Where the stars are heading on holiday in 2025: From Sydney to Sicily and Cape Town to Cornwall, these household names reveal where they’re heading and how you can follow in their footsteps

January is traditionally the month when holiday bookings boom – partly because it can be the gloomiest time of year here in the UK, and also because travel companies release some of their most enticing offers. We all need something positive to get in the diary. So get inspired by this selection of how the stars holiday.

Opera singer Danielle de Niese

I’m looking forward to skiing with my family, most likely in the Dolomites. I’m not a great skier, but I will cheer our kids on as they hit the slopes.

I am also playing Carmen for the first time at the Sydney Opera House this summer. I’ll be taking my daughter with me, and my son and hubby Gus will be joining us once school lets out.

I’m sure we’ll squeeze in some sightseeing, and we hope to go to the Blue Mountains as well.

How to do it: Seven nights at Garni Romantica guesthouse in the Italian Dolomite resort of Selva Val Gardena from £516pp including flights and transfers in March (igluski.com).

Actor Peter Egan

Later this month I will visit the Libearty Bear Sanctuary in the foothills of Romania’s Carpathians.

I am a supporter of the charity, which is home to around 200 large brown bears and offers excellent guided tours.

Closer to home, I plan to revisit Margate where I holidayed with my family as a boy in the 1950s – I can still picture my dad sitting in a deck chair on the beach with his braces and hat with his pants rolled up.

How to do it: Return flights from Stansted to Brasov, the nearest airport to Libearty Bear Sanctuary, from £165 in April (wizzair.com).

Countdown star Susie Dent

I am determined to return to Connemara in County Galway, on the west coast of Ireland, which I first visited in my 20s.

There is a brutal beauty to the area that moves from lunar landscape to rolling hills and swamps, before hitting the vast Atlantic ocean.

The mara of Connemara is the Irish name for ‘of the sea’, and it is a place to blow away the cobwebs.

How to do it: Stansted return flights to Shannon, on Ireland’s west coast, from £48 return in May (ryanair.com).

BBC Special Correspondent Fergal Keane

I am planning a big trip to South Africa with my two sons, now in their 20s, later in the year to revisit places that hold happy memories of my past.

We are going to hire a car and drive to Keurbooms River on the Garden Route. There is a beach overlooking the Veldt Atlantic Ocean where you have the most amazing sense of space – and I will introduce them to the Cape’s magnificent seafood.

Then we drive through the Northern Cape to Etosha National Park in Namibia which has the most amazing wildlife, before ending our journey in Cape Town. It’s going to be quite an adventure.

How to do it: Heathrow-Cape Town return flights from £1,000 in April (ba.com); a week’s rental car from £125 from Cape Town airport (zestcarrental.com).

Author Joanne Harris

My husband and I would like to take the sleeper train to Syracuse in Sicily (via Paris and Venice on the way, and via Rome and Paris on the way back). We did it many years ago and want to retrace our steps.

We will visit Modica, famous for its chocolate, still made according to an ancient recipe, and see the lovely Sicilian coast, which is completely deserted out of season. I would also like to visit Etna, which I have never seen.

How to do it: Eurostar to Paris from £39 one way (eurostar.com); Paris-Milan, via Zurich, tickets from £111 one-way (raileurope.com); Milan-Syracuse from £63 one-way (italiarail.com).

Impressionist Alistair McGowan

I’m going to the Lot-et-Garonne in South-West France in the summer for a piano course – the first time I’ve traveled abroad since the first lockdown. I’m going to join a dozen or so other piano enthusiasts for a week.

We will receive expert instruction and talk about all things ‘piano’, but I’m sure there will also be some swimming and restaurant visits involved.

I will travel by train, via the Eurostar. I’m also looking forward to having a Flan Patissier – a delicious French custard tart pronounced ‘flon’. With luck, the trip will also improve my French.

How to do it: Eurostar to Paris from £39 one way (ryanair.com).

Former Boney M singer Liz Mitchell

I hope to visit the Caribbean and the USA this year – my husband is American -. I was born in Jamaica so it’s always special to go there.

I’ll most likely stay in Montego Bay, on the north coast, and eat ackee and saltfish, Jamaica’s national dish (there’s nothing like it) – but I’d also like to travel inland and visit the countryside where I spent my time . early years.

With luck we’ll also squeeze in a trip to Florida because the grandkids love Disneyworld. When I finally retire, my dream is to do a Caribbean cruise.

How to do it: Seven nights at Catalonia Montego Bay hotel from £1,835pp all inclusive, including return Gatwick flights in February (tui.co.uk).

Thriller writer Gerald Seymour

I’ve filled three passports in my lifetime, but having just celebrated my 83rd birthday, I’m happy to revisit favorite places in Britain.

So my wife and I are planning a meander around the north and south coasts of Devon and Cornwall in late spring.

We want to watch the sea break on those amazing cliffs and see porpoises and dolphins from the cliffs – and if it rains a little we have waterproof clothes so we won’t drown.

Having accommodation means we will also be able to take our beloved black Labrador, Poppy, with us.

How to do it: A week’s hire car from Exeter from £204 in April (zestcar rental.com).