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“The last time I was in Tuscany, it was July. Fields were ablaze in that golden yellow you see on postcards, bikers in neon Lycra were swarming the roads, and tour buses jammed the medieval piazzas. And I’d had the brilliant idea of inviting 120 non-Italian-speaking friends to the tiny village of Pienza for my wedding. ‘Beautiful, hot and full of Americans’ was how one ungracious guest had put it,” The New York Times’ Danielle Pergament recalled in Tuscany Without the Crowds. “The real Tuscany, as locals have been telling me over the years, is found in the dead of winter, when the crowds are thinner and the rooms, flights and restaurants are pleasantly cheaper.”

In The Independent, Ben Mondy discovered An ocean of possibilities: The South Pacific islands of Tahiti have it all: “The Society Islands lie deep in the Southern Pacific Ocean, a cluster of extinct volcanoes lying about halfway between Australia and South America. This remoteness adds to the archipelago’s allure, but the primary attraction lies in their beauty: warm blue waters contrasting with lush tropical landscapes. Honeymooners come here, as do the ridiculously rich. I was neither, but am a keen surfer, diver and walker, and the Society Islands offer some of the most idyllic venues for all of these sports.”

The New York Times’ Geraldine Fabrikant spent 36 Hours in Palm Beach, Florida: “The tiny island, north of Fort Lauderdale on Florida’s east coast, still boasts some of the country’s dreamiest estates, where the staff lives better than many Americans, cashmere sweaters in trademark pastel greens and pinks go for $800, and Rolls-Royces show up at Publix with regularity in a town where more is never quite enough.”

In The Telegraph, John Arlidge discovers Wolgan Valley, Australia: the resort at the end of the world. “Wolgan is an £80-million resort built from scratch in a valley a boomerang’s throw from the cliffs and canyons of the Wollemi and Gardens of Stone national parks – and the money has been very well spent…Forty-eight hours earlier, I’d been wading through a soggy London winter’s day. Here, now, I never felt more alive.”

“Italian lessons and history classes might not sound like holiday activities, but when you are spending quite a bit of time on a cruise ship you might as well use some of it to exercise the little grey cells,” wrote The Telegraph’s Jane Archer wrote in Cruises: cultural and specialist interest holidays. “Lines such as Swan Hellenic and Spirit of Adventure have always had guest lecturers on board, who talk about the history and cultures of the places being visited. It tends to be heavy stuff, but I remember once on Spirit of Adventure, cruising from Cape Town, we had a wine maker on board who brought along a bush and showed us how to prune it.”

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