In Japan, Kawagoe, or Little Edo, is an old castle town with a river running through it. Full of pre-WWII architecture, the streets still show traditional merchants’ warehouses and temples.

It’s a 24-minute train ride from Tokyo to Ikebukuro Station by JR Yamanote Line plus another 33 minutes to Kawagoe Station by Tobu-Tojo Line (regular express), for a total cost of ¥640 ($7).

In the fall (on the third Saturday and Sunday of October), the Kawagoe Festival — one of the largest...

The 18th-century Camões Garden is a public park on the northwestern waterfront in Macau. The Portuguese owner of the garden built a grotto around a bust of the Portuguese national poet, Luís de Camões. Among walkways and flowering trees, other attractions include a Chinese pavilion and a fountain sculpture symbolizing China’s relationship with Portugal. Open 6 a.m.-10 p.m.

In the Red Sea Mountains of Egypt’s Eastern Desert, the Monastery of St. Anthony, at more than 1,650 years old, is reputed to be the world’s first Christian monastery. Egypt has completed its eight-year, $14.5-million renovation, restoring and conserving the fortress walls, several outbuildings and the two main churches and installing a modern sewage system. 

Boasting the burial places of four saints plus paintings dating back to the Middle Ages, St. Anthony’s houses 120 monks and...