Crete, the largest of Greek islands, is a place where myth meets history, where the age-old Cretan culture teems in modern villas, where the sea meets the mountains, and unspoiled nature coexists with modern tourist infrastructure. Crete has a thousand faces: one for each and every sort of traveller: the nature-lover, the explorer, the cosmopolitan, the lover of history, and the classic vulture.

Karlstad is a wonderfully compact Swedish city, built on a grid pattern with wide, tree-lined streets, avenues, promenades, and squares. Karlstad has a "big city" feel, with many quality hotels and other accommodation options, with the advantage that the city’s many attractions are just a short walk away: shopping streets, malls and arcades, culture, historical sites, urban nature activities, parks, transport, and amenities. Don’t forget that this is child-friendly Sweden and children are welcome everywhere in Karlstad.

Bucolic beauty envelops the small, unincorporated town of Arnold, California. Resting at the center of the 400-mile Sierra Nevada mountain range, Arnold is a breath, sigh, and smile of fresh air. Testaments to this are the mild summer temperatures, a close proximity to stunning natural wonders, and the overall seclusion of Arnold’s favored attractions.

For over a century, guaranteed snow, hospitality, tradition and sophisticated tranquillity have been attracting winter sports enthusiasts from all over the world to Lech Zürs am Arlberg. It is one of the select group of twelve villages known as the "Best of the Alps". It is not only ambitious sportspeople who appreciate this heavenly winter landscape. The winter season 2016/2017 also has plenty to offer walkers, gourmets and culture lovers. Ski Arlberg provides an unparalleled skiing experience with a total of 87 cable cars and lifts, 305 kilometres of ski runs and 200 kilometres of high Alpine deep powder snow runs.

Just 250 kilometres north of the polar circle, the summer sun shines for almost two months without going down, while the polar nights offer the most intense Northern Lights that can be seen. In Kiruna, the northernmost city in Sweden, you can go slalom skiing until midsummer or spend the night in a magnificent hotel built from ice. The phrase "kingdom of contrasts" is overused, but Kiruna truly embodies it.