Elaine Ciampi at Trevi Fountain in RomeElaine Ciampi, 82, has made nearly a dozen solo voyages to Italy. Perennial favorites:

• the Trevi Fountain in Rome, magnificent in day or night
• simple, wonderful food 
•  “I love the feeling of history and the slower pace.”
• out-of-the-way towns like Umbertide and Assisi

Michelle Skeele in AustriaMichele Skeele, 50, lived in Austria after high school as an American Field Service student and has been back to visit four times. Perennial favorites:

• the Alps
• buying fresh bread and cheese at corner markets
• the culture of small villages and their unusual practices, like municipal composting—every household collects kitchen waste and sets it out in special bins for pick-up

Karen Conley, 64, has visited Africa five times and once spotted 21 rhinos in three days. Perennial favorites:

• Botswana, and South Africa’s Sabia Sands, which offer some of the best wildlife viewing in the world
• gathering ideas from African chefs, to liven up her catering business back home—chocolate cobras, anyone?
• “I feel so at peace watching a herd of elephants do their thing. It’s the most serene thing I could do.”