Краткое описание: Set across a series of hills overlooking the broad estuary of the Rio Tejo (River Tagus), Lisbon’s stunning location and effortless beauty immediately strike most first-time visitors. It’s an instantly likeable place, a big city, with a population of around two million, but one that remains human enough in pace and scale to be easily taken in over a long weekend.

Краткое описание: Shimmering from the desert haze of Nevada like a latter- day El Dorado, Las Vegas is the most dynamic, spectacular city on earth. At the start of the twentieth century, it didn’t even exist; a hundred years on, it’s home to well over one million people, and still growing fast.

Краткое описание: After decades of negative publicity that branded the island as little more than a budget-level ravers’ paradise, Ibiza is rapidly reasserting itself as one of Spain’s most cosmopolitan corners - an affluent, self- confident island with a fascinating heritage and a vibrant, home-grown music and fashion scene of global reach and importance.

Краткое описание: Facing each other across the Pearl River estuary, Hong Kong and Macau offer the visitor an exciting yet easy entry into the Chinese world. Colonies of Britain and Portugal respectively until they were returned to mainland

China in the 1990s as Special Administrative Regions (SARs), today they seek to establish fresh identities for themselves. While evidence of their colonial past lingers in buildings, languages, food and hi-tech infrastructure, the essentially Chinese heritage underpinning it all is becoming increasingly apparent.

Краткое описание: Basking in gentle subtropical temperatures and year-round sunshine, Gran Canaria might have been custom-designed as a holiday paradise. One of the largest of the Canary Islands and a territory of Spain, the island lies just 210km from the coast of West Africa but 1250 km southwest of Cádiz, the nearest point on the European mainland. It’s far enough south to have almost guaranteed good weather making it a hugely popular winter destination for northern Europeans.

Краткое описание: Laid out over a series of volcanic hills and with its jagged skyline topped by the craggy castle, few European cities can boast Edinburgh’s dramatic impact. The cobbled medieval closes, steep stairways and hidden courtyards of the labyrinthine Old Town, along with the wide thoroughfares and grand Neoclassical facades of the eighteenth-century New Town, together constitute a World Heritage Site - a historic treasure that’s also the heart of the living, working city.

Краткое описание: Although a compact city, more than a quarter of the Republic of Ireland’s population of almost four million lives within Dublin’s boundaries, a figure swelled by more than a million tourist arrivals each year. While it was for centuries the fulcrum of Ireland’s fight for independence from Britain, today celebrated in the numerous memorials that pay homage to the revolutionary struggle, the city has developed into a thriving modern metropolis, which embraced the European ideal far more readily than anyone ever expected.

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The lush, sun-speckled Dominican Republic is the most popular tourist destination in the Caribbean. Prime beachfront stretches along the coast of the verdant island it shares with Haiti, some of it lined with megaresorts and other facilities to handle the crowds, but much of it still remote and unspoiled. Short, inexpensive flights from the US coupled with cheap all-inclusive packages from Europe - added to the low cost of living in the country - make it an easy choice for a carefree, tropical holiday.

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The most unfairly maligned stretch of coast in Europe, the Costa Brava has long been derided as a package holiday, chips-and-sangria destination, an image based solely on two or three towns at its southernmost tip. The truth is that this diverse region matches extraordinary natural beauty with a rich cultural heritage, an accumulated legacy of centuries of invading armies that shows itself in a tapestry of walled towns, fortified farmhouses and ancient hilltop villages.

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In 1896 the novelist and playwright Arnold Bennett complained, “The difference between Bruges and other cities is that in the latter you look about for the picturesque, while in Bruges, assailed on every side by the picturesque, you look curiously for the unpicturesque, and don’t find it easily.”

Perhaps so, but for the modern palate, battered by postwar development, Bruges’ blend of antique architectural styles, from tiny brick cottages to gracious Georgian mansions, is a welcome relief - and retreat.