As testified by epic movies like Shogun and Ran, Nagoya City is pure history, centred around Nagoya Castle. It was the Expo 2005 that put Nagoya on the world map. Post-Expo, Nagoya is positioning itself both as a centre for hi-tech industries and as a tourist gateway. Toyota Cars, old and new famed ceramics, Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, dolls and robots castles, feudal villas and farmhouses pearls, and a plethora of shopping and nightlife spots await you in this not-so-obvious choice of a Japanese destination.

If Saigon is the frenetic, commercial heartbeat of Vietnam, then verdant and historic Hanoi is the sedate, intellectual soul of the country. Its leafy boulevards, serene lakes, and sweeping white French colonial architecture set the scene as tourists and locals go about their business at a pleasingly civilised pace.

Morocco’s capital city of Rabat is more than its magnificent medina (old town), which has been named a World Heritage Site: situated by the Bouregreg River and the Atlantic Ocean, the city has been an important commercial, cultural and military centre throughout history. Stroll through its tiny alleys, witness sites of French colonial heritage and enjoy Rabat’s open-minded atmosphere.

Rising from the deep blue Aegean Sea, Santorini blends its dramatic volcanic cliffs and black-and-red sand beaches with whitewashed houses and blue domes clinging to the caldera. It feels both ancient and dreamlike—quintessentially Greek, but with a twist.