When my Canadian friend mentioned she was going to a wilderness retreat on a mountain that’s only reachable by Jeep, I was intrigued.

There’s no better way to explore the stunning seascapes of Alaska’s famed Inside Passage than from the deck of a cruise ship.

Among the catchy slogans promoting tourism in Slovenia, the one that resonated with me was "Green Slovenia." A country formed after the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991, it's set in the heart of Europe at the juncture of the Alps, the Mediterranean, and the Pannonian Basin (which is part of the Hungarian plain); and it is indeed quite green.

It may sound like a ruse—leaving Geneva in the depth of winter to spend a month on the Cote d’Azur studying French—but it was language boot camp at its best; eight hours of daily French classes in a Provençal villa overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

Photo from Unsplash

We flew to Vienna one spring before floods of tourists inundated the city, when the Stadtpark and Volkspark were bursting with jonquils and tulips and lilac scented the air.

Istanbul is a fascinating city that straddles Europe and Asia and is a cultural amalgam of both. The city is replete with historical sites and museums bearing witness to thousands of years of history.

Mid-November didn’t seem like a propitious time to visit a country on the Adriatic known for its many islands. Elsewhere in central Europe—including Geneva where I was living at the time—the weather was predictably bone-chilling and gloomy.

The largest of the Greek islands seemed to have it all: quaint villages perched on hillsides above the Mediterranean, ancient ruins of historical interest, wide sandy beaches, and rugged mountains that shelter Europe's longest gorge.

We shrank into the doorway of a 400-year-old house in the dark as waves of men in brown and black robes paraded past us, intoning Gregorian chants as they dragged heavy crosses on their shoulders.