FROM THE EDITOR

I don’t know where to go next.

This is not the kind of admission a travel editor usually makes. Normally, I have a long mental checklist (sorted by season and experience) but right now the volume of choice – after two years of limitations – is positively dizzying.

So I’m going back to basics. What do I need from travel right now?

As it turns out, quite a lot…

1. I need an adventure. I’m not talking about next-level adrenaline but I want to experience something that makes me gasp. Turn a corner and be startled by a pride of lions. Follow in the tracks of a herd of elephants. Watch mountain gorillas as they forage.

2. I need a restorative break. I want to quieten my mind, look after myself and be surrounded by great beauty. I’m thinking a walk somewhere majestic. The overland track on Tasmania’s Cradle Mountain?

3. I need to indulge. A weekend in wine country. Lunch at Brigitte Hafner’s Tedesca Osteria on the Mornington Peninsula sounds so right (see page 74), as does a wine tasting at Montalto followed by a private picnic.

4. I need something that feels new. A cacophony of colour and sounds and smells. It has to be India and its greatest hits, from Delhi to Mumbai and Jaipur to Jodhpur.

5. I need to reconnect… with myself and my family. I want to slow down, stretch out the days and find joy in simple pleasures. A villa in Umbria, perhaps, or closer to home, a beach house on the NSW South Coast or South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula.

The kind of trip we want to take (or need to take) often depends on our state of mind. That’s why we’re focusing on the senses this month. We’ve found five very different types of holiday for you, whether you want to still your senses or thrill your senses.

So it looks like I have a checklist after all.