January is traditionally the month when holiday bookings boom – partly because it can be the dreariest time of the year here in the UK, and also because travel companies release some of their most tempting offers. We all need something positive to get in the diary. So get inspired by this selection of how the stars holiday.
Danielle de Niese is going skiing in Italy
Opera singer Danielle de Niese
I’m looking forward to skiing with my family, most likely in the Dolomites. I’m not a great skier but I’ll be cheering on our children as they hit the slopes.
I’ll also be starring in Carmen, for the first time, at the Sydney Opera House this summer. I’ll be taking my daughter with me, and my son and hubby Gus will be joining us once school breaks up.
I’m sure we’ll squeeze in some sightseeing, and we’re hoping to head to the Blue Mountains, too.
How to do it: Seven nights at Garni Romantica guesthouse in the Italian Dolomites resort of Selva Val Gardena from £516pp including flights and transfers in March (igluski.com).
Danielle de Niese will be starring in Carmen at the Sydney Opera House and will take her family on the trip
Downton Abbey star Peter Egan will revisit Margate on the Kent coast, too
Actor Peter Egan
I’ll be visiting the Libearty Bear Sanctuary in the foothills of Romania’s Carpathian Mountains later this month.
I’m a supporter of the charity, which is home to around 200 big brown bears, and puts on excellent guided tours.
Closer to home, I’m planning to revisit Margate where I holidayed with my family as a boy in the 1950s – I can still picture my father sitting in a deckchair on the beach in his braces and hat with his trousers rolled up.
How to do it: Return Stansted flights to Brasov, the closest airport to Libearty Bear Sanctuary, from £165 in April (wizzair.com).
The Libearty Bear Sanctuary in the foothills of Romania’s Carpathian Mountains
Susie Dent will quit Dictionary Corner for the wild west of Ireland
Countdown star Susie Dent
I’m determined to return to Connemara in County Galway, on the west coast of Ireland, which I first visited in my 20s.
There is a savage beauty to the area which moves from lunar landscape to rolling hills and bogs, before you hit the vastness of the Atlantic ocean.
The mara of Connemara is the Irish name for ‘of the sea’, and it’s a place to blow the cobwebs away.
How to do it: Stansted return flights to Shannon, on Ireland’s west coast, from £48 return in May (ryanair.com).
Connemara is somewhere to blow the cobwebs away, says Susie Dent
Feargal Keane has reported from South Africa in his illustrious BBC career
BBC Special Correspondent Fergal Keane
I’m planning a big trip to South Africa with my two sons, now in their 20s, later in the year to revisit places that hold happy memories of my past.
We’re going to hire a car and drive to Keurboomsrivier on the Garden Route. There’s a beach that looks out onto the Veldt Atlantic where you have the most amazing sense of space – and I’ll introduce them to the Cape’s magnificent seafood.
Then we’ll drive up through the Northern Cape to Etosha National Park in Namibia which has the most amazing wildlife, before ending our trip in Cape Town. It’s going to be quite an adventure.
How to do it: Heathrow-Cape Town return flights from £1,000 in April (ba.com); a week’s rental car from £125 from Cape Town airport (zestcarrental.com).
A giraffe and wildebeest in the Etosha National Park in Namibia
Chocolat author Joanne Harris
Author Joanne Harris
My husband and I would love to go to Syracuse in Sicily by sleeper train (via Paris and Venice on the way, and via Rome and Paris the way back). We did it many years ago and want to retrace our steps.
We’ll visit Modica, which is known for its chocolate, still made to an ancient recipe, and see the lovely Sicilian coast which is utterly deserted out of season. I’d also like to visit Mount Etna, which I’ve never seen.
How to do it: Eurostar to Paris from £39 one-way (eurostar.com); Paris-Milan, via Zurich, tickets from £111 one-way (raileurope.com); Milan-Syracuse from £63 one-way (italiarail.com).
Modica in Sicily is famous for its chocolate made to an ancient recipe
Piano enthusiast and impressionist Alistair McGowan
Impressionist Alistair McGowan
I’ll be heading to the Lot-et-Garonne in south-west France for a piano course in the summer – the first time I will have travelled abroad since the first lockdown. I’ll be joining a dozen or so other piano enthusiasts for a week.
We’ll receive expert tuition and talk about all things ‘piano’, but I’m sure there’ll also be some swimming and restaurant visits involved.
I’ll travel by train, via the Eurostar. I’m also looking forward to having a Flan Patissier – a delicious French egg-custard tart pronounced ‘flon’. With a luck, the trip will improve my French too.
How to do it: Eurostar to Paris from £39 one-way (ryanair.com).
McGowan is looking forward to a sampling French custard flan on his first trip abroad since the pandemic
Liz Mitchell was born in Jamaica
Former Boney M singer Liz Mitchell
I’m hoping to visit the Caribbean and the US – my husband is American – this year. I was born in Jamaica so going there is always special.
I’ll most likely stay in Montego Bay, on the north coast, and have ackee and saltfish, Jamaica’s national dish (there’s nothing like it) – but I’d also like to travel to the interior and visit the countryside where I spent my early years.
With luck, we’ll squeeze in a trip to Florida too because the grandchildren love Disneyworld. When I finally retire, my dream is to do a Caribbean cruise .
How to do it: Seven nights at Catalonia Montego Bay hotel from £1,835pp all-inclusive, including return Gatwick flights in February (tui.co.uk).
Montego Bay is where Liz Mitchell likes to feast on the local delicacy ackee and saltfish
Gerald Seymour likes to holiday with his black lab Poppy
Thriller writer Gerald Seymour
I’ve filled three passports in my lifetime, but having just celebrated my 83d birthday, I’m happy to revisit favourite places in Britain.
So my wife and I are planning a meander around the north and south coasts of Devon and Cornwall in the late spring.
We want to watch the sea breaking on those amazing cliff faces and see porpoises and dolphins from the clifftops – and if it rains a bit we have waterproof clothing so we won’t drown.
Having a staycation means that we’ll be able to take our beloved black Labrador, Poppy, with us too.
How to do it: A week’s rental car from Exeter from £204 in April (zestcar rental.com).
The charming fishing village of Port Isaac in Cornwall
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