SWEDISH STEPS

Vast untamed wilderness meets functional Scandinavian hospitality on Sweden’s most celebrated hiking trail. A 450km smörgåsbord of lush forest, panoramic plains and glaciated barrel-like valleys, overlooked by snow-slathered peaks, the Kungsleden hosts, at convenient intervals, cosy wooden lodges with glowing stoves, supply stores and sometimes spectacular saunas. Walk the northernmost quarter of the route, starting inside the Arctic Circle at Abisko, straight off the overnight sleeper from Stockholm. Visit in the three-month summer and you’ll find everything either growing (plants have Ikea- worthy names including Smörboll and Ripbär) or mating, including thousands of migrating reindeer, eagles and huge Arctic hare. Kungsleden also offers serious serenity with meditation spots bearing boulders inscribed with calming words from former UN secretary-general Dag Hammarskjöld. For a high-octane finale, catch the daily helicopter lift back to a more frantic, less civilised world. Cabins from £42pp per night; swedishtouristassociation.com. Fly to Stockholm from £100 return; flysas.com; Sleeper train to Abisko from around £137 return; vy.se

AFRICA’S ALL-ROUNDER

Sun-soaked Africa travel veterans regard it as the continent’s most beautiful country; safari addicts eulogize its superb guides. Zimbabwe, once a tourism pariah, now offers unforgettable self-drive holidays with wonderful national parks and dramatic scenery peppered with remote campsites, luxury lodges and five-star hotels. After two days under canvas in Mana Pools, whose prolific game roam the Zambezi’s banks, point your Land Cruiser south for history rather than wildlife with the enigmatic stone ruins of Great Zimbabwe near Masvingo, once an Iron Age kingdom’s capital city, before looping around to the Unesco World Heritage Site of Matobo Hills National Park: boulder-strewn burial site of Cecil Rhodes. Pushing north, Hwange’s game-rich plains merit several nights before you take the chequered flag next to Victoria Falls’ mile-wide, 360ft-high wall of plummeting water – “the smoke that thunders” – staying in Victoria Falls Hotel, the elegant “grand old lady of the falls”. Classic Zimbabwe, from £5,655pp for two (January-June); safaridrive.com

DAMIEN HIRST’S PROVENÇAL TAKEOVER

Blend the enfant terrible of the YBAs with one of France’s finest sculpture parks (and vineyard hotels) and what do you create? The Light That Shines: a sprawling retrospective by Damien Hirst. The first “takeover” show at Château La Coste, north of Aix-en-Provence, his works are sprinkled throughout the serene grounds and across all five of its pavilions, designed by starchitects from Renzo Piano and Oscar Niemeyer to Richard Rogers. Alongside pieces dating back to Hirst’s breakthrough 1990s Natural History formaldehyde period, up to his recent The Secret Gardens Paintings series, there are works exhibited for the first time including The Empresses print series and sculptures from his Meteorites and Satellites series. Of course, there’s more to the region than Damien Hirst. Far more. Visit the photogenic Provençal towns of Ménerbes, Lacoste and Bonnieux, and savour an alfresco sundowner, served with dreamy Luberon views, at Gordes’ La Bastide hotel. The Light That Shines exhibition runs from 2 March-23 June; suites at Villa La Coste start from £1,201; chateau-la-coste.com

HIGH CHURCH

Once the haunt of backpackers, Ladakh – on a cloud-scraping plateau in India’s far north – now welcomes more adventurous luxury travellers. With startlingly beautiful snow-capped peaks cut by the Indus and Zanskar valleys, “Little Tibet” has one of the world’s most intact Tantric Buddhist societies. Having spruced up several remote village houses with rugs, glowing stoves and sumptuous linens, Shakti offers comfort and authenticity, with walks, led by local guides, revealing Ladakh’s people, customs and religion. After stays in Nimu, among apricot and walnut orchards – a base for visiting Basgo’s 16th-century monasteries and rafting the Zanskar river – and Stok beneath 20,187ft Stok Kangri, you’ll trek for three spectacular days along the Indus Valley; camping in dome tents, crossing glacial emerald streams and walking over 16,000ft Matho Pass. A final stay in riverside Ranbirpur overlooks three monasteries including Thiksey or Little Potala, where its monks blow a conch-shell call to early morning prayers: an unforgettable dawn sight. Ladakh Village Experience with Indus Valley Trek, £6,927pp (not including flights); shaktihimalaya.com

CANYON TO COAST

Prepare for epic nature, from scenic grandeur to extraordinary marine life, on this 11-day Mexican trip, combining one of the world’s greatest train rides with deserted, surf-strewn beaches. From the sprawling capital’s awe-inspiring Teotihuacan pyramids, built in 300BC, fly north-west to board the Chepe Express. Over three days, including a spectacular hotel stay, you’ll explore the Copper Canyon, where over 25,000 square miles, six separate canyons slice through the Sierra Madre: a landscape linking snow-dusted conifers with subtropical citrus groves. The rails cling to vertiginous cliffs, cross multiple ravines and slice through mountain tunnels, with a nerve-shredding option to zipwire to the canyon floor, returning via a cable car that, at points, hangs 450m above the earth. Nerves restored, fly to Baja California’s southern tip, staying among arty San José del Cabo’s restored colonial buildings: a chance to flop and bake or, during winter, to spot migrating humpback and grey whales, and swim with whale sharks. Mexico’s Copper Canyon, Railway and Baja Coast, from £2,570pp, excluding flight; journeylatinamerica.com

ANCIENT SHOWSTOPPER

Egypt has rarely been hotter. After 20 years’ planning and preparation, this spring sees the opening of Cairo’s vast Grand Egyptian Museum with 100,000-plus artefacts exhibited across 12 galleries including 5,000 items from Tutankhamun’s tomb – 2,000 of them never seen before. The museum, overlooking the Great Pyramid of Giza, will also display the King Merneptah pillar; a 4,600-year-old, 43-metre-long pharaoh’s boat; and, in the towering atrium, an 11-metre-high, 3,200-year-old statue of Ramesses II. Unlock more Egyptian history cruising along the Nile, a ribbon of fertility bisecting the Saharan desert, aboard the luxurious Sanctuary Sun Boat III. Expect temples galore from Karnak, Hatshepsut and Luxor to Horus, Philae and Abu Simbel; a tide of tombs including Queen Nefertari and, in the Valley of the Kings, Tutankhamun and Seti I, along with the granite quarry from where many of the monumental works emerged, home to a famous unfinished obelisk. Egypt & the Nile: a Holiday Journey 2024, from £15,070pp; abercrombiekent.com

LAKELAND’S PAIN-FREE PEDALLING

If you’re interested in a cycling holiday with elegy-inducing views, amazing off-road trails and thrilling descents, Cumbria’s Lake District could be your saviour. It’s even better if the holiday uses electric mountain bikes that – forget any idea of cheating – take the punch out of ascents, allowing for longer climbs, 25 to 50-mile days and spectacular eyries inaccessible under pure pedal-power. Based in the heart of the national park beside Coniston Water, the routes head out and back across the southern lakes on a mix of rocky bridleway, slate tracks, grass and, inevitably, mud, in the shadow of the Old Man of Coniston. Guided by qualified mountain bike instructors, you’ll tackle woodland trails through Grizedale Forest, head to Ambleside across the Coniston Fells and navigate the Walna Scar gravel road past old quarry works. With some technical descents, the five-night break suits competent cyclists with some experience of steep terrain. Lake District, Classic Coniston, from £1,245pp (e-bike rental not included); skedaddle.com

SUN, SOUL AND SURF

Escape the chilly, unpredictable British waves to learn – or improve – your surfing in the warm Indian Ocean off Sri Lanka. Soul & Surf, the sustainable, soulful, upmarket take on a traditional surf camp, with other bases in India and Portugal, inhabits a boutique hotel behind a secluded cove in Ahangama on the south coast. Expect turtles in the lagoon, palm trees behind the beach and a ‘gorgeous left-hander’ you can paddle out to. Sri Lanka’s surf suits all levels, with consistent waves and wind allowing two hits a day (lessons and guided sessions) with Soul & Surf happy to travel for favourable conditions. Add in rooftop yoga, Canteen café’s contemporary spin on Indian and Sri Lankan street food, and therapists who ‘work with minds and souls as much as bodies’, alongside eight sea-facing rooms with breezy coastal décor, and this is the antithesis of a damp, cold, cramped campervan. There is also a non-surfer package available for those travel companions who would rather swap the surf for a day unwinding on the beach. All-inclusive weeks from £945pp; soulandsurf.com