The index

Harbour city of beaches and ferries - Australia's sunlit, salt-aired front door.

Centuries layered on the Thames - pubs, parks, museums, and weather to match.

Mountain meets ocean - wine country, penguins and a Table-Mountain horizon.

The world's most photographed city - and one of the best to simply walk.

Bigger, faster, louder - the city that defines the century.

Sprawled and sunlit, beaches to deserts to mountains in a single afternoon.

Coffee, laneways and four seasons in a day - Australia's quiet cultural capital.

Latin America's vast, restless megacity - food, art and night that never ends.

Neon, calm and meticulous - a megacity that runs on quiet detail.

Spain's sun-baked, late-night capital - tapas, royal squares, world-class galleries.

A harbour city of volcanoes, islands and the world's freshest air.

A foothills capital of temples and prayer flags - gateway to the Himalayas.

Imperial palaces, hutongs and a wall that never ends.

Rice fields, volcanoes and warm seas - a Hindu island in a Muslim country.

India's loud, glittering coastal metropolis - Bollywood, banking and the Arabian Sea.

A hot, ordered, green tropical city - hawker centres and humidity in equal measure.

Steamy, sprawling, sleepless - temples, trains and street food all in one breath.

The red city - souks, riads and the High Atlas on the horizon.

A vibrant coastal city blending tradition with modernity - port wine, azulejos and the Douro at its feet.

Backwaters, beaches and quiet hills - India's slow, green south-west corner.

Old quarter on a thousand-year river - narrow lanes, lake walks, and the country's slow, polite heart.