Everyone's trying to find the Hot New Place – but sometimes they leave you cold

I’m often asked how I decide which cities, regions and countries to talk about in The Independent’s travel pages. The answer is complex

It’s that time of year again.

That time when publishers, tour agents, tour operators and hotel groups start throwing around predictions for the year ahead, telling everybody that some tiny island in the South Pacific/some city in China/some region you’ve never heard of is the Hot New Place. And you simply MUST visit!

As a travel editor, half my job is wading through the landfill to find the destinations and journeys that really sing. (The other half is actually travelling to them – sometimes.) I strongly believe that everywhere is worth going once, and you can find out so much more about a place by going there, talking to its residents and eating its food than you ever could hearing someone tell you about it. And wherever I go, I always read the local paper.