Mexico City sits on the drained bed of an Aztec lake, and that history is never far from the surface. Colonial cathedrals stand on top of Aztec temple foundations, canals from a vanished lake system still carry boats through the
Quebec City is the only walled city north of Mexico and the historic heart of French North America. Founded by Samuel de Champlain in 1608, its UNESCO-listed Old Quebec district still feels like a European capital dropped onto a cliff
Banff is where the Canadian Rockies do their best work. Glacier-fed lakes turn an impossible turquoise, jagged peaks rise straight up from valley floors, and the small mountain town at the center of it all still feels more outpost than
Montreal doesn't feel quite like the rest of Canada, and that's the point. French is the first language on the street signs and in most conversations, the architecture leans toward stone row houses and wrought-iron staircases, and the food scene
Vancouver is the rare city where you can kayak in the morning, walk through old-growth rainforest by early afternoon, and be back downtown for dinner with a mountain view. Wedged between the Pacific coastline and the Coast Mountains, this is
Sharm El-Sheikh sits where the Sinai Peninsula's red mountains meet some of the clearest water in the world. This is Egypt without the pyramids, built instead around coral reefs that drop straight off the shoreline, dive sites ranked among the
Perched on the shores of Lake Ontario, Toronto is Canada's largest city and a place where over 200 languages hum through the streets, glass towers rise beside Victorian row houses, and a walk of a few blocks can take you
Aswan moves at a slower pace than Cairo or even Luxor, and that's exactly its appeal. Egypt's southernmost major city sits where the Nile narrows and turns rocky, its granite quarries having supplied the stone for obelisks and colossi found
Giza sits close enough to Cairo that the two cities blur together on a map, but stand on the plateau at sunrise and there's no mistaking where you are. This is the only place on earth where you can watch
Cairo is a city where a call to prayer echoes over honking traffic, and where the last surviving wonder of the ancient world sits at the edge of a neighborhood of apartment blocks. Egypt's sprawling capital doesn't ease you in