Peru

Yes, Machu Picchu. Arriving through the Sun Gate at dawn, cloud burning off the terraces, is one of travel's genuinely transcendent moments, and we plan it so you meet the citadel at its quietest. But Peru's genius is depth. The Sacred Valley deserves days of its own: salt terraces spilling down hillsides, weaving villages, ruins at Ollantaytambo that rival the famous one, and luxury lodges and the Hiram Bingham train turning the journey into an event. Cusco layers Inca stonework under baroque churches at eleven thousand feet. Then Peru keeps going: the Amazon by riverboat from Iquitos, condors riding thermals over Colca Canyon, the enigmatic Nazca lines, and Lima, quietly one of the world's great food cities, where ceviche reaches its final form. Ancient, delicious and dramatic at every altitude.