A destination for all seasons

As the sun sets on 2011, SANDRA O'CONNELLtakes a look at the hottest places to visit in 2012 – and the optimal times to take the leap

JANUARY

Eat, drink and be merry this Christmas because a festive pot belly is the best excuse possible to work it all off on the piste next month.

High altitude French Alps resorts such as Tignes and Val d’Isère have been experiencing heavy snowfall since early December, so conditions will be just right. The two combine to create the vast ski area known as Espace Killy but also have great non-ski fun too including ice-skating, ice climbing and skidooing.

For serious powder hounds, however, all tracks lead to Austria, specifically to Kitzbuhel for the famous Hahnenkamm Races.

You don’t have to be able to jump 80 metres or reach speeds of up to 140km an hour to go – watching the pros do it is thrill enough. Or wait a week and join the other big annual event in the region – the Today FM/Topflight ski trip, led by radio presenter Ian Dempsey.

Direct Ski has packages in Val d’Isère, staying self catering at Les Residences apartments, departing January 21st, from €425 per person. Topflight has tickets for the Today FM trip from €799, departing January 28th.

directski.com, topflight.ie

FEBRUARY

Shopaholics – if there are any left – will know that the biggest part of Dubai’s appeal is not sunshine, beach clubs or camels, it’s the year-round duty free shopping. It’s why they call it “do buy”.

However, at this time of year, the little Arab Emirate goes a step further, hosting the Dubai Shopping Festival.

Launched in 1996, it is estimated to bring up to two million visitors to the city to spend their lolly each year.

As part of the, eh, festivities, shops in the city’s malls and stalls in its souks – including its famous Gold Souk – offer discounts of up to 75 per cent on a range of items. Did we mention the duty free bit?

Etihad has flights to Dubai, flying out on February 4th, from €715.

etihadairways.com

MARCH

After such a splurge in consumerism you’re going to need a transfusion of culture, and where better to get it than Angkor Wat, the ancient spiritual centre in northwestern Cambodia.

Angkor means capital, while “wat” refers to its famous monastery, the biggest religious monument in the world and part of a now ruined complex that extends 24km by 13km and is linked by an intricate system of reservoirs, canals and moats. Astonishingly ambitious in scale, it represents, in building form, a recreation of the entire Hindu cosmos.

At this time of year it’s still dry, the days are bright and temperatures a tropical 35 degrees, perfect for exploring a city that dates to the ninth century, was abandoned in the 15th and stayed much the same ever since – bar the odd jungle creeper.

Travel 247 has a 14-day Cambodian adventure, including Angkor Wat, for €1,307 per person. travel247.ie

APRIL

The first two weeks in April next year tally nicely with the Easter holidays. If you’re looking to trim costs, it represents a great-value alternative to taking your family holiday in summer.

It’s also a great month for Disneyland, whether Paris or Florida, because the weather should be perfect for both – 14 degrees in Paris or, if you’re body’s craving heat, 30 degrees in Orlando. There are great ancillary trips in each, too, with more theme parks per square inch in Florida than anywhere else in the world and Parc Asterix keeping up the pace of play in France.

Abbey Travel is offering discounts of up to 30 per cent in April. Tour America has two weeks in Orlando for a family of four from €3,518.

abbeytravel.ie, touramerica.ie

MAY

When it comes to the Dominican Republic most people think winter sun, with visits peaking around Christmas time.

For the canny holidaymaker however, May is the best month to go. Humidity levels are just starting to rise yet prices are slashed to a fraction of the amount you’d pay a month previously. You’ll get a much better choice of resorts too.

Check out the colonial city of Santo Domingo, whose cobbled streets and 15th-century buildings have World Heritage status.

Then make the most of the island’s more than 1,000km of sandy beaches at beauty spots such as the Samana Peninsula, with an almost alpine interior of waterfalls and tropical plantations, or Punta Cana, which has lush palm groves fringed by vast expanses of powder white beaches.

A seven-night package staying at the five-star Dreams La Romana Resort in Punta Cana, all inclusive, costs from €1,005 in May with Sunway.

sunway.ie

JUNE

The term “flaming June” is, in this part of the world at least, more a curse than a description, usually uttered on first looking out the window.

It’s a great time to bag a bargain and there’s no better place than Greece – before it gets too hot.

Tourism on the islands held up well last summer, given the strikes, but prices did fall on the mainland and, with VAT on hotels halved to 6.5 per cent, too, it could be a good bet again.

Let the rest head to the Cyclades while you spend your days exploring Athens and your nights in Poros, the tiny island just off shore that the island hoppers ignore.

The Hotel Maness, Poros, has doubles for €77 a night.

manessi.com

JULY

Yes, of course you could go to the south of France, again. Or squeeze into one of the crowded Costas – but for somewhere a little different, how about Beirut?

For a generation of us, the Lebanese capital was a byword for war zone, but in the aftermath of the civil war it underwent major reconstruction and is once again what it was before – a playzone. Back in the day, it was the Paris of the Middle East, frequented by such trend setters as Brigitte Bardot and Liz Taylor.

On paper it has everything going for it, surrounded (it’s on a peninsula) by sparkling sea, halfway down Lebanon’s Mediterranean coastline, with summer temperatures of 30 degrees.

According to actual papers, it's great too – the New York Timesvoted it a "must-see", while Lonely Planetgave it a "liveliest city" gong. It's pretty highend, though, so bring a full wallet. According to MasterCard, the only other Middle Eastern city that attracts higher visitor spending is Dubai.

Blow your own budget and stay at the super smart Le Gray with rooms from $345 (€265) a night.

campbellgrayhotels.com

AUGUST

Traditionally, this is when the world and his wife don the knotted hankies and head out to the coast, which is why the smart holidaymaker heads inland – and up.

The lakes and mountains of Switzerland are at their best in high summer, perfect for walkers, cyclists and climbers. Interlaken, set between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, sits on a river bank with the snow capped peaks of the Jungfrau, Monch, and Eiger behind and a wide open meadow in front with views straight from The Sound of Music.

Enjoy the lake steamers and the Alpine villages or head further afield and see Klosters and Lake Constance. It’s all gorgeous and the temperatures are in the mid-20s.

Inghams has seven nights half board at the Hotel Oberland in Interlaken, departing on August 8th from £775 per person flying via Heathrow and staying a three star hotel.

inghams.co.uk

SEPTEMBER

The kids are back at school so the grown-ups can come out to play. It’s not just the value that’s nice, the water is lovely too.

There’s no better place to enjoy this time of the year than Turkey’s Lycian coast, famous for its turquoise waters. Fly into Dalaman and head to Kas, a fishing village only waking up to its tourism potential.

Or fly to Izmir and tour the ruins of the ancient cities of Ephesus and Pergamom before checking out the tourist towns of Fethiye and Alacati. Either way, finish up at Deniz Feneri Lighthouse, the boutique hotel with dozens of nooks and crannies specially created for private sunbathing on the cliffs below it.

Exclusive Escapes has seven-day BB packages to the Deniz Feneri for £900 per room, based on two sharing, including flights.

exclusiveescapes.co.uk

OCTOBER

This is the month for safaris in East Africa. There may be only the last few stragglers from the great migration on the move, but there’ll be a hell of a lot less 4x4s, too.

In Tanzania it’s still the dry season and the previous months’ aridity means the long grass will have died back and the animals will congregate near the remaining water sources.

Don’t miss the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a Unesco World Heritage Site and home to the famous crater, a gigantic volcanic caldera teeming with wildlife.

All five of the “big five” are here, including the densest population of lions in the world. It’s where they shot The Lion King – or would have, if it weren’t animated. A seven-day tour of Tanzania’s Northern Circuit with Africa Sky, taking in the Ngorongoro and Serengeti National Parks, costs from €2,499.

africasky.ie

NOVEMBER

The strategic efforts of Oman’s tourism ministry to attract discerning – which in this case means moneyed – travellers are paying off, with visitor numbers rising to its meticulously planned new hotel and resort developments.

These include the €500 million Wave Project in Muscat, with pristine beaches, a snazzy marina, Greg Norman-designed golf course and both Kempinski and Fairmont hotels.

Despite all the high-end accommodation on offer, the highlights are still simple pleasures such as camping under the stars in an endless desert, or sampling Arab life before the oil rush in its ancient mud brick villages and lively souks.

There’s great diving, snorkelling and sailing on the coast while, inland, the mountains are perfect for trekking and a spanking new road network has been built specifically to enable tourists get to its most remote, breathtaking parts. November is the perfect month to go, with temperatures just tipping 30 degrees.

A week’s stay at the stunning Six Senses Zighy Bay, a hotel made up of deluxe villas laid out in a traditional Omani village style, next November, costs just over €5,000.

sixsenses.com

DECEMBER

In the depths of winter you want just one thing – heat – and to get it, there’s only one place to go – the Canaries. It’s hot, it never feels out of season and it’s only four hours away. Perfect.

Lanzarote is the Canary island that attracts the most Irish and Gran Canaria the most tourists, so Tenerife is the place to go.

The Mare Nostrum is a three-hotel resort located between Los Americanos and Los Cristianos. Two of its properties, the child-friendly Mediterranean Palace and the more grown up Cleopatra Palace are four-star standard.

One, the Sir Anthony, is five-star. Between them they offer four pools, 10 restaurants and one giant pyramid-shaped venue capable of holding 2,000 people for nightly entertainment.

The food is great and the staff fantastic, plying you with complimentary champagne before you’ve even signed in. What’s more, it’s all just 18km from the airport, so you can fly and flop until you’re refuelled and ready to face Christmas.

A week’s stay at the Mediterranean or Cleopatra Palace next December costs €537 per room, based on two sharing, on a BB basis. The Sir Anthony costs €1,631.

marenostrumresort.com