Where to go in April

Hungary

The Danube splits the city in half and at night both banks glow, the parliament building lit gold on the Pest side, Buda Castle floating above the river like something left over from a grander era. Budapest smells like chimney cake and cigarette smoke near the ruin bars, and every third building is either crumbling beautifully or mid-renovation. It is the most dramatic city in Central Europe and it knows it.

Maldives

An archipelago of around 1,200 low-lying coral islands scattered across the Indian Ocean, grouped into 26 atolls. Known for over-water villas, clear shallow lagoons, and some of the richest reef diving anywhere.

Mexico

The altitude hits first, 2,240 metres, then the smell of corn tortillas on a comal somewhere just around the corner. Mexico City is a capital that operates at full intensity from 7am until 3am: baroque churches sinking into soft lakebed, street tacos that cost less than a newspaper, a metro system carrying five million people daily, and contemporary art museums that would embarrass most European cities.

Italy

A 50-kilometre stretch of cliff-hugging coastline south of Naples, where pastel towns like Positano and Amalfi tumble down to the sea. Lemon groves, winding coastal roads, and seafood define the southern Italian summer here.

Egypt

The last surviving wonder of the ancient world, three monumental pyramids and the Great Sphinx on the Giza plateau, built over 4,500 years ago on the edge of Cairo and the Western Desert.

Japan

Japan's ancient imperial capital is a city of extraordinary temples, traditional wooden machiya townhouses, and meticulously maintained Zen gardens. With over 1,600 Buddhist temples and 400 Shinto shrines, Kyoto is the spiritual heart of Japan.

Morocco

A former imperial city at the foot of Morocco's Atlas Mountains, built around a walled medieval medina of souks, palaces, and gardens. The main square, Jemaa el-Fnaa, shifts from market to open-air food court each evening.

Colombia

The heat hits you the moment you step out of the airport, thick and salt-edged from the Caribbean. Inside the walled city, the walls themselves are the colour of ochre and rust, and every balcony has something spilling over it: bougainvillea, laundry, a cat. Street vendors carry baskets of fruit on their heads and call out prices you'll negotiate badly the first time.

Guatemala

The cobblestones are uneven enough to turn an ankle if you're looking at your phone instead of your feet, which is understandable because Volcán Agua sits at the end of nearly every street like someone placed it there deliberately. Antigua is a colonial city kept intact by earthquakes that destroyed it and a preservation law that keeps it that way: yellow and ochre facades, bougainvillea spilling over ruined convents, and a central park where shoe shiners and schoolchildren occupy the same benches.

Argentina / Brazil

The mist hits you before the sound does, then the sound hits you before you see anything, and then you round a corner on the Argentine side and 275 waterfalls are just there, spread across nearly 3km of jungle-lined horseshoe. A coati will try to steal your lunch while you stand there getting soaked. The Devil's Throat drops 82 metres straight down and the noise makes conversation impossible.

Italy

Italy's capital, where nearly 3,000 years of history layer together in plain sight. Ancient ruins like the Colosseum and Forum sit among baroque piazzas, fountains, and some of the country's most beloved food.

Madagascar

The baobabs at Morondava glow orange at dusk and the lemurs start calling before dawn, a sound somewhere between a dog and a foghorn that carries across the spiny forest. Madagascar smells like red laterite dust, vanilla on the east coast, and rain on dry earth. Ninety percent of the wildlife exists nowhere else, which sounds like a marketing claim until a ring-tailed lemur sits on your shoulder to steal your lunch.