IT’S that time again when we think about the year ahead with all its opportunities. It’s also peak holiday booking season.

As Covid restrictions ease – even now in China where the pandemic first emerged – travel is back with a bang, with loads of options at home and abroad. I’ve got my own adventures planned that I’m sharing with you to hopefully help inspire some travels of your own.

Starting off in Scotland the staycation trend looks set to continue. Our cities were not as popular as the fresh air of the countryside during the staycation boom, but I think urban centres will really tempt again in 2023.

How about visiting our newest city of Dunfermline? Or how about looking at a city in a different way? I recently wrote a blog for Forever Edinburgh (www.edinburgh.org) on the top free attractions in the capital. Edinburgh need not be expensive if you do a bit of research and this website is packed with loads of things to do that might not normally occur to you.

I’ve already got two Edinburgh weekends booked amongst my 19 trips for 2023. I’m also heading down soon to Galashiels to check out whether it really is “Scotland’s happiest place” as Rightmove say, and have forays planned back to Glasgow, Dundee and Inverness. Each stacks up really well for a city break, with some great deals if you book ahead.

Cruising was booming before it became perhaps the hardest hit sector of travel by Covid. It’s definitely steaming ahead again, not least in Scotland with a flurry of family-run small ships at the helm. I’ll be sailing again with Argyll Cruising, which under new ownership, is still opening up the little cruised Firth of Clyde.

I’ll also be on the new Lords of Highlands, which offers the best of both worlds, first making its way through Thomas Telford’s majestic Caledonian Canal from Inverness to Fort William and then sailing out into the Hebrides for calls at the glorious isles of Mull and Eigg. Looking at the planned itinerary I should be able to nip into Knoydart to check out how the Old Forge is getting on after the community bought out the pub in spring 2022.

Community is something that will be at the forefront of my mind in 2023 as it is for many travellers today. I’ve been working with SCOTO (www.scoto.co.uk) and have been really impressed with their drive to get community-owned businesses and other public entities not only working better together, but more engaged with the private sector. For us, the travelling public, there is also an effort to welcome people to Scotland’s communities as “temporary locals” rather than just tourists.

Pushing beyond Scotland, a highlight of my year will be sailing with Fred Olsen’s Balmoral under the Forth Bridges from Rosyth, right by my house, and down the Forth in search of the Baltic. The original plan was to venture as far as St Petersburg, but the conflict in Ukraine has put paid to that. Still, it’s a glorious prospect sailing right from Scotland to Scandinavian big hitters like Copenhagen and Stockholm, plus lesser-known Baltic delights such as Tallinn and Riga.

The Canaries remain top of holidaying Scots lists for obvious reasons with year-round warmth and great flight connections. I love all eight islands, especially when you delve beyond the veneer of the resorts.

These isles are alive with Scottish connections too as we’ve traded and worked down here for centuries. Look out for articles that open up Gran Canaria, Tenerife and Fuerteventura. Don’t worry, I’ll be covering mainland Spain too.

I’ll also be back in Italy. Did you know easyJet (www.easyjet.com) recently announced a direct flight to Catania in Sicily from Edinburgh? I’ll be taking that in autumn to explore the mystical isle on the bottom of Italy’s boot. From there I’m catching the train north to Naples, which gloriously rolls on to the ferry to hitch a ride across the Strait of Messina! Proper travelling.

I’ll also be taking my kids to another continent for the first time at Easter. We’re off to Istanbul, one of my favourite city break destinations, to wander the Grand Bazaar and catch a ferry between Europe and Asia. Turkey is popular as a sunshine escape for Scots too, so we’ll be hopping down to Antalya too to check out how this city resort shapes up.

My year should be a varied and intriguing one. I’ll be rediscovering some old favourites both at home and abroad. I’ll also be exploring other destinations that are new to me and no doubt booking more trips as the year unfolds. I realise I’m very lucky that my job allows me to visit so many fascinating places and one of the great joys of my job is sharing it with you.

So get your suitcase at the ready as we have some serious adventures lined up for 2023.