If you have a big birthday, anniversary or retirement coming up in the family, a celebration holiday can be the perfect way to mark the date. And whether you fancy touring South America or South Africa, seeing Japan’s cherry blossom or Cambodia’s exotic temples, embarking on a Polar bear photo trip or unwinding on an Indian Ocean beach, Tropical Sky can make your dream trip happen.

Celebrity Edge, Celebrity Cruises’ latest and most innovative new ship, has attracted a welter of attention – and quite right too. The ship takes modern luxury to the next level with its ingenious ‘magic carpet’, a cross between and embarkation platform and a hi-rise bar; Eden, an exotic and sensory three deck high garden space where ‘woodnymphs’ flit by night; an achingly beautiful spa and a top deck cinema.

“There is nothing much to do on Paxos – if living at a quieter pace, stretching out on a lovely beach or by a villa swimming pool, eating good, simple food and drinking the local wine far into the night can be called nothing.” For this reviewer, Paxos represents the lifestyle that larger, more commercialised places have lost. CV Villas offer ‘idyllically located’ properties on this magical island.

On a Lisbon city-break, this reviewer was particularly impressed by Kirker’s Holidays helpful Guide Notes: “tourist information and restaurant suggestions, prepared in-house and with many useful tips not found in guidebooks. Our package also included a 48-hour Lisbon Card, which gives free access to 29 museums, various discounts, and unlimited free travel on public transport.”

Places closer to home can thrill as much as the distant and exotic. On this trip, the spacious and friendly flagship of Cruise & Maritime Voyages, Columbus, sails first for Amsterdam with its spectacular bulbfields at Keukenhof Garden: all tulips ago-go. Then the ship heads north for the glens, distilleries, castles and historic chapels of bonny Scotland’s Orkneys and Isle of Skye.

If you ever Interrailed around Europe as a student, you may be surprised to hear that discounted rail travel in Europe and Scandinavia can be enjoyed by the over 60s too. National Rail’s Senior Interrail pass allows you 5 days of travel in one month from just £198pp (save 10% if you travel Sep – Dec), making Europe’s cultural capitals, the French Riviera, the Tuscan Hills and even Istanbul within easy reach.