Osaka
Rather serendipitously, Gary Neville, Paul Scholes and David Beckham will find themselves playing one of their crucial World Cup 2002 "group of death" games - against Nigeria - next June in the city that is regarded by many well-travelled British as the Manchester of Japan.
Osaka may not be quite as big or cosmopolitan as Tokyo (its population is around 2.5million and the Nagai Stadium, where the games will be played, holds a mere 45,409 people, so it's much smaller than Old Trafford), but from the second the lads start their descent into Kansai International Airport, which has been built on land, reclaimed from the sea and offers one of the most spectacular, white-knuckle landing/take-off experiences on the planet, they will be in for a bit of a treat.
According to Sean Dixon, director of the Savile Row tailor Richard James, and a regular visitor to the city, keen fashionista Beckham will find plenty of retail therapy opportunities here. "Osaka is a brilliant place, a bit more raw than Tokyo, but less frantic and overwhelming," he says. "I think the shopping is better than Tokyo, too. The department stores are amazing."
Its busy port means that it offers easy access to the many beautiful, secluded islands off the mainland coast (one of which, it is rumored, will be base-camp for the England team during their World Cup campaign).
If Sven gives them any time off, we recommend our boys avoid the city's specialty cuisine (eel) and instead visit the brand new Universal Studios Theme Park, the towering ferris wheel in the HEP Five district and the 170m-high Garden Observatory. Also essential is a session on the hypnotic "pachinko" machines. This stress-relieving version of bagatelle is a city-wide obsession with arcades devoted to it on every corner of the city.
"It's not the sort of place where you find boutique hotels and trendy bars, says restaurateur Oliver Peyton. "Osaka is well laid out, much less confusing than Tokyo."
Which means, at least, in the unlikely event that Teddy Sheringham and co should attempt to replicate the drunken "dentist's chair" bacchanal of the last World Cup, they should be able to find their way back to the hotel.
Getting there: Japan Airlines (08457 747 700, jal-europe.com) flies to Osaka daily from Heathrow. The return fare in June is from £740.
Cape Town
Once regarded as a global pariah, 21st-century South Africa is on an anxious mission to prove itself as a freethinking "rainbow state" and establish its credentials as a rapidly developing and responsible global citizen. This spirit of change is best reflected in cosmopolitan Cape Town.
And few cities have such a dramatic setting as Cape Town. Situated at the tip of the rugged Cape Peninsula with the imposing Table Mountain looming over the downtown areas and Atlantic seaboard, virtually every view here is a worthy of a postcard. With every passing winter, South Africa's first city is becoming an increasingly popular stop-off for the international jet set. There is plenty of sybaritic accommodation on offer, too. When they visited Cape Town in 1998, Bill and Hilary Clinton stayed at the exclusive Cape Grace hotel on the upmarket V&A Waterfront, but the fashion crowd prefer to rent a house in the more ritzy Camps Bay district or book a room at the Mount Nelson Hotel.
Safari park entrepreneur Damien Aspinall and his TV presenter girlfriend Donna Air have a sprawling colonial house in the Camps Bay area, which plays host to the likes of impish nightclub entrepreneur Piers Adam, co-owner of London's Stork Rooms, who also likes to take a winter house in the area. "I like Cape Town for four reasons." says Adam. "The food is fantastic, the air is top quality, it's unbelievably cheap and because there's only one hour's time difference from GMT, you don't get jet lag when you fly back."
The towns and countryside around Cape Town are worth a mention, too. The cruise along the R310 through the Helshoogte Pass between Stellenbosch and Paarl is one of the best drives in Africa while a day trip to the spectacularly lush Winelands area (SA's equivalent of Napa Valley), which surround Stellenbosch, 46km east of Cape Town, is also recommended. The rand, at over 16 to the pound now, goes a long way.
Getting there: South African Airways (0870 747 1111, flysaa.com) flies London to Cape Town from £555 plus tax, British Airways (0845 7733377, britishairways.com) from £564. A superior room at the Mount Nelson Hotel costs from 2,770 rand (book through Leading Hotels of the World, 0800 181123, lhw.com).
Forte dei Marmi
Ever since the 1960s, Forte dei Marmi has been perennially fashionable with the stylishly cashed-up villeggianti - those privileged Italians from Florence and Milan who can afford to spend an annual, month-long holiday away from the city. This is where Muiccia Prada, Giorgio Armani, Paul Smith and the Agnellis have holiday homes.
Now it is also becoming trendy with Brits looking for an alternative to the increasingly tarnished lustre of St Tropez. Wallpaper* editor Tyler Brûlé takes a house here each September, while Paul Smith makes an annual visit.
Forte dei Marmi's major USP is its beach. No pathetic ribbon of sand here - it is absolutely massive, wide and very handsome, more Californian than Tuscan with waves swell enough for surfers. Imagine a European equivalent of Rio's Copacabana - the Eurocabana, if you will - and you won't be too wide of the mark. There are 96 beach clubs - every single one of them designed to evoke perfect (if rather expensive) horizontal dilatoriness.
The fashion photographer Tony McGee books into the grand but pleasantly faded Hotel Augustus during high season and uses the Bagno Augustus beach club. "It's great for kids," says McGee. "The water is shallow for about 100 yards out to sea and there is a lifeguard every 30 or so feet."
Last summer, Forte dei Marmi's flash burned even brighter when rakish playboy Flavio Briatore, manager of the Renault Formula One team and constant darling of the Italian gossip mags, took over the Twiga beach club and transformed it into a rather fabulous (if a tad preposterous) Moroccan fantasy.
Naomi Campbell and Jaoquín Cortéz have already visited. Down the road is La Cappannina, Forte's most famous drinking and dancing establishment which claims to have invented the Negroni aperitif for Count Negroni.
The setting is unarguably spectacular - with panoramic views of the soaring Apuan mountains - but the Mussolini-built town might be a bit Wallpaper* for some people. If you are the kind of person who appreciates the Italians' carefully-honed talent for languidly regimented, professional vacationing, Forte dei Marmi will not disappoint.
Getting there: Exclusive Destinations (01892 619650, exclusiveworldwide.com) offer one week's half board at the Augustus, including flights and seven days' car hire from £860 to £1,295pp.
Isles of Scilly
It's not often that you can trot out that old cliché "best kept secret" with any real integrity, but the Isles of Scilly, just 28 miles from Land's End in the south-west corner of the UK, appear to be just that; the most idyllic, truly exclusive and underrated vacation destination in the UK.
The complete archipelago of islands actually number more than 100, the vast majority of them uninhabited, forming a eerily beautiful, jagged seascape when viewed from the main and sparselypopulated islands of St Mary's, St Agnes and Tresco - the second largest but the smartest of the set.
As the smattering of Tresco locals will tell you (there are actually only around 2,000 in total on all the islands), life is just like it was 50 years ago - no cars, no crowds, no neon lights, no crime, no noise, just peace and tranquility, four miles of silver sand beaches and the sound of bird-song.
Tresco is like a micro-climatised fantasy island - imagine Swallows & Amazons rewritten by Robert Louis Stevenson and Enid Blyton and you'll start to get the picture - exotic plants, jade-coloured seas, magnificent views, the world-famous sub-tropical Abbey Gardens and the semi-legendary Island Hotel.
The photographer Rankin and his mate Jude Law took their respective sons to Tresco during a tour of Scilly last summer. "I actually don't like to tell people about Scilly because it is so beautiful, so tranquil and unspoiled and I don't want hoards of people coming down and spoiling it," says Rankin. "Although, it actually doesn't matter because there are only a certain amount of beds on the islands and once they are full up - and they often are - that's it."
You'd better start booking now for the summer, such is the demand, and you'd best behave yourself - back in the 12th century they beheaded 112 marauding pirates in one long, bloody session.
Tresco is privately owned by the Dorrien Smith family, the present owner being Robert Dorrien Smith who has opened up the island's very own "garden heliport", so the only choppers you'll find here now belong to Britain's first scheduled helicopter service.
Getting there: from £93 nightly B&B per person at the Island Hotel (01720 422883) or £62 at New Inn (01720 422844). Travel by rail to Penzance, followed by 20-minute helicopter flight from £92 return. tresco.co.uk.
Mexico City
With Buenos Aires in the throes of devastating instability, travellers are turning instead to Mexico City for their annual Americas fix.
Mexico City claims to be the largest city in the world. It is huge, a shamble of elegantly haphazard urban sprawl stretching as far as the eye can see - a city which is truly the muggy soul of Mexico itself. But Mexico City is not all tacos and mariachi bands. The upscale district of Polanco contains stylish shops, restaurants and plush hotels while the city's coolest bar is on the roof of the new minimalist boutique inn the Habitat hotel, and offers great views.
For a more relaxed eating and drinking atmosphere, try La Valentina, in the colonial district of San Angel, which you can enjoy after your Saturday trawl through the arts and antique bazaar. On Sundays, you can go to the floating gardens of Xochimilco and watch Mexican families relaxing with mariachi music. If you still find yourself with energy to spare, Zona Rosa has numerous restaurants, bars and nightclubs.
With the release of the long-awaited Frida Kahlo biopic planned for 2002, focus is likely to be on the Mexico's rich art heritage, so you should check out the Palacio Nacional which houses the murals of Diego Rivera. If you want to get to the heart of Kahlo's inspiration, you'll have to drive to Coyoacan, five miles from the city centre, an attractive colonial-era suburb noted for its fine old mansions and cobbled stone streets, where you'll find the Museum of Frida Kahlo - the original house that she and Rivera shared.
Don't worry, the cab rides are cheap and charming - mostly old VW Beetles. A friend reported back last year that one cabbie, on discovering that his fare was English, actually replied jubilantly "Bobby Charlton!" And if that doesn't make you want to go, nothing will.
Getting there: Cox & Kings (020-7873 5000, coxandkings.co.uk) is offering a luxury five-night break to Mexico City for £895pp valid from departures between January 11 to March 18.
