South America

The Incas’ magnificent 15th-century mountaintop citadel sprawls across ten hectares of Peruvian cloud forest. Wayna Picchu, the cone-shaped mountain, rises imperiously behind.

A once-in-a-lifetime, 4- to 5-day hike through the Andes, retracing ancient trails, combines mountain vistas, cloud forest and subtropical jungle. The finale is incredible – the lost Inca city of Machu Picchu, rising from the misty mountains.

The world’s biggest party – a stadium parade with fabulous floats, music and sequinned samba dancers, and dozens of street parties and balls.

A land of spectacular deserts, high mountains and rainforests that teem with wildlife, Peru is also home to an array of dramatically situated pre-Colombian ruins, including Machu Picchu.

Heaven for healthy hedonists – hang glide, surf or hike by day, relax on the beach and party all night. Then, of course, there’s that carnival…

Earth’s largest and most spectacular tropical wilderness is a landscape of huge waterfalls tumbling off table-top mountains, vast, coloured rivers, and fragrant cloud forests. All filled with astonishing, endemic wildlife.

A visit here is a life-changing experience. You’ll see wildlife that exists nowhere else, from prehistoric-looking iguanas to penguins, blue-footed boobies, giant tortoises and sharks. Extraordinary wildlife encounters take place against a backdrop of ancient volcanoes, jagged lava rocks, cacti and beaches of powdery white.

Peru’s capital, while not the most appealing of cities, does offer stately colonial architecture, fascinating museums of Peru’s empirical; history and world-class dining.

The heart of the old Inca empire has a wealth of Inca ruins, Spanish treasures and historic architecture to explore.

Two National Parks – one in Brazil, one in Argentina – created to protect an astonishing 3km-wide waterfalls in a vast area of protected rainforest. One of the world’s great natural wonders.