Mangalore is a colorful and interesting city with pleasant beaches and lots of historical and cultural sights to explore on India's west coast. The most prominent of the attractions are the city's great number of religious sites, including Christian churches, Hindu temples and Muslim mosques. There are also more laid-back options including an amusement park, shops selling local wares and scenic outdoor spaces.

Cochin is the second-biggest city in Kerala, a tropical state on India's southwest coast filled with coconut palms and backwaters, a tangle of lagoons, canals and lakes that can be traveled by houseboat past tiny villages and traditional ways of life. Kochi's tourist attractions are concentrated in the historic districts of Fort Kochi and Mattancherry on the peninsula, reached by ferry or motor vehicle from Willingdon Island, where cruise ships arrive. But, the excellent Kerala Folklore Museum is in the modern city, Ernakulam, on the mainland east of Willingdon Island. Fort Kochi is calm and sleepy, Mattancherry is more touristed and Ernakulam is hectic and crowded.

The biggest and most developed of the seven United Arab Emirates, Dubai has a well-deserved reputation as an oasis for cosmopolitan luxury travelers with money to burn. Yes, Dubai is a working port city on the Arabian Gulf, a gateway to places that, for most North Americans, are tucked away in the encyclopedia as distant and forbidden lands: Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Pakistan. But the city's most distinctive feature is its pursuit of all things over the top, from "seven star" luxury hotels and shopping malls with ski resorts to man made islands built in the shape of palm trees and continents.

The capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi is the largest and wealthiest of the nation's seven emirates. Covering 80 percent of the land mass of the UAE, the emirate of Abu Dhabi is divided into three parts: the city of Abu Dhabi, the historic Al Ain region centered on a large oasis on an old camel caravan route and Al Gharbia, part of the world's largest uninterrupted sand desert with towering dunes spreading across the Arabian Peninsula.