Good evening

“Pull up a chair outside Chez Yassine; order a steaming, spicy leblebi (chickpea stew) and a bottle of thick house lemonade; watch it all unfold. Watch Marseille seethe and teem and toil under a huge southern sun.”

It’s a vivid, colour-saturated postcard from a summer stay on the Med, and this “miracle of cities” clearly made a huge impression on writer James Gingell. Travel is all about creating memories, and this week we asked our writers to share their highlights of the year in the hope that they will inspire you to venture out next year.

“It’s the carpets of wildflowers that stick in my mind,” says Jane Dunford, who reminisces about a cycling trip in the Sierra de Aracena and Picos de Aroche natural park in Andalucía.

And, for Kevin Rushby, the train ride to Estonia, via Poland and Lithuania, was a revelation. “I broke through the ‘this takes too long’ apprehension and enjoyed every minute,” he says.

We also asked you, our readers, to tell us about your favourite discoveries, because word-of-mouth recommendations are very often the best. You didn’t disappoint. Fran told us about the Proustian “perfect pastry” she discovered in the Portuguese surfing town of Ericeira. And Danny shared a gem of a Balkan city in Kosovo. “Since visiting Prizren,” he says, “I’ve been thinking about when I’ll go back.”

We hope you share the enthusiasm of our writers and go on to make your own memories in the new year.

Happy holidays