Dirty nights away
FORGET the bucket and grab your spade with a dream gardening holiday in Derbyshire. Tickets to RHS Chatsworth Flower Show come with a four-day break plus visits to gardens at Felley Priory, Hardwick Hall and Haddon Hall. The trip, leaving June 5, costs £775pp, with three nights half-board, afternoon tea and coach travel. Visit brightwaterholidays.com. FOR the trip of a lifetime, nature has it all. From breathtaking mountains to colourful coral reefs, there are savvy ways to cross things off your bucket list.
Great Eight Coral reefs
Your major-league underwater wonderlands take some reaching. But Egypt’s Red Sea is a relatively close and affordable compromise and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula is another tourist hotspot with a kaleidoscope of coral and fish, particularly around the island of Cozumel.
But you cannot beat Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, so big it can be seen from outer space. Africa has its iconic big five to photograph on safari but the GBR betters that with its great eight – clownfish, manta rays, turtles, potato cod, giant clams, Maori wrasse, sharks and whales. To see all eight would be a truly life-enhancing experience. GO: An eight-night itinerary taking in three different locations costs from £2,999, including international flights. See travelbag.co.uk.
Splishy Splashy Waterfalls
Majestic, turbulent and often creating their own microclimates, the world’s waterfalls are a bucket list staple.
The combination of grace and power is unbeatable – the more majestic, the more the promise of certain death. Niagara Falls, on the Us-canada border, is the most visited. The world’s most extensive is Iguazu Falls in Argentina, but that’s a long way to go.
The best compromise is Victoria Falls on the Zambia/zimbabwe border. There is an airport right there, game drives leave from town and there are lots of adrenaline-charged riverrelated activities on the water. You can even swim right to the lip of the falls, in the Devil’s Pool on the Zambian side. GO: An eight-night itinerary that combines the high drama of Victoria Falls with lazing on an idyllic island costs from £4,215, including all flights. See destinology.co.uk.
Full monty Mountains
OK you may not be ready to tackle Everest but there are plenty of other ways to get an authentic mountain experience. Starting with the Alps, try walking the Eagles’ Way in the Austrian Tirol, sleeping in mountain huts.
In the Atlas Mountains in Morocco there are villages similar to those you would find in the Himalayas, best sampled from a comfortable hotel in Imlil, 90 minutes from Marrakesh.
But for the real thing, it is the Himalayas in Nepal. There are treks for every ability, from around the Annapurnas to base camp. GO: A 16-day trek around the Annapurna Sanctuary, fully catered, with Sherpas and porters, costs from £2,465, including all flights. See mountainkingdoms.com.
Chill thrill Icebergs
Cold may be the new hot but polar tourism requires a big budget and plenty of time. At the top end, specialist converted icebreakers head out on mini expeditions into the icefields.
But for a cheaper option Canada’s Newfoundland has a coast they call Iceberg Alley, where the big beasts line up on parade. But there is nothing like going to the source. Greenland’s Disko Bay is the iceberg capital of the world, at the end of a conveyor belt of moving glaciers. Up close these bergs are noisy beasts, crackling, sizzling and calving – dropping off big bits – as they warm. Go during the period of the midnight sun, June to mid-july. GO: Five days in Greenland, with a cruise out among the bergs, costs from £2,485, including flights from Iceland. See regent-holidays.co.uk.
Dry land Deserts
The most inhospitable terrain known to man has an alien beauty, if you travel with an open mind. It is at its most accessible in the Tunisian Sahara, which is why film makers – Star Wars, The English Patient – flock here.
Tour operators offering Tunisia all have some kind of desert experience, usually incorporating the oasis of Tozeur. Fly further, to Oman and get a taste of the Empty Quarter, 250,000 square