Europe's kinky over-the-knee boot has it all: popes, painters, paparazzi, polenta, paramours, poets, political puerility and potentates. Its dreamy light and sumptuous landscapes seem made for romance, and its three millennia of history, culture and cuisine seduces just about everyone.
You can visit Roman ruins, gawk at Renaissance art, stay in tiny medieval hill towns, go skiing in the Alps, explore the canals of Venice and gaze at beautiful churches. Naturally you can also indulge in the pleasures of la dolce vita: good food, good wine and good shopping.
Spain
“The Spanish passion for living is deliciously contagious.”
The Spanish invented the novel and the guitar, gave the world flamenco, Picasso and gazpacho and dreamed up some of the world's most fabulously out-there architecture. Their influence on 20th-century art and design has been inestimable, and if all that's not enough, they're relentlessly well dressed, insouciant and have a contagious knack for enjoying life.
You could be in Spain only once you are away from the holiday coasts. In the cities, narrow twisting old streets suddenly open out to views of daring modern architecture, while spit-and-sawdust bars serving wine from the barrel rub shoulders with blaring, glaring discos.
Travel is easy, accommodation plentiful, the climate benign, the people relaxed, the beaches long and sandy, the food and drink easy to come by and full of regional variety. More than 50 million foreigners a year visit Spain, yet you can also travel for days and hear nothing but Spanish.
France
“Douce France taught the world just how sweet life could get.”
The French wrote the book la vie en rose and gave the world champagne and camembert, de Beauvoir and Debussy, Asterix and the Gros Obelix, the Tour de France and the Tour Eiffel. There's a term for their seductive lifestyle - Douce France (Sweet France) and you'll find yourself using it often.
Although the ubiquity of Levis and Le Big Mac flusters the country's cultural purists, anything from a year in Provence to a weekend in Paris will explain why half the world grows dreamy over stalking Cyrano's streets or picnicking Manet-style sur l'herbe
Food is a subject of endless rumination. Consider just some of the country's epicurean delights - foie gras, truffles, Roquefort cheese, well-built crustaceans, succulent snails plucked off grape vines, sharp-tasting fruit tarts - and you begin to appreciate the culinary zeal of the French. But one cannot live on escargot and vin de table alone. France's North African and Asian populations have contributed to the pot, bringing spice and colour to many dishes.
French obsessions with spectator sports such as soccer, rugby, basketball and cycling, especially the Tour de France, should not be overlooked. Traditional games such as pétanque (similar to lawn bowling but played on a hard surface) are also popular.
Costa Rica
“More coastline than you can shake a surfboard at.”
Costa Rica is Central America's jewel. It's an oasis of calm among its turbulent neighbours and an ecotourism heaven, making it one of the best places to experience the tropics with minimal impact. It's also mostly coastline, which means great surfing, beaches galore and a climate built for laziness.
Costa Rica is noted more for its natural beauty and friendly people than for its culture. The overwhelming European influence erased almost all indigenous culture, and because Costa Rica was a country of subsistence agriculturalists until the middle of the 19th century, cultural activity has only begun to flourish in the last 100 years.
Costa Rica's enlightened approach to conservation has ensured that lush jungles are home to playful monkeys, languid sloths, crocodiles, countless lizards, poison-dart frogs and a mind-boggling assortment of exotic birds, insects and butterflies. Meanwhile, endangered sea turtles nest on both coasts and cloud forests protect elusive birds and jungle cats.
Food is an important aspect of life in Costa Rica. Although traditional dishes run to the South American staples of beef, chicken and fish dishes, with rice, corn or beans and fresh fruit as supplements, most of this fare has given way to the ubiquitous pizza and burger option. And even these can only be included in 'cuisine' by stretching the definition to its breaking point. Also be warned that Ticos love to spice up European dishes with salt - lots of it. We're talking of lip-puckering, instant-dehydrating, body-shuddering proportions. On the positive side, their coffee is sublime. Even the coffee that accompanies the limp burger from the fast-food joint is a cut above your average North American cuppa coffee.
China
“Monolithic scale, a long and potent history, a future looming large.”
China isn't a country - it's a different world. Unless you have a couple of years and unlimited patience, it's best to follow a loose itinerary here, such as following the Silk Route, sailing down the Yangzi River, or exploring the Dr Seuss landscape of Guangxi Province.
From shop-till-you-drop metropolises to the desert landscapes of Xinjiang, China is a land of cultural and geographic schisms. It's not that it has completely done away with its Maoist past - it's more that the yin of revolutionary zeal is being balanced by the yang of economic pragmatism.
Chances are, if it exists in the West, it came from the East. Think anything from noodles, calligraphy and ceramics to golf, ice-cream, opera, fireworks, architecture and philosophy. The Chinese were casting bronze around 5000 years ago, and the earliest chopsticks were not far behind. Chinese culture has made one of the greatest artistic contributions to humankind. Sadly, much of China's ancient art treasures have been destroyed in times of civil war or dispersed by invasion or natural calamity.
Within the last 200 years, China has undergone tremendous social and economic upheaval, all taking its toll on the national psyche. Chinese culture took a beating during the Cultural Revolution and is still recovering. There is a large cultural gap between Hong Kong and Macau and the rest of China. Hong Kong and Macau, while outwardly more modern, are also more traditionally Chinese because they didn't experience the Cultural Revolution.
South Korea
“A country of green outdoors and sage people.”
South Korea is a country swathed in green, prodding its stony fingers skyward, and the Koreans are a people obsessed with nature, and with mountains in particular. Wherever you travel, you'll see Koreans out in the open air, clad in the latest adventure fashions, pushing ever onward and upward.
With China looming to its west and Japan nudging it from the east, it's no wonder the country has played unwilling host to centuries of war games. But no matter how many times its neighbours try to swallow it, South Korea manages to survive intact.
The South Koreans have turned their hand to just about any art form you can name. Traditional music is similar to that of Japan and China, with an emphasis on strings. The two main forms are the stately chongak and the folksier minsogak. Seoul is not just a city but also a showpiece of modern and traditional architecture; don't miss the city gates and the Chosun-era Gyeongbokgung Palace.
Vietnam
“Luscious beauty everywhere, from delicate design to Technicolor sunsets.”
Most visitors to Vietnam are overwhelmed by the sublime beauty of the country's natural setting: the Red River Delta in the north, the Mekong Delta in the south and almost the entire coastal strip are a patchwork of brilliant green rice paddies tended by women in conical hats.
There are some divine beaches along the coast, while inland there are soaring mountains, some of which are cloaked by dense, misty forests. Vietnam also offers an opportunity to see a country of traditional charm and rare beauty rapidly opening up to the outside world.
Vietnamese cuisine is especially varied - there are said to be nearly 500 different traditional dishes that include exotic meats (but consider carefully before you eat a rare animal) and fantastic vegetarian creations (often prepared to replicate meat and fish dishes). However, the staple of Vietnamese cuisine is plain white rice dressed up with a plethora of vegetables, fish (which is common in Vietnam), meat, spices and sauces. Spring rolls, noodles and steamed rice dumplings are popular snacks, and the ubiquitous soups include eel and vermicelli, shredded chicken and bitter soups. Fruit is abundant; some of the more unusual ones include green dragon fruit, jujube, khaki, longan, mangosteen, pomelo, three-seed cherry and water apple. Vietnamese coffee (ca phe phin) is very good; it's usually served very strong and very sweet.
Thailand
“A Mélange of the Mythic and the Modern.”
The Kingdom of Thailand draws more visitors than any other country in Southeast Asia with its irresistible combination of breathtaking natural beauty, inspiring temples, renowned hospitality, robust cuisine and ruins of fabulous ancient kingdoms. Few countries are so well endowed.
From the stupa-studded mountains of Mae Hong Son and the verdant limestone islands of the Andaman Sea, to the pulse-pounding dance clubs of Bangkok and the tranquil villages moored along the Mekong River, Thailand offers something for every type of traveller.
Religion and monarchy are the cornerstones of Thai culture, and they permeate everyday life. It's the custom to stand for the royal anthem before films are shown, and the national anthem is played across towns, villages and even Bangkok Sky-train stations twice daily.
For the beach-holidaymaker and Bangkok fly-by-nighter, it is often easy to overlook these cultural subtleties - the Thais are a gregarious and accepting lot - but a little bit of respect goes a long way in finding out more about Thailand's people and culture.
Egypt
“The mythical, the miraculous and the chaotic, everyday.”
In the fifth century BC Herodotus wrote of Egypt that 'nowhere are there so many marvellous things...nor in the world besides are to be seen so many things of unspeakable greatness' - and not too much has changed. The Sphinx, the Nile, ancient Luxor, the pyramids - Egypt's scope is glorious.
It's not just the Pharaonic monuments that have drawn travellers to this country since long before the birth of Christ - it's the legacy of the Greeks, Romans and early Christians, and the profusion of art and architecture accumulated from centuries of successive Islamic dynasties.
For most Egyptians life and lifestyle have changed little for hundreds of years. 20th century commercialism made impressions in the form of brand-name soda pop, Levis and TV. However, for the majority fellaheen (peasant farmers) population, things today are much the same as they have always been. There's a prevailing attitude amongst most Egyptians that whatever will be will be. This doesn't seem to stop music, art and writing from thriving, however.
