New Zealand offers an insight into the films of the Tolkien classics

Come see the new Waldorf Astoria in Berlin, the invitation read. How new? I asked, stepping into the soaring lobby one sunny March morning. Oh, we opened last week. You’d never know it.

The word “holiday” has certain implications: a beach, a blue sea, a hammock, rum-based cocktails with umbrellas in… And a sense of doing very little for a week or two.

Does the thought of a fortnight in the sun fill you with dread? Do you break out in a cold sweat at the merest mention of a long-haul flight?

Edinburgh is the most popular destination in Scotland for overseas visitors, and the second most popular in the UK as a whole, according to new figures.

FROM the outside, Glasgow’s tallest hotel is as likely to be praised for its architecture as one of the city’s last remaining 1960s high rises.

IT’S –5°C when I arrive in Krakow’s medieval market square, the largest of its kind in Europe, dating back to the 13th century.

AS we tootled along the country roads from Lanark in the general direction of Peebles on our way to Stobo Castle for a day trip, the chat was already high octane.

DWARVES, elves and orcs, wizards and warrens full of hobbits – New Zealand is Middle-earth these days, Peter Jackson’s films providing a marvellous showcase for the country’s awesome natural landscapes.

ONE of three hotels owned by the National Trust, Hartwell House, in the Vale of Aylesbury, was first mentioned in the Domesday Book as belonging to a natural son of William the Conqueror. But the stunning building that stands there now, with its Jacobean and Georgian aspects, dates from the early 17th century.

THE conservation message comes over loud and clear when visiting Kenya’s famous animals on safari.

Think of Jersey and what immediately springs to mind is sunshine, cows, potatoes and – I’m just going to get it out of the way – Bergerac.

DAN Brown’s forthcoming novel, Inferno, is set principally in Florence, and already the city is gearing itself up for an even greater influx of tourists than usual after the book’s publication on Tuesday.

Plasticine duo Wallace and Gromit have been to the moon, fought off evil penguins and solved one small town’s rabbit problem, but now they’ve done the impossible - they’ve had their picture taken alongside the Loch Ness monster.

AS we entered this fine Georgian mansion, the young receptionist almost bounded from behind her desk in the hallway to give us the grand tour.

Through one door, white tablecloths and silver cutlery gleamed from a sunlit dining room packed with Sunday lunchers.

“THESE are the sexual sacks of the beaver,” says a prim lady who has just tricked us into breathing in the powerfully musky smell of a dark and shrivelled pair of what we had thought were some sort of exotic fruit. Poor old beaver.

Clutching our torches, my family and I gingerly began our night walk through the Amazon looking for tarantulas. As wildlife enthusiasts, it was hard to imagine that any holiday experience could top this, yet it turned out to be only one of many highlights on our expedition to Ecuador.

With the two-week bacchanal of Oktoberfest and the huge scale of some of its beer palaces, one tends to think of Munich in terms of quaffing frothing steins, rather than soaking up art, but the Bavarian capital also boasts art collections of international significance.

THEY may be smaller than the average living room, have no toilets, power or running water, but there is a 10-year waiting list for these quirky huts on a remote Scottish beach.

FEW cities are as vibrant as Berlin, and few neighbourhoods in Germany’s capital are as charming and central as Schöneberg, a residential area that was part of West Berlin and has long been home to the city’s gay community.