Middle East

• 1 Dubai: holiday like a star in the lap of luxury
  Dubai is currently one of the top destinations for celebrities looking for a luxury getaway this spring. Victoria and David Beckham, Coleen Rooney, Rita Ora and TOWIE's Joey Essex and Sam Faiers...

• 2 Dive in and discover Egypt
  Expect more than a place to build sandcastles - an Egyptian holiday could involve anything from camel trekking and haggling in the souks to embracing the glittering nightlife of the Red Sea resorts. Timeless...

• 3 Dubai has the X Factor: Join the VIP jetset and holiday like Nicole at the Jumeirah Zabeel Saray
  Nicole Scherzinger is one of the world's most glamorous women – so it's no surprise that when she filmed her X Factor judges' houses stint recently, she jetted out to Dubai. Ultra-modern, yet situated...

• 4 Pera Palace: Istanbul's hot-spot hotel
  It's East meets West in glamorous, exotic and stylish form. Turkey’s most famous hotel has just had a £20 million facelift – and it's got to be seen to be believed. The Pera Palace, the...

• 5 The world's most iconic places to photograph
  Certain places are a must to capture through the lense: when in Rome, the obvious choice is the Colosseum and when in Paris, the Eiffel Tower. But far from these popular destinations lie...

• 6 Exploring Egypt from the Nile
  The pyramids of Giza, the temple complex of Karnak, the two massive rock temples of Abu Simbel... there are few scenarios as awe-inspiring as those seen from aboard a boat on the Nile. Whether it's a modern...

• 7 Dive into the world's best scuba sites
  Azores The waters around this remote Portuguese archipelago way out in the Atlantic Ocean are home to an amazing underwater world. The nine small volcanic islands of the Azores are surrounded by waters...

• 8 Masada, Herod's desert fortress
  In the middle of the first century AD, after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, son of Emperor Vespasian, a group of Jewish zealots found refuge from the Roman troops in the desert fortress built...

• 9 Travel highlights for 2012
  London Olympics With three and a half million tickets sold and a build up that has been headline news for the last year or more, it would be hard to miss the fact that in 2012 Britain – and more...

• 10 It all began in Nazareth
  From Nazareth where the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary with the very first “Ave Maria" – “Hail Mary, full of grace” – to Bethlehem where the baby was born; Ein Kerem...

• 11 Five spectacular New Year plans
  Magical, musical New Year in Dublin Not satisfied with a single night of fun, the Irish capital is planning to ring in the New Year with the NYE Festival, a three-day extravaganza of music and entertainment....

• 12 The natural wonders of the world
  The idea of listing the wonders of the world is hardly a new thing. The historian Herodotus compiled his own list way back in the fifth century BC, and from then on many have been unable to resist the...

• 13 Oman: a country of contrasts
  A country of contrasts, the oil-rich Sultanate straddles between the sea and the desert, between ancient history and the ultra-modern. The Portuguese took and occupied Muscat – now the capital –...

• 14 The light shines out in Jerusalem
  This year sees the third celebration of the festival, held in Jerusalem's Old City in mid-June, and the event is already establishing itself as one of the city's major summer attractions. Throughout...

• 15 Verdi's 'Aida' echoes around the Judean desert
  The majestic beauty and historical significance of the rocky outcrop of Masada combine to make this great symbol of Jewish heroism a unique place. The site itself, an Israeli National Park and a UNESCO...

• 16 The Marian trail: a pilgrimage in the Holy Land
  Following in the footsteps of Mary, the Mother of God, and visiting the sites of key events in her life, the Marian trail promises to be a journey of self-realisation and discovery, especially for those...

• 17 “Shadows of the days gone by” in Palmyra
  From Damascus, the Syrian capital, it's a dusty journey of at least three hours by way of ancient rocky villages to reach Palmyra, standing like a life-sized cinema set against the backdrop of the bare...

• 18 Rest in peace, Tutankhamen
  The tomb of Tutankhamen (1361-1352 BC) in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, some 700 kilometres south of Cairo, famous as the only pharaonic tomb to be found intact, is one of the major tourist and archaeological...

• 19 The might and mystery of ancient Egypt
  The pharaohs were determined to achieve immortality, and, given that they still attract so much attention and can fascinate us so many centuries later, in at least one way, they have managed to do just...

• 20 Five stars and low cost: a winning combination
  It used to be that five-star hotels were reserved for the rich and famous. But now just about anyone can afford to enjoy the fine service and facilities at some of the world's best hotels. Here are four...