Not many French people have heard of this island, an hour's ferry ride off the Côte d'Azur. Port Cros is the way the south of France used to be hundreds of years ago: beautiful and pristine, untouched by development. This is an island for people who prefer solitude: wild forests and wild beaches constitute the entertainment. The deed of gift from the family that gave the island of Port Cros to the Republic of France dictates that the island can never be opened to property development, and that a team of marine biologists is employed to help protect the area's marine mammals … Photograph: Alamy
The only hotel is Le Manoir (+33 4 9405 90 52, hotel-lemanoirportcros.com, from €165pp a night half-board), an elegant former hunting lodge, almost two centuries old, that once belonged to the family. It's decorated in casual but chic Provençal style, with pink walls, floral curtains, black and white tiled floors and wooden shutters. The hotel serves early dinner at 7pm for kids in their pyjamas, while parents take an aperitif, before dining by the harbour under a vine-covered pergola. • Ferry crossings from Hyères (tlv-tvm.com) and Le Lavandou (spring/summer only, vedettesilesdor.fr) take up to an hour Photograph: PR
Luc Besson's film The Big Blue opened my eyes to the poetry and beauty of free diving. It's like being Jacques Cousteau without all the scuba equipment. Ever since, I've been on the lookout for places that echo that film. Panarea, one of the Aeolian Islands, off northern Sicily, does just that. This stark volcanic island is surrounded by clear blue and green waters. It's the kind of place where you need nothing more than a pair of fins, a mask and a swimsuit to take you to another world. Its coves, inlets and beaches are accessible by tiny trails, and each day you can venture out from a different location to explore underwater … Photograph: PR
Hotel Raya (+39 090 983013, hotelraya.it, doubles from €180 B&B) is a minimalist vision on a rocky outcrop, built by a globetrotting couple, Paolo Tilche and Myriam Beltrami, who made this their home in the 1960s. Now guests recline on the terraces, looking out at the smoking volcano on the island of Stromboli, and eating, drinking and dancing by the sea. The bedrooms are pristine white bungalows decorated with crafts from Bali, and just far enough away that the parties won't disturb guests.
• Panarea is served by ferries from Milazzo, Messina and Palermo in Sicily, and from Reggio di Calabria and Naples on the mainland Photograph: PR
This tiny oasis in the middle of the world's largest sand pile is so exotic you could be on another planet. Siwa has ancient tombs and temples, and a way of life that hasn't changed much since the time of Ramses III. The people speak Siwi, (a Berber dialect) not Arabic, and they still rely on a million-odd date palms fed by vast underground lakes for their livelihood, just as they did when the Pharaohs were in power. If you venture out into the dunes in a four-wheel drive, you'll find no roads, no signs, no other cars, no traces of civilisation. This Tin Tin-esque adventure ends with a swim in a sparkling lake among the dunes … Photograph: PR
Dr Mounir, a professor at the University of Cairo, has built Adrère Amellal (+202 2736 7879, adrereamellal.net, doubles $605 full-board, including excursions), an incredible lakeside ecolodge, from mud and salt. Electricity-free, it is lit throughout by beeswax candles, and serves food from its own kitchen gardens. But it isn't cheap, so Dr Mounir has also built a smaller, more affordable version, Shali Lodge (siwa.com/ShaliLodge doubles from £36 B&B), which is similar in style, with mud brick walls, salt and stone floors, but is in Siwa village.
• Siwa is nine hours' drive from Cairo Photograph: PR
Pointy boots, plaid shirts, proud horses, Navajo blankets, big saddles, even bigger scenery … Who hasn't dreamed of life as a wild-west cowboy, even if only for a week? Rancho de la Osa, near the Mexican border in Arizona, is all cactuses, adobe and weathered furniture, with lots of saddles and horses, and things inspired by saddles and horses. People come here to ride amid mountains, deserts, rivers and creeks. Rather than sitting on a beach for a week, here you could be sitting on a horse rounding up cattle. It is real work – you have to make sure the cows don't wander – but your reward is extraordinary scenery and a cowboy lifestyle. At the end of the day you have earned your dinner. After a day in the saddle you can enjoy a cold Corona on the veranda in an Adirondack chair painted in desert colours, staring at the desert sunset … Photograph: PR
Life at Rancho de la Osa (+1 520 823 4257, ranchodelaosa.com, from $240pp full-board including activities) provides an insight into wild west camaraderie. There is a big bell at Rancho, and when it clangs all the guests gather in the dining room for meals. Everyone who works at or stays on the ranch eats at the same time in the same room. It's a "come and get it" set-up: you get what the kitchen has cooked. Guests stay in cabins adjoining the adobe hacienda, which looks like it could have been decorated by Frida Kahlo, with indigo walls and red, orange and green geometric designs. Photograph: PR
Residents of São Paulo, Brazil's monster megalopolis, fly north to Bahia for their beach fix. Yet just three hours from the city by car, there are beaches that are far more spectacular and, in Picinguaba, one of the most beautiful bays in the world. Since I started my life as a professional beach bum, travelling from one idyllic location to another, I've seldom seen a more spectacular combination of sweeping sandy beaches, jungle-clad mountains and turquoise sea … Photograph: PR
If you love sporty stuff, you will love this place. The surf is magic, with hardly anyone sharing it. There's kayaking, canoeing and deep-sea fishing, or head into the jungle with Emmanuel Rengade, the proprietor of Pousada Picinguaba. Pousada Picinguaba (+55 12 3836 9105, picinguaba.com, doubles from £312 half-board) is a former convent decorated with Brazilian artefacts. It has simple white rooms, and a pool overlooking the sea. Photograph: PR
