Getting the flavour of...

The volcanic spectacle in Iceland
Travellers were cursing the Icelandic volcano whose ash grounded all UK flights this week - but for a lucky few, the same volcano had supplied "the best fireworks display" ever, says Tom Robbins in The Guardian. In mid- March, farmers were evacuated when the volcano erupted for the first time since 1821 - 1823. The fear was of the lava melting the ice, triggering floods. When these failed to appear, the farmers returned - and tourists followed. Local operators began running helicopter trips onto the blackened ice, enabling visitors to get within 500 metres of the fiery crater. The spectacle is "mesmerising", but even more "thrilling and unexpected" is the sound, as lava explodes 100 metres into the air before crashing back to earth. Discover the World (01737- 218809; www.dhcover-the-warld.coMk) specialises in volcano tours to Iceland.


Surprising Monaco
Monaco has earned a reputation as "a high-rise ghetto for tax-avoiders, zillionaire security obsessives, a comic-opera royal family and all the glamour that is Roger Moore". But there's no point being sniffy about this "pint-sized" principality, says Anthony Peregrine in The Daily Telegraph. Nowhere else in Europe will you find Mich wealth on such extravagant - and "engrossing" - display. The piece de
resistance is Place du Casino in Monte Carlo, with its posh shops and ornate facades, hut there are rewards wherever you wander in the "tangle" of streets and stairways that "crank Monaco up the mountain" from the sea. At the top is the Jardin Exotique, "so full of desert exotica it's like a vertical New Mexico" with amazing views. Kirker (020-7593 2283; tuivtv.kirkerholidays.com) has two nights' b&b at the four-star Columbus Hotel from £628, inch flights and helicopter transfer back to Nice.


Modern art and history in Lewes
Behind its "cool, courteous Georgian facades", the Sussex town of Lewes is a place of dizzying vitality, says Kate Quill in The Times. Wandering its "irregular, twisting" streets, there's always "something tugging at your sleeve" - from beautiful historic buildings (a Norman castle, a house Henry VIII gave to Anne of Cleves, a 16th-century hotel) to galleries, "funky cafes", antique shops, artists' co-operatives and several "superb" second-hand bookshops. The latter seem like a fitting tribute to the town's most celebrated inhabitant, the 18th century pamphleteer and revolutionary Thomas Paine, whose "modest" house you can still see today. Pelham House hotel (01273-488600; www. pelhatnhouse.com) has doubles from £145.