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Where to book for your 2012 holiday

Tom Chesshyre

Last updated December 31 2011 12:01AM

Fancy a skinny dip? Or a honeymoon with your mates? We find the hottest bargains, coolest hotels and latest holiday ideas

Grab a bargain in bankrupt Greece

Prices in shops and restaurants have dropped in most Greek resorts as the economic gloom thickens. The result, in most places, is decentprices for tourists. Combine this with a good selection of cheap package deals which are likely to remain available right up to the eve of thesummer holidays because of our own economic worries and Greece looks a good bet for a bargain. For example, Olympic Holidays (08445762386, olympicholidays.com) has seven nights in Rhodes in May from 239pp staying at the three-star Finas self-catering apartments inPesko and including flights from Gatwick and transfers.

Homes away from home

Well stay at other peoples homes rather than hotels to save cash and to get a better feel for local life. Websites letting you get in touchwith homeowners in the UK and abroad are proving popular. Love Home Swap (lovehomeswap.com) has thousands of carefully vettedproperties in more than 70 countries, with accommodation ranging from townhouses in New York to apartments in the Swiss Alps, from Frenchcottages to hideaway homes in Moroccan medinas. Homebase Holidays (homebase-hols.com), another house-swap site that is doing well,has swanky lakeside houses in Florida, stylish aprtments in Venice and enormous houses in the wilds of Canada. Closer to home, One FineStay (0800 6124377, onefinestay.com) has more than 240 properties in London, each with White Company toiletries, good quality towels, and

iPhones with tips on the best local restaurants and bars. Guests are met outside by a man on a moped, who hands over the keys and iPhone.The company is expanding into New York in May.

Boot camps take off

Its going to be the year of the boot camp as fitness fanatics take things to extremes on holiday. Posh pubs, such as the Wheatsheaf Inn(01451 860244, cotswoldswheatsheaf.com) in the market town of Northleach in the Cotswolds, and upmarket B&Bs, including Number 43 inArnside in Cumbria (01524 762761, no43.org.uk), have begun offering boot camp breaks with gruelling exercise regimes. The Budock VeanHotel (01326 250288, budockvean.co.uk) has put together week-long camps during which previous participants have dropped a dress ortrouser size. A hotel has opened in St Lucia called the BodyHoliday resort, with regular camps run by personal trainers (thebodyholiday.com).Meanwhile, Fitscape (fitscape.co.uk) organises fitness holidays with personal trainers in France and Spain. And skiers can get in shape ontrips with personal trainers, run by Travel Alberta (travelalberta.com), in the Canadian Rockies.

Marrakesh goes five-star crazy

Traditional riads are being given a run for their money as yet more five-star hotels open in Marrakesh. A Four Seasons opened recently(fourseasons.com/marrakesh) and theres the extremely grand Royal Mansour (royalmansour.com) in the heart of the Old Town, with its manypools and palatial interior. La Mamounia (mamounia.com), also in the Old Town, has had a major facelift, while the Selman Hotel(glahotels.com), a Moorish-style palace with a spa, hammans, saunas, indoor and outdoor pools and a stable of 16 Arabian horses, opens inMarch. Palais Namaskar (oetkercollection.com), a sister hotel to Le Bristol in Paris, is also due to open with a giant spa.

Trains take the strain

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With high-speed train lines linking up more of Europe than ever, many of us will be heading off through the Chunnel by Eurostar next year.Most customers will travel less than six hours by train, according to Greentraveller.co.uk, which reports particular interest in visits to Burgundyand the Low Countries. A new high-speed link between Paris and Mulhouse in the east of France means that journeys to the Franche-Comptregion have been slashed considerably by as much as 1hr 20m from Paris to the pretty commune of Belfort. Meanwhile, fast tracks arecontinuing to be rolled out in Spain, where Barcelona was recently linked to Madrid by high-speed AVE trains. Ffestiniog Travel (01766772030, ffestiniogtravel.com), which tailor-makes trips, offers a weeks fast train trip from St Pancras to Barcelona and Madrid from 1,030pp.

Caribbean island hopping

The low-cost airline, REDjet (flyredjet.com), looks as though it could transform holidays in the Caribbean as it continues to expand. Flightsbetween the islands are being offered for as little as $9.99, excluding taxes, between Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad, Jamaica and Antigua. Thenewest routes, which began in November, link Kingston in Jamaica to Bridgetown in Barbados, as well as Georgetown in Guyana to Antigua.The airline now has three 149-seater planes, having acquired a new aircraft this month. It claims to have cut the cost of island-hopping byplane in the Caribbean by 60 per cent since it began in 2005.

Latin America . . . off the beaten track

It used to be an eight-hour drive from La Paz, Bolivias capital, to the giant and beautiful salt flats of Salar de Uyuni. The journey now takesone hour thanks to a new airport at Uyuni, and the tour operator Exsus (020-7337 9010, exsus.com) is offering trips to this little-visited spot,staying in a vintage US Airstream camper. This year, more parts of Latin America will open up to tourism than ever, with Exsus also predictinga boom to Colombia as well as to more remote beach resorts in Brazil, where boutique hotels have been popping up, including the stylish ChilliBeach hotel on Jericoacoara on the northeast coast. Dragoman (01728 861133, dragoman.com) has created two new trips deep into theBrazilan interior covering national parks and the Amazon basin. Journey Latin America (020-8747 8315,journeylatinamerica.co.uk) is offeringnew fly-drives to northern Chilean Patagonia, following the success of DIY drives in Mexico and Argentina.

Stay in Blighty (cheaply)

Self-catering UK breaks will be all the rage as families economise in tough times. Breaks in Cornwall (01621 784666, breaksincornwall.com)has already noticed an increase in bookings and has also found that cleaning bills for its properties have been going up because families havebeen using the kitchens much more than usual. Some of the best companies with cottages include Sheepskin (sheepskinlife.com), whichoffers upmarket retreats, Living Architecture (living-architecture.co.uk), a specialist in places with modern architecture, Cottages4You(cottages4you.co.uk), which offers 13,000 cottages, and Rural Retreats (ruralretreats.co.uk), which has an excellent selection across thecountry. Natural Retreats (naturalretreats.co.uk) is good for Cornwall and the Yorkshire Dales. A survey by TravelSupermarket(travelsupermarket.com) has suggested that a third of all holidays next year will be in self-catering properties.

We take to skinny dipping

Canopy and Stars (canopyandstars.co.uk) has noticed a growing number of customers asking for properties with a private body of water. Onenquiring why, they discovered that people seem to have taken to skinny dipping and want to be away from prying eyes. The companyrecommends the Fishermans Cabin and Woodsmans Cabin, both in Piegut-Pluviers in the Dordogne in France. There are also propertiessuitable for a skinny dip in Hertfordshire and Scotland (which sounds a little chilly).

No more going alone

Instead of going on tailor-made trips, holidaymakers who used to enjoy the freedom of individual transfers and guides are joining small groupsinstead. The benefit is that prices work out much cheaper. Rainbow Tours (020-7666 1250, rainbowtours.co.uk) says that couples can shave700 off the price of a typical trip to Peru by joining a group of fewer than 12 people. Regent Holidays (020-7666 1290, regent-holidays.co.uk)says that two families often travel together to create a small group.

Mexico here we come

British Airways (ba.com) already flies to Cancun in Mexico, and Virgin Atlantic (virginatlantic.com) is about to go, too, with a direct servicebeginning in June. The competition is bound to keep fares down. Virgins cheapest fare as we went to press was 649. But canny travellersare best off booking with Virgin Holidays (virginholidays.com) or BA Holidays (britishairways.com/holidays) as the airlines negotiate decenthotel rates.

Students flee student fees

High student fees have put many off going to university, with thousands of A-level students heading to work overseas for experience that willbolster CVs for when they return, hoping that the economy will have turned around by then. STA Travel (0871 2300040, statravel.co.uk) saysthat bookings from students are up 30 per cent year on year. Bunac (020-7553 6180, bunac.org/uk) is good for jobs in America and Canada.For Australia, go to Australia.com.