It’s showtime in Andalucía! How I found my voice on a musical theatre retreat

With tuition from West End pros, this week-long singing break in southern Spain hits all the right notes

From DJing and folk to songwriting and salsa: 10 of the best music and singing holidays

Combine beautiful locations with musical creativity on these perfectly pitched learning breaks from Somerset to Marrakech

‘The soul of Irish traditional music’: a musical journey through County Clare

Ireland’s west coast is home to a flourishing live music scene, with the pubs and music festivals attracting world-class players

‘This is not a wellness retreat’: four days on an Australian wilderness survival course

With help from Gordon Dedman, a consultant on Alone Australia, Rafqa Touma learns how to survive in the wild

‘Beautiful locations to learn in’: readers’ favourite creative breaks

Photography, writing, painting and music learning holidays have all ignited our readers’ creative spark, at retreats from Snowdonia to Sicily

Look east: an exhilarating weekend in London’s new cultural quarter

The opening of the V&A Storehouse and Sadler’s Wells East mark the transformation of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park into an exciting new creative hub for the capital

Stand up too early when your plane lands? That’ll be £50, please

Turkey is trying to deter people from queue-jumping when disembarking an aeroplane. But is it a worse crime than reclining your seat?

‘Five-star Exmoor views for £15 a night’: a bothy-to-bothy walk along the North Devon coast

The South West Coast Path and the Coleridge Way link National Trust bothies, pubs and sea cliffs on an exhilarating three-day walk

Lead on, Macduff: how the tide turned for Aberdeenshire’s art deco lido

The pavilion at Tarlair lido, on the coast outside Macduff, has reopened after a decade-long restoration campaign. Now swimmers await the whistle to hit the pools again

Share a tip on a summer holiday in the mountains

Tell us about your favourite summer break in Europe’s mountains – the best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays break

In the company of wolves … and Romans: hiking Portugal’s only national park

You won’t see legions of tourists on this trail in Peneda-Gerês, first blazed by ancient imperial invaders – but it’s just possible you’ll see a lone wolf

20 of the UK’s best gardens to visit

From a castle in Cumbria to a subtropical paradise in Cornwall, these are some of the top unsung gardens across the country

‘A gardener’s dream itinerary’: a tour of Carmarthenshire, the Garden of Wales

A road trip is the perfect way to explore the county’s horticultural highlights, with great places to eat, drink and stay en route

‘The scent of damp earth, the hum of bees and treasures in every border’: readers’ favourite UK gardens

Our tipsters discover rainforests, rare flowers blazing with colour and the finest tea and cake

How a dawn chorus break in Gloucestershire opened my ears to the birds

I’m partially sighted so birding has always felt out of reach for me. But a stay at Slimbridge wetlands centre learning to identify bird song helped me connect with nature