It may sound like a fairy-tale, but it's no impossible dream: you too can stay in a luxury French chateau in a beautiful and historical setting, surrounded by a landscape that looks like an illustration straight out of a children's story book.
Autumn is on its way, and the vast herds of wildebeest, zebra and gazelle will soon be gathering in Kenya's vast Maasai Mara Game Reserve, ready to make their return to the Serengeti plains in one of the most impressive spectacles the animal world has to offer.
The Frieder Burda Museum in Baden-Baden is hosting an exhibition of around a hundred of the works of the great multi-disciplinary artist from Catalonia.
To visit the Colca Canyon in Peru is to discover a land of superlatives: the second deepest canyon on the planet, it's home to the magnificent Andean condor, a New World vulture with the largest wingspan of any land bird, and one of the world's longest living birds.
Its dingy industrial past has been left well behind: now, Leeds, with its busy cultural scene, lively nightlife, unique Victorian architecture and one-of-a-kind shops, is a city to be reckoned with.
Losing yourself in the Ankarana reserve in the north of the island of Madagascar is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Its great limestone massifs have been carved by the rain into intricate landscapes that will leave you gasping in amazement.
In the heart of the Tyrol, the 'Crystal Triangle' has become one of Austria's main tourist attractions. Grown ups and kids alike can enjoy the trails and workshops connecting three types of crystal.
The king of trains and the train of kings is still on track with around a dozen routes, including the classic cross Europe trail from Paris to Istanbul, the real trip of a lifetime.
Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, the Bremen Town Musicians... which is your favourite? Get ready to be bewitched - parents as well as children - as you stroll through the streets where these mythical stories are set and discover the scenes that inspired those great story-tellers, the Brothers Grimm.
Imagine taking part in one of Europe's most spectacular adventures: come and meet this magnificent animal in its last home, the primeval forest of Bialowieza Park in Poland.
Sign up for one of the cruises that take in the planet's least spoilt archipelago, and spend a few days of Darwin's bicentenary year in the ecosystem that served as 'laboratory' for the great English naturalist.