Australia’s reefs
To the Barrier … and past
With Sir David Attenborough espousing its delights in his newest BBC documentary collection, the Nice Barrier Reef – made up of the 1,400-mile string of islands, coral reefs and sand cays off the Queensland coast – is prepared for the push. Certainly one of Attenborough’s programmes options the enormous manta rays of Woman Elliot Island, 50 miles from Bundaberg (a four-hour drive from Brisbane), and guests can verify them out on a keep on the island’s eco-resort (twins from £83pppn).
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Another option is to nip over to Lady Musgrave Island on a new catamaran from Bundaberg (day tour £100) or pack a tent to make like a castaway on Lady Musgrave, the Whitsunday or Lizard islands (permit £3pp). Or try glam hostel Rambutan, which opened recently adjacent to the reef in Townsville (dorm beds from £14, rooms from £60).
Alternatively, head for Ningaloo Reef on Australia’s north-west coast, which attracts far fewer tourists than the Great Barrier and has plenty to offer. At its southern end is the superbly remote Gnaraloo Sheep Station, where you can volunteer on operations such as protecting turtle nests, or use it as a base for fishing, surfing (some of the best breaks in the world are here) and snorkelling (camping £9, cabins from £17). Further north, in Exmouth, a number of operators offer swimming with whale sharks, but now licences have been issued for swimming with humpback whales too: around 30,000 of them annually migrate along the coast. Charter1 offers whale swim trips from £190. Tours will run from June to October. Another newcomer is a kayak trail with moorings and free campsites along the coast, with the best snorkelling sites pin-pointed. Capricorn Sea Kayaking has a three-day trip from £487.
• See our guide to visiting the Great Barrier Reef
Bordeaux
The new world wine capital?
With its broad boulevards and neoclassical buildings on the banks of the Garonne, Bordeaux has by no means been in need of ambition. Now the centre of the area that produces the most important quantity of advantageous wines in France needs to be often known as the wine capital of the world. And it’s staking its declare with the opening in June of an ultra-modern museum, La Cité du Vin, “exploring the evolution of wine and honouring all vintages of the planet”.
The area that produces the most important quantity of high quality wines in France now needs to be often known as the world’s wine capital
Already dubbed the “Guggenheim of wine”, the futuristic, glass-clad, curved constructing was designed to evoke wine flowing by means of a stemmed glass, and goals to liberate wine tourism from its stuffy, elitist popularity. The 10-storey constructing will home an “immersive” tour of viniculture, together with a “theatre of specialists”, with professionals showing as holograms dishing out recommendation, and “magic binoculars” for searching over the world’s vineyards. There will probably be a restaurant on the prime of the 55-metre viewing tower, and as soon as guests have had their fill of concept, boats can shuttle them to vineyards on the outskirts of Bordeaux.
• Extra on Bordeaux holidays
Dublin
Centenary celebrations for the Republic
This yr marks the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising, an important step in the direction of Irish independence a couple of years later. Commemorative occasions embrace a serious exhibition in Dublin’s Nationwide Museum of Eire, at Collins Barracks, referred to as: Proclaiming a Republic: The 1916 Rising (museum.ie), it opens on three March. Different occasions embrace a day of celebration with music, theatre and dance on 28 March and lectures and discussions at Liberty Corridor on 26 April. Occasions come to life on a 1916 Insurrection Strolling Tour, which visits landmarks together with Dublin Citadel, Trinity School and Kilmainham Gaol. Afterwards, go to the brand new Teeling Whiskey Distillery, the primary distillery to open in Dublin in 125 years: excursions embrace tastings of the golden liquor, in fact. And check out Dublin Klaw for a few of the freshest seafood on the town.
Rio de Janeiro
Host of the 2016 Olympic Video games
Should you thought you’d seen all there was to see of the “Marvellous Metropolis” through the 2014 Brazil World Cup, assume once more. Rio’s beautiful pure panorama ought to make this probably the most photogenic Olympics ever. The rowing can be held on the Lagoa, a pure lake ringed by imposing black mountains; the street biking will velocity via the town’s rainforested hills; and the seashore volleyball might be on Copacabana seashore – additionally the location of the Olympic fanzone. Away from sport, the brand new Museum of Tomorrow within the previous port district, designed by Santiago Calatrava and opened final month, seems on the want for change if mankind is to keep away from local weather catastrophe. The elegant, futuristic constructing is already being described as one of many metropolis’s must-see sights. Visiting Rio in the course of the Olympics shall be costly, however at some other time your cash will go a great distance as the worth of the actual, Brazil’s foreign money, has fallen sharply over the previous yr.
India
A journey into Jungle Ebook territory
A brand new 3D animation film of much-loved basic The Jungle E-book, that includes the voices of Neel Sethi, Invoice Murray and Scarlett Johansson, is about to hit the large display in April. Rudyard Kipling’s story of Mowgli and co was impressed by the wildlife and landscapes of Madhya Pradesh, and people eager to hunt out the wild Bengal tiger and different jungle animals can be a part of a brand new tour in Satpura nationwide park with Gane and Marshall, which presents tenting in a single day within the park for the primary time (from £745 for 4 nights). One other new choice is the Forsyth Path, a 10-day tour from Village Methods (from £1,115), which incorporates time in Satpura in addition to Pench Tiger Reserve. Wild Frontiers has a particular Jungle Ebook group tour for 2016, visiting three parks – Kanha, Satpura and Tadoba (12 days from £2,795).
Iran
Historic tradition opens to the world once more
There have been occasions in recent times when the arrival of a western vacationer at an Iranian lodge attracted a crowd of sightseers and a proper welcome from administration. However because the Vienna settlement on the nation’s nuclear programme was reached in July and the next softening of relations with the west, these uncommon guests are set to develop in quantity. Publicity to modern tradition from Iran has additionally grown this yr with the movie Taxi Tehran giving a snapshot of the lives of residents within the capital, whereas Iranian-American director Ana Lily Amirpour’s noir vampire western A Woman Walks House Alone At Night time introduced a transnational imaginative and prescient of cool to our cinema screens.
Regardless that really unbiased journey continues to be not attainable, extra tour operators are operating holidays there. With a land space virtually seven occasions that of Britain, a number of local weather zones and a wealth of historic historical past, the nation has lots to supply.
Adventurous souls may discover the Alburz mountains, the place shepherds stroll their flocks as much as greater than Four,00zero metres
It has bazaars, mosques and gardens galore, however the actual pleasure is the individuals – encounters are by no means uninteresting. The unmissable website is Persepolis, the seat of Darius the Nice and his son Xerxes, which is astonishingly well-preserved. Additionally look out for the Soltaniyeh (a 14th-century mausoleum, the third-largest brick dome ever constructed), Takht-e Soleyman (a religious website celebrating hearth and water) and the cities of Shiraz and Isfahan. Trendy artwork lovers can take pleasure in works by Warhol, Monet and Pollock, hidden through the revolution however now on show within the Tehran Museum of Modern Artwork.
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More adventurous souls might explore the Alburz mountains, where shepherds walk their flocks up to more than 4,000 metres through flower-decked meadows. Less strenuous would be a rail trip: luxury tours run from Turkey, and new deals with Austria promise further developments.
Wild Frontiers trips to Iran include a 16-day Silk Road tour around the Caspian Sea plus parts of Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan (from £3,295). Travel The Unknown has launched the UK’s first dedicated Iran brochure, and Regent Holidays has a 14-day Journey from Tabriz to Shiraz (departs 26 September, from £3,495pp, including flights). Imaginative Traveller has two new trips: Iran Adventure and Iranian Days and Nights. The latter is a 15-day tour, starting and ending in Tehran, and visiting its major historic cities, as well as the desert city of Yazd. Departs 23 May (£2,100, flights not included).
Japan
New bullet train link to the north’s wide open spaces
From the top of March, a direct bullet practice will hyperlink Tokyo with Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s foremost islands, thought-about to be the nation’s pure journey playground. In summer time, guests head there for mountaineering, climbing and tenting in its huge expanse of forests, lakes, mountains and scorching springs. In winter, dependable snowfall makes for nice snowboarding, with Niseko probably the most well-known resort.
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In a recent survey, Hokkaido was Japanese travellers’ preferred region, with Hakodate, the gateway to Hokkaido, voted the country’s most attractive tourist destination, followed by Sapporo. Hakodate is celebrated for its historic buildings, landscapes including Mount Hakodate, and dishes such as ikura (salmon roe) and squid-ink ice-cream.
Sapporo, meanwhile, is styling itself as Japan’s version of US hipster city Portland. People are relocating there for its laid-back lifestyle, outdoorsy edge, winter festival, small start-up businesses and retro-styled bar scene. The Hokkaido Shinkansen route will connect Tokyo with Shin-Hakodate Hokuto in four hours, two hours less than the current journey time. A seven-day Japan Rail pass costs £157.
• More Japan holiday ideas
Cornwall
Art, architecture and Poldark passion
Swimming (and structure) followers are in for a deal with when the artwork deco Penzance Jubilee Pool – the most important surviving seawater lido in Britain – reopens in Might. Inbuilt 1935, it was broken by storms in 2013 however has now been returned to its full glory. Keep within the newly opened Chapel Home (from £150 an evening), a stunning Georgian constructing with six rooms overlooking the ocean. New meals decisions embrace seafood specialist The Shore from former Rick Stein chef Bruce Rennie.
Cornwall can be within the limelight as soon as extra when the second collection of TV drama Poldark returns to BBC1 this yr
Tate St Ives reopens on 21 Might after a refurbishment and enlargement venture, whereas the Eden Undertaking is opening a brand new timber-clad 115-room eco-hotel for subsequent summer time.
Cornwall can be within the limelight as soon as extra when the second collection of BBC drama Poldark airs within the autumn – and Rely Home Cottage, a Nationwide Belief property that seems within the present, is obtainable for lease from £275 for 3 nights. This yr can also be the 10th anniversary of Cornwall’s mining landscapes turning into a Unesco world heritage website. To have fun, a steam-powered cast-iron puppet of a miner, that’s 12 metres tall, will spend two weeks in late July strolling throughout Cornwall, stopping at mining places en route.
Copenhagen
Foodie metropolis turns into reasonably priced
Meals followers who’ve the urge for food, if not the pockets, for Nordic delicacies ought to head to Copenhagen, the place a few of the metropolis’s high-end eating places are opening informal options. Whereas René Redzepi’s world-beating Noma relocates to Sydney from January to April, the group is opening a brand new spot, referred to as 108, with extra seats and a extra reasonably priced menu than the mothership.
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108 will start off as a pop-up on Noma’s premises during the Australian hiatus, before moving to a permanent location. Small plates (around £10) and mains (£15) will include cured squid and bacon broth, and caramelised milk skin with veal tongue.
Kadeau, another celebrated restaurant in the canal area of Christianshavn, has also launched a more laid-back offshoot, Eldorado, with a menu featuring papadums and Thai coconut soup – signalling the city’s appreciation for a cuisine beyond foraged beach herbs and Nordic dogmas. Craft brewery Mikkeller follows this trend with recently opened Ramen to Bíiru in the bohemian Nørrebro district, serving, as the name suggests, bowls of ramen. Visitors can sample some of the city’s best restaurants in August, at the Copenhagen Cooking & Food Festival.
’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
Cultural coup and an art show tribute to Bosch!
In February, this small Dutch city an hour south of Amsterdam by practice will stage a cultural coup. Dutch Renaissance painter Hieronymus Bosch was born and labored within the city, and died there 500 years in the past. To pay tribute, the Noordbrabants Museum is placing on an exhibition of 39 of the artist’s iconic work and drawings – the most important ever Bosch exhibition. The entire city is stepping into the spirit of the artist’s fantastical work, with fringe occasions reminiscent of a jaunt across the metropolis’s canals and river referred to as the Boat Journey of Heaven and Hell, and a few of Bosch’s extra grotesque works projected on to partitions beneath its tunnels and bridges.
County Durham
Historical past advised by 1,00zero actors
This summer time, Bishop Auckland in County Durham will host an open-air historic theatrical spectacular referred to as Kynren – an epic story of England. The manufacturing was impressed by the French theme park Puy du Fou, has a forged of over 1,00zero members of the area people on a seven-acre stage, and can take as much as eight,00zero spectators on a journey by way of 2,00zero years of English historical past. Guests to the market city also can take pleasure in Auckland Citadel – which serves as a backdrop to the manufacturing – the Nationwide Railway Museum at Shildon, close by Binchester Roman Fort, and the great thing about the North Pennines AONB. The town of Durham is a 20-minute drive away.
• Kynren has 14 exhibits from 2 July to 17 September. Reserving now open: grownup from £25, youngster from £19, kynren.co.uk
US landscapes
Centenary of the Nationwide Park Service
On 25 August 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the act that created the Nationwide Park Service, “to preserve the surroundings and the pure and historic objects and the wild life therein and to offer for the enjoyment of the identical in such method and by such means as will depart them unimpaired for future generations”.
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One hundred years later, the 84-million-plus-acre National Park Service comprises 409 sites, including 58 national and historical parks, monuments, battlefields, and seashore. In 2014, almost 293 million people visited them. The opening event of the centennial takes place on 1 January, with the enormous Tournament of Roses Parade winding through the streets of Pasadena, Los Angeles – the theme is “Find Your Adventure’’ in a US national park. All national parks will waive their entrance fees on 16 special days in 2016, including during National Park Week (16-24 April), and the National Park Service Birthday (25-28 August).
To conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein
Woodrow Wilson on the NPS
American Sky has a 21-night self-driving tour through some of the most beautiful national parks in the western US. The trip begins and ends in San Francisco, with plenty of time to explore sights from the Grand Canyon to the red cliffs and Angels Landing rock formations of Zion national park. The route also takes in Mesa Verde, Canyonlands and Arches, Yellowstone, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, Death Valley and Yosemite. The trips costs from £2,089pp including flights and hotels. For non-drivers, a similar 17-day tour with transport provided costs £2,209.
• More US national and state park holiday ideas
Lima, Peru
Fly direct to the Peruvian capital
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Peru has long been the most popular destination in South America for British visitors, so it’s about time an airline launched a direct flight from London to Lima, as British Airways will do in May, cutting up to three hours off previous flights times via Spain.
But while most tourists are drawn by Machu Picchu and other ancient sites, the Peruvian capital continues to develop as a destination for those interested in contemporary culture. Food and drink – ceviche and pisco sours – is at the forefront of this, thanks to Virgilio Martínez, owner of Central, who opened a more casual restaurant, NOS, in upmarket Miraflores in August.
The Barranco area has more grazing spots, such as Isolina, for a modern take on earthy cuisine, and Blu for fresh ice-cream. The area also has small cafes, design shops and galleries. The art scene has also been growing: Mario Testino’s MATE museum opened in 2012, joining the more established Museo de Arte de Lima.
Costa Rica
Forests, beaches, volcanoes and wildlife
Attending to Costa Rica from the UK used to contain travelling by way of Madrid or Miami. No extra: Thomson launched the primary direct flights, from Gatwick to the northern metropolis of Liberia, in November, whereas BA is beginning direct flights from Gatwick to the capital, San José, in April. The twice-weekly BA flights (return from £499) will reduce the journey time to only underneath 11 hours.
Manuel Antonio nationwide park, 110 miles from San Jose, is likely one of the greatest locations for trekking and wildlife recognizing
The brand new flights have coincided with a number of lodge openings, from luxurious resorts reminiscent of Andaz Peninsula Papagayo (doubles from $226) within the north and Hacienda AltaGracia (doubles from $275) additional south, to easier properties like Nammbú Beachfront Bungalows in Playa Carrillo (doubles from $175, no web site).
Vacation corporations are launching excursions, too, similar to Nationwide Geographic and G Adventures’ 14-day Discover Costa Rica journey, which incorporates assembly researchers at a sea turtle conservancy and becoming a member of in reforestation tasks (from £1,429pp with out flights).
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Costa Rica has an astonishing array of endemic species, thanks to the diverse landscape and microclimates on its two coasts (with great beaches and surfing), mountains, jungles and volcanoes. It also has pioneering sustainability policies – a quarter of the landmass is protected.
Manuel Antonio national park, 110 miles from San Jose, is one of the best places for trekking and wildlife spotting. It is home to most of the country’s native species, including howler monkeys, sloths and iguanas. The country is a year-round destination, with a dry season from November to April and a mild rainy season from May to October.
• See our guide to holidays in Costa Rica
Le Marche, Italy
Beaches and art without the crowds
Le Marche, a area midway up the japanese aspect of Italy’s boot, is slowly being found by Brits: customer numbers have been up 24% within the yr to August, although from a really low base. And vacationers are staying there longer – having fun with the area’s seashores, hilltop villages, art-filled cities and nice outdoor for their very own sake, fairly than making a fast foray from Umbria or Abruzzo.
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Hospitality in Le Marche used to be in staid business hotels or pack-’em-in beachside billets, with (uninspiring) half-board compulsory in summer. But a younger generation has taken the British concept of bed-and-breakfast to their hearts.
La Maison Jujube (doubles from €69 B&B) is in a 14th-century village house in Morrovalle, between the sea and the old university city of Macerata, with two bedrooms, a walled garden and great views. Less than an hour away is one of Italy’s best beaches, spectacular Due Sorelle, beneath white cliffs and accessible by boat from the harbour at Numana.
Inland, medieval Urbino is a must-see for the renaissance art in its Palazzo Ducale, but fans of more modern art can put together a great tour of contemporary galleries, from Il Conventino in tiny Monteciccardo, to modern sculpture inside a 15th-century tower in Cagli.
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Green capital hits its stride
Slovenia’s capital is the European Inexperienced Capital 2016, because of tasks over the previous decade to enhance its surroundings – which have additionally made it extra engaging to guests. Giant elements of Ljubljana have now been pedestrianised, present inexperienced areas have been restored, and new ones have been created.
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Paths wind down from the castle (the main tourist attraction),