For the two decades that I have worked as a travel editor and journalist — ever since starting out as a researcher on a national newspaper’s travel desk in 2003 — I’ve been on all sorts of weird and wonderful trips for work, and for fun too. Rarely do the two not intertwine. In this line — a dream job really — it can be hard to differentiate as we tend to use all our holidays to research stories, to make the most of the opportunity to see the world and go a little behind the scenes.
The way it works is like this. Pretty much all travel companies and hotels are falling over themselves to invite writers to visit, and yes they provide trips largely for free (no newspaper could afford to cover the costs, and no one would want to read about penniless journos’ holidays — 2,000 words about camping in Wales). But it’s up to us to pick out what’s most interesting among the offers and which places would be useful to tell you about. The thrill is trying to find the lesser-known locations that you might not otherwise hear about, the trips and accommodation that offer something different, new, unique and good value.
I’ll admit — having tried a fair bit of it — I’m not a fan of luxury for its own sake. Honestly, character and atmosphere, and a little style flair, are far more important for ensuring you have a memorable time. Give me a small independent guesthouse with an eccentric owner or a simple, candlelit off-grid cabin or lodge to hunker down in any day rather than a bland, overly polished five-star. On the other hand, if you want to splurge, you should do so somewhere truly special that’s worth the money. These are my absolute favourite discoveries from 22 years of travel writing, all of which tick those boxes and promise something unique.
Long haul
1. Zion National Park, Utah, US (top)
If a child sculpted a crazy landscape out of pink and red Play-Doh it might look like Zion National Park. It’s the kind of place that has geologists frothing at the mouth. Here a long canyon of stripy sandstone, there the famous slot canyons and rock arches and, if you dare, the terrifying Angels Landing, a sheer-sided narrow ridge. Ascending the path, with vertical drops on both sides, is one of the scariest things I’ve ever done. A girls’ road trip from Salt Lake City to Vegas led me here. Sunny Springdale, the town at the entrance to the park, is worth a stop for the lodges. Try the luxurious Red Cliffs Lodge Zion
Details Room-only doubles from £86; marriott.com). Fly to Salt Lake City
2. Central Mexico’s silver-mining towns and folk art villages
There’s far more to Mexico than Cancun and Tulum, and anyone who loves the desert/cacti/funky adobe buildings aesthetic will adore roaming further into the countryside. After time in Mexico City I made a road trip north to the old silver-mining towns in the desert and central highlands of Guanajuato. San Miguel de Allende is where adventurous Americans shop for textiles and antiques, but I liked Mineral de Pozos to the north, a village with a tequila bar straight out of a western and cute guesthouses such as El Secreto de Pozos, with cowboy hats and art hung on the walls.
Real de Catorce too was incredible, a high-altitude (2,743m/9,000ft) ghost town in San Luis Potosi state on the edge of the Chihuahuan desert, reached via a long tunnel. It’s one of Mexico’s pueblos magicos, sacred for the Huichol people, whose shamans gather peyote there.
Easier to reach for similar vibes and traditional culture is the small arty city of Oaxaca, particularly the craft-making villages nearby, where you can buy handmade rugs and embroidered dresses, fine ceramics and art. Book a tour with Linda Hanna; she knows all the best spots.
Details El Secreto de Pozos: B&B doubles from £66 (facebook.com/ElSecretoPozos). Linda Hanna: folkartfantasy@gmail.com
3. Kiattua, Nuuk, Greenland
Change is afoot in Greenland. Even if Trump keeps his hands off and talk of independence leads to nothing, the new international airport is sure to bring more visitors. I hope it doesn’t change things. Nuuk must be one of earth’s tiniest capitals but it’s fascinating, with exciting modern art and food to get you talking. (Raw humpback whale skin, anyone?)
Staying at Camp Kiattua, a luxury collection of tepees tucked away in Nuuk’s fjord system, was our first big family adventure when my children were aged just four and two. I wondered if they were too young for speedboating through icebergs and hiking to the ice cap, but seeing how hardy our hosts’ children were changed what I thought about children’s capacity for challenge. We foraged for giant mushrooms and fished for cod and Arctic char with our private chef, called at Inuit settlements and jumped from an iceberg in drysuits, blown away by wild beauty.
Details Three nights’ all-inclusive from £4,477pp (swoop-arctic.com/greenland/west/camp-kiattua). Fly to Nuuk
4. Kandy, Sri Lanka
I could hear monks chanting as I swam out at near-dusk beneath palm trees in the garden pool of the Kandy House hotel, a 200-year-old manor house in tropical gardens (B&B doubles from £383; manorhouseconcepts.com). This central hilltop town’s steamy Shangri-La atmosphere, its temples and intriguing eccentrics, made me wish I could live there for a while. I ended up at a dinner party with Isabella Blow’s sister Helga de Silva, who’s run a quirky guesthouse here, Helga’s Folly, for decades Details B&B doubles from £80; helgasfolly.com)
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5. Uma Paro, Bhutan
I’m not married to my partner but the closest thing resembling a honeymoon we had, and our last big adventure before children, was trekking in Bhutan. The Tigers Nest monastery is as enchanting as you’d expect, and we practised the national sport of archery in the mist-wreathed gardens of the Uma Paro hotel before setting off to walk the ten-day Jomolhari circuit, or Yaksa trek.
Travelling up through lush valleys, past wooden homes painted with giant colourful penises, to the frozen foothills of snowcapped mountains so high the Bhutanese believe that’s where gods reside (people are forbidden to climb them) involved much beauty.
By the end of the trek we were filthy and sick from the not so hygienic conditions, so I’ve never felt such relief and appreciation of warmth and comfort as when returning to that pampering hotel. We were treated to the luxury spa version of the Bhutanese “hot stone bath” — traditionally created by lugging rocks to form a pool on the edge of a river and lobbing in a fire-heated boulder to warm it. We’d seen people doing the real thing out in the wild. Now new flights from Dubai have launched and the country’s tourist tax has been reduced until 2027, Bhutan is sure to be rising up many people’s wish lists, and deservedly so.
Details Half-board doubles from £445 (comohotels.com/bhutan/como-uma-paro). Fly to Paro
6. Vivendas dos Palhacos, Goa, India
I was charmed by this guesthouse behind Majorda beach in the south of Goa, in a 120-year-old Portuguese home. Simple rooms belie the buzzy atmosphere, and Goa’s longest stretch of sand is less than a mile away. I spent a few weeks touring Maharashtra, Mumbai and Goa alone and this was my best find.
Details B&B doubles from £56 (vivendagoa.com). Fly to Goa
7. Doro Nawas, Namibia
In Damaraland, the northwest region of Namibia, the people speak a language comprising clicking sounds and there are black rhino and desert-adapted elephants, immense landscapes and ancient rock art. Hours from anywhere, there’s also this impeccable fortress-like lodge, raised on an escarpment, with safari drives and thatched villas where the bed can be rolled out under the stars. It was a highlight of our family self-drive holiday through the country last spring. Staying only a couple of nights somewhere so astonishingly remote feels flippant, but Namibia’s deserts are vast and there’s much more to see.
Details Ten nights’ B&B on a self-drive safari from £1,620pp, including car hire and some extra meals (expertafrica.com). Fly to Windhoek
8. Dunton Hot Springs, Colorado, US
In the low-slung San Juan mountains away from the Colorado Rockies ski resorts, this cool little Wild West ghost town has been turned into an upmarket resort of log cabins. At the centre are the old saloon bar — where you can see the legendary outlaw Butch Cassidy’s name carved into the counter — and bathhouse, where a natural hot spring bubbles up. It’s 70 miles southeast of the ski resort of Telluride, so makes a good stop on a winter trip. Very romantic.
Details Full-board doubles from £566; two-night minimum (duntondestinations.com/hot-springs). Fly to Telluride or Aspen
9. Tayka del Desierto, Bolivia
It’s madness, really, to build a hotel in a red desert at an altitude of 4,600m (15,091ft). But that’s the deal at this remote (and supposedly the world’s highest) lodge near Uyuni in the Siloli Desert and Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve. Everything here is intensely coloured: red land, purple sky, blue rocks; you can barely breathe, but it’s intoxicating. The nearby Salar de Uyuni salt flats are incredible too.
Details B&B doubles from £140 (tayka-hoteles.com). 13 nights’ B&B from £4,380pp, including Tayka del Desierto, La Paz, Santa Cruz, Sucre, Potosí and Lake Titicaca, domestic flights, transfers and guided excursions (journeylatinamerica.com). Fly to La Paz
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10. Coral Reef Club, Barbados
The minute you arrive here, you relax. Pick a suite where your doors open directly onto the beach. For a rustic vibe, combine it with the Eco Lifestyle + Lodge on the wild east coast, and watch the breakers from your veranda’s hammock.
Details B&B doubles from £501 (coralreefbarbados.com) and from £264 (ecolifestylelodge.com). Fly to Barbados
Europe
11. Lanzarote’s César Manrique sites
The Lanzarote sites created by the artist César Manrique are the funkiest thing in the Canaries. There’s the Jardin de Cactus, above, the César Manrique House Museum, a whitewashed abode in Haria, and the Jameos del Agua caves, a fantasy of caverns that once contained a nightclub. Stay at Finca Tomaren, a collection of villas in the black moon-landscapes of the centre.
Details One night’s self-catering from £151; fincatomaren.com), or in Haria at La Casa de los Naranjos, a fabulous boutique hotel (B&B doubles from £220; lacasadelosnaranjos.com).
12. The Josef Kreidl Hütte, Jochberg, Austria
Ski trips can be rather cookie cutter. Essentially you want the same thing every time: steep snowy slopes; après-ski that’s lively, not obnoxious; a cosy chalet. I’ve hit on a few ways to mix things up. Picking an offbeat destination is one — I’ve taken some brilliant snowboarding trips to Turkey, Greece and Russia, with a side order of culture. Another is to find somewhere unusual to stay. I’d skip the igloos and ice hotels (uncomfortable; nothing to do when it goes dark at 4pm) but am besotted with an old off-grid hunting lodge in the Austrian resort of Jochberg, which links into Kitzbuhel. You have to drive two miles up an icy ski trail to reach it, and can ski back at the end of the day via a long looping trail or some pretty mega off-piste. It’s charmingly basic — the whole family sleeps in one five-bed room upstairs, cosying up by a huge stove in the only downstairs room. Après-ski is cards over beers cooled in the snow, or taking a hot shower (gas powered), then running out into the trees naked to howl at the moon. Pure magic.
Details One night’s self-catering for five from €79/£66 (almliesl.com). Fly to Munich
13. Château des Milandes, the Dordogne, France
Singer, dancer, activist, possible spy — the American-born French starlet Josephine Baker was a big deal in Twenties Paris. She became active in the French resistance, earning a Croix de Guerre, and adopted 12 children. They lived at the beautiful Château des Milandes near the Dordogne, now a museum, to which she added art deco style to rooms originally built in 1489. It’s fun to see — especially her bathroom based on a perfume bottle (milandes.com/en/the-castle).
Stay in pretty Beynac-et-Cazenac, built into cliffs above the Dordogne, 15 minutes’ drive north on the other side, where traditional guesthouse La Source has stone-walled rooms hung with tapestries.
Details B&B doubles from £150 (la-source-beynac-et-cazenac.com). Fly to Bergerac
14. Grand Hotel Duchi d’Aosta, Trieste, Italy
This small city in the eastern corner of Italy is set beside the Med, with cheap beach clubs and pop-up restaurants — known as osmize — located in producers’ courtyards. As Italy’s coffee city, it’s home to the Illy brand and its own unique types of coffee (flat whites are unheard of; order a capo in B — macchiato in a glass). The opulent Grand Hotel Duchi d’Aosta, on the Piazza Unita d’Italia, is my tip for glam rooms and ludicrously good food.
Details B&B doubles from £290 (duchidaosta.com). Fly to Trieste
15. Anakolodge, Val d’Hérens, Switzerland
In recent decades there’s been a trend to convert the centuries-old Alpine huts called mazots and raccards, where people once stored grain and valuable goods, into holiday lets. They are button-cute, with gabled roofs and tiny doors, shuttered windows and balconies blackened by the sun, like miniature chalets. At Anakolodge, several have been rescued and gathered from disparate villages, along with other old farm buildings, and turned into accommodation across a hillside in the unbelievably beautiful Val d’Hérens; I’ve been back numerous times. What’s different here are the interiors, with raw concrete kitchens and a climbing wall on a balcony, plus wood-fired hot tubs outside.
Details One night’s self-catering for two from £345 (anakolodge.ch/en/mountain-huts). Fly to Geneva
16. Boating in Venice, Italy
See the city in a whole new way by hiring a live-aboard motorboat to explore the lagoon, calling at islands such as Chioggia, a mini Venice; Pellestrina, for its wild-feeling beach; and the monastery island of San Francesco del Deserto, to wander through the cloisters in the shade. You don’t need boating experience.
Details Seven nights’ self-catering boat hire for six from £2,554 (leboat.com). Fly to Venice
17. Favignana, Egadi Islands, Sicily
Zu Nillu, on the island of Favignana, one of the Egadi islands off the coast of Sicily, is one of the world’s most unusual villas. Built over a Roman stone quarry, it has high stone walls and staircases separating pool, terraces and an outdoor stage. My partner and I had it to ourselves. A private path leads to a cove to swim.
Details Seven nights’ self-catering for eight from £8,022 (thethinkingtraveller.com/italy/sicily/villas/zu-nillu). Fly to Palermo
18. Son Vell, Menorca, Spain
The Hauser & Wirth gallery, on its own island in Menorca, had long been on my wish list. I loved the gardens and the restaurant as much as the art.
Just as brilliant was the hotel Son Vell, in the west. Squishy lawns overhung with banana leaf palms and bright hibiscus flowers led to shady daybeds beside two pools. A perfect luxury hotel.
Details B&B doubles from £385 (vestigecollection.com/son-vell). Fly to Mahon
Britain
19. Bird How, Eskdale, Lake District
Saying somewhere is “your happy place” is cringe, but even in the freezing grey drizzle (aka August) it’s the Lake District for me. Growing up in the northwest, I was tramping these fells in a sopping cagoule from a young age. Head north of Keswick, or around Borrowdale and Little Langdale, dodging the honeypots Ambleside, Grasmere and Windermere. Crummock Water — dramatic and quiet, with easy-to-reach beaches — is the perfect lake; the Kirkstile Inn the ultimate pub, with its firelit nooks. High Stile and Haystacks are great walks. I stay in National Trust cottages, such as Bird How in Eskdale. There’s no electricity or bathroom (you shower outside), but it feels like you have the glorious valley to yourself.
Details Three nights’ self-catering for four from £409 (nationaltrust.org.uk)
20. Borradill, Ardnamurchan, Scotland
I’m a sucker for a cabin. This new high-spec hideaway on the wild west coast of Scotland’s Ardnamurchan peninsula is slick and very Scandinavian. A wooden deck looks out across Loch Sunart, and you can hike into the hills or swim from the pale beaches of Sanna and Ardtoe.
There are two cabins surrounded by ferns and boulders, one of which has a secret playground on top reached by a ladder. We upped the adventure ante by travelling to Fort William on the Caledonian Sleeper (sleeper.scot).
Details One night’s self-catering for four from £215 (kiphideaways.com)
21. Coed y Bleiddiau, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd, Wales
When my son was small, we spent a lot of time on steam trains. Best by far was the Ffestiniog railway, where we blew his tiny three-year-old mind by asking the guard to make a stop at our own private platform for the weekend, in front of a railway cottage converted by the Landmark Trust. Coed y Bleiddiau — “wood of the wolves” — was a sweet little place. It was also a request stop on the line, which meant when we wanted to go out, we flagged down the driver as the train approached. Toddler heaven.
Details Four nights’ self-catering for four from £504 (landmarktrust.org.uk)
22. Kestle Barton, the Lizard peninsula, Cornwall
The Lizard peninsula is Cornwall’s best bit, I reckon. It’s great for paddleboarding and kayaking. Explore the Frenchman’s Creek off the Helford River with Koru Kayaking (korukayaking.co.uk).
The Lizard’s coast is scattered with great beaches such as Cadgwith Cove, where a pint in the Cadgwith Cove Inn is a moment of Cornish perfection. It’s just done up its simple rooms (cadgwithcoveinn.com) but more stylish is Kestle Barton, a farmstead turned into holiday cottages in woods towards the top of the Helford River (kestlebarton.co.uk).
Details Seven nights’ self-catering for four from £499 (forevercornwall.co.uk/cottages/helford/kestle-cottage)
23. Lord Crewe Arms, Blanchland, Northumberland
The ruins of Blanchland Abbey, a monastery dating to 1165, were transformed into the Northumberland village of Blanchland in the 18th century. It’s a charming little place, often used as a film location and home to the Lord Crewe Arms, a smart rural inn set below the moorland of the North Pennines area of outstanding natural beauty. Stone staircases separate ancient dining spaces where the food is good (celeriac soup, Isle of Mull scallops with samphire, roasted local grouse), the bar is in the medieval vaulted crypt and the cosy rooms are kitted out with blankets and telescopes.
Details B&B doubles from £164 (lordcrewearmsblanchland.co.uk)
24. The Ram Inn, Firle, East Sussex
The inky walls of the dining room, the open fire and good food, a bar area always packed noisily with locals and the location, in the pretty village of Firle, a short walk from Charleston, home of the Bloomsbury set (charleston.org.uk), make the Ram Inn the perfect country pub for escaping Londoners. It’s my go-to for a quick weekend away or a post-hike or pre-camping pub session in the South Downs. My partner sprung a stay here on me for my 40th birthday when Covid kiboshed more extravagant plans to go to Mexico for Day of the Dead. Not a bad booby prize.
Details B&B doubles from £160 (raminn.co.uk)
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