Looking across the bay to Port Ellen

The Scottish isle of simple pleasures

Author Lennox Morrison on the Hebridean island that will bring out your inner child

Kate Humble treks into Afghanistan

A new trek through north-eastern Afghanistan offers travellers the chance to enjoy breathtaking landscapes far from the conflict in the country.

Brazil's Costa Verde: The perfect escape from Rio

Combine the carnival with a trip down the glorious Costa Verde – mountains clothed in velvet green on one side, perfect beaches on the other.

48 Hours In: Havana

Ben Ross: Salsa, socialism and sophistication share the faded magnificence of the Cuban capital.

Game on: As well as the sports competitions, visitors to Vancouver can enjoy a far-flung city break

City slicker: Vancouver

The world will be watching this Canadian city when the Winter Olympics open here on Friday. Cori Howard reveals the sights to see away from the ski slopes

WIN! A weekend for two in Lisbon

Enter our prize draw and you could be the lucky winner of two nights' B&B at the four-star Fontana Park Hotel in Lisbon.

Big Six: Romantic rentals

From a 16th-century watchtower complete with hot tub to a riverside cottage located in a former chapel.

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Home and dry: An Airside Operations employee marshals a plane into its landing slot

On runway patrol: How safe is take-off?

If a mere sliver of metal can bring down a jet, Heathrow's runway patrol have some of the toughest jobs in aviation. Tim Walker meets the crew who keep us up in the air

Snow report: It's all quiet on Whistler's pistes – but are there any rooms left?

When the resort of Whistler opened 40 years ago, its dream was to host the Winter Olympics.

48 Hours In: Cape Town

With Table Mountain providing a spectacular backdrop, Harriet O'Brien soaks up the culture and glamour of South Africa's coastal gem before it gets swamped by football fever

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Stay the night: The Westin Paris

The contemporary styling of a historic hotel offers a seductive mix for Valentine's guests

Let the river be your guide to this lonely valley

Walk of the Month: A walk through Weardale reveals two distinct characters. Mark Rowe reports

Fishing for pearls on the island of Bahrain

It's 8.30am and Bahrain's gentle winter sun plays on the water as our boat pulls away from the jetty. Our hopes are high for a good catch: not of fish, but of oysters. And not just any old oysters but those with pearls in them.

The view from Claudia's bedroom window at Gran Hotel La Florida in Barcelona

Best for the high life: Barcelona

I knew nothing about the Gran Hotel La Florida in Barcelona other than I once met a man who stayed there and said it had "seriously the best bedrooms – EVER". He repeated this whilst looking up at the sky. "Ever. Ever. Ever." And it has stayed with me ever since. So when we had four days free over the Christmas holidays I booked it. I know. Crazy.

Golden star: Bondi has become the most vibrant beach in Australia

Best for sun-worshippers: Bondi Beach

I once spent six months working in television in Sydney, and that's when I first visited Bondi Beach. Back then, it was a bit unloved – there was nowhere to eat and the beach was run-down and grubby. In spite of its close proximity to the city centre, Bondi just wasn't fashionable. Nowadays, things are very different – the neighbourhood has been reinvented and Bondi has become the most vibrant beach in Australia; perfect for a fun weekend break from the city. The combination of a beautiful bay, golden sands and a cosmopolitan crowd ensures that this is a beach for everyone – surfers, serious swimmers, hikers, sunbathers and families enjoying communal picnics. Once frequented by backpackers, junkies and down-and-outs, the cleaned-up, restored Bondi is chic, and boasts, among other things, award-winning chef Sean Moran's Panaroma on Campbell Parade, a great neighbourhood restaurant where he offers organic produce, delicious roast chicken and fresh fish, all served simply. Think River Caf�, Aussie-style.

Best for soul sensations: Barbados

Despite what resorts in Barbados would have you think, steel drums, or more mystifyingly, steel drums played over Eighties and Nineties soft-rock muzak, are not the most popular music on the island. That honour, it seems, goes to R'n'B and soul. It rolls out of my taxi from Grantley Adams Airport and there's no let-up at the Fisherman bar in ramshackle Speightstown, where the tuneless trill of Ne-Yo accompanies my flying fish and cou cou – a sort-of fruit version of mashed potato – doused with the local Banks beer and rum.

Masterpiece: Fez is one of the world's great cities

Best for getting lost: Fez

Every great city is entirely itself and nowhere else. At the same time, they're all like ... somewhere. Somewhere that doesn't exist. A Platonic copy, perhaps; an embodiment of the idea of the city, whatever that may be. Morocco has several versions – all different – but in the end Tangier, Rabat and Marrakesh seem to me just rehearsals for the world's great masterpiece, Fez. In particular, the Bali Medina, the walled Old City, of Fez. The traditional Great City – traditional now, in our post-Enlightenment eyes – is a place of visual harmony, of vistas and prospects, squares, spires and domes. Old Fez is the exact opposite. The alleyways of the medina are so sinuous, straitened and overbuilt that there is, quite literally, no view. You never know what is around the next corner as it tilts down towards the river. You barely know where the next corner is. There is no angle that can lead the eye upwards more than 30ft. The rooflines are a mystery. The medina from the air reveals nothing about the medina on the ground. The eye is made useless.

Making a splash: High tide on the Mumbai coast

Best for weather-watching: India

It's the winds that bring it. They come in from the east, a cool rush that lifts the dust of a long dry summer and a lock of hair from your head. You lift your head, too, and the air darkens; a shift in pressure that strokes its way down your back. You didn't realise how taut the air was until now. A rumble, a crack, the splashdown of a heavy droplet as big as a fingertip and then it's on you. Words drown in the roar of water streaming through gutters and rushing through streets. At night, flashes of lightening turn mouldering skies an electric, quasar purple. This is a weather event.

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