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Stay the night: Le Gray, Beirut

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Le Gray has finally opened in Beirut – one of the most eagerly and long-awaited hotel openings of the year. It's been an uphill struggle for hotelier Gordon Campbell Gray, hampered by civil unrest and two wars. "Everyone was really weary after the Israeli attacks two summers ago," he says. "But we refused to let it throw us off course and bashed on."

Tel Aviv: Israel's most cosmopolitan city offers beach life, fine dining and a lively cultural scene

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Tel Aviv: Israel's most cosmopolitan city offers beach life, fine dining and a lively cultural scene.

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Tel Aviv: Israel's most cosmopolitan city offers beach life, fine dining and a lively cultural scene.

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Travel challenge: A week in Oman

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Every week we invite competing companies to give us their best deal for a specified holiday. Today: a week in Oman in early November. Prices are for two people travelling together and include return flights from Heathrow to Muscat on 2 November...

48 Hours In: Doha

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Click here for 48Hours In...Doha map

Travel challenge: A post-Ramadan break in Dubai

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Every week we invite competing companies to give us their best deal for a specified holiday. Today: a five-night break for two in Dubai, departing on 14 October, including flights, transfers and breakfast.

For a real taste of Lebanon, go back to the land

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 23:00:37 GMT

My first foray into the Lebanese countryside, when I visited last autumn, came in the form of an invitation to the loftily named World Birds Migration Festival held near Anjar.

On The Road: A capital cacophony in Cairo

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

I am slowly going deaf. There is a tell-tale ringing in my ears and a new-found tendency to shout: definite symptoms of graduating from tourist to local. Most foreigners last only a few days in the Egyptian capital, and leave with nerves rubbed raw by the never-ending noise. I have been in Cairo long enough to develop hearing loss. This city is adopting me.

Egypt's Sinai Peninsula is in vogue as BA scraps New York flights in favour of Sharm El Sheikh

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 23:00:16 GMT

A fatal attraction: that is one dimension of the Blue Hole, a 100m-deep underwater pothole just off the shore of the Sinai Peninsula. This fissure has claimed many divers' lives, as becomes clear as you approach it; small shrines and memorials to lost loved ones line the route to the sea. But despite its notoriety, for the snorkeller who intends to descend only a few metres it is (weather-permitting) a relatively tame swim that gives you an amazing insight into what can exist just below the surface of the water.

Good Oman: Acquire a taste for Musandam

Fri, 15 May 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Telegraph Island: possibly not the holiday destination of choice for Elliot Morley, Michael Gove or other MPs whose expenses claims have made the front pages. But this fragment of rock in the Strait of Hormuz, where the desert crumbles into one of the world's most strategic shipping lanes, is well worth a visit, even though the former British telegraph station is officially off-limits.

Iran: The view from the streets'

Sat, 09 May 2009 23:00:01 GMT

At first I wasn't sure if it was a question. "You don't have visa?" says the immigration officer again, raising an eyebrow as punctuation.

On The Road: Sink or swim on the Sinai peninsula

Fri, 08 May 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Nothing beats sharing a pot of Bedouin tea between scuba dives. Sitting cross-legged at a low table by one of Dahab's best-loved dive sites, I was given enough of a recharge by the syrupy, warm tea to turn down a kofta sandwich with chips

Trail of the Unexpected: Greenery and grandeur in Oman

Fri, 01 May 2009 23:00:01 GMT

We must be in the wrong place. This was the immediate conclusion I arrived at as our guide, Mahad, pulled off to the side of the road and killed the engine. While he pottered about in the boot for the picnic, laying out a blanket and several bowls of exotic-looking food, I held a quick internal debate about whether or not I should believe my eyes.

48 Hours In: Dubai

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Click here for 48 Hours In...Dubai map

Oman: An authentic taste of Arabia

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Talk about a holiday in the Gulf and everyone thinks of Dubai – understandably so, for the Emirate is by far the most popular destination in the region. But if you want to see real Arabia, as opposed to a mass of shopping malls and luxury hotels, there is a far better option: Oman.

Small steps through Oman's mountains

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 00:00:01 GMT

The Sultanate of Oman has been busy luring visitors seeking winter sun to its coast, but a rather more low-key campaign has also been under way to coax us into the mountains.

Five luxury Gulf shore getaways

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 00:00:01 GMT

The Complete Guide To: Petra

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Egypt uncovered: A Nile cruise through history

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Egypt stands at the spaghetti junction of the world. Poised between Africa, Asia and Europe, Egypt's rulers could once justly be said to hold sway over the entire planet. At least, that's what Napoleon thought, and so did several of Egypt's jealous neighbours. When Vasco da Gama opened up a new Asian trade link around the Cape of Good Hope, he avoided Egypt altogether. Egypt answered back with Suez in 1956, restoring the country's geopolitical pre-eminence.

The Complete Guide To: Byzantium

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

The Complete Guide to: The Gulf states

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Ode to Damascus: The Syrian capital reveals its secrets

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 23:00:01 GMT

We arrived in Damascus in the light of the crescent moon. It seemed appropriate enough. This, after all, is the city Muhammad refused to visit, because he preferred to save paradise for paradise, the city that was conquered by Muslim armies AD635, and that remained under Islamic rule of various kinds until 1918. Even now, with a government fiercely committed to the ideal of the secular state, Syria is largely a Muslim country – but one, you quickly find, in which Muslims, Christians and Jews share the richest of histories.

Atlantis, The Palm: A nice little place I know

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 23:00:12 GMT

What credit crunch? For a glimpse of just what $1.5bn of hotel looks like, first cross the 300m-long bridge that links mainland Dubai to the extraordinary exercise in land reclamation that is the Palm Jumeirah. To your right and left, the Shoreline Apartments rise in perfect symmetry; behind them the Palm's 17 "fronds" peel off: sandbanks stuffed with villas, awaiting Russian oligarchs or English Premier League footballers. And there, at the end of the Palm's Trunk, slap-bang in the centre of a colossal breakwater called the Crescent, stands Atlantis. You just can't miss it.

Family travel: 'Where's best for baby-friendly winter sun?'

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 23:00:01 GMT

Q My husband and I are looking for a winter sun destination for us and our two-month-old baby in early December. We are desperate for a beachside activity-based holiday, with watersports, tennis and golf (if possible). However, I am struggling to find a crèche that will take a baby that young. Surely there are other young mums like myself out there who are keen to line up a postnatal activity break? Can you suggest some hot, baby-friendly beach and activity destinations? L Cameron, via email