Bespoke Travel

Recalling the vivid and exotic images Doyle painted of South America has got us thinking about the places in today's world that still hark back to an age of strange, unexplored lands.

We all think we know Australia pretty well: The familiar faces are Uluru, The Sydney Opera House and The Great Barrier Reef.

With a unique café and bar culture, top notch cuisine, an effervescent nightlife and a burgeoning music scene, the island nation is an attractive destination for the hip and the outdoorsy.

There will be plenty of reasons to hit the road in 2012 for those eager to see the awe-inspiring, the innovative, and the unforgettable.

From Bhutan to Iceland to Belize, there are incredibly things to be done in 2012. Here is a tasting menu of the journeys this new year has to offer.

It is a lovely time of year if you are naive enough to believe you'll follow through on all your promises, a month spent looking forward to a thinner, healthier, richer, French-speaking you.

There is a certain wisp of aesthetic beauty in abandonment. Dilapidated cities are like artistically abstracted urban zones, defined by crumbling walls, elegantly decrepit doors and defaced buildings.