Where in the world? Top trips for 2012

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10 April 2012

It's been a hard year for much of the world, including demonstrations and unrest in Tunisia and Egypt, earthquakes in New Zealand, Turkey and Japan (which had the added hardship of a tsunami), not to mention floods in Thailand.

Euro instability, rising air passenger duty and collapsing tour operators all added to the climate of uncertainty, yet according to the latest report from Abta, last year 63 per cent of us took a foreign holiday - 34 per cent took more than one - and the outlook for this year is similarly resilient. Read on...

UK
With 8.8 million tickets sold for the Olympics, the spotlight is on the UK - with sporting events nationwide including the Torch Relay - and the capital in particular. Naturally, the rush of new high-end hotels opening here gathered pace last year, including 45 Park Lane and St Pancras Renaissance. This continues with the opening of the 85-room Belgraves, a Thompson Hotel in Belgravia, this month. It is the first transatlantic venture of the US group designed by Tara Bernerd, and features an 80-seat restaurant by chef Mark Hix (from £336 room only, thompsonhotels.com).

April sees the launch of the 85-room and six-residence Bulgari Hotel in Knightsbridge. Expect glitz and glamour, with silk curtains and lamps inspired by Bulgari jewellery - the silver theme continues into the restaurant, bar and cigar shop while the spa has a pool made from Vicenza stone (bulgarihotels.com).

In Marylebone, Firmdale's first London opening since the Haymarket Hotel in 2007, the 38-room Regency Dorset Square Hotel re-opens its doors in May on the site of the original Lord's cricket ground, with artwork, iPod docking stations and Miller Harris bath products, bar and brasserie (firmdale.com).

Marconi House, the first London address of the BBC on the Strand in Aldwych, is the site of the long-awaited 157-room and suite ME by Melia, designed by Foster + Partners in June. It comes with VIP service, a penthouse suite over two floors, a 180-degree rooftop terrace bar and screening room with 3D system (from £340 B&B, me-by-melia.com).

PORTUGAL
Guimarães, in northern Portugal, is Europe's Capital of Culture for 2012, hosting music, cinema, photography, fine arts, architecture, literature, theatre, dance and street art, utilising its new Centre for Art and Architecture Affairs. Not to be left out, Lisbon was voted European City of the Year 2012 with a Unesco award for its soulful Fado music (visitportugal.com).

TURKEY
Turkey and North Cyprus specialist Green Island Holidays introduces the Aegean coastal town of Alaçati, near Izmir, for 2012. Picturesque stone houses with turquoise shutters on cobbled streets are the backdrop for the new 15-room Beyevi hotel with whitewashed walls, white French-style furniture, a pretty walled courtyard garden and swimming pool (seven nights from £549pp B&B with flights and transfers, greenislandholidays.com).

ICELAND
EasyJet launches a new route from Luton Airport to Reykjavik from the end of March, providing another route for Brits wanting to experience the Northern Lights in Iceland, set to hold some of the greatest displays for the past 50 years. Icelandair adds to its growing portfolio with the opening of the 108-room harbourside Hotel Reykjavik Marina in April (icelandairhotels.com/hotels/reykjavikmarina).

For adventurous golfers, a new Golden Circle and Midnight Golf tour from Icelandic Golf takes advantage of the 24 hours of daylight in summer months (icelandicgolf.is).

VIETNAM
Vietnam Airlines launched its first direct twice-weekly flight from Gatwick to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in December, finally opening up easier access to this fast emerging Asian destination. Alongside, the Anantara hotel group is opening the five-star 89-room, suite and villa Mui Ne Resort & Spa in February near Phan Thiet, 198km north of Ho Chi Minh City. The development features tropical gardens, a swimming pool, lotus flower-inspired spa treatments and five restaurants and bars (£130 B&B, mui-ne.anantara.com)

MAURITIUS
The 172-room St Regis Mauritius Resort opens in May on Le Morne Beach, on the south-western side of the island near a Unesco World Heritage Site, with butler service, the Iridium Spa and six restaurants (£510 half-board, stregis.com).

The 75-room beachfront five-star Centara Grand Resort, set within the six-acre Azuri residential development, opens in October with two swimming pools, a spa and health club, teenagers' and kids' clubs and three restaurants (azuri.mu).

ABU DHABI
Abu Dhabi has caught up with neighbouring Emirate Dubai with a heady level of tourist development over the past few years, including a burgeoning golf scene - Tiger Woods makes his Abu Dhabi debut at this month's HSBC Championship - Guggenheim and Louvre museums planned for 2014 openings and high-design hotels. Sir Rocco Forte's glass-fronted, wave-shaped property opened at the end of last year, and this summer sees the 198-room five-star high-rise Rosewood Abu Dhabi open in the new Central Business District (rosewoodhotels.com).

CANADA
Canada's newest winter attraction, the Montreal Snow Village, opens on Friday in the grounds of St Drapeau Park on St Helen's Island until the end of March. The village will feature replicas of famous Montreal buildings, a 15-room, 10-suite ice hotel with polar snow igloos, a wedding chapel, an ice restaurant, Le Kube Ice bar, and outdoor spa (£110 B&B, snowvillagecanada.com). In May, Virgin Atlantic launches direct flights from Heathrow to Vancouver, celebrating the city's 125th birthday.

MEXICO
2012 is a significant year for Mexico: UK tourist figures are on the up, Virgin Atlantic launches direct flights from Gatwick to Cancun in June and it signals the end of the 5,125 year-long Mayan calendar. Whether you are swayed by apocalyptic prophecies, spiritual rebirth or £1 billion investments in international hotel groups, Mexico offers sandy beaches, Mayan ruins at Hochob, Campeche, inset right, and nature reserves (mexicotoday.org).

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico is pouring £622 million into hotels this year, including new tourism region Porta Atlantico, on the north coast. With the third-largest cave system in the world, the Arecibo Observatory, home to the planet's largest and most sensitive radio telescope, it will also see the island's first six-star hotel, the 130-room low-rise, low-density Ritz Carlton Dorado Beach Resort & Spa, set to open in December (seepuertorico.com).

SRI LANKA
Two years since the end of civil war, tourism to Sri Lanka is on the up - an improved infrastructure, the opening of a second international airport, England playing two Tests on the cricket-mad island in March (seven nights from £1,535, first Test only, gulliverstravel.co.uk) and the ICC Twenty20 Championships being held in September are expected to attract four million tourists this year. And this month, Sri Lanka launches a new online visa scheme, the Electronic Travel Authority, for travellers.

On the east coast, Trincomalee has recently re-opened for tourism with newly refurbished hotels including the 81-room Chaaya Blu, with an infinity pool, a PADI dive centre, whale watching and tours to the lost city of Muttur (£120 B&B, transindus.com). A Six Senses Resort & Spa is also opening later this year in Ahungalla, 30 minutes from Galle.

AUSTRALIA
Cicada Lodge, an 18-room eco-retreat, partially owned by the Jawoyn indigenous people, opens late this year in Nitmiluk National Park, 300km south of Darwin (cicadalodge.com.au).

Prices quoted are for a double room per night unless otherwise stated. Where none are stated, prices were unavailable at the time of going to press.

Where in the world? Top trips for 2012

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