Hari Kunzru, novelist
The discovery
I went to the Basel Art Fair and stayed across the German border in a little spa town called Badenweiler, which in summer appears to be populated exclusively by retirees taking the waters. This gives the place a sephulcral calm that is pleasing if you've been surrounded by art world insanity all day. It has a castle, a ruined Roman bath and two pieces of stunning 20th-century architecture - a beautiful modernist church and multilayered 1960s arts centre that I intend to buy and inhabit as a sort of Bond villain. Next door is the once-grand Hotel Roemerbad (www.roemerbad-hotel.de), one part Proust to one part Thomas Mann, a slice of pre-First World War Europe that survived the convulsions of the last century.
The disappointment
My lowest point came in Terminal 4 at Heathrow, in the midst of the confusion over which liquids you could take on board. I arrived three hours before a longhaul flight and just about made it to the gate before it closed. The intervening time was spent in a queue, which was being administered by people who must have paid a heavy psychological price for working in that environment for eight hours at a time. This was the moment I finally admitted to myself that the romance of air travel is dead.
Juliet Kinsman, editor of Mr and Mrs Smith Hotel Guides
The discovery
I've stayed in some special places, but nothing prepared me for Dar Ahlam in Ouarzazate (www.darahlam.com): little wonder its name means 'house of dreams'. A friend described this luxury Moroccan hideaway as 'hotel theatre', and that's exactly what it is. We had breakfast on a rosepetal-strewn table by the pool; fresh pomegranate lassis for elevenses; a three-course lunch on safari-style tables in the vegetable garden; an aperitif on the rooftop watching the sun set behind the Atlas Mountains; and our candlelit supper was a tasty tagine in a jewelled corner of the kasbah. Makes my mouth water just remembering it.
The disappointment
I'd heard great things about the cocktail bar at Marina All Suites on fashionable Leblon in Rio. Supposedly a favourite with the world's most famous Carioca, Gisele, it was hardly a setting befitting supermodels. The tacky decor felt more like the product of someone who'd been given £50 and a couple of hours at Homebase and Camden Market. The bedrooms were bizarre too - more Travelodge than trendsetting boutique hotel.
Phil Hogan, Observer writer & novelist
The discovery
I don't much like boats, but my highlight was chugging upriver into the Borneo jungle to see the orangutans, proboscis monkeys, macaques and crocs in the water. Villagers, who a hundred years ago would have had our heads on sticks, waved shyly as we passed. Then on the way back at twilight, an amazing sight as wave after wave of huge fruit bats flapped slowly across the dimming sky like pterodactyls. It was dark before we knew it, leaving nothing to look at except the insects crossing the beam of our headlight and the starry heavens above. Oh yes.
The disappointment
Flying to the US during the big terrorism scare wasn't the best fun of the summer. I suppose there's a certain Blitz spirit afoot, hopping about trying to get in and out of your clothes in a moving queue and explaining why you're carrying quite so many tape recorders, but by the time I'd been X-rayed, interrogated, fingerprinted, stamped, waxed and polished through Heathrow, New York, Portland and all the way back again, the novelty had kind of worn off.
William Sutcliffe, novelist
The discovery
I didn't know until this year that you could fly from Glasgow airport on a 20-seater propeller plane and land on the sand at Barra, the southernmost of the Western Isles. The flight is enough to make the trip worthwhile. It's just an added bonus that the Western Isles archipelago turned out to possess the most stunningly beautiful combinations of mountain, beach and sea I have ever come across. And in Scarista House (www.scaristahouse.com) on Harris, it also happens to possess the perfect hotel, serving haute cuisine in the wildest landscape Europe has to offer.
The disappointment
Apart from the food, which was wonderful, Sardinia was a disappointment: somehow not as interesting as it has always looked on the map. Apart from the beaches, there just didn't appear to be that much to see. It somehow makes Italy an even more perfect destination, in that it has managed to effectively subcontract out the beach tourism to a separate island, leaving the mainland for people in search of something more stimulating.
Joanne O'Connor, travel editor, The Observer
The discovery
Libya was a revelation. I'd heard the Roman ruins at Leptis Magna were incredible and they were, but nothing prepared me for the warmth and generosity of the Libyan people. Lying on top of a sand dune in the middle of the Sahara, somewhere near Algeria, counting shooting stars has to be one of the highlights of my year.
The disappointment
This was the year in which jetting to Spain on a cheap flight for the weekend became the equivalent of drink driving or smoking while pregnant. And while I certainly don't want my bargain break to Barcelona to be the thing that tips the planet into meltdown, I find it frustrating that the government chooses to punish air travellers with increased taxes while seemingly doing nothing to bring down the cost of rail travel.
Michael O'Leary, CEO, Ryanair
The discovery
My highlight came in December when the Office of Fair Trading recommended that the BAA airport monopoly should be referred to the Competition Commission. If the three London airports were broken up and forced to compete, it would lead to better service and lower costs.
The disappointment
The reported terrorist threat to UK airports in early August, and the way this was mismanaged by the Department for Transport and the Home Office, which introduced over-the-top, ineffective and nonsensical security measures that involved confiscating toothpaste and gels as if these were weapons of mass destruction. We hope that the government will learn from this and respond with sensible, effective security measures because the only way to defeat terrorists is to keep Britain flying.
Viv Groskop, writer
The discovery
John Burton Race's wonderful The New Angel restaurant in Dartmouth (www.thenewangel.co.uk). We were on what was otherwise a very child-focused holiday in Devon and allowed ourselves an 'adult' lunch there as a treat. It is as expensive as you would expect for a Michelin-starred restaurant (£50 a head if you're careful with the wine) but worth every penny. The seafood is sublime, the desserts incredible. It's perfect if you're travelling in on the boat ride from Totnes: the restaurant is on the quayside right opposite where the ferry draws up.
The disappointment
Almost being stranded at Moscow airport, heavily pregnant, when the Russian flight staff decided I was so enormous that I must surely be over the 32-week limit. I had a doctor's note stating I was only 28 weeks pregnant, but they wouldn't accept it. I was deemed not too pregnant, though, to be left standing at a check-in counter for half an hour, while they checked my luggage off the plane and stared at me incredulously while tutting. In the end I began to weep. They relented and checked the luggage back on. Fortunately for all parties concerned, I did not give birth on the plane.
Desmond Balmer editor, The Good Hotel Guide
The discovery
The real find was the Hotel-Restaurant L'Ocean (www.re-hotel-ocean.com) on the Ile de Re. It had that classic French combination of simplicity and style. The restaurant was the focal point, attracting locals and visitors alike for the simple but delicious food: local oysters, the freshest fish. Our days were spent cycling on the network of dedicated tracks that run across the islands. Lunch was a bowl of mussels and a glass of wine at a vineyard degustation. Bliss.
The disappointment
In June, we set an impressive new personal best for a flight delay: 44 hours at Birmingham International from cancellation to take-off (previous record, 27 hours in Paphos). We arrived in good time for an 11am flight to La Rochelle, only to find a cargo flight had crash-landed during the night, blocking the main runway. Flybe quickly booked us on their next flight; the trouble was that this was two days later. True, we didn't hang around for long in an airport lounge, but it is just as dispiriting returning home with your suitcase on your wedding anniversary.
Tom Robbins, deputy travel editor, The Observer
The discovery
For a glimpse of alternative America, ignore San Francisco and head instead to Jerome, a former ghost town in the Arizona hills. After its mines closed in the 1950s, the population crashed from 15,000 to 200, before the hippies gradually started to colonise the ramshackle wooden houses which cling to the hillside. Today it's on the tourist trail but the counterculture vibe remains. As dusk falls, locals play guitars on their balconies, watching the wildfires burn on the plains below. Stay at the Connor Hotel (www.connorhotel.com) and drink whisky in the spit and sawdust Spirit Room saloon.
The disappointment
Returning to places you have loved in the past is often a mistake, and I wish I'd never gone back to Padstow. We all know the Cornish coastline has been getting gentrified for years, but in Padstow it's now reaching the point of self-parody. Fishermen unload lobster pots on one side of the dock, watched from the other by sharp-suited salesmen from the temporary Jaguar dealership set up to capitalise on the moneyed visitors. Every second shop belongs to Rick Stein and to get a white coffee you now have to ask for an 'Americano with milk'. It's the unrelenting uniformity of it all that's so repulsive, like being trapped inside a Boden catalogue. Even the beer is Chalky's Bite, a special concoction from local brewery Sharps. Chalky, in case you didn't know, is Rick's dog.
Lynn Barber, Observer writer
The discovery
My biggest discovery was Suffolk! It seems insane that I've been going to north Norfolk for decades but somehow completely missed Suffolk. I loved Southwold and Walberswick and the brilliant Minsmere nature reserve - it might almost make me unfaithful to my beloved Cley. I also did some great birdwatching in Trinidad, at the Asa Wright nature reserve (www.asawright.org) and - less glamorously - on a rather scuzzy lagoon behind Montpellier airport, which is a good place to see flamingoes.
The disappointment
Paying £160 for a day return to Leeds on Virgin trains. How can that be? I flew to Austria, Valencia, Montpellier for less. The result is that it now seems cheaper to visit friends abroad than in England.
Tom Hall, Lonely Planet
The discovery
The memory I'll savour is drinking macchiatos in the art deco cafes of Asmara, Eritrea's beautiful capital. Eritrea is suffering from bad government and the constant threat of war with Ethiopia, but you wouldn't know it to sit and chat with the warm, friendly locals. Asmara is a sunny, lively city with an almost Mediterranean vibe. The Horn of Africa remains a mostly unexplored destination. If the governments of these countries ever sort out their differences, the route from Addis Ababa to Asmara via Lalibela's rock churches and the Simien Mountains would be one of the continent's great road trips.
The disappointment
The constant stream of confusion over security measures when travelling through UK airports. On one trip I was separated from my deodorant, toothpaste and hair wax, only to repurchase them 30 yards beyond the queue and take them on the plane unhindered. I felt especially sorry for transit passengers, who looked on helplessly as they handed over duty-free and cosmetics. That's another planeload of people who won't return here on holiday.
Matt Turner, editor of Hotel Design Magazine Sleeper
The discovery
Emotionally, I would have to say my honeymoon was my travel high - four nights of unadulterated luxury at Carlisle Bay in Antigua (www.carlisle-bay.com), followed by a week of Red Stripe, ribs and reggae at Ku (www.ku-anguilla.com) on Shoal Bay East, Anguilla. But gastronomically it was reliving Lost in Translation at the New York Bar & Grill on the 52nd floor of the Park Hyatt Tokyo (www.tokyo.park.hyatt.com). Having dined on Kobe beef (the cows are massaged and fed lager) and duck-fat fries, followed by whisky in the bar, it was probably a high point in terms of cholesterol and blood pressure as well, but I made up for it with a healthy 5am sushi breakfast the next day at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market.
The disappointment
Staying at the new Hilton Manchester and having to get the lift from the 19th floor to the ground floor, then queue for 20 minutes with all the non-residents for a lift to the skybar on the 23rd floor. It was raining, so the views weren't up to much in any case. The next morning I reached the executive lounge at 11.02am, to be told that they had stopped serving breakfast at 11am. When we pointed to the breakfast buffet that was still laid out, we were told we still couldn't eat because 'they had run out of cutlery'. And no, the waitress hadn't seen Falling Down (the film where Michael Douglas goes gun-crazy at Whammyburger when he is refused breakfast). I know because I asked her.
Peter Tatchell, human rights activist
The discovery
Madeira. Although better known as a genteel holiday destination for the over-50s, the island is paradise for adventure tourism, with sensational mountain hiking, canyoning, abseiling and rock climbing. I was gob-smacked by its natural wonders. Cloud-touching mountains, cascading waterfalls and virgin forest, thick with exotic wildflowers. Volcanic rockpools swept by raging surf. Sheer-sided, moss-covered gorges. I did an independent walking tour with Headwater Holidays (www.headwater.com) and stayed at the Royal Savoy Hotel (www.madeiraroyalsavoy.com). Both highly recommended.
The disappointment
What should have been a fab adventure trek around Tasmania turned into disaster. I was climbing the 300m sea cliffs on the Tasman Peninsula when I pulled my gluteus maximus (bum muscle). This injury forced me to abandon my 30-year ambition to do one of the great walks of the world - the six-day trek from Lake St Clair to Cradle Mountain. Being a stubborn bastard, I was nevertheless determined to climb Cradle Mountain. Hobbling to the summit was an unforgettable mix of agony and ecstasy.
Gemma Bowes, Observer travel writer
The discovery
Every year my friends and I return to a gorgeous cottage near Chagford in Devon, let by Rural Retreats (www.ruralretreats.co.uk). In November, with one member of our (now shrunken) group up the duff and another on crutches, we resolved to finally visit the town of Totnes for some lightweight shopping and cafe-sitting. We'd heard it was quirky and full of hippies but it was better than that; we found gorgeous rambling streets packed with amazing furniture and antiques shops, organic cafes, cheesemongers and vintage clothes shops selling stuff you just can't find in London any more, at a third of the price. And not a hippie in sight. To cap it all, we found our idea of the most perfect pub in the world, the Barrel House, a scruffy old place with live music and rude pictures in the toilets. We drank red wine and swore we'd all move there one day. As we plodded giddily back to the car, wrapped in our new woolly hats and gloves, a load of lads swerved past in a souped-up Fiesta and leaned out of the window to shout: 'HIPPIES!'
The disappointment
Driving around Sri Lanka, I'd heard a lot about the favourite local brew 'toddy'. It's made from coconut tree sap which is extracted each morning by 'toddy tappers' who tightrope walk between the upper trunks to reach the precious nectar. I loved the coconut whisky, arak, so when we eventually pulled over at a roadside toddy stall I believed I was in for a real treat. When the skinny, cross-eyed and, frankly, totally hammered vendor passed me a warm cup full I took a giant swig. It was absolutely repulsive - an acidic, vinegary, dirty soup that tasted like rotten vegetables and piss.
Jay Rayner, food critic
The discovery
The writer Alain de Botton has claimed that the pleasure of a holiday lies as much in the anticipation as in the event itself. I wonder if he has kids. As all parents know, booking a holiday for the family can be a nightmare. Get it wrong and not only will you have a horrible time, but you will carry on having it for two weeks with little prospect of escape. This year, we decided to take our small boys abroad, and booked accommodation through Simply Crete (www.simplycreteholidays.co.uk). It was an apartment in a complex on the north-west of the island, with a huge pool and views out over the sea. It was only a few hours after our arrival, as we watched our kids leap in and out of the water with the instant friends for life that they had already made, that we knew we had found the perfect family summer holiday. We'll probably do the same thing next year and this time, we really will be able to enjoy a little of de Botton's famed anticipation.
The disappointment
Before I visited Moscow for the first time this autumn, a friend who had been a reporter there for many years told me that the city was 'full of bitterness and anger and undiagnosed psychosis'. After five days, under brooding gun-metal skies, dodging the iron-browed doormen who stand guard at the entrance to every restaurant and eating mediocre food at oligarch prices, I was convinced he was right.
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, owner of Easygroup
The discovery
My high point came on 9 December when the new-look easyCruiseOne called for the first time on the island of St Barts in the French West Indies, one of my favourite places. Sporting a new, more refined livery in graphite and grey, it meant that people no longer cracked jokes about my orange boat.
The disappointment
The low point was just a few days earlier, when the Chancellor doubled air passenger duty for all passengers under the false pretence of a green tax. It will only affect the poor, who will not be able to afford it, and it will do nothing for the environment. The rich will continue to travel and it takes no account of how environmentally friendly your airline is.
Olga Polizzi, hotel designer and owner of Rocco Forte Hotels
The discovery
Spending time in Berlin overseeing the renovation of our newest hotel, Hotel de Rome was my highlight. Berlin truly comes alive at night, and one of my discoveries was the Berghain Nightclub - great DJs, great electronic music. The club is true Berlin and is housed in an old factory. Be prepared to queue and ditch the designer gear -the wilder the better as far as the dress code is concerned.
The disappointment
First Great Western Trains. I regularly use the service to travel to Cornwall and Devon to visit my two hotels there, Tresanton and Endsleigh, and the sub-standard service never fails to amaze me. I have endured many frustrating four-hour journeys with no food and drink as the buffet car is closed and the trains are often dirty and in disrepair.
Sarah Turner, travel writer
The discovery
Having waited all year for the recent rash of business-class only airlines to go out of business , I finally relented and flew to New York with Eos (www.eosairlines.com). While I've travelled business class before, I've never flown without the nagging knowledge that only a flimsy curtain separates you and your champagne from the huddled masses. It took a plane with just 48 passengers to make me realise that all that guilt and recycled air can take its toll on a person. And given that on regular airlines business fares are kept artificially high to subsidise economy passengers, it's cheaper. A return to New York costs from £1,100, compared with £3,993 on BA.
The disappointment
Riding an elephant at a sanctuary in Thailand. Yes, it supports the work of a pioneering conservation project. This I can admire. And having a Westerner on their back for two hours is doubtless better than their previous life sleeping on the streets in Bangkok (as a result of a decline in the use of elephants in the logging industry), but I don't need to go through the personal humiliation of clambering on their backs to appreciate their good fortune. Feeding them a banana would have been enough.
Pete Tong, DJ
The discovery
Amsterdam. My memories were of school trips, seedy gigs and the red light district, but that all changed when I went to the Amsterdam Dance Music Conference in October. We had some time to kill and walked around the city. Everyone was so nice; no chain stores, lots of happening furniture shops and boutiques, beautiful canals. The lack of traffic was a bonus, there were bikes everywhere - so different to London.
The disappointment
My experiences at Heathrow. It has hit meltdown and can't handle it anymore. I went to Russia last week and the baggage system had broken down at Heathrow. On the way back we had to wait two and a half hours for luggage.
Hilary Bradt, founder of Bradt Travel Guides
The discovery
Brooklyn Museum (www.brooklynmuseum.org). I discovered there was an exhibition by the Australian sculptor Ron Mueck and another by Walton Ford, who does extraordinary wildlife paintings. Mueck's lifelike but wrong-size sculptures were as mind-boggling as I expected. But it was the whole museum that I found entrancing. It doesn't try to show too much, so you never feel overwhelmed, and the exhibits are all clearly labelled. The museum is inexpensive and next to the main botanical garden.
The disappointment
I was in Madagascar climbing Marojejy, an impressive peak above 2,000m. We did it in style, with porters and a cook called Primo, who lived up to his name, producing first-class meals. Until the fourth day. Optimistically I ladled what looked like a delicious stew onto my mound of rice. Primo was standing by beaming proudly. I took a large mouthful. But I couldn't swallow it. Even with onions and tomatoes, dried fish tastes like its smell. Out it came.
Alastair Sawday, publisher, Special Places to Stay Guides
The discovery
I had never been to Brussels, discouraged by its reputation for banality, but on the way back from the Frankfurt Book Fair by train I couldn't resist a peek at the Grand'Place. It is a riot of architectural joyousness, of unrestrained preening, pomp and plagiarising. Not a square metre fails to delight. I found myself almost laughing out loud at the audacity of it all. And then I learnt that Louis XIV's guns had once flattened it, so what I was admiring was a risen phoenix - the outpouring of civic pride. And that was rather moving, for here was a city's people determined to recreate what they knew to be beautiful.
The disappointment
Arriving at the Birmingham NEC to give a travel talk and accidentally wandering into the adjacent hall where the Clothes Show Live was in full throttle. Surrounded by gaggles of painted fashionistas with manicured talons and extended hairpieces, I was a Gulliver marooned on a strange island. As the crowds of teenage girls grew denser, my alienation grew deeper. While the celebrity crowd animators offered the girls one freebie after another ('Now what do I have in this bag for you?'), I bowed out, ungracefully.
