Drink in the beauty near Salzburg After a couple of days exploring beautiful Salzburg, I bought a hop-on, hop-off bus ticket to the Austrian lake district – the Salzkammergut. The hotel receptionist recommended we headed to Fuschl am See. The hourly bus took about 40 minutes to get to this absolute gem. The lake water – perfect for summer swimming – is so clean it is officially drinkable. There are also charming guesthouses and small hotels. It is an absolutely beautiful spot and the whole area should be explored. Steven Glorious sands near Palermo in Sicily Palermo was wonderful for its magical collection of palaces and churches, but a bonus was to follow local advice and head for the beach at Mondelo, seven miles to the north. This is nearby yet it boasts a gorgeous arc of fine white sand, shallow electric blue waters, and the architectural delights of liberty-style villas (Italian art nouveau) including one of the finest long, white lido buildings I have ever seen. The backdrop of the Montepellegrino mountain separates it from Palermo. There are many excellent seafood restaurants, lots of bars and a vibrant summer atmosphere. David Innes-Wilkin Agriturismo on a day trip from Florence Of course no trip to Tuscany is complete without venturing into Florence and Pisa, but to avoid the stifling city heat and throngs of visitors, you could consider basing yourself at a rural agriturismo – working farms with accommodation for travellers. We loved Fattoria La Prugnola (doubles from €469 a week B&B) near the hilltop town of Montescudaio – set among the breathtaking Tuscan hills. You’re within day-trip distance of Florence, Pisa and Lucca, as well as a short drive from the lesser visited Tuscan beaches – including Vada, with its white sands and crystal blue waters. Rachel When in Lisbon take the train to Cascais, Mr Bond It’s a 25-minute €4.80 return train trip from Lisbon (Cais do Sodré station) to the beach resort of Cascais – a lovely place for a dip in the sea to rest your weary legs after walking up and down hilly Lisbon. There are four lively beaches to chill out on, plus a host of cafes. Praia da Duquesa is my favourite – big, wide, with soft sand and calm waters. I had a delicious fish soup washed down with a glass of local white wine for €10 in the quiet Baía do Peixe restaurant at the far end of the bay and it’s rumoured that Ian Fleming gained inspiration for his James Bond novels after nights at the casino or sipping martinis in the atmospheric Taberna Clandestina in a back street in the old town. Gayle Follow the river from Porto Only a 100-minute drive from Porto and accessible by rail and river is the Douro valley wine region. The scenery is incredible with vineyards covering the hillsides, and so many lovely towns and villages to explore. The quiet village of Pinhão sits in the heart of the gorgeous Alto Corgo area, and is a great place to soak in the region’s beauty, whether you arrive on a boat trip, or by train on the Linha do Douro railway. With an inexhaustible supply of wonderful vineyards and wineries, you’ll be spoiled for choice. Alex Pedal away from busy Dubrovnik From Dubrovnik, turn away from the crowds heading out to the islands and instead head inland. A 30-minute drive, or half day’s cycle, will take you into Bosnia and Herzegovina, where you can explore the Çiro trail. A narrow gauge railway connected villages in this valley until it closed in the 1970s, and funding has now turned this into a brilliant multi-day, mostly flat cycle route. Along the way you’ll find stunning caves, beautiful chapels and abandoned stations. Zavala station (doubles from €60 B&B) has been restored to a beautiful guesthouse and restaurant by Teo and Ana. A warm welcome greets you there, with fresh food, lovely rooms and local spirits to finish off your meal. With just a handful of rooms, it’s the perfect quiet antidote to heaving Dubrovnik. Bryony Valbonne is the perfect Côte d’Azur escape Half an hour’s drive from Nice in the foothills of the Maritime Alps, lies the beautiful village of Valbonne. Architecturally the village differs from many others in the south of France, which are often built in a spiral around a hill. Valbonne is laid out in a grid pattern with the Place des Arcades being the central square. Here you can sip a kir and watch the world go by, or try one of the excellent restaurants. Many more restaurants await in the small streets that crisscross this enchanting place. The weekly Friday market squeezes more stalls into these alleys than you can shake a stick at. Throughout the year musical festivals and retro clothing markets delight visitors and locals alike. This is a place where locals live and work and the resulting mix of them and international visitors makes for a happy and peaceful vibe. Fiona Bateson Join the chipmunks and explore Brussels’ ancient forest Right next-door to Brussels is an ancient and mysterious forest – the Forêt de Soignes (Zoniënwoud in Dutch), so immense you can walk for miles in parts without seeing another person. Different access points can be reached by tram, metro or local train. By metro, you arrive at a medieval monastery; by tram, at a lake; by train, the most interesting of all, you plunge right into the arboretum. Most routes converge near the eerily named Lake of the Drowned Children, with one of the paths colonised by bold Siberian chipmunks – the descendants of escaped pets. The route to the city is through the more urbanised Bois de la Cambre with picnicking families and cafes. The forest – the city’s green lung – is rightly protected for all to enjoy. Barbara Forbes Gdańsk doesn’t feel like Hel The industrial city of Gdańsk is fascinating but, to escape the crowds, take a trip to the narrow Hel peninsula that juts into the Baltic to create a natural barrier between the rougher sea waters and the protected shallows of the Bay of Puck. Catch the ferry (often referred to as the “water tram”) from Gdańsk to reach Hel, where there are miles of glorious sandy beaches and wide, blousy skies. We ate fried herrings from a food truck and sat on virgin white sands more like the Philippines than Poland. Trevor Winning tip: Green volcanoes close to Barcelona An hour’s drive from Barcelona is the serene, green volcanic region of La Garrotxa near Girona. With more than 40 dormant or extinct cones, the forested area is wonderful for hiking, and in some of the craters are excellent cafes. Olot, the region’s capital, has bustling plazas and a cuisine that benefits from the surrounding fertile volcanic soil. It also has a superb interactive geological museum, Espai Cràter (entry €7.50) buried in the heart of a volcano. Here, we also rented bikes and set out on the off-road greenway through the Bas valley, stopping in charming villages. Amber De La Haye