50 must-see places:

• ✔ Paris: Most visitors to the "city of light" come away with superlatives — the "most romantic", the "most chic" shops, restaurants beyond compare. There are few cities in the world as wonderful as Paris.
• ✔ Angkor Wat: Cambodia's man-made spectacle is totally awesome. When kings tried to outdo each other, their temples became larger and grander. What remains is an area covered in massive stone buildings.
• ✔ Sydney Harbour: The world's most beautiful harbour. The Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge set off a busy harbour of ferries, work boats and pleasure craft, little bays and sandy beaches.
• ✔ Great Barrier Reef: Off Queensland's coast, the reef is popular for those wanting to fish, dive, snorkel, swim, relax on a boat or take daytrips from the mainland. Many islands offer a great range of accommodation for all budgets. It is one of the world's natural wonders.
• ✔ London: The capital of England, with so much history and culture and plenty of new things to see — galleries, old buildings, royal palaces, excellent theatre and everything from the ultra-conservative to the funky.
• ✔ New York City: Manhattan is a traveller's dream. In such a small space, it has everything — tall buildings, the Hudson River, Central Park, Times Square, Broadway, shops, restaurants, hotels, theatre and a cultural mix influenced by every country in the world.
• Venice: Europe's dream city, cocooned in its magical lagoon. Streets of water lap against an urban fabric filled with colourful masterpieces by Bellini, Titian and Tiepolo. It has lived through Veneto-Byzantine, Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance influences, but is vulnerable to flooding.
• Pyramids of Giza: The Pyramids are more than 4500 years old, the only surviving monuments of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World. An Arabic saying is that "man fears time, but time fears the pyramids".
• Santorini: Officially known as Thira, this is regarded by many as Greece's most spectacular island — and it has some pretty stiff competition. It sits in the sparkling Aegean Sea, with its whitewashed houses looking like a postcard come to life. It does become crowded and is too commercial, but still should not be missed.
• Bora Bora: A 10-kilometre-long island in Tahiti, with smaller islands in its lagoon and a ring of islands on its reef, Bora Bora is a true get-away-from-it-all place. You can spend thousands of dollars a night for luxury accommodation or stay in a family-run pensione.
• South African safari: Sabi Sabi gives you the chance to see the "big five" — lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo. It is also home to zebra, antelope, giraffe, monkey, cheetah, baboon, hyena, wildebeest, warthog and 360 species of bird, as well as diverse and unique flora.
• Taj Mahal: Described as the most extravagant monument ever built for love, the spectacular, white mausoleum in India's Agra is as immaculate today as when it was built in 1653. Its gardens are set out along classical Persian lines, a square quartered by watercourses with an ornamental marble plinth at the centre.
• Uluru: Also known as Ayers Rock, this is a monolith of arkosic sandstone. It measures 9.4 kilometres around its girth and is 345 metres high, but there are kilometres of it below the surface. It changes colour in the light and is particularly spectacular at sunrise and sunset.
• Milford Sound: In New Zealand's fiordland on the south island, the region of Te Anau is known as the walking capital of the world. Milford Sound has immense towering cliffs and sharply rising peaks. Its beauty is almost impossible to describe; it is a must for those who love the outdoors.
• Machu Picchu: High in South America's Andes mountains, the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu give glorious views in every direction. It is a mystical and magical place. Rafting in the Sacred Valley of the Incas is an experience that cannot be duplicated.
• Maldives: Five-thousand kilometres south-west of India, 1190 low-lying coral islands make up the Maldives. Just 200 are inhabited. Vegetation is lush and tropical, with palm trees, sand spits and coral tips. Romantic, active … the Maldives can be whatever you want them to be.
• Las Vegas: The bright lights of the Nevada desert assure visitors of a lot of late nights. There is entertainment of every kind and places to stay from seedy motels to the grandest, five-star hotels in the world. You don't have to gamble to enjoy what Vegas has to offer.
• Swiss Alps: Glacier-carved valleys, breathtaking peaks topped with ice and snow, wooden chalets adorned with flowers, soft, green meadows ringing with the sound of cow bells … and that's before you taste the chocolate!
• Kakadu: Aboriginal land stretching 100 kilometres west to east, offering superb landscape and wildlife and fabulous cave paintings. Arnhem Land runs along its eastern side, a place of grassland, rainforest and billabongs filled with lilies.
• Bali: The beautiful Indonesian island of smiling, friendly people is a wonderful place for a holiday. From temples, to incredible beaches, to fantastic food … Bali still has a huge amount to offer.
• Grand Canyon: Four hundred and fifty kilometres of the Colorado River and adjacent uplands, located entirely in northern Arizona, this is one of the world's most-spectacular examples of erosion. Grand Canyon National Park is a World Heritage site.
• Rome: If it's history you love, Rome has layers of it. Etruscan tombs, Republican meeting rooms, imperial temples, early Christian churches, the Vatican, the Forum, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, sculptures and statues face you at every turn. Plus great shopping and food and, of course, coffee by the litre.
• Ireland: The green country with so many counties to choose from... For many it has an almost mystical lure. Some go for the source of fine writing, some go for the music, some go to uncover family roots. The people are warm and friendly, accommodation is plentiful … but don't ever go without your raincoat.
• The Great Wall of China: The huge, serrated wall zigzags its way east to west, north of Beijing. It is so vast it's said to be visible from the moon. Construction began in the seventh-century BC, with states building their own walls for defence. It stretches 6000 kilometres and has been renovated from time to time.
• Arctic/Antarctic: The ultimate destinations, stark white, silent and breathtaking. Not easy to reach, but worth the trip, especially if you are fortunate enough to see Aurora borealis and Aurora australis, nature's great lightshows.
• Gallipoli: This part of Turkey, the site where many so young men lost their lives or sustained lingering injuries in World War I, cannot adequately be described in words. It is now a haunting yet inspirational place and the focal point of annual Anzac Day ceremonies.
• Mt Everest: This magnificent mountain offers a spiritual journey, past yaks, monasteries, butter lamps on altars and the smell of burning juniper all around.
• St Barts: Of the many islands in the Caribbean, St Barts in the French West Indies is among the most exclusive, with a high concentration of wealth, fame and glamour.
• St Petersburg: This is Russia's most "European" city, with palaces and monuments which are so extravagant and beautiful they helped spark the Russian Revolution. The excesses of the tsars while their people starved led to the storming of the Winter Palace, now called the Hermitage, with priceless artworks now on display to the masses.
• Victoria Falls: A hundred metres of crashing water forming a curtain of seven-million litres of water every second, these falls are twice as tall as Niagara.
• Tokyo: Intense and electrifying, Japan's largest city is a place of super-charged shopping. And for those keen on technology, this is where it all starts, with gadgets for everything, superseded as soon as they hit the shops.
• Petra: This ancient city in the desert of Jordan is stunning and majestic. Nabasteans carved the city into a mountain to protect themselves from marauding tribes. Once a major centre of the ancient world, when trade routes changed it was lost to the world for 15 centuries.
• Cuba: Images of Castro, the aroma of the world's best cigars … Cuba is a land of politics and passion. It is a poor country with a rich culture. With lots of great music and big old American cars, Cuba swings with a special energy.
• Ice Hotel: Sweden and Canada offer the ultimate in cool. Each winter they carve a fully-operational hotel out of ice. Everything is made out of ice, including your bed. Skin sleeping bags keep you warm. Staying overnight is quite an experience!
• Galapagos: Nature lovers adore this time capsule island, 1000km off the coast of Ecuador. It has resident creatures which disappeared from the rest of the planet eons ago. The marine iguana had to learn to swim to survive and helped inspire Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
• Rio de Janeiro: The famous Copacabana Beach attracts many tourists each year. Sip Brazilian coffee while you watch the girls (and boys) from Ipanema pass by or climb the wondrous Corcorvado to the open arms of the statue of Christ the Redeemer.
• Prague: Castles and cathedrals have given this beautiful place the name "the City of One Hundred Spires". The capital of the Czech Republic is a treasure chest of history.
• Palace of the Lost City: South Africa is home to one of the world's most extraordinary hotels. It offers an overload of African images and is totally over the top. The Lost City is make-believe, but the crocodiles around the golf course are the real thing.
• Cinque Terre: "Five lands" made up of beautiful rural villages along Italy's Gulf of Genoa. There are wonderful walking trails, views, seafood and the best pesto you've ever tasted!
• New Orleans: Home of jazz, mardi gras, the Missississippi, hot food and uninhibited people, New Orleans is an exciting melting pot of life.
• Banaue rice terraces: The rice terraces on the island of Luzon in the Philippines are 2000 years old and an engineering feat rivalling the Pyramids and the Great Wall of China. If they were joined end to end, they would reach halfway around the globe.
• Inside Passage, Alaska: Wonderful and dramatic scenery. Ships gently and gracefully glide past fjords, forests and landscape which changes before your eyes.
• Twelve Apostles: Off the south coast of Victoria along the Great Ocean Road, these spectacular formations have been sculpted by wind and waves.
• Barcelona: Barcelona is fiercely independent from the rest of Spain. It is bold, has enormous flair, mouth-watering food and some wild architecture, mostly designed by the eccentric Antoni Gaudi.
• The Amazon: The world's greatest river, second longest to the Nile, the Amazon is 6280km of water feeding the world's biggest rainforest. You can cruise along in style, drop in to sample village life and dance to the rhythms of the rainforest.
• The Burj al Arab, Dubai: The Arabian Tower is the only hotel to have ever been awarded seven stars. It is shaped like the sail of a traditional dhow and oozes luxury.
• Graceland: The home of Elvis Presley and one of the most visited places in the US. Pilgrims flock to Memphis, Tennessee, to see where the King lived.
• Canadian Rockies: Take the Rocky Mountaineer through the Rockies and be in awe of its splendour. Even in winter you will be in air-conditioned comfort in domed viewing carriages while admiring the rugged wilderness.
• Zanzibar: This island off Africa's east coast is a traveller's dream. It has beautiful beaches, amazing markets with pungent spices and architecture straight from the Arabian Nights. Stone Town is a World Heritage site listed with the UN.