Surfing safari

Chase the waves around the globe with Pure Vacations, which offers surfing holidays for all budgets and levels of experience.

A new venture this year combines surfing with yoga at an eco-camp in Aljezur, Portugal. Six nights sharing a tepee or African-style safari tent start at £759pp for flights, transfers, full board, two yoga lessons and two surfing lessons with equipment provided. Other new surfing destinations include the Galapagos Islands, Brazil and the Mentawi islands, 80 miles (150km) west of Sumatra. Pure Vacations (0845 2990045, www.purevacations.com/surf).

Bollywood beach

The movie moguls of Bollywood are renting out their luxury holiday homes in Goa to British visitors. Only a 50-minute flight from Bombay, the tiny former Portuguese colony, with its 100 miles of sand beaches, is the perfect getaway for the celebrity crowd.

The villa company Lazydays in Goa offers several of these dream homes, including the contemporary four-bedroom Anajah belonging to the designer Tarun Tahilani, who dressed Shilpa Shetty when she met the Queen recently. The property, which is a 15-minute stroll from Cocoa Beach, comes with chandeliers of Swarovski crystals, handcrafted furniture, plunge pool, a lily pond, a resident cook and two cars with drivers. It costs £1,625 to rent for a week. Lazydays in Goa (01202 484257, www.lazydays.co.uk).

Flower power

Little larger than the Isle of Wight, South Africa’s Cape Peninsula claims 2,300 indigenous plants – many of our colourful species, including pelargonium, agapanthus, freesia, felicia and numerous ericas, originate from there.

The educational charity ACE Study Tours is timing a 16-day trip to the Cape to coincide with spring. There will be visits to Table Mountain, the Cedarberg Mountains and Karoo National Botanic Garden, but one stop en route is rather special. It’s a working farm in Flower Valley, a richly diverse botanical area due to be ploughed up for vines, but preserved thanks to conservationists who have also demonstrated that commercial yet sustainable cut and dried flowers – orchids, lilies and irises among them – can provide valuable revenue for the local community.

The Flowers of the Cape tour from September 3-18 costs £2,590pp for flights, hotel and lodge stays and most meals. ACE Study Tours (01223 835055, www.acestudytours.co.uk).

Icy reception

Take the plunge in freezing waters and hug an iceberg on Explore’s winter break in the Gulf of Bothnia, Finland. Making it all possible is one of the few passenger-carrying icebreakers – the cruise is included on the four-day trip. The price of £975pp covers flights, transfers and B&B. Explore (0844 4990901, www.explore.co.uk).

Unless otherwise stated, all prices are based on two people travelling together.

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