Share a home-cooked meal with a local host in Rome, experiencing Italian hospitality around the dinner table. Enjoy regional dishes in a setting shaped by conversation, family and the pleasure of eating together.

Food plays a central role in everyday Italian life, and recipes often carry family and regional traditions. This hosted dinner offers a more personal encounter with Rome than a conventional restaurant meal.

• 6 Dinner (D)
• 13 Breakfast (B)

• Hand sanitizer is freely available on board for you to use throughout the day.

• Vatican City: Visit the Vatican Museums and witness the genius of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel.

Insight Vacations

Cruise Amsterdam’s tree-lined canals and see the Old City from the water, passing narrow bridges, historic warehouses and elegant 17th-century Golden Age mansions. The waterways offer a close view of the architecture that grew alongside the city’s maritime trade.

Look for the distinctive gables and waterside facades that give each canal its character. This relaxed introduction reveals why Amsterdam’s canal ring remains central to the city’s identity.

Meet your Travel Director and fellow travellers over dinner and wine at a local restaurant in the heart of Amsterdam. The hosted evening offers a chance to share first impressions and get acquainted in a convivial setting.

Dining in the old city places you among the streets and canals that have shaped Amsterdam’s trading heritage. It is an opportunity to experience the city’s restaurant atmosphere together rather than dine independently.

Cruise the Rhine from Boppard to Sankt Goar, following a river bend beneath terraced vineyards and stone castles. Sip a glass of local wine as the steep slopes and riverside towns pass by.

Watch for Lorelei Rock, the cliff associated with one of the Rhine’s best-known legends. The combination of medieval strongholds, wine-growing hillsides and river folklore makes this stretch especially distinctive.

Walk Heidelberg’s Old Town with a Local Expert, exploring cobbled lanes, elegant squares and baroque facades beneath the city’s hillside castle ruins. See how cafés and university life animate the historic centre.

Heidelberg’s university, founded in 1386, is Germany’s oldest. Your guided walk connects that academic tradition with the town’s riverside setting and the romantic skyline that has long drawn visitors and writers.

Pause beneath the royal castles of Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein to admire their Alpine setting and contrasting silhouettes. See King Ludwig II’s turreted Neuschwanstein rising above the landscape near the older Hohenschwangau Castle.

Neuschwanstein’s theatrical design reflects Ludwig’s fascination with medieval romance and is often associated with fairytale castle imagery. This is a scenic viewing stop; entry to either castle is not specified.

Stroll Innsbruck’s Old Town with your Travel Director, seeing centuries-old houses, the Golden Roof and the exterior of the Imperial Palace. Baroque and Gothic details line streets framed by the surrounding Tyrolean mountains.

The Golden Roof’s gilded copper tiles recall Innsbruck’s importance under Emperor Maximilian I. This orientation brings together the city’s Habsburg history, compact medieval centre and striking Alpine backdrop.

Visit a family-run Veneto winery to learn how local sparkling wine is produced. Meet the people behind the bottles, hear about their methods and taste regional wines in the area where they are made.

Vineyard-covered hills and a long winemaking tradition shape this part of northeastern Italy. The guided tasting offers a closer understanding of the craft behind spumante, beyond simply enjoying a glass.

Travel by boat along Venice’s Giudecca Canal as your Travel Director introduces the city from the water. Pass historic palazzi and take in views towards the Doge’s Palace and St Mark’s Square.

Venice was built around its waterways, and arriving by boat reveals the grand facades designed to face them. The cruise offers a perspective on the former maritime republic’s wealth and its close relationship with the lagoon.

Watch expert artisans blow and shape Venetian glass during a visit to a traditional workshop. See how heat, breath and precise movements transform molten material into delicate handcrafted pieces.

Venice’s glassmaking heritage is closely associated with the island of Murano, where specialist skills flourished from the late Middle Ages. The demonstration brings a centuries-old craft into focus through the techniques still practised by skilled makers today.

Explore the setting of St Mark’s Square and admire the richly decorated exterior of St Mark’s Basilica. View the Doge’s Palace and the adjoining Bridge of Sighs, landmarks that express Venice’s former political and maritime power.

The square was the ceremonial heart of the Venetian Republic. Its Byzantine-inspired basilica and Gothic palace bring different strands of the city’s history together; interior entry is not specified.

Discover Rome with your Travel Director, observing medieval buildings, Renaissance palaces and Baroque churches across the city. Walk around the exterior of the Colosseum and consider the scale of the ancient amphitheatre.

Completed in the first century CE, the Colosseum hosted public spectacles for imperial Rome. Seeing it alongside later architecture reveals how successive eras have shaped the Eternal City; entry to the amphitheatre is not specified.

Explore the Vatican Museums with a Local Expert, viewing works assembled through centuries of papal collecting. In the Sistine Chapel, look up at Michelangelo’s ceiling frescoes, before visiting St Peter’s Basilica when access permits.

These spaces bring together art, faith and papal history on an extraordinary scale. Access can be restricted on some departures; if Vatican Museums tickets are unavailable, a visit to the Capitoline Museums is substituted, while basilica access may also be limited.

Explore Florence with a Local Expert, viewing the cathedral’s multicoloured marble exterior, bell tower and baptistery. Admire the baptistery’s celebrated Gates of Paradise, then visit Piazza della Signoria, the city’s historic political centre.

Fountains, statues and the imposing Palazzo Vecchio give the square the feel of an open-air gallery. Together, these landmarks trace Florence’s civic ambition and artistic influence during the Renaissance; cathedral entry is not specified.

Enjoy dinner with wine at a local Florence trattoria, settling into the informal atmosphere of a neighbourhood restaurant. Savour Florentine flavours while sharing a table with your travelling companions.

Trattorias are part of Italy’s everyday dining culture, traditionally serving regional cooking in a relaxed setting. This hosted meal offers time to appreciate Tuscany’s food and wine traditions within the historic city, rather than dining independently.

Choose your preferred restaurant from a hand-picked selection for a dine-around evening in Baveno, on Lake Maggiore. Each venue offers its own cuisine and ambience, giving you a say in how you experience the local dining scene.

Baveno’s lakeside setting brings Alpine scenery together with northern Italian hospitality. The choice of restaurants makes this an organised dining experience with room for individual taste and preference.

Ride an open-top cable car to Mount Stanserhorn and take in wide views across the Swiss Alps. At the summit, walk scenic pathways, watch for marmots and other native wildlife, and enjoy the crisp mountain air.

The cable car uses solar energy, and there may be an opportunity to hear a Swiss ranger discuss local flora and conservation. This MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® experience supports efforts linked to protecting life on land.

Visit Lucerne’s Lion Monument, carved into a limestone cliff in memory of Swiss Guards who died defending Louis XVI during the French Revolution. Cross the Chapel Bridge and see the ornate Jesuit Church beside the Reuss River.

The bridge is one of Lucerne’s most recognisable medieval landmarks, while the riverside church reflects the city’s Baroque heritage. Together, these sights reveal different chapters of its history within a compact lakeside centre.

Join a panoramic tour of Paris with a Local Expert, seeing the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Élysées, Place de la Concorde and the Louvre Museum. Views along the Seine bring the city’s bridges and grand riverbanks into the experience.

At Place de la Concorde, hear how a monumental royal square became a site of executions during the French Revolution. The tour connects Paris’s celebrated landmarks with the history behind its sweeping avenues and public spaces.

Explore a pedestrian-friendly Paris quartier on a walk focused on everyday neighbourhood life. Look at local shops, schools, housing and cultural spaces, with possible sights including covered passages and the planted facade of the Oasis d’Aboukir.

Details such as the area’s Napoleonic-era Egyptian influences reveal layers of Paris beyond its best-known monuments. This is one of two included Paris choice experiences; travellers select it instead of the food walk.

Walk Parisian streets with a local food lover, calling at pâtisseries, boulangeries and chocolatiers. Sample local treats while learning about the shops and specialities that give the neighbourhood its flavour.

France’s baking and confectionery traditions are part of daily life, from the morning visit to a bakery to carefully crafted chocolates. This is one of two included Paris choice experiences; travellers select it instead of the neighbourhood discovery walk.

Gather for dinner at a Parisian brasserie and enjoy French cuisine in the company of your travelling companions. The lively dining-room atmosphere provides a fitting setting for conversation and a shared evening in the capital.

Brasseries have long been part of Paris’s social life, offering familiar dishes in bustling surroundings. This hosted meal is an opportunity to experience that local dining tradition together, rather than simply stopping for dinner on your own.

Cruise across the Venetian lagoon to Burano, an island known for brightly painted houses and a longstanding lace-making tradition. Enjoy a meal featuring local specialities and wine while spending time away from Venice’s busiest landmarks.

The lagoon crossing offers a different perspective on the islands that surround the city. This is an optional experience at additional cost, bookable on tour; availability and the precise meal arrangements should be confirmed locally.

Visit Florence’s Accademia Gallery with an art historian to see Michelangelo’s David. Examine the monumental marble figure up close and hear how the artist transformed a challenging block of stone into a symbol of Florentine civic pride.

The gallery visit provides context for the sculpture’s technique and Renaissance significance beyond a brief viewing. This is an optional experience at additional cost, bookable on tour.

Cruise across Lake Maggiore to Isola Bella for a guided visit to its palace and terraced gardens. Explore the lavish rooms and formal outdoor spaces created by the Borromeo family on this small island.

The gardens’ sculpted terraces and lake views make Isola Bella a striking expression of aristocratic landscape design. This is an optional experience at additional cost, bookable on tour; confirm availability locally.

Cruise Lake Lucerne for views of shoreline villages, steep mountains and the water that gives the city its setting. From the boat, see how the lake winds between Alpine slopes rather than opening into a single broad basin.

The surrounding landscape has long made lake travel a distinctive part of visiting central Switzerland. This is an optional experience at additional cost, bookable on tour; the route and availability should be confirmed locally.

Ride through the countryside near Lucerne by horse-drawn carriage and meet local farmers. The slower pace offers time to take in the rural landscape beyond the city’s lakefront and historic streets.

Farms remain an important part of the region’s working landscape, with mountain conditions shaping local agriculture. This is an optional experience at additional cost, bookable on tour; the route and farm visit arrangements may vary.

Spend an evening at a Paris cabaret show for a taste of the city’s theatrical nightlife. Expect a staged performance in a venue devoted to live entertainment, offering a different view of Paris from its daytime boulevards and museums.

Cabaret has been associated with the capital’s night-time culture since the late 19th century. This is an optional experience at additional cost, bookable on tour; the venue, performance and availability should be confirmed locally.

• Business class coach with extended leg room
• Top-rated dining, from farm-to-table to local restaurants
• 4 & 5-star stays