New year’s resolutions are a drag, aren’t they? We vow to exercise more... to cut down on the boozing... to start eating broccoli... to enjoy ourselves less.

Maybe it’s because we’re British and guilt-racked and puritanical, and we tend to look at new-year pledges from the wrong end of the telescope. So here’s a radical idea: forget self-flagellation and vow to do something really stunning in 2007. Cycle Everest, take up bog-snorkelling, tour Australia in the nude — or simply begin planning the holiday you’ve always dreamt about, but never got round to because you were busy working too hard, eating broccoli or exercising more.

To get your juices flowing, we’ve asked leading actors, writers and personalities to share their big travel wishes for the coming year — and found them the ideal trip to match. Perhaps something here will light the touchpaper on an A-list adventure of your own. But wherever you go next year, here’s to a happy, self-indulgent 2007.

Unless stated, all package prices include flights from London and transfers. Ask the operator for regional departure options

CAMERON DIAZ, actor
"All my favourite holidays are outdoors - walking through the trees, boating on a river, surfing. But snowboarding is the big thrill - I love speed. I love the skill of itm being able to go from the top of the hill to the bottom without ever touching the ground, and exploring that physicality. It's an adrenaline rush - out there with friends on a beautiful day. I wonder if there's somewhere I could snowboard and surf on the same trip?"

We suggest: not easy, but if Cameron times it right, New Zealand is the answer. Hit the dazzling Surf Highway 45, on North Island, in September or October and you can ride white water at New Plymouth and white snow on Mount Taranaki, the "Gliding Peak" of the Maori, on the same day. Taranaki Tours will zip you between the two, as well as laying on guides and equipment.

The Australasia specialist Turquoise Holidays (01494 678400, www.turquoiseholidays.co.uk) offers seven nights in September at the surfercentric Ahu Ahu Beach Villas, which are bang on the beach at New Plymouth, from £1,249pp, including car hire.

DARCEY BUSSELL, ballerina
“I want to cut down on flying to help the environment — I’d like to see long-haul flights carry an environment tax. So, instead of far-off shores, I’m hoping to take a sailing holiday with my husband and two young children around Sicily. I’ve sailed a bit before, and really enjoy it. We’d need a skipper, though.”

We suggest: that you charter your boat in Sant’Agata, on Sicily’s north coast, with one of the world’s great island-hopping adventures a short skim away. The Aeolian Islands aren’t named after the god of winds for nothing, and their speedy southwesterlies will whisk you to resorty Lipari, with its obsidian beaches and cracking archeology; Vulcano, with its therapeutic mud baths; and Stromboli, where a river of red lava flashes thrillingly off the sea at night. Nautilus Yachting (01732 867445, www.nautilus-yachting.com) has six-berth boats in April from £901 per week, excluding flights;for a skipper, add £90 per day, plus food.

RUFUS SEWELL, actor
“I really want to go to India, and for as long as possible — a proper big tour, just travelling, seeing, smelling, tasting. I’m not sure why I’m so keen on the idea: perhaps I’ll find myself there.”

We suggest: the search for self-knowledge is a slippery thing, but a good place to start might be Varanasi, the great Hindu pilgrimage city on the Ganges, where the most intimate rituals of life and death, from fertility ceremonies to cremations, are played out in public on the banks of the sacred river. If spiritual stimuli don’t work, Rufus could try natural wonderment, with a spot of wilderness trekking on the Singalila Ridge, in West Bengal, then a chance to stretch both body and mind at the Shreyas yoga retreat, near Bangalore. Colours of India (020 8343 3446, www.partnershiptravel.co.uk) can fix an 18-day itinerary taking in all three; from £3,565pp.

KATE WINSLET, actor
“My wish for 2007 is to holiday in Cornwall — again. I’ve been every year since I was born, and it wins hands down for me every time. If there’s anything new to see or do there this summer, I want to know about it.”

We suggest: the buzziest beach in Cornwall — sporty, sophisticated Watergate Bay — will get sexier still in 2007, with the launch of Beach Retreats (01637 861005, www.beachretreats.co.uk), a portfolio of beachside pads offering buckets of sea and sky, and style by the spadeful. Perfect, basically, for the escaping A-lister (and family). There’s ready access to watersports at the Extreme Academy and, if you desire it, a reserved table at the Jamie Oliver-inspired Fifteen Cornwall restaurant. A six-berth penthouse apartment in August goes for £1,750 per week.

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