Staying put in the stopover zone

Dubai used to be the place you got turfed off the plane for refuelling en route to Australia, though you just might stay the night to get more time to stock up on cheap duty free.

Now, like other traditional stopover destinations, it merits a stay in its own right, though not necessarily on its own. Since the cost of breaking a plane journey can be minimal, the smartest shoppers are now snapping up a twinset - trip that is, rather than the sweater-and-cardi combo.

At Kuoni, product director Francis Torrill says the company has seen a 10 per cent rise in demand for these trips in the past year. The reason? People "want to make a longhaul flight really count, rather than fly for 12 hours just to spend two weeks on a beach". Thomas Cook's product manager Mac Campbell agrees: "It's a case of, 'We're going that way anyway, let's pop in'."

So here are some of the most attractive new-season twinsets. Prices are for October, based on two sharing, and include flights.

AUSTRALIA via HONG KONG

Buy bargain beachwear at Hong Kong's Ladies Market (the city's Metropole Hotel runs a shuttle bus to the main shopping areas). Wear it on the white sands of Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays. A 13-night trip - three in Hong Kong, seven at Polynesian-style Palm Terrace and Bungalows, room only, from £ 1,680pp - through Kuoni (01306 741111; www.kuoni.co.uk).

Asia has some of the world's best shopping and idyllic beaches to recuperate on afterwards. Take rolls of shimmering Thai silk from Bangkok to Bali, where skilled local dressmakers can snip and stitch it to perfection while you laze at the beach-front Segara Village at Sanur.

Tip: book a soothing foot massage on arrival; 14 nights from £944pp room only - four nights in Bangkok at the Amari Atrium Hotel and 10 on Bali - through Thomas Cook Holidays Worldwide (0870 443 4441; www.tcholidays.com).

MAURITIUS via BOTSWANA

Travel with the herd on safari in Botswana, then hoof it to Mauritius, where the subtly spiced cuisine - a mix of Indian, Chinese, European and Creole - is as enticing as the azure and emerald landscape.

Cox & Kings (020 7873 5000; www.coxandkings.co.uk) visits small luxury lodges in the game-rich Okavango Delta, including Sandibe, where commitment to Africa au naturel means incorporating a giant termite mound into the design (as well as gorgeous silks, leather and copper in the thatched cottage accommodation); 14 nights £3,795 - six nights in safari camps fullboard; one night B&B in Johannesburg, seven nights half-board at Mauritius's romantic Paradise Cove.

OR...

Safari on foot, boat and 4WD around southern Tanzania's remote game reserves, including Africa's biggest - Selous - and see hippos and crocs at Rufiji River Camp. Afterwards, fly to the spice island of Zanzibar, where Arabic, Indian and Zanzibari restaurants serve just-landed lobster meals for less than £10 and mangoes and yams come from local organic farms; 12 nights from £2,000pp - eight nights in three safari lodges; four on Zanzibar with two nights at seafood heaven the Shooting Star with most meals and activities - through Sunvil Africa (020 8232 9777; www.sunvil.co.uk).

BAHAMAS via MIAMI

Do like J-Lo and Britney and shimmy round the creamy, minimalist interiors of Art Deco hotel Tides on Miami's Ocean Drive, home of the perma-tan posse. Then discard Rollerblades for bare feet in the Bahamas: at South Andros's Tiamo resort, strict eco-principles translate into stilted seafront bungalows, with dinner by candlelight and days spent kayaking on orchidbanked mangrove estuaries. A fortnight costs £3,490pp for three nights at Tides, room only, and 11 nights at Tiamo all-inclusive through Discover the Bahamas (01737 218 803; www.discoverthebahamas.co.uk).

OR...

Play compare-and-contrast in the Middle East. A billowing sail is the design inspiration for Dubai's 26-storey, aluminiumand-glass Jumeirah Beach Hotel, overlooking the Persian Gulf. Graze your way through 18 in-house restaurants and bars before travelling to traditional Oman, to tour mountainside mudbrick villages, a desert camel camp and a turtle reserve (prime egg-laying season September to November).

From £2,217pp with five nights B&B in Dubai, five nights touring Oman fullboard and three nights B&B at the Crowne Plaza in Muscat - through Arabian Odyssey (01242 224482, www. arabianodyssey.co.uk).

ARUBA VIA PERU

Peru's Inca Trail without the aching legs: whizz around the cloud-covered highlights - Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca and Lima - then head off to the tiny Caribbean island of Aruba in the Dutch Antilles. A good choice for first-time divers, as depths of just five metres give glimpses of coral reef and its residents: rays, parrot fish and turtles; 16 nights from £2,259pp including an 11-night Inca Trail itinerary with transport, entrance fees, guide, breakfast and some lunches, and five nights in Aruba at the Holiday Inn Sunspree, Palm Beach, room only, through Hayes & Jarvis (0870 33 33834; www.hayesandjarvis.co.uk).

Sunrise vistas from the top of Mount Sinai - of Ten Commandments fame - are a highlight of Cox & King's Jordan and Egypt twinset. Clamber down the 3,000 Steps of Repentance to continue a journey that takes in ancient Petra and Cairo, then switch to El Gouna on the Red Sea, where reef and wrecks make for some of the world's best diving; 11 nights £1,790 half board on tour in Jordan, B&B in Cairo and El Gouna through Cox & Kings (020 7873 5000, www. coxandkings.co.uk).

SAO TOME via GABON

Think Sigourney, think silverbacks, think stunning rainforest. Spend a week trekking through Gabon's Lope Wildlife Reserve in Central Africa, in search of the shy but charismatic Western Lowland Gorilla. Chill your boots on the volcanic island of Sao Tomè, off the west coast of Africa, among aromatic cocoa and coffee plantations; 14 nights from £2,575pp - four nights in hotels in Gabon, two in a lodge, one in tented accommodation, mostly full-board; on Sao Tomè three nights B&B and one night fullboard in hotels, three nights half-board in a guesthouse, through Explore Worldwide (01252 760 000; www. exploreworldwide.com).

OR...

Follow a week playing Robinson Crusoe in a thatched ocean-front cabin on Fiji's Castaway Island with a fiveday guided walk along the northern coastline of New Zealand's South Island, stopping off on the way for reviving dips in secluded bays and forested waterfalls. Eighteen nights cost from £2,370pp, with six nights in Fiji, room only; a three-night stay in Christchurch B&B, seven nights around the walk, two B&B, five fullboard - through Tailor Made Travel (01386 712050, www.tailor-made.co.uk).