Like most of us, a good deal of my life was spent hostage to a mortgage. In 2004, at age 47, I realised that there was more to life, got my first passport, and began working hard to fill it up.

One consequence is that nowadays people frequently ask me “So what’s your favourite destination?” I find this difficult to answer. The world is such a diverse place. Less so than it was a few decades ago, granted, but diverse nevertheless. It has so much to offer. Saint Augustine’s famous quote is getting a little hackneyed these days, but it’s still just as true: The world is a book, and those who don’t travel read only one page.

So rather than just give people a vacant look when they pop the question, I thought I might arm myself with this book, which endeavours to respond in a structured way. It may cause some to come to regret their polite curiosity, but at least it will go some way towards answering the question.

This is the second edition of this book: January 2016. I’ve now travelled a good deal further, and have exercised my prerogative to change my mind on a few things. And I’m still travelling, so I suspect that it will be out of date again before long. Who knows? Perhaps I’ll update it again.