Pergamum - modern-day Bergama

Turkey has an abundance of Greco-Roman ruins, but none can be so romantically placed as ancient Pergamum in modern-day Bergama. Once home to one of the ancient world's most important libraries, Pergamum's remaining temple remnants now preside dramatically on a hilltop. It's an incredibly atmospheric place to explore, with an Acropolis area and a theater cut into the hillside with sweeping panoramic views from its top seating tiers. This is a great place to visit if you want to get a real feel for life in the Roman era.

Cruising the Mediterranean

Turkey's Mediterranean coastline has ruins galore and bags of things to do, but for many people, it's all about soaking up the sun while enjoying the gorgeous coastal views. Cruising on a yacht is the number one activity for visitors to Bodrum and Fethiye for good reason. The steep forest-clad slopes, hidden coves sporting tiny white sand beaches, and hundreds of scattered islands are the perfect place for exploring by sea. Even diehard landlubbers will be impressed. One of the most famous trips is known as the "Blue Cruise" and travels from Fethiye south down the coast until disembarking near Olympus, home to the famous natural phenomenon of the Chimaera.

Pamukkale - One of Turkey's most famous natural wonders

One of Turkey's most famous natural wonders, the pure white travertine terraces of Pamukkale ("Cotton Castle" in English) cascade down the slope looking like an out-of-place snowfield amid the green landscape. Although the travertines are themselves a highlight of a Turkey trip, the vast and rambling ruins of Roman Hierapolis, an ancient spa town, lie on the top of this calcite hill, providing another reason to visit. For the best photographs, come at dusk when the travertines glow as the sun sinks below the horizon.

Cappadocia- photographer's dream destination

The surreal swooping rock valleys of Cappadocia are every photographer's dream. Cliff ridges and hill crests are home to rippling panoramas of wave-like rock or wacky-shaped pinnacles that have been formed by millennia of wind and water action. And if you don't feel like hiking for the views, this is one of the world's top destinations to take a hot air balloon ride. If the lunarscape isn't enough to tempt you, nestled in these valleys are the frescoed rock-cut churches of the Byzantine Era, when this area was an important early Christian site.

Ephesus - standing Roman cities in the Mediterranean region

Not to be missed, the mighty ruin of Ephesus is a city of colossal monuments and marble-columned roads. One of the most complete, still-standing Roman cities in the Mediterranean region, this is the place to experience what life must have been like during the golden age of the Roman Empire. A sightseeing trip here will take at least half a day to cover the major highlights and longer, if you really want to explore, so make sure that you plan your visit so you don't feel rushed.

Barcelona's Sagrada Familia and Gaudi Sites

Antoni Gaudi took the architectural style known as Art Nouveau a step farther, even, some have argued, into absurdity. The fanciful and outrageous buildings he created in Barcelona have become landmarks, the signature attractions of this Catalan city. Foremost is The Sagrada Família church, officially the Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família or the Holy Family Church of the Atonement. One of Europe's most unconventional churches, it is also unfinished, so as you look down from its tower you can see the work in progress below.

You may search in vain for absolute straight lines in Gaudi's Casa Milà, his last and most famous secular work; it resembles a piece of sculpture more than a functional building. Be sure to ascend to its roof - the chimneys are said to have inspired the image of Darth Vader from Star Wars. Parc Güell overlooks the city from a hillside, the views and gardens framed by fantastical creatures - salamanders, fish, an octopus - and designs in bright ceramic-chard mosaics. A fanciful towered house near the entrance is largely covered in colored ceramics. Unlike most buildings, Gaudi's appeal even to children and to adults who don't care a thing about architecture, for one simple reason - they are just plain fun to look at.