If watching the sunrise from atop a 10,000-foot volcano, swimming under waterfalls, hiking through craters and luxuriating on white-, red- and even black-sand beaches sounds like paradise, then Maui awaits.

A gorgeous backdrop of pine-clad mountains looms behind the seaside resort of Marmaris in southwest Turkey. Popular as a cruise ship and yacht port and with the British budget holiday crowd, Marmaris offers an abundance of fast food restaurants, the restored castle of Suleyman the Magnificent and an appealing cobblestoned old quarter.

Luxury resorts rub elbows with backpacker accommodations on the Thai island of Ko Samui, a 15-mile-long palm-covered tropical oasis located off the country's east coast.

The "joie de vivre" is palpable and contagious in this vibrant, culturally diverse and cosmopolitan city of two million inhabitants.