Twenty destinations for 2014: El Salvador

Why? Travel that confounds expectations is always deeply satisfying. El Salvador is Central America’s smallest country and is best known elsewhere in the world for its 1979-92 civil war, its gangs (in the US and at home) and for not being quite as “Mayan” as Guatemala, its neighbour. It is also one of the world’s unsung wonders, with a chain of perfect cone-shaped volcanoes and huge lakes inside craters, an established surfing scene and some fine beaches, a modern, tree-filled capital and a northern flank of pine-forested mountains – and it has Mayan sites, such as the Unesco-listed Joya de Cerén.

Suchitoto is El Salvador’s prettiest colonial-era town – and a great first base. Thanks to its mansion setting, art, antiques, its Franco-Salvadorean fusion restaurant and its general opulence, Los Almendros de San Lorenzo is a genuine “destination hotel” – and all for the price of a Costa Rican b&b. Perquin, in the hills of the Oriente region is one of the places where the memory of the 1980s war between government and guerrillas has been turned into something approaching a “tourist” experience. This simply means that you can be guided around the monuments and the hillsides by former combatants – on the guerrilla side – and visit Perquin’s Museo de la Revolución with people who know what they’re talking about. In the west, El Imposible is El Salvador’s wonderfully named, beautifully mountainous national park. You can see Guatemala’s volcanoes from the peaks here, but don’t forget to look back at El Salvador’s – they are magnificent, unphotographed, and very close.

How to go: Journey Latin America can organise visits to El Salvador that combine El Imposible and Suchitoto with the Mayan site at Copán in Honduras, starting from £1,322 per person plus flights.

Twenty destinations for 2014: Liuwa Plain National Park, Zambia

Why? Spread across 1,390 square miles of north-west Zambia in the ancient kingdom of Barotseland, the park has at its heart a vast sea of golden grassland, 45 miles long and 20 miles wide with nothing but occasional islands of raffia palms to break the horizon.

Until recently this was the hunting ground of the Litunga – as the Lozi king is called. Now it’s a national park with a migration to match the Serengeti’s, as blue wildebeest converge in their tens of thousands on the plains in the wake of the rains, together with zebra and tsessebe, joining the resident buffalo, red lechwe, roan antelope, eland, reedbuck and oribi. Here, too, are a host of grassland predators: cheetahs, spotted hyenas, African wild dogs – and a lion pride that has evolved around its famous matriarch “Lady Liuwa”. Birding is equally spectacular, with 334 species recorded, including huge numbers of cranes and storks as well as pelicans, bustards and a host of raptors.

This is without doubt one of the most amazing wildlife reserves in Africa, yet it is so remote that only a few hundred visitors manage to reach it every year. Now that is about to change. In 2014 Norman Carr Safaris is opening a new luxury lodge in the park and introducing a helicopter service that will really put Liuwa on the map, making it readily accessible for the first time without requiring an expedition to get there.

Telegraph Travel's 20 destinations for 2014

When newspapers compile their must-see travel lists they usually like to throw in a headline-grabbing curve-ball. Birmingham, Margate and Dresden are just a few of those destinations that have made it on to the bucket list in recent years.

No one is saying each does not have its appeal – the regeneration of Birmingham’s city centre, and Margate’s Turner museum deserves plaudits, and the old Saxon town of Dresden has done much to restore its former glories. But the world’s best? Give us a break.

In that sense, this list is different. That is not to say it is without controversy; we have included destinations some may view as edgy or that rarely make it on to the brochures of most mainstream travel operators due to the security situation or our enduring preconceptions.

Alongside these are a handful of new city break destinations that can rival the tried-and-tested, winter-sun beach escapes and wildlife hotspots that can challenge the status quo.
There may also be raised eyebrows over what is not in here – no Brazil, no Somme battlefield locations, no Burma. These are places that we believe all merit a place but not necessarily in 2014 – rising costs, growing crowds, lack of capacity and the desire for something different mean this year is not necessarily the best time to go.
So forget the teetotal January, the weekly gym class, and stopping social smoking. Make a journey to one of Telegraph Travel’s 20 places for 2014 a New Year’s resolution.
Cities
1. This old industrial giant has transformed itself into a hub for art, music and theatre - and will shortly host one of the year's biggest sporting events. Find out where
2. The place to indulge your inner caveman – and see some of Italy's oldest frescoes. Find out where
3. Riverside elegance, neoclassical grandeur – and probably the best wine in the world. Find out where

4. Fought over for millennia, this is perhaps the holiest of holy cities. Find out where
5. The home of old-style Southern charm, now a centre for cutting-edge cuisine and design. Find out where
Nature
6. According to Unesco, this is "the birthplace of many culinary traditions" – it's also the place to cuddle a baby panda. Find out where

7. One of Africa's greatest wildlife reserves, with cheetahs and lions, hundreds of bird species, and a migration to rival the Serengeti's. Find out where
8. Dense jungle, vigilante elephants and damn fine coffee. Find out where
Beach holidays
9. A windsurfers' favourite that combines modern chic with old-style Aegean charm. Find out where
10. This tiny archipelago that will transport you back to la dolce vita, Fifties-style. Find out where

11. White-sand beaches, glorious landscapes and wildlife and, this month, a week-long fiesta of dancing and drumming. Find out where
12. A true tropical island hideaway in the Grenadines, this is where they say the billionaires go to get away from the millionaires. Find out where
New frontiers
13. Rugged, wild and diverse, this island nation is the place for a "sing-sing". Find out where
14. A mountainous area so beautiful that it has been called "the Switzerland of Asia". Find out where
15. Best known for its notorious civil war, this tiny country now deserves to be known for its Pacific beaches, volcanoes, colonial towns and Mayan ruins. Find out where
Journeys
16. Cruise along one of the world's great spiritual waterways. Find out where

17. This year may be the one that this country of exquisite mosques and ancient mud villages starts to open up to Western visitors. Find out where
Long-haul
18. Known to its first inhabitants as Rakiura, the land of the glowing skies, this is fast becoming an ecotourism hot spot. Find out where
19. No longer the wild frontier of old, this is a tropical boom town in Australia that fuses indigenous, Asian and European influences. Find out where
20. A cult resort for rugged powder hounds, with some of the toughest runs anywhere in North America. Find out where
Agree with our choice? Think we've missed anywhere? Let us know what you think below

Commercial flight centenary celebrated with re-enactment in Florida

It began with one passenger on one route on the first day of the year in 1914, and has since become an industry supporting $2.2 trillion (£1.3 tn) of economic activity.

The 100th anniversary of commercial flight was celebrated yesterday with a re-enactment of that first 23-minute journey across Tampa Bay, in Florida. A replica Hoffman X-4 "Mullet Skiff" airboat took off from North Yacht Basin in the city of St Petersburg, and landed 18 miles away in Tampa.

One century ago, Abram Pheil, then mayor of St. Petersburg, paid $400 (£242) at auction for the flight, piloted by Tony Jannus.

On the day of the trip, Percival Fansler, who organised its funding, said: “What was impossible yesterday is an accomplishment of today – while tomorrow heralds the unbelievable.”

Twelve hundred passengers were transported across the Bay in the Benoist aircraft, shaving 11 hours off the equivalent journey by rail. However, the route was forced to close at the end of March 1914, due to insufficient funds from St Petersburg or tourism income.

 Kermit Weeks prepares to fire up the engine to a replica Benoist airboat in St. Petersburg, Florida. Picture: Brian Blanco / AP Images for the International Air Transport Association
The International Air Transport Association (Iata) also marked the anniversary by releasing statistics on the breadth of the aviation industry.
Last year worldwide air passengers passed three billion for the first time, and are forecast to rise to 3.6 billion by 2016. This year demand for air travel is expected to grow by six per cent.
According to statistics supplied by Iata, every 60 seconds worldwide, 52 aircraft take off, 5,700 passengers board aeroplanes, and $12.1m (£7.3m) worth of cargo is delivered.
Willie Walsh, chief executive of International Airlines Group, British Airways’ parent company, said: “Aviation is a miracle. It’s truly wonderful. Everybody who lives finds it somehow touches their lives. Without question, aviation is a force for good.
“There are issues we must address such as the environment where our performance must improve, but it’s a fantastic industry.”
Also present at the event was a replica of a Benoist Model XIV aircraft, the very same type as that which made the original journey. This was unable to replicate the flight route so the replica Hoffman X-4 "Mullet Skiff" airboat stood in at late notice.

Bangkok 'shut down' likely to further deter tourists

The move, by anti-government protestors wanting to oust Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, comes during Thailand’s peak holiday period and is likely to discourage tourists from visiting.

The announcement has led Thai security agencies to consider declaring a state of emergency.

Paradorn Pattanatabut, national security council chief, told Reuters: "The situation has intensified. We may need to call for tougher measures and security agencies have planned for that."

The shut down may last anything from five to 20 days and will be round the clock. Targets of the shut down are rally sites such as road intersections and the Victory Monument, one of the city’s main transport hubs, as demonstrators attempt to bring gridlock to the centre.

“On Jan 13, no government affairs will be carried out from that day on,” said protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban in a speech reported in the Bangkok Post. He also vowed that victory over the government would be achieved this month.
Yingluck dissolved the Thai government on December 9, in response to days of protests, but a proposed election in February which she is very likely to win, has served only to fuel concerns about military intervention or legal paralysis.
Protests on December 26 became violent when a hard core group of demonstrators tried to invade an election registration centre. A policeman and a demonstrator were shot and killed, while scores were wounded.
Demonstrators accuse Yingluck of being the puppet of her self-exiled brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
The Prime Minister is clinging on, asserting her democratic mandate from an election landslide in 2011, but protesters backed by Bangkok's royalist establishment, the opposition Democrat Party and old-money families are demanding she resigns to allow an appointed "people's council" to take over, Reuters reports.