Copenhagen is one of Europe’s oldest and most popular cities. It’s also one of the cleanest and most metropolitan. The dynamic Danish capital features progressive modern architecture, the must-visit Tivoli Gardens amusement park, stunning palaces, and all the activities and amenities you would expect in a world-class destination. Explore the canals and pretty narrow streets, appreciate beautiful old homes, and find great shopping and people watching on The Ströget.

Home to the four-day Roskilde Festival, arguably the best European rock festival, hilly Roskilde is less than 20 miles from Copenhagen. If hordes of rock stars aren't pillaging the town of 50,000, the excellent Viking ship museum is Roskilde's prime attraction. Featuring five ships discovered at the bottom of the fjord, you can add to the Viking experience by rowing the fjord on an hour-long longboat trip. The town is also famed for its much adapted 12th-century Roskilde Domkirke Cathedral.

Denmark's largest island is so much more than simply the home of the country's dynamic capital, Copenhagen. Zealand also offers a delightful array of holiday homes and villas, pleasing harbors and sandy beaches, fringed by forests where castles lurk. Major destinations include the UNESCO-designated, Dutch Renaissance-style Kronborg Castle in Helsingor and the Viking attractions, cathedral and music festival of Roskilde. To the south bobs a flotilla of beautiful and relatively untouched islands.

The easternmost town on the island of Fyn or Funen anchors the much traveled Storebaelt Bridge at its western point. This 700-year-old town is often overlooked for neighboring Odense, just 21 miles west. It's worth spending a few hours exploring the 1540 Old Torvet market square, once the site of 16th-century royal games, the ancient 1170 Nyborg Castle, venerable houses and the oldest open air theater in the country, Voldspil Nyborg. The theater hosts musicals and operettas on on the castle ramparts.

At the top of Bavaria and dating back to at least the 11th century, Coburg sat undiscovered by many late 20th century tourists, surrounded as it was on three sides by the former East Germany. The town’s main attraction, impossible to miss since it overlooks the town, is the 13th century Veste Coburg Castle, one of Germany’s largest and most beautiful. Sometimes called the Franconian Crown, today it’s home to three museums. Reformer Martin Luther, then an outlaw, spent five months here in 1530.

It’s nicknamed the Eternal City for a reason. In Rome, you can drink from a street fountain fed by an ancient aqueduct. Or see the same profile on a statue in the Capitoline Museum and the guy making your cappuccino. (Which, of course, you know never to order after 11 am.) Rome is also a city of contrasts—what other place on earth could be home to both the Vatican and La Dolce Vita?

Lefkada's name means "white," from the famous white cliffs of Cape Lefkata, site of an ancient temple of Apollo, where rumor has it that the celebrated Lesbian poet Sappho flung herself from the rocks. To stay with the mythology theme, don’t miss a boat tour on the mighty Odysseia, a colorful replica of a Greek war ship. You can also explore deserted monasteries in the mountains, splash around under the Nidri waterfalls and swim at some of Greece's most famous and beautiful beaches.

A cultural hub where elegant mosques and traditional bazaars dot the palm-lined boulevards and ancient Greek ruins look down from the hilltops, Turkey’s third-largest city, Izmir, has plenty to offer cruise visitors en route to nearby Ephesus.