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Whilst the sun doesn’t have a daily routine, you’ll need certain conditions to be able to view them on planet earth and the Northern Lights are rarely visible outside of certain times. Cloud is the nemesis of Northern Lights spotters as they loom between the Northern Lights and us travel nerds. Many Northern Lights tourist destinations will run “Northern Lights Chaser” tours where essentially you sit on a bus and drive around trying to find a space without cloud. However, these tours can be expensive and won’t be able to guarantee seeing the Northern Lights.

We weren’t expecting a self-drive safari inside our B&B grounds, so what a way to start the safari holiday! We drove the rest of the pretty Garden Route towards Cape Town and arrived at Villa Elner just in time for a power cut, so we went in search of somewhere still open and found Old MacDaddy’s Barn for dinner. We drove to Tokara Winery for lunch (I was gutted not to be able to sample all the local wines), cruised along Chapman’s Peak Drive one of the most beautiful (and windy) passes in the world and watched the paragliders at sunset over Witsand Bay. The drive was smooth and Tim had identified which peak was Table Mountain (I was napping) until we found ourselves in the middle of a protest where people were burning tires the shanty town we were driving through, so we turned round and found a different way!

A state park covering 193 square kilometres where rugged landscapes and luscious Atlantic rainforest meet scenic beaches and crystal clear waters. We chose Vila Pedra Mar, an exclusive island villa, which offered us the perfect location on Ilha Grande and provided a luxurious but personal experience right on the edge of the rainforest. Each evening the owners invite you to come to the lounge area for traditional Caipirinhas (Brazil’s national cocktail) or local wine whilst they cook dinner (who doesn’t love a home cooked meal). We spent most of our time at the small beach a short walk away where we found the home tree (I love Avatar) and where the light transformed the landscape as the sun started to set.

The private estate is a hotel, bodega (winery) and restaurant that includes a full spa and Andean activities including biking, horse riding, winery tours, Argentinian Asados (BBQs) and archery lessons. We declined as we wanted to road trip our way back to Mendoza via the mountain passes but as the hotel is over an hour from Mendoza it is worth planning transport into your itinerary before arriving in Argentina. There are so many options that make you fall head over heels with this incredible place; friendly staff, amazing location, fabulous wines (and enjoyable wine tour), great activities such as horse riding and archery, nice sauna…. If you’d asked me before we arrived in Argentina for a lazy stereotype of a trip to Mendoza then I’d probably have said something along the lines of “riding on horseback through a vineyard at the foot of the snow-capped Andes mountains, setting up a BBQ and then eating steaks and drinking Malbec until the sun goes down before heading back to the ranch”.