Winter

Tapas on the slopes in Spain

At the Sierra Nevada ski resort in Andalucia, from the mountaintop you can see the Mediterranean and Africa beyond, and the Sierra’s comfort foods are a refreshing change from raclette and fondue.

On many menus you’ll find picadillo, a porky mountain broth with chopped boiled egg, little chunks of jamón and crunchy croutons, served with a lemon wedge. It will never go viral on Instagram but it’s warming and so satisfying. Try it at Tía María, whose terrace has bonus sunset views across the mountains. On the sweeter side of things, chocolate con churros are lengths of light, fluffy-crisp doughnut to dip into thick hot choc, leaving you oily fingered and smiling beatifically. The busy Churrería Marilolo, celebrating 40 years in business in 2025, is a top spot.

For a nibble and drink in the proper Spanish way, the cosiness factor is high in El Copo, a small friendly bar decorated with historical pics of old Sierra Nevada. Its pleasingly simple tapas include white sausage from Granada and cave-aged manchego. If a glass of cava or red from nearby Granada is your thing, the great value old-school wine bar Casablanca will supply that después-ski glow. Tucked behind the Hotel Mont Blanc is Sabor De Andalucia, where excellent homemade ham croquetas can accompany a glass of something good.

Seafood at 2,100 metres? Si, señor. La Lonja, by the original gondola, cooks juicy navajas (razor clams), pilpil prawns so gloriously garlicky you need to make a pact that all your group have them, delicately fried bacalao (salt cod), excellent grilled cuttlefish and more. This is ski food to leave you on a high. Les Dunn

Booking it New to its programme this season, Crystal Ski Holidays has seven nights at the Hotel Melia Sol y Nieve half board from £986pp, with flights from Gatwick to Malaga and transfers, based on two adults sharing.

Spring

Peanuts from the roaster in Jordan

Any account of a trip to Jordan will inevitably wax lyrical about the spectacular Martian-like landscapes of Wadi Rum and the ancient city of Petra with its buildings carved into rock. But the food comes a close second. On a night at a desert camp in Wadi Rum, your Bedouin hosts will prepare zarb, a traditional meal cooked over a smouldering underground barbecue for hours, resulting in juicily tender, lightly smoky lamb, chicken and veg. Later, at a ‘supermarket’ (in fact a small family-run roadside shop/café) outside Petra, a morning stop for hot-from-the-oven flatbreads with labneh, za-atar and makdous (stuffed pickled baby aubergines), all homemade, was one of the best things we ate on our trip.

Other food hits include lunch of mansaf, a Jordanian speciality of tender lamb cooked in yogurt, and a market tour in Amman, Jordan’s capital. At its bakery, a kind of revolving pizza oven cooks small pides topped with a spicy nutty, oily, herby mix, puffed and ready to eat after a couple of revolutions. As you walk and scoff, marvel at the giant buckets of olives and pickles, the sugarcane juice vendor and, best of all, the peanuts, salted then roasted in a kind of cement mixer – Jordan’s greatest on-the-hoof snack. Nearby is Jordan’s most famous falafel restaurant, Hashem, a must-visit spot where the light, crunchy morsels have been enjoyed by visiting dignitaries, as well as the King of Jordan. Les Dunn

Booking it In spring, a nine-day Highlights of Jordan private tour with Stubborn Mule Travel costs from £2,375pp B&B, with flights. Tours are tailored individually.

Summer

Baking bread in Iceland’s volcanic earth

It’s not just the rugged landscape of Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula, in the southwest of the island, that will impress – the food is often breathtaking too. The lighthouse-dotted peninsula is surrounded by icy waters that provide fabulous fresh fish – the ‘fried cod’s chin’ (a hard-working muscle in the jaw) at Issi Fish And Chips near the airport is very good, thanks in part to owner Issi’s secret blend of herbs and spices (and British vinegar: “It’s the best”, he says).

When it comes to unlikely food products of the earth, meanwhile, take an exhilarating quad bike adventure around steaming lava fields with 4×4 Adventures and you can meet Rannveig ‘Nanny’ Gardarsdottir and her sister Thorey Gardarsdottir, who bake bread in a time-honoured way using hot spots in the volcanic ground as an oven.

They make a rye bread dough and put it in tubs, then bury them in a steamy pit dug especially for the purpose, marking the spot with stones. After 12-24 hours, the bread is dug up and carried home still warm. Help them retrieve it and taste the warm, nutty loaf out in the windswept open. Spread with Icelandic butter, sprinkled with foraged wild thyme and topped with salty smoked trout, it makes for a great impromptu picnic, along with welcome hot coffee from a flask.

Other culinary pleasures are more refined. After a dip and mud facial in the hot, mineral-rich waters of the famous Blue Lagoon at Grindavik, including a beer in the pool, try a Michelin-starred meal at Moss restaurant – which might include local lamb, grazed on grasses, herbs and berries or super-fresh langoustine and seaweed soup with tangy skyr-whipped butter on warm (but not volcano-cooked) rye bread. Hugh Thompson

Booking it Flights to Reykjavik start at £160. For volcanic bread-baking info, contact info@visitreykjanes.is. Hotel Keflavik, from £250 for a double, room only, has good restaurants and a smart spa.

Eating your way through Northumberland

Discover the area’s food on the Northumberland 250 driving route, divided into Borderlands, Coast, Dark Skies and Country. One of the UK’s loveliest coastal pubs is the beachside Ship Inn in Low Newton, with its own microbrewery – a crab sandwich and a pint of Sandcastles At Dawn is a must. Other great coastal spots include Bamburgh with its dramatic castle, where you need to catch the Creel & Reel Seafood Trailer. The chips are THE BEST and the half lobster with garlic butter is a beast.

Near Berwick-Upon-Tweed are the pretty villages of Ford, where you can tour Heatherslaw Corn Mill and buy its excellent stoneground flour, and Etal. Here, stroll admiring the architecture before heading into the The Black Bull, Northumberland’s only thatched pub, for an Upland Ale. Out in the wild west near Kielder Water is The Pheasant, with hearty classics like game and mushroom pie. Staying over? Then make time for a midnight star gaze.

In the south, Corbridge is full of indie shops like Grant’s baker, famous for its cheesecakes and tarts, and The Corbridge Larder, for Doddington cheese and beers from Hadrian Border Brewery. Louise Tucker

Booking it Hire a Land Rover with a Tentbox for two (from £1,050 for seven nights from Northumberland Defender Hire). Or try places such as The Pheasant (above) and Beadnell Towers (doubles from £115 B&B) near Alnwick. To offset your journey, donate to the Northumberland Wildlife Trust to help tree planting.

Autumn

Grape picking and wine sipping in France

Château Troplong Mondot is a picture-perfect vineyard at the highest point of the celebrated Saint-Émilion wine-growing region in Bordeaux. From your chic accommodation you’ll take in views over neat ranks of vines to the medieval town beyond. It’s heaven for Francophiles, lovers of juicy reds – and French cooking. Plus, visit in September and you get a chance to pick grapes.

You can explore the fairytale estate on a tour in a vintage Land Rover. The new winery complex is breathtaking: the vast cellar with its suspended glass walkway is straight from a Bond film. There’s plenty to see on foot, too: stroll the vineyards, visit the kitchen garden where a flock of cute ducks keep pests at bay, and say hello to the pigs who devour veg scraps from the restaurant’s kitchen.

The estate’s luscious reds are made with the merlot, cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc grapes that thrive in the region’s limestone soil and sunny climate. Its premium Château Troplong Mondot carries the coveted Premier Grand Cru classification.

But the wine is more than just superb – it ranks among the most sustainable in Bordeaux. The Percheron horses that plough the vineyards are magical; they’ve replaced machines as their hooves are kinder to the soil and have a smaller carbon footprint.

Food options include the Michelin-starred Les Belles Perdrix in the heart of the winery, grazing platters to nibble at on The Keys terrace, or posh picnics in the vineyard. The magnificent town of Saint-Émilion, and its bars and restaurants, is a half-hour walk.

In The Keys B&B, a restored 18th-century farmhouse-style building, lodgings are de luxe and gorgeously decorated. Guests gather in a communal dining room to breakfast on tender pastries, fruit and delicious homemade jams and granola. For romantics, the Vineyard House is a cottage nestled among the vines. Sue Quinn

Booking it Doubles in The Keys cost from €250 (£207) B&B; two-bed/four person Vineyard Keys from €450 (£373) B&B. September return flights, Gatwick to Bordeaux, cost from £89; see Skyscanner.

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