1. Ponies and pints, Dartmoor For a hack with a difference, try one of these 20-mile rides via a country pub. Riders arrive early to meet their mounts, before setting off all day across the moors, with a stop for lunch at the local to refuel. The moors offer varied and dramatic riding terrain, from ...

Northumberland by Harry Pearson All the great authorities on romance (Cosmopolitan, Jane Seymour, taxi drivers) conclude that spontaneity is key. In this busy age, however, most of us can really only find time for the unscheduled if we pencil it in for every second Wednesday between 8.15pm and the s...

Of all the pomp and pageantry Venice is famous for, none of its festivals has quite the allure of Carnival. Set against the city's fairytale backdrop, Carnival is the perfect marriage of age-old beauty and high drama. Enjoying its heyday in the 18th-century, the pre-Lent celebration quickly became a...

American hikers have a name for it - "trail magic". That occasional stroke of extraordinary good fortune that benefits a stranded walker just when they need it most, whether it's stumbling by chance on the spot you were aiming for or encountering a good Samaritan who bails you out of a sticky situat...

It was when I found myself being taught to dance merengue by an elderly Colombian woman at three in the morning that I realised I'd had one shot too many of aguadiente. The bar was heaving, and her husband smiled indulgently at my faltering steps. But I wasn't in South America. I was in La Noria, a ...

Family Holidays 1 Swap Corfu for ... Korcula A long-time family favourite, Corfu offers an ideal mix of bustling resorts, long sandy beaches and stunning Venetian architecture in Corfu town. The Croatian island of Korcula, however, can match it on almost every front - wooded hills, unspoilt beaches ...

Fish & Pips, Méribel It was only as I arrived at the rustic-plush Chalet du Guide in Méribel that I realised that in my 30-odd ski trips, I'd never done the shared chalet thing. The group chalet takeover yes, but to the catered, per-room model, sharing mountain digs with perfect strang...

There was a point in our off-road cycling adventure across Sardinia when I wondered whether we might be the first ever slapstick double-act in the history of this most demanding of leisure activities. It came on our first full day away from the smooth security of tarmac. "At the Y-junction, take the...

Istanbul was Europe's fastest growing city-break destination in 2008, according to the Turkish tourist board, witnessing an 18% increase in British visitors alone. It's not hard to see why. From one district to the next, you can experience centuries of European and Asiatic diversity, from from bouti...

Tree hugging is just so last year. With a series of savage left-right jabs and guttural grunts, I am - and there's no easy way of saying this - knocking 10 bells out of a pine sapling. My punches stop inches from its adolescent bark, but this youngster's getting the message: don't mess with me, you ...