Escape the rain in favour of an arid adventure. JAMES WEBB offers a guide to the best

BE  WARNED: deserts are a drug. Ask TE Lawrence or explorer Sir Wilfred Thesiger, or me. Ever since I sat on the fringes of the Sahara aged 18 and watched endless shooting stars etch incandescent trails across the skies, I have been addicted to the solitude, darkness and slight whiff of danger promised by the driest places on Earth. Nowhere shakes off the clinging damp of a British winter like a visit to an arid wilderness, so go wadi-bashing, meerkat-spotting or visit sites immortalised in film. Here's our guide to the desert hot spots.

DESERT DUNES
When Oscar-winning film director Anthony Minghella needed to shoot classic sand dunes for the opening scenes of The English Patient, he opted to film in Tunisia. When George Lucas required spooky valleys and parched plains for Star Wars, he did the same.

Tunisia's Sahara is endlessly varied, from stony canyons to thickets of date palm oases. At Ksar Ghilane Minghella filmed that great sea of undulating sand, the mesmerising ocean of erg dunes.

Wigmore Holidays (0208 994 1011/ www.aspectsoftunisia.co.uk) offers a seven-night Sahara tour from Djerba from £1,395pp (two sharing).

Price includes most meals and return flights from Heathrow to Djerba.

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DESERT WARRIOR
For many of us, deserts equal TE Lawrence but this enigmatic Englishman's greatest victory against the Ottoman Empire came not in Arabia but what is now Jordan.

He described the combination of multi-hued rocks and endless desert at Wadi Rum, his ad hoc HQ, as "vast and echoing and God-like" and said he would "sometimes clear my senses by a night in Rum". A Lawrence-like stay under the "cleansing" stars here is easily combined with the breathtaking desert city of Petra, another of his favourites.

On The Go Tours (0207 371 1113/ www.onthegotours.com) offers seven nights from £679pp (two sharing), B&B. Price includes two dinners. bmi (0844 848 4888/www.flybmi.com) offers return flights from Heathrow to Amman from £438.

DESERT ART
To really understand Australia's heritage and its peoples, you need to leave the comfort of its coastal cities and travel into the eerie and beguiling Red Centre. From Alice Springs, head out to sacred Uluru (Ayers Rock), with its caves and rock paintings. Move on to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas), 30 enormous, legend rich rocks that rise from the desert plain, before crossing stunning dunes. At spectacular Kings Canyon learn about the ancient Aboriginal art of dot-painting.

Camping under a vast canopy of stars will convince you of the never ending allure of the Outback.
Bridge & Wickers (0207 483 6555/ www.bridgeandwickers.co.uk) offers three nights from £482pp (two sharing), full board. British Airways (0844 493 0787/www.ba.com) offers return flights from Heathrow to Sydney from £816.

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DESERT DELUXE
Now the sheen has worn off its gold taps and glitzy malls, it's time to look beyond the skyscrapers to the real Dubai; it is a desert kingdom, after all. There are plenty of day trips and overnight excursions that offer dune driving, barbecues and belly dancers (see www.desertsafaridubai.com) but for the full-blown experience it's best to stay at the upmarket Al Maha Desert Resort & Spa, for exhilarating wadi-bashing (driving up dunes and down dry creeks), camel safaris and gazelle- and oryx-spotting and a little slice of the deluxe life in the wilderness.

Tropical Locations (0845 277 3310/ www.wandotravel.com) offers seven nights from £1,428pp (two sharing), B&B. Price includes return flights from Heathrow to Dubai.

DESERT SAFARI
The Kalahari is home not only to the threatened Bushmen but also a thriving animal population. This is the place for a desert safari, where you go to see springbok, giraffes, the bat-eared fox and the current superstars of the animal world, the meerkats.

You should also combine it with the Namib Desert, however, which strips away most living things (at least during the day) and leaves you with vast tracts of sand, including the highest dunes in the world.
 
Expert Africa (0208 232 9777/ www.expertafrica.com) offers 16-night tours from £2,403pp (two sharing). Price includes return flights from Heathrow to Windhoek, car hire and most meals.