The Cook Islands
New low-cost flights from Sydney (with Jetstar, beginning 29 June from £215; jetstar.com) and Honolulu (with Hawaiian Airlines, from 20 May; hawaiianairlines.com) will make reaching this friendly, far-flung, 15-strong South Pacific archipelago easier. The islands have idyllic: white beaches, opalescent lagoons and lush interiors, with no chain resorts or buildings taller than the coconut palms that line the shores.
Also freshly unveiled is Intrepid Travel’s five-night group tour of two of the islands – paradisiacal Aitutaki and the main hub of Rarotonga – to deliver pearly shores and snorkelling opportunities in cobalt lagoons between tropical fruit tastings at markets. Time is also allotted for attending joyous church services and swimming under waterfalls. Five nights from £1,556pp B&B, including all local transport, departs May-Dec, intrepidtravel.com.
Martinique
Despite tourism income ceasing, lockdown still brought Martinique some positives. Not only were its traditional yole sailboats inducted to Unesco’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List, but the Caribbean island was, in its entirety, certified as a Biosphere Reserve.
Visit for graded hiking routes through tropical rainforests or up volcanoes, then investigate fine Creole cuisine and those Caribbean stalwarts: superb beaches, see-through seas and stellar scuba diving. As befits a French overseas department, boulangeries and boules lend an added Gallic quirk. Centrally located Hotel Pelican has five colourful rooms above a pool, doubles from £113, en.hotelpelican.fr.
Mongolia
Keen to go somewhere seriously remote? Mongolia should tick the vast wilderness box, with less than two people per km² and a centuries-old nomadic lifestyle. During summer, visitors can undertake treks with yak-herding families. Accompanied by female tour leaders, a group trip delves into the Orkhon Valley before climbing into Khangai Nuruu National Park’s empty, high steppe and wildflower meadows, sleeping in traditional ger tents. Help to make dumplings and milk the yaks between river swims, before warming up by the campfire under star-splattered skies. Nine nights from £1,725pp full board without flights, departs May-Sept, muchbetteradventures.com.
Kentucky, US
Kentucky Bourbon Trail (Photo: Dharma)
Once it commences on 5 June, British Airways’ Heathrow-to-Cincinnati service won’t just open up access to Ohio. Revealing forested Appalachian peaks, Southern cuisine and bluegrass and country-music bars, the neighbouring state of Kentucky is also close. Biggest city Louisville is another draw, partly for its thriving LGBTQ+ scene. Farm-to-table restaurants and the forthcoming, market-hosting Hotel Genevieve (hotelgenevieve.com) lend cool; a 19th-century parkway system lends greenery. But Kentucky’s two biggest pulls remain its bourbon distilleries and frenetic Derby horse race. Spirited Stories runs four-day guided distillery tours from £1,528pp B&B, including all local transport, departs May-July, spiritedstories.travel.
De Hoop, South Africa
The resumption of Virgin Atlantic’s direct flights from London to Cape Town (accompanying BA’s services) will improve access to not only one of South Africa’s most popular cities, but also the best landscapes around it.
Less trodden than most is the coastal De Hoop Nature Reserve, where flowery, pale dunes and vast grasslands support animals from baboons to zebras. Connecting two luxurious lodges, the De Hoop Camino is a new, partly guided four-night walk across it. Undertake it between July and November and you have good odds of spotting Southern right whales offshore. From £1,369pp full-board, including all activities, aardvarksafaris.com.
Algeria
Hundreds of thousands of Britons visit Morocco each year, yet only a fraction of that figure ventures to its Mediterranean neighbour. Algeria has recently relaxed its visa policies, however, and you can fly direct from Heathrow to Algiers in less than three hours, or travel overland by train and ferry via Marseille (corsicalinea.com).
Spending 10 nights in Africa’s largest country, Wild Frontiers’ group tour takes in stupendously preserved Roman ruins, whitewashed casbahs and markets either side of a trip into the Sahara desert, where vast dune fields and the ketchup-coloured oasis town of Timimoun await. From £3,350pp full-board, including all local transport, departures in May, Sept and Oct, wildfrontierstravel.com.
Europe’s tiny countries
Like the 18th-century grand tours undertaken by British noblemen, Discover the World’s latest private itinerary criss-crosses Europe by train over 13 nights. Zurich, Bologna and Rome all feature as you swap the Alps for Tuscany and the Med, as do four of the Continent’s dinkiest destinations. There is medieval San Marino, with its sloping main citta, and wealthy Liechtenstein, where snowy peaks ring a royal fortress. Pope Francis lives near Vatican City’s glorious-ceilinged Sistine Chapel, while fast cars, casinos, exotic gardens and tax-evading trillionaires characterise glamorous Monaco. Two weeks from £2,573pp B&B, including all trains, discover-the-world.com.
Aruba
Also now on British Airways’ route map is Aruba, with planes flying to this compact, Dutch-administered Caribbean island via Antigua from 26 March. You will arrive in the cute capital of Oranjestad, which oozes easy-going tropical charm below cone-shaped volcano Hooiberg; think bright-orange gabled houses and reggaeton bars.
Further afield beckon a cacti-dotted, iguana-patrolled interior and shipwreck-dotted coral reefs. There are white beaches, too, and, supposedly, more sun than any other Caribbean isle. Seven nights from £899pp room only, including flights, britishairways.com.
Lebanon
With the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office having lifted its advice against non-essential travel to much of Lebanon in December, adventure tour provider Explore has relaunched its six-night highlights tours to this Middle Eastern republic. Seaside Crusader castles and sumptuous 19th-century palaces are the headlines, but venerated ancient cedar trees and red-wine tasting are also likely to be highlights, not to mention Beirut’s cosmopolitan corniche and a night in a Maronite monastery. The colossal Roman remains at Baalbek remain regrettably off-limits for now. From £1,399pp B&B, including all local transport, departs Apr-Nov, explore.co.uk.
Andorra
Attention, skiers: the three Andorran areas of Ordino Arcalís, Pal-Arinsal and slick Grandvalira have lately been added to the Ikon Pass global lift ticket – meaning an additional 7,600 acres, 303km and 215 runs of decent variety to whoosh across. Most conveniently reached via Barcelona, skiing in the teeny principality is especially great value for families because, if pre-booked, lift passes for children aged under 11 are free – saving around £200 per junior per week. Seven nights from £609pp half-board, inghams.co.uk.
Odense, Denmark
Ninety minutes by train from Copenhagen, westerly Odense – on the island of Funen – cut the ribbon on a centre honouring its most famous son in 2021. Designed by lauded architect Kengo Kuma in appropriately unpredictable fashion, Hans Christian Andersen’s House features maze-like garden walkways, sunken courtyards and interactive installations alongside children’s dress-up and creative areas inspired by Andersen fairy tales such as The Little Mermaid (hcandersenshus.dk). Odense’s excellent zoo also merits investigation; ditto impressive castles elsewhere on the quiet, leafy island of Funen. Base yourself at the city centre’s First Hotel Grand, doubles from £111 B&B, firsthotels.com.
Honduras
With Costa Rica no longer a secret, adventurous tourists are looking to Honduras. Although the Mayan city ruins at Copán remains this Central American nation’s biggest draw, trails, birdwatching platforms and zip lines have recently debuted in the jungly Rawacala Eco Park and a trickle of tourists can now stay in rustic cabins amid the carefully conserved Cayos Cochinos archipelago (cayoscochinos.hn) during educational tours spent looking for pink boas, diving off sugar-hued beaches, helping sea-turtle counts and, perhaps, drinking root-infused spirits with indigenous locals. Start near both at the activity-arranging Paraiso Rainforest & Beach Hotel, doubles from £78 B&B, paraisohotelhn.com.
Banat, Romania
Nicknamed “Little Vienna” for its splendid, colourful buildings, Romania’s western city of Timișoara is one of Europe’s three Capitals of Culture this year in a pandemic-delayed honour. That will bring exhibitions and events, but don’t get so distracted that you forsake the surrounding region. Beguiling Banat has a perfectly circular village, Charlottenburg, courtesy of German colonists. It has mighty, mossy waterfalls and cave-rich gorges. There is also a mountain railway, hot-spring spas and esteemed vineyards at Recas, and a spectacular stretch of the River Danube. Begin at Timișoara’s creatively designed Del Corso boutique hotel, doubles from £70 B&B, hoteldelcorso.ro.
Stuttgart-Rijeka night train
Europe’s night-train craze shows no sign of leaving the tracks. The latest option is a daily sleeper service linking car-crazy Stuttgart, in south-west Germany, with Zagreb, the underrated Croatian capital. Many passengers might not make it that far, however, due to tempting stops in the spa town of Bad Gastein and river-hugging Ljubljana in Slovenia. At Easter, in summer (12 May to 2 Sept this year) and around Christmas, trains (taking roughly 15 hours in total) conclude instead in Rijeka, a lovely but less-visited city on the Croatia’s north-western Adriatic coast. Prices TBC, fahrplan.oebb.at.
China
Four years ago, China was certainly no travel wild card. But with tourist visas imminently available again (May is the best estimate), 2023 ought to provide a temporary chance to see its best sights in unusual quietude. That goes for picturesque Tiger Leaping Gorge, the Great Wall and Xi’an’s Terracotta Army funerary sculptures.
Fewer tourists should also be watching giant pandas at the Chengdu Research Base in Sichuan. Book with an experienced British operator: Wendy Wu Tours runs group trips, while China Highlights (chinahighlights.com) tailor-makes individual visits. Eight-night tours from £2,790pp full-board, including flights and all transfers, wendywutours.co.uk.
Pakistan
While Pakistan sees more than 50 million domestic tourists per year, international numbers are just a fraction of that amount. Visiting friends and relatives sees roughly half a million British nationals heading to Pakistan each year, but curious adventure travellers are also turning their attention back to the country.
While the Foreign Office advises against travel to several parts of Pakistan, including Balochistan, parts of Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Provinces and to Islamabad during the festive period, other parts of the country are returning to the tourist map.
More from Travel
Intrepid Travel and Jules Verne are among tour operators reintroducing tours. Jules Verne’s new 16-night Mughals Mystics and Mountains tour costs from £4,984pp and includes a food tour in Lahore, meeting polo players at a match, visits to women-run carpet weaving and vocational training centres, and a women’s social enterprise in the spectacular Hunza valley. Intrepid Travel’s 15-day tour, from £3,650pp, charts a similar course. vjv.com; intrepidtravel.com.
North Macedonia
While everyone rushed off to Greece last summer, neighbouring North Macedonia stood back and watched, quietly. Either side, budget-conscious package holidaymakers and independent spirits ventured to Bulgaria and Albania. However, last summer, Tui Lakes and Mountains added the Balkan nation of North Macedonia to its summer programme.
This year Tui will launch flights from Manchester and Gatwick to Ohrid in the southwest of the country, gateway to one of Europe’s oldest lakes. Its cobblestone old town winds down to the water, where pebble beaches and restaurants serving wallet-friendly Turkish and Greek cuisine await. With more than 80 per cent of the country covered by mountains and four wildlife-rich national parks, there’s plenty to explore elsewhere, too. A week’s B&B with flights costs from £598pp, tui.co.uk.
