Sunshine, history, great food, excellent infrastructure, easy communication and friendly people – Malta has it all. Remember being taught that Italy is like a boot, and that Sicily is the island in the Mediterranean being kicked by the boot? Look on the map under Sicily and you’ll find a small archipelago strategically situated between Europe and Africa. Small it may be, but its main island, Malta, and the neighbouring island of Gozo are full of enough delights and surprises to lift the spirits of even the most jaded traveller.

During my long life I’ve been lucky enough to visit some of the world’s widest, most open spaces. But I’ve just returned from a trip to one of my favourite “wide spaces” destinations – Kenya’s Masai Mara, a vast landscape where horizons vanish into blue skies, and the grassy plains teeming with game seemingly roll on forever.

Quebec City, in Canada’s eastern and French province of Quebec, is set high above the St Lawrence River. A picturesque little city, it was founded in 1608 and is Canada’s second oldest city (after St John’s, which is further east, in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador).

I think everyone has a bucket list of “see before I die” places. I was surprised to find that my husband’s included Belfast. I have to admit that this wasn’t one that was on my list – far from it – but with a thought in mind that next time it would be my choice, I gracefully acquiesced and so on a recent trip to Europe to see family, we added it as a destination.

Argentina is the sexy steps and sultry stares of the tango, born in the early streets of Buenos Aires, brought to life by a tangle of dock workers from Europe and Africa ...

Namibia. This amazing African country is one of superlatives – it has the oldest desert in the world, the world’s oldest living plants, the highest sand dunes, a world-famous game reserve incorporating a mighty salt pan, some of the world’s strangest creatures, the biggest open-air collection of rock art … The list is impressive.