple of the Emerald Buddha, Temple of Dawn and other shrines present the visitor with a picture of medieval Oriental wonder; as in an Eastern fairytale. Metropolitan Bangkok covers 612 sq mi of southern Thailand, and is located in the center of the most fertile rice producing delta in the world. A network of natural and artificial canals crisscross the city. They feed to and from Thailand's hydrological lifeline, the broad Chao Phraya River, which winds through the city providing transport for passengers and cargo. With an easy access to the river provided by the new skytrain, travelers who stay in the city can now enjoy the highlight of any visit to Bangkok, a boat cruise along the Chao Praya River. Bangkok is divided in two by the main north-south train line. Old Bangkok, where a large number of the city's temples and palaces and its Chinese and Indian districts are found, lies between the river and the railway. East of the railway, comprising the main business, tourist and sprawling residential districts, is 'new' Bangkok. Outside of these general classifications, Bangkok sprawls in all directions with a mixture of commercial, industrial and residential areas. Outside the city center are new high-rise neighborhoods where most of the city's approximately ten million inhabitants reside. Bangkok is the region's most exotic and, at the same time, most noisy and most chaotic capital city. Bangkok is both an ancient and a modern city, where the network of klongs (canals) offset a steady stream of automobile traffic, where giant outdoor markets compete with glittering shopping malls, and where modern buildings rise in the city that grew around the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. It is the financial capital of one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Bangkok continues to prosper in spite of a major economic setback in 1997, and the ongoing problem of some of the worst air and water pollution in the world.

Athens

Athens can seem overwhelming at first. The mountains, the rocks, the historic ruins, the panoramic views of valleys and sea: nothing is small. Athens is not scrubbed and polished; it has an ancient, lived-in look as befits a city that has been inhabited for at least 4,500 years. Yet, it is so modern. An interesting feature of Athens is that it is a study in contradictions! At one moment you will be walking on modern streets with malls and superstores, then you will turn onto a side street and suddenly find yourself in another world with open air meat and fish markets, vegetable and fruit stands, and pigs, rabbits, and cows hanging upside down by their feet. There are ruins in unexpected places throughout the city. What first appears to be a modern street will have fenced off areas containing parts of ancient toppled columns, statues, etc. They have been sitting there for hundreds of years and are now fenced for protection. Repair and restoration work is ongoing. A visit to the Acropolis will include the sight of workmen and ladders everywhere. The extensive work of preservation is impressive.

Amsterdam

Imagine walking into a coffeeshop and buying marijuana with your cappuccino, or hunting for souvenirs and ending up in a sex shop. This can happen to you in Amsterdam. But cannabis and the Red Light District are only two of the many different attraction the city has to offer.Romantic canals lined by 17th century architecture criss-cross the city. Just strolling around has the feel of visiting an open-air museum. Shop for tulips, bulbs and wooden shoes at the floating Flower Market. Soak up culture in the Rijksmuseum, van Gogh Museum and Anne Frankhuis. Add a windmill, a canal boat cruise and a Heineken or three.The result is a city full of luscious ingredients and as tasty as the famous Dutch appelgebak or apple pie.

Glasgow

Edinburgh

Edinburgh - the capital of Scotland - is one of Europe’s most beautiful medieval cities. With charming cobblestone streets, elegant Georgian town homes, and breathtaking vistas from a number of vantage points, the city really does offer something for everybody. You can find winding lanes filled with boutique shops and pubs, or take advantage of the easy access to the outdoors and go exploring in the Scottish countryside. There is also an enchanting modern side of the city with progressive art galleries, exciting bars and nightclubs that give this city a cosmopolitan feel with a Scottish twist. Don’t forget that Edinburgh is the City of Festivals so there’s never a dull moment, even here in this small city. Come visit "Auld Reekie" and experience Scottish hospitality at its best.