Somerset Levels, England
I am not a huge fan of cycling holidays but I make one exception. In the south-west of England is a flat, low-lying wetland called the Somerset Levels which is one of my favourite places to get lost.
It is one of the most important wildlife sanctuaries in Europe and on long summer days the ponds, hedgerows and man-made ditches (or rhynes) are bursting with swans, whimbrels, otters, dragonflies and butterflies. The only humans I meet are kindred spirits seeking solitude and a reconnection with nature.
I go alone and move slowly, cycling from dawn to dusk with a long gap in the middle of the day to eat sandwiches, drink cider and have a nap in an apple orchard.
I have wintered here too, feeling the clammy mists rise from the frosty ground and nip and claw at the pedals. They are the 5,800-year-old ghosts of the prehistoric people who lived here after the Ice Age, or the spirits of King Arthur and his followers who are believed to wander these lands.
The winter tour usually becomes a two-wheeled pub crawl as I move from one roaring log fire and pint of local beer to another, eventually finding a cosy B&B to park my bike, dry out my socks, and shut the ghosts out.

How to get there: About a three-hour drive west from London. Best towns to head for are Taunton and Glastonbury. Check out www.somerset.gov.uk/celebratingsomerset/visitors

 

Musandam Peninsula, Oman
It is rare that I get to travel to a destination where everything is new but it happened in Oman’s magical Musandam Peninsula. I joined an inaugural five-day dhow cruise which took me sailing in and out of fjords where red and black desert rock walls soared 300 metres above my head.
By day I snorkelled with rare, pink spinner dolphins and scrambled up hot, dusty slopes to peer in at abandoned military bunkers, once used by the West to monitor Iran across the Straits of Hormuz. I visited white-washed villages at the foot of mighty cliffs, which reach such high temperatures in summer that the villagers are forced to be nomadic, packing up and leaving every May for cooler climes.
Lunchtimes meant kingfish caught by the skipper, and sharing dates and camel’s milk with my fellow adventurers. Like me, they had come to escape the humdrum and experience the extraordinary.
By night I met wandering Omani musicians who shanghai-ed me into playing mysterious desert instruments, and I slept on the deck of the dhow in the cool Arabian night, wrapped up in blankets and staring up into the vast velvety arc of stars.

How to get there: About a three to four-hour drive east of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, or a three to four-hour drive north from the Omani capital, Muscat. www.omantourism.gov.om

 

Seychelles
The legendary Seychelles, the only mid-ocean group of granite islands in the world, are unspeakably beautiful. This is a ‘trophy’ destination, one that fires the senses and imagination even before arrival. On the isle of La Digue, is to be found the extraordinary Grand’ Anse - a coastal stretch housing what is literally the world’s most famous beach, Anse Source a’Argent (The Source of Silver), where huge boulders have tumbled atop one another.
An old slogan gets it just right: French enough to have a natural joie de vivre, English enough to have an islander’s reserve, Asian enough to present a discreet charm, and African enough to have an exotic beauty and rhythm in their veins, the Seychellois people have blended their influences into one potent Creole concoction. There is a funky, almost Jamaican groove to the capital Victoria on Mahé. Each October a Creole Festival celebrates a unique creed and colour mix through poetry, theatre, music, dance and food. www.seychelles.com

 

Marquesas
Writers, photographers and film crews are attracted to the Marquesas - to the 14 extraordinary islands which comprise this remote equatorial archipelago - like fashion designers are to Milan. The light, sublime colours and natural backdrops are all as the painter Gauguin found them a century ago. Throw in French chefs and you really do have paradise.
Fly in to Papeete and then spend another three or so hours in the air with Air Tahiti’s barefoot flight attendants to reach the main island of Nuka Hiva, which dominates the northern Marquesas group as Hiva Oa does the southern. Then, from the helicopter transferring you to the bayside town of Taiohae, look down upon the old volcanic calderas and huge walls of lava; a rugged, dramatic, landscape marked by high plateaus and plunging waterfalls, serrated mountain spines, crenellated crests, eroded rock needles, wild horses, goats and pigs, and intensely green foliage. This is not the postcard Polynesia of Bora Bora, it is something more magnificent. www.tahiti-tourisme.com

 

The Colca Canyon, Peru
For couples whose interest is serendipity, ecology, taking the road less travelled, and perhaps bird-watching (the winged kind), the Colca Canyon in Peru is the perfect place.
The view is about as spectacular as it can get – a backdrop of mountain peaks below which the sides of the canyon are lined by endless pre-Incan terraces that have miraculously survived the earthquakes that have rumbled and shaken through the Andes since the beginning of time. The terraces are a kaleidoscope of textures and colours created by the variations of crops – corn, wheat, potatoes, vegetables and quinoa (an Indian cereal). Below us the trout-laden Colca River sparkles in the distance.
This canyon is famous as the home of the elusive condors! Its valley, twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, was only discovered by international tourists after a Polish white-water canoeing team made the first trip down the turbulent rock-strewn Rio Colca in the 1970s. Normally one is lucky to see one condor when in the Andes Mountains. Here we saw around 20 in one morning, and quite close up.
The best place to stay is an outstanding Peruvian Parador, El Parador del Colca, comfortable but not lavish, and with friendly, personal service. Our experience high in the Andean Mountains makes this place a very special favourite.
For reservations and details of El Parador del Colca and other Orient Express properties, visit the Orient Express website at www.orient-express.com This Parador is almost as elusive as the condors. To make reservations, email the Monasterio Hotel in Cuzco, Peru, requesting prices and booking details for El Parador del Colca.

 

Brantome – the Venice of Rural France
One of my favourite secrets in France is Brantome, a small rural town in the department of the Dordogne. What makes it so romantic and charming is that, built on an island on the River Dronne, the little town has lots of water and is linked by canals that give it a slightly Venetian feel. This is a place where time seems to have stood still. The Abbey was founded by Charlemagne in the 9th century, and it still retains much of its medieval ambience.
The perfect place for a relaxed romantic holiday, it is in the middle of the area renowned for its goose liver (foie gras), and picturesque landscapes. My favourite place to stay is the charming Moulin de l’Abbaye, an ancient flour mill turned into a drop-dead romantic inn with a view straight out onto the river and the town bridge. And the cuisine here is ten out of ten.
Stroll the streets. Explore the nearby caves. Take the excursion boat that takes you through the town’s canals and nearby villages. Drive into the countryside and discover castles and fairytale forests. Brantome is the perfect place for lovers – and those who just love life, great cuisine, the spirit of France and its history. Wish I was coming with you!
For more information on the Moulin de l’Abbaye, go to www.relaischateaux.com/moulin

 

The Kimberley
Red rocks and big crocs. Barramundi and Bradshaw art. Horizontal waterfalls and mid-ocean cataracts. Then top it all off with a gin and tonic on the deck. Cruising the extraordinary Kimberley coast of north-western Australia is an extreme experience where no two days, if not hours, repeat the same spectacular vistas. On board a luxury cruise vessel like the purpose-built, shallow-draft Kimberley Quest II you explore the myriad inlets and outlets, fjords, sounds and snaking rivers of our last wilderness. Here be, well, not quite monsters (other than the occasional croc) but a realm the size of Japan with barely the population of an Australian suburb. Its shores are dense with rock art of Aboriginal and the far earlier, so-called “Bradshaw” images – galleries of exquisite, ethereal ochre figures afloat on sheltered rock faces.
Nature lovers, fishing fans and bird watchers, among others, delight in this trip. Easy hiking and dinghy excursions bring the Kimberley Quest’s passengers (there are only 18 in all) to the 80-metre high King George Falls, the Berkley River and the phenomenal Montgomery Reef - a 300 sq km coral platform that, as low tide drains off it, rises some eight metres up out of the sea. Then there’s the Buccaneer Archipelago, the magnificent Horizontal Waterfalls and the chef’s almost equally spectacular cooking.

Travel Tips: Kimberley Quest II has one-and two-week itineraries, departing Wyndham and Broome, March-October. Prices from $6,340 pp twin share. Contact Pearl Sea Coastal Cruises on 08 9193 6131; www.kimberleyquest.com.au

 

Namibia
Angelina Jolie keeps putting exotic little countries like Cambodia and Namibia on the map for the least interesting reason — that she was there. Celeb maternity tourism notwithstanding, Namibia, stretching 1300 km down Africa’s south-west coast from Angola to South Africa, is far more fascinating and romantic than the Brad n’ Ange n’ Shiloh show. Red ochre deserts run down to a deep blue Atlantic Ocean. The south is awash with diamonds, the north alive with big game. In the middle are Bavaria-by-the-beach towns like Swakopmund where the street signs still say Kaiser Wilhelmstrasse and Zeppelinstrasse, remnants of the 30 years, from 1884, when this was Deutsch-Südwestafrika.
In a nation of only 1.7 million people, there’s truth in the Namibian travel advert that promises, “Wherever you are, you’ll double the population.” Here is dune silence. Or sea thunder. Endless shipwrecks on the aptly named Skeleton Coast. The intriguing, gentle and much endangered Kalahari Bushmen. And the Sperregebiet, or “Forbidden Territory,” so rich with diamonds that early ‘mining’ was done on one’s stomach — prospectors just picked gems from the sand.
Namibia is sometimes known as the “Switzerland of Africa” because of its wealth, good infrastructure and orderliness. If only Switzerland had a coast like this and strudel like Swakopmund’s, it could be the Namibia of Europe.

Getting There: Fly South African Airways to Windhoek, Namibia, via Johannesburg. Namibia Tourism: www.namibiatourism.com.na

Tours: Bench International, www.benchinternational.com.au

 

Prince Edward Island
The cultural mosaic of Canada’s Prince Edward Island combines the well-preserved traditions of the French Acadians, Irish, Scottish and English who have lived there since 1534.
The result? A summer calendar crammed full of music and dance festivals which, together with this windy island’s rugged coastal scenery and old-world architecture, might just have you believing you are lost in the European countryside.
If red wine, fireside lobster dinners and windy walks by the Atlantic Sea send you on a stairway to heaven, then this cosy isle offers a slice of European charm without the hefty price tag.
PEI is conveniently linked by bridge to the mainland, so bring a car and head off down narrow country roads and cobbled streets to rustic villages and tiny fishing ports where tea houses and art galleries are as common as lobsters and fishermen.
PEI Is crowded with quirky attractions like the “Anne of Green Gables” theme park, but my pick would be the incredible house of bottles (trust me!).

Getting There: PEI is located off Canada’s east coast. Flights depart from Toronto and Halifax daily. PEI’s tax-free status and the Canadian exchange rate make accommodation and services very affordable. To catch the festivals, visit between June and September. For more information, head to www.peionline.com

 

Cruise to Undine Cay
Unpretentious Undine Cay shimmers like an ocean jewel, a mere sprinkling of sand, lapped by opal-blue waters that allow eyes to penetrate deep into the rich coral garden below.
This tiny, rarely-visited spot, found just off the Cape Tribulation coastline in tropical Far North Queensland is nothing more than a low-lying speck of sand.
But this private atoll of isolation tops my list of blissful, crowd-free escapes because it lies beyond the reach of day tripping cruise boats. This means utter seclusion and an afternoon of snorkelling just for two!
Arrive in style aboard a private luxury charter yacht from nearby Port Douglas and by lunchtime you’ll be swimming through a kaleidoscopic sea of lime and tangerine corals and colourful schools of parrotfish and turtles. For me, a day spent swapping Champagne flutes for snorkels against a backdrop of deep blue can’t be beaten and I’ve never found a more secluded spot than this on the Great Barrier Reef.

Getting there: Luxury charter yachts sail from Marina Mirage Port Douglas, which lies a one-hour limousine ride or short helicopter flight north of Cairns International Airport. For hotel and tour ideas, head to www.pddt.com.au