The world's cities are unpopular this week, as travel writers flee to islands and coasts, mountains and seas. We've got a category for unusual cruises - we're not talking the Caribbean here, but the Göta Canal, the Black Sea and the Far East. There's also Escapes to Honduras, Rhodes and a different side to Egypt, and for the more adventurous there's cycling in the Alps, free-diving in Turkey and avoiding hippos in Kenya. On the culinary front, how about traditional fish and chips....but in Tuscany. Now there's food for thought.

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Plenty to make your mouth water this week...lobster and clam's in New England, fishing for Basque trout, knocking back the Bourbon in Kentucky and enjoying the tex-mex offerings of San Antonio. If all that has left you satiated then perhaps take a walk around the Inca ruins of Peru, or a lochside stroll on the Isle of Lewis, or a swim in Singapore's newest infinity pool. We're also featuring pirates in Morocco, cowboys in Nevada and bartenders in Copenhagen.

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Before friends suggested climbing it, I had never given Mt. Kilimanjaro a seconds thought, and when I did give it a seconds thought, it was that Kilimanjaro is a cliché, one of those ten-things-to-do-before-you-die boxes that people like to tick and my knee jerk reaction was to say no. Two things stopped me. First, I suffer from a mild sheep complex - where others go, I tend to follow. It’s not that I’m particularly brave or adventurous, I just hate being left out. Secondly, Kilimanjaro has interesting statistics. Of the 25,000 climbers who attempt it each year, 40% don’t make it to the top and a handful don’t make it down at all. A certain ghoulish curiosity set in. Would we be winners or losers? Was folly or bad luck responsible for failure? Above all, what price that one God like moment of looking down on the world?

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Globalista is just back from having had a perfect weekend in Berlin. Here is our 11 point plan to getting the best out of this fabulous city.

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Hear about the Abu Dhabi vending machine that dispenses gold? It’s no joke –Emirates Palace hotel has installed ATM-like machines that monitor the precious metal’s daily price and distribute 10-gram bars and customised coins accordingly. This story got us thinking (after we’d picked our jaws off the floor): what other hotels buck these austere times with lavish, more-is-more measures? To find out, we pulled together a list of our very favourite extravagant hotels. They might not have hit the highs of gold brick vending machines yet, but each offer quite extraordinary levels of glamour in to-die-for locations. Just be warned: stays here are definitely not for the shy and retiring...

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When I mentioned to a fellow writer in Paris that I was off to Dakar for a long weekend, she assumed I was attending, or participating in, the Paris-Dakar Rally. It raised a smile; the image of me roaring through the desert, risking my life, burning up fuel. I think not, but it was a reasonable observation. Dakar, capital of Senegal, is known for little besides its renowned off-road raid, in spite of the fact that for the past two years, due to security issues in Mauritania, the race has been run in South America!

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There's an abundance of far flung escapes this week - Tasmania's new luxury hotels, Malaysia's eastern shores, Papua New Guinea's birds of paradise and a music festival in the Faroe Islands. Closer to home discover Turkey's corner of bliss, a surprising literary guide in Tuscany and getting hold of the reins in Wales. Also this week we have culinary adventures in Ireland, Mumbai and Beirut. This week's categories are City, Escape, Outdoor/Adventure and Food.

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The trouble with Soho House hotels is that they are just too good. Somehow each one - London, Babington, New York and now Berlin - builds on the successful formulae of its predecessors and takes 'Soho House-ness' to yet another level. I remember the excitement when staying at Soho House NY on their very first night. I hadn’t seen anything like it - the use of fabrics; wood, crystal and leathers; the immediate lived-in but edgy feel; the rooms that are exactly how you want your home to be.

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Although direct flights fly on odd days, Tangiers is a wonderful destination for a weekend escape. The city is far more laid back than Marrakech, with fewer tourists and fewer touts. As it is right on the sea, there is a constant refreshing breeze, so you won’t get the stifling heat of Marrakech in the summer either.

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There are some less obvious destinations popping up this week - such as Brno rather than Prague, Cassis rather than St.Tropez, and for jazz lovers, look no further than Copenhagen. Further afield dip into Australia's many islands, the cool oases of the Lençóis in Brazil or find your rhythm in Salvador. This week's categories are City, Escape, Outdoor/Adventure and Music.

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