As the setting for King’s Landing in Game of Thrones, Dubrovnik’s fortifications are often splattered with stage blood. Should the camera ever pan back, you’d witness a headland jutting into the blue Adriatic, towers rising over masts of anchored ships and green Dalmatian islands. Explore Europe’s most handsome ramparts – built from the 12th to 17th centuries and never breached – on the circular walking route.

Don’t worry – the waiter in Caffè Florian has seen you. He’ll just take his sweet time preening himself before letting you order a staggeringly overpriced coffee. Think about it this way: you’re in Italy’s oldest cafe, in Europe’s most famous public space – sitting pretty, where much-fêted members of the Old World aristocracy and literate once flounced during their Grand Tour. Napoleon called the Piazza the ‘drawing room of Europe’ when he invaded in 1797, and even the Little Corporal was probably left waiting for his Venetian tea. It’s pointless staring impatiently at that famous clock tower. The camerieri (waiters) rush for no-one, which gives you time to drink in your surrounds and contemplate the historical shenanigans that the square has witnessed over the past millennia, through the Middle Ages and Renaissance period, to now – the age of the disgruntled tourist.

As if Kyoto wasn’t enough to make any self-respecting tourist weep for joy, Arashiyama’s ethereal bamboo grove could be the most magical place in Japan. If you’ve seen Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, you’ll know what to expect. The visual effect of walking among the seemingly infinite stalks of bamboo is like entering another world – the thick green prongs seem to continue endlessly in every direction and there’s a strange quality to the light. Ditch the camera, because there’s a palpable presence to the place that is utterly impossible to capture in pictures. Instead, slowly traverse the singly walkway as it flows gently uphill and contemplate nature as she puts her best foot forward. Drink it in, breathe out. Sigh.

This is America, and there are always options to upsize if you splash more cash, so you’ve a choice: be content with the killer view of the Big Apple from the open-air deck on the 86th floor of the Empire State, or make like King Kong and keep climbing to the top, where a smaller, enclosed space awaits on 102. Photographers and romantics prefer the tactile lower experience, where wind tickles skin and sounds of the sleepless city float ever-so faintly in the air, and this option leaves some coin for the New York Sky ride, a simulated aerial tour of the city voiced by Kevin Bacon. But this art deco skytickler has appeared in more movies that Bacon and every actor he’s connected to within six degrees, and it’s also the world’s most famous building – so who wouldn’t want to stand in its forehead?

A magnificent 16th-century Ottoman bridge, spanning the turquoise currents of the Neretva River, Stari Most is a structure whose fortunes mirror those of its location. From 1992-95, Mostar was the frontline between opposing Bosniak and Croat forces: thousands died and the bridge was destroyed. Two decades on, Bosnia is once again peaceful, and the bridge was reconstructed to its original design in 2004. It serves as a powerful icon of recovery.

What was once ground zero for the world’s first nuclear attack is now a green expanse, home to numerous memorials – a peaceful place to wander and reflect. The ruins of the only structure to survive the bombing. Genbaku Dome, still stand as a blunt reminder of the devastation. The Pond of Peace is the park’s central feature and leads to the cenotaph, a curved monument displaying all the names of known victims. Emotions run high on a visit here, but with sadness also comes hope in the human spirit. Nowhere is this more apparent than at the Children’s Peace Monument, with its colorful paper cranes – symbolizing happiness and longevity – inspired by Sadako Sasaki. Sadako was two years old when the bomb dropped and she developed leukemia aged 11. When she died before reaching her goal to fold 1000 cranes, her classmates completed the rest.

How many world icons claim such an ungainly nickname as ‘metal asparagus’? And who in their right mind would have any desire to climb such an eyesore? That, ma chère, is the beauty of Paris – a European capital that sends romantic shivers down spines and commands incessant admiration with its architectural grandeur, artistic pedigree and unfaltering style. Its biggest drawcard is La Tour Eiffel, the world’s most coquettish tourist attraction. Round a corner, the wrought-iron spire pops provocatively into view, cross the boulevard, it’s gone: spotting the Eiffel Tower from wherever you are in the city becomes an obsession for visitors to Paris – until there is nothing for it but to touch, scale and experience this 324m-tall French flirt right up close. Monumental crowds only contribute to the sweet climax at the top: the whole of Paris laid out at your feet.

There was something elegant and visionary about the art-deco design movement of the 1930’s, and San Franciscans must be eternally grateful for their signature landmark. It’s a good thing the navy didn’t get its way about the bridge (officials preferred a hulking concrete span, painted with caution-yellow stripes). Happily, architects Gertrude and Irving Murrow and engineer Joseph B Strauss won the day. When completed in 1937, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world, stretching 1.6 miles.
So what makes this piece of design totty a must-see over, say, Sydney’s Harbour Bridge? Perhaps it’s the way gusts billow through the bridge cables on foggy days, when its two towers are shrouded in near zero visibility, or maybe it’s the wild, green streak of Golden Gate Park that hugs it, where you’ll find locals roller-discoing and bison racing towards the Pacific.

The giant columns raised by New Kingdom pharaohs Amenthotep III and Ramses II preside over the Nile, at the heart of modern Luxor. Enclosing the sacred sanctuary of the god Amun, this stone monument of reliefs, statues, obelisks and shrines reveals the power and wealth of the Pharaonic era. Come late afternoon to wander through the vast chambers and courts as the stones take on a shimmering glow, and again after dark when the columns are illuminated.