September 2 - 10, 2026
8 days, from $3795

Apulia: Italy's Unpolished South

Forget Tuscany's crowds. Apulia offers what most travelers to Italy miss: cave cities carved by monks, trulli houses built as tax evasion, baroque gone wild in honey-colored stone, and olive groves older than your family tree. You'll base in Polignano a Mare (a cliffside fishing village) and day-trip to UNESCO sites, family wineries, and towns where the streets still follow medieval logic. Economist and agriculture specialist Pietro Semeraro leads discussions on how this rocky heel of Italy feeds the country.

September 24 to October 2, 2026
8 days, from $2995

Andalucía: Moorish Palaces and White Hill Towns

Southern Spain still carries eight centuries of Moorish rule in its bones. You'll see it in the 856 striped arches of Córdoba's mosque-cathedral, the carved poetry covering the Alhambra's walls, and the defensive towers watching over Sevilla's river. Base in a parador (state-run historic hotel) in Antequera and spend a week moving between UNESCO sites, gorge-top towns, and olive country. Carmen López, a Granada-based language scholar who specializes in cultural adaptation, leads discussions on contemporary Spain and its layered past. Includes a flamenco performance and countryside wine tasting.

October 4 - 19, 2026
16 days, from $9,295

Southern Africa: Safari, Rovos Rail, and Apartheid History

Sixteen days across South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Botswana combining luxury train travel with serious wildlife viewing. You'll spend three days on Rovos Rail (restored 1920s carriages, five-course dinners) between Victoria Falls and Pretoria, then three days at Kapama Private Game Reserve tracking the Big Five with professional rangers. Bookends in Cape Town (Table Mountain, Robben Island with a former political prisoner as guide) and Soweto (Mandela's neighborhood, township life post-apartheid). Muhammed Khan—who was forcibly removed from his town as a child under apartheid and later returned to become a regional tourist guide—leads discussions on South Africa's transition to democracy. Physically demanding: early morning game drives, rough roads, train corridor navigation.