The complete guide to 360 degrees of travel

000 GREENWICH, LONDON SE10, ENGLAND

GET YOUR BEARINGS

For centuries, the river Thames flowed with the blood of power. Henry VIII and Elizabeth I were born in a palace where the Royal Naval College now stands. England's first and greatest royal park was created here between the river and nearby Blackheath. Royalty chose Greenwich not for its natural elegance but because of its defensive situation: a hillside with commanding views over the Thames Estuary. At the brow of that slope stands the Royal Observatory, the key to world domination. Charles II commissioned Christopher Wren to build the Observatory to master time and space and extend England's grip on the world, a role sealed much later when it became the planet's Prime Meridian. These days mariners rely on satellite-based Global Positioning Systems to know they are on the Thames rather than the Tiber or the Tigris. But Greenwich remains the world's starting point. And that blot on the northern horizon, grazed by the zero-degree line? The Millennium Dome.

The observatory (020-8858 4422; www.rog.nmm.ac.uk) opens 10am-5pm daily, admission free.

010E HAMBURG, GERMANY

DON'T FEAR THE REEPERBAHN

The 10-degree line rips through Germany's most fascinating city. It bisects the Reeperbahn, the sleazy throughfare between brash central Hamburg and posh Altona, where the 20th century's greatest musical force took shape. The Beatles cut their teeth and grew their hair in Hamburg. But few traces remain of the not-yet-famous five (Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, plus drummer Pete Best and the ill-fated bassist Stu Sutcliffe), who in 1960 arrived in a city still scarred by war. Visit their old drinking haunt, the Gretel & Alphonse bar at number 29 Grosse Freiheit, now selling Lennon posters and McCartney T-shirts (sorry, Sir Paul: that should be McCartney T-shirts and Lennon posters).

Fly to Hamburg on Air Berlin (0870 73 88880; www.airberlin.com) from Stansted; British Airways (0845 77 333 77; www.ba.com) from Birmingham and Heathrow; and Lufthansa (08457 737 747; www.lufthansa.co.uk) from Heathrow, London City and Manchester.

020E CORFU, GREECE

SHORES OF GLORY

Thus Byron eulogised Corfu. A holiday brochure describes the resorts of Benitses and Perama, just south of Corfu Town, differently: "If peace and quiet are your requirement, you had better go elsewhere!" But continue down the island's east coast and you reach the tranquil village of Boukari, on the 20-degree east line of longitude. Pause, explore the hinterland and dine on fresh seafood, to become convinced that Corfu still possesses at least one shore of glory.

From May to October, plenty of tour operators offer inclusive holidays and charter flights to Corfu; out of season, fly with Alitalia (08705 448 259; www.alitalia.co.uk) via Milan or Rome to Brindisi, and take a ferry to Corfu.

030E PULKOVO AIRPORT, ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA

LED ASTRAY

LED is the official airport code for Russia's second city. Why not STP? Already taken by Holman Field, a minor airport in St Paul, Minnesota. So St Petersburg keeps the code acquired when it went by the name of Leningrad. That is not the only sign of the founder of the Soviet Union at Pulkovo airport. The arrivals hall is an exquisite piece of mid-20th century transport architecture, all marble wrapped in triumphal columns. Inside, a stirring mural shows Vladimir Illyich Lenin reviewing a display of paratroopers tumbling out of military aircraft (some of which were not built until long after his death in 1924). But the mural may not survive the current capitalist makeover of LED for the city's 300th anniversary. Incidentally, the story that the runway straddles the 30-degree line to make it easier for Soviet pilots to find is pure invention.

Aeroflot (020-7355 2233; www.aeroflot.co.uk) and BA (0845 77 333 77; www.ba.com) fly from LHR.

040E WATAMU, KENYA

OCEAN COLOUR SCENE

Unlike many of its neighbours on the Kenyan coast, Watamu has retained some fishing village charm. Despite the encroaching resorts, the place can still offer dazzling white beaches, superb coral reefs, coastal forest teeming with wildlife and a laid-back atmosphere. If you dive, go between October and March when visibility is at its best in the stunning Watamu Marine National Park. Alternatively, hire a glass-bottomed boat to take you to the Mida Creek caves and the mangrove forests, teeming with birdlife. Fly to Mombasa on a charter from Gatwick or Manchester. From Mombasa, buses bound for Malindi will drop you in Watamu. For diving, contact Ocean Sports (00 254 122 32008).

AL

050E DHAHRAN, SAUDI ARABIA

OILING THE WHEELS

Female? Under 40? You may visit this Western enclave (which was the US HQ in the Gulf War) only with your husband or a male relation.

060E ARAL SEA KAZAKHSTAN/UZBEKISTAN

THE TIDE IS LOW

The Aral Sea isn't tidal, so properly qualifies as a lake – and was once the fourth-largest lake in the world with fishing fleets landing 160 tons daily. Nowadays it boasts the forlorn fame of an ex-USSR ecological disaster-zone. A disastrous 1960s Kremlin scheme to grow cotton in Kazak deserts drained the Aral for irrigation. Plans to divert Siberian rivers to make up the shortfall came to nothing. Desert storms now pelt the area with the newly-exposed toxic salts, ruining crops and killing fish. It's not quite the Med.

Fly Uzbekistan Airlines to Tashkent; connect with a flight to the forlorn former port of Kziljar on what was once the lake's southern shore.

NMcG

070E KERGUELEN ISLAND

WOULD YOU ADAM AND YVES IT?

Forget Bermuda: the Kerguelen Triangle, where the Indian Ocean meets the Antarctic Polar Front, is even scarier. While Captain Cook was claiming Australia for England, the unfortunate Yves Joseph de Kerguélen-Trémarac was securing "La France Australe". After waxing lyrical to Louis XV about the lost continent he had found, he was sent back with 700 men to colonise the lonely, windswept island a little smaller than Corsica. His mutinous men brought him home, where he was sentenced to 20 years for fibbing (later reduced to six years). On Christmas Eve 1776, Captain Cook called in and named the territory "Isles of Desolation".

Vindication of a sort for the French explorer came in 1999, when a team from the University of Texas found that Kerguelen was, at least three times in the past 80 million years, a land mass several times the size of Texas. But not when Yves arrived. Today, it still bears his name – and a small French research station.

080E SRI LANKA

PEACE AT LAST?

Sixty-four thousand deaths later, the civil war that has wracked Sri Lanka for two decades may at last be at an end. If peace prevails in the new year, and the ceasefire between the Tamil Tigers and the government holds, travellers will at last be able to visit Jaffna, and the grand fort in this Tamil stronghold. Sri Lanka's ferry connection with India has been restored, and it is back on the backpack trail. Bentota Beach south of Colombo, is another alternative on the 80-degree line; swim alongside the fish that will later constitute your evening meal, then drift asleep to the hypnotic lapping of the Indian Ocean.

The only airline with direct flights from the UK is SriLankan (020-8538 2000; www.srilankan.lk)

090E BANGLADESH OR BHUTAN (NO 2)

GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS

One-quarter of the way around the globe from Greenwich, you could see what Holland was like 1,000 years ago by visiting the Mouths of the Ganges in Bangladesh – a web of waterways similar to the Rhine Delta in Holland a millennium ago, before the sea was harnessed. Or, if you are rich enough, head for the hills of Bhutan; this Himalayan kingdom is choosy about tourists, maintaining that Gross National Happiness is more important than GNP.

Himalayan Kingdoms (01453 844400; www.himalayankingdoms.com) runs a family trek in April; £3,250 for adults; under-12s pay £1,995.

100E KOH SAMUI, THAILAND

BEACHY HEDONISM

About the only form of entertainment not (yet) practised on Thailand's most perfect treasure island is hopping across the 100-east line of longitude. The Beach was set on a mythical island a couple of hops away, but for many travellers Koh Samui is as close to Shangri-La as makes no difference: warm water washing beaches where every grain of sand seems manufactured to a perfect specification. Inland the countryside is clad in aggressively verdant vegetation, which comes to life as day fades into night. Koh Samui has the added advantages of pizzas, massages and internet access (not recommended all at once), allowing you to irritate pals at home by e-mailing them about your indulgences.

A dozen airlines can fly you to Bangkok, for £500 return or less. Bangkok Airways (01293 596 626; www.bangkokair.com) flies on to Koh Samui.

110E THREE GORGES, YANGTZE RIVER, CHINA (NO 3)

GORGE YOURSELF

China's longest river is in full flow on its route to the sea, just north of Shanghai, when it reaches the 110-degree line of longitude – the middle of the dramatic 120-mile long Three Gorges, where cliffs rise to 1,000ft on either side. But get there in the next few months; the site is being flooded as part of a dam-building programme.

China Travel Service (020-7836 9911) has room on its Yangtze tours in May for £1,795-£1,995.

AL

120E RAVENSTHORPE, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

WOBBLY LINE

Just west of this town, population 400, is a longitude marker. But top billing is given to WA Standard Time rather than celebrating the location one-third of the way around the globe from the Prime Meridian. Worse, it has "a rubbish bin in front of it, which rather ruins the romance of time", says the Lonely Planet guide.

Fly to Perth on BA, Emirates, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Royal Brunei or Singapore Airlines; the present fares war means you can get there and back for less than £600.

130E BATHURST ISLAND, NT, AUSTRALIA

ABORIGINAL THINKING

Dramatic carved and painted pukumani burial poles are the artistic symbols of the Tiwi Islands – two large, low-lying islands about 50 miles north of Darwin in the Northern Territory. The 130-east line of longitude brushes past Bathurst, the smaller and more westerly of the two. The islanders' burial poles, bark carvings, pottery and batik are familiar works in galleries of Aboriginal art throughout Australia. In the 20th century the islands were also a centre for pearl diving. Today you can stay on Melville Island at the Munupi Wilderness Lodge, which boasts Australia's most northerly golf course, near the ruins of Fort Dundas – a British settlement established in 1824 and abandoned 18 months later.

Fly to Darwin on Qantas or Garuda. Tiwi Tours (00 61 88 924 1115) runs day trips from Darwin for about £100 including flights, lunch and, most important, the permits that are necessary to visit these restricted Aboriginal lands.

TW

140E TOKYO BAY, JAPAN

WILL THE EARTH MOVE FOR YOU?

Tokyo Disneyland, 20 years old in 2003, stands on the north shore of Tokyo Bay, exactly 140 degrees east of Greenwich. Few visitors, such as those in the raft clanking up the terraces of Splash Mountain for "the steepest, highest, wettest drop ever" will detect the odd tremor. But someone standing on one of the rare stretches of open shore along the bay may well feel the earth move. Just 12 miles beyond the mouth of Tokyo Bay, the Eurasian, Pacific and Philippines plates violently converge, occasionally sending a ripple of shock waves towards Mickey's Asian abode. Travel out to the end of the Izu or Boso peninsula, guarding Tokyo Bay, and you find stepped cliffs resembling the terraces of Splash Mountain. Each step signifies a big earthquake. Back at Disneyland, a runaway train hurtles down Big Thunder Mountain...

Nippon Airways, British Airways, Japan Airlines and Virgin Atlantic all fly daily between London Heathrow and Narita airport. Buses connect the airport with Tokyo Disneyland.

150E GREEN CAPE, NSW, AUSTRALIA

A WHALE OF A TIME

Green Cape marks the eastern end of Ben Boyd National Park in the Australian state of New South Wales, just north of the border with Victoria – and Disaster Bay. An 1883 lighthouse, the tallest in the state, stands at the end of the peninsula and the lighthouse keepers' cottages can be rented out. The park takes its name from Ben Boyd, a London stockbroker turned Pacific adventurer who suffered disastrous business dealings in the 1840s before disappearing without trace precisely 10 degrees east of Green Cape – off Guadalcanal in the Solomons (see below).

The northern boundary of the park is formed by Twofold Bay. Until 1930 a whaling station operated here. Remarkably, the whalers formed an unholy pact with a pack of killer whales, which herded their larger brethren in to the bay to be slaughtered by the whalers. They were paid off with the lips and tongues of the whales they had helped kill. The Killer Whale Museum in nearby Eden preserves the skeleton of Old Tom, the leader of this band of opportunistic orcas.

Fly to Melbourne and drive east to Green Cape.

TW

160E GUADALCANAL, SOLOMON ISLANDS

THE PACIFIC FRONTLINE

Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands, stands on Guadalcanal, the most important island in the group. Just north of here, straddling the 160-degree line, is Iron Bottom Sound. The name is simple and descriptive. A huge number of Allied and Japanese warships and aircraft carpet the bottom of the sound, marking the site where Japan's Pacific advance ground to a bloody halt during the Second World War. The Japanese commander Admiral Tanaka summed up the defeat: "On that insignificant shore, inhabited only by islanders, Japan's doom was sealed."

Clear water, exotic marine life and the huge variety of sunken vessels and aircraft make this one of the Pacific's prime scuba-diving sites. Unfortunately the unrest that has wracked the Solomons for the past several years has comprehensively down-sized the island's tourist business, and the cyclone that swept through the islands this week will have wrought more harm.

Fly to Honiara on Air Pacific (via Los Angeles).

TW

170E FOX GLACIER, SOUTH ISLAND, NEW ZEALAND

MINT CONDITION

On the west coast of New Zealand's South Island, the Fox Glacier stretches down to within a few miles of the sea. Nowhere else in the world can you find ice tumbling into a sub-tropical forest running down to the coast. Tourism around the glacier has been popular for long enough to reveal how, a century ago, the glacier got much closer to the water. The steady retreat of the ice, was interrupted only for a 10-year interlude from 1985 when it advanced again by almost a mile. Like almost everywhere else in New Zealand the glacier offers a vast array of possible activities – walking, sky diving, glacier hiking, ice climbing. Best of all, for about £80 take a helicopter up to land on the glacier and take a stroll across the ice. The walk around Lake Matheson is a more leisurely, and cheaper, alternative, with reflections of Mount Tasman and Mount Cook on the lake's often mirror-smooth surface.

Fly on Air New Zealand via Auckland

TW

180 TAVEUNI, FIJI (NO 4)

DATELINE: THE DATE LINE

Much frantic shifting of time zones took place in the build-up to the new millennium as Pacific nations vied with each other to claim to be the first place to welcome the new century. But Taveuni is the place to straddle the 180-degree line, which marks the International Date Line, and put one foot 24 hours away from the other. The smallest and easternmost of Fiji's three major islands, Taveuni is relatively unspoilt. In an island nation where the diving is pretty spectacular wherever you go, it is one of the very best locations; Rainbow Reef is aptly named. Birdwatching is another attraction; the mongoose (which arrived with Fiji's Indian immigrants) and devastated local bird populations did not make it to Taveuni. The island's biggest town, Waiyevo, is close to the date line; there's a Meridian sign near the Wairiki Catholic Mission.

Fly on Air New Zealand via Los Angeles.

TW

170W UELEN, RUSSIA

NO THROUGH ROAD

The world's biggest country began almost a hemisphere ago, at the Gulf of Danzig (19 degrees east). Russia reaches out to the 170-degree west line before collapsing into the Bering Strait. The land bridge that once existed here allowed the Americas to be populated. Nothing so exciting has happened in the bleak city of Uelen for about 40,000 years.

160W ROSS ICE SHELF, ANTARCTICA

ON THE ROCKS

Like France, the shelf discovered in 1841 by James Clark Ross has an area of 200,000 square miles; unlike France, it comprises a half-mile thick slab of ice, the largest ice shelf in the world. Ross's ship was the Erebus, a name assigned to the world's southernmost volcano, close to the ice shelf; an Air New Zealand jet crashed into it in 1979, in that country's worst disaster.

150W ANCHORAGE, ALASKA (NO 5)

WHAT SHOCKED MICHELLE?

On Good Friday, 1964, Alaska's largest city suffered the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in North America. Two things will draw this to your attention: the spiritless modern architecture that characterises Anchorage, and the presence – north of the airport, beyond Northern Lights Boulevard – of Earthquake Park. Here you discover just how seismically unreliable is the southern coast of Alaska, in a series of sombre relics from the Richter 9.2 event when not everything was anchored down in Anchorage.

Getting there: with no more direct UK-Alaska flights, the best access points from Britain are Chicago, Minneapolis and Seattle.

140W THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS, FRENCH POLYNESIA

SOUTH PACIFIC

The most remote archipelago on earth? Possibly this scattering of French Polynesia, just south of the equator. Come here for lush, flower-filled forest, brooding volcanoes and solitude; only six of the 12 are inhabited.

Air Tahiti flies to Nuku Hiva, the capital.

AL

130W PRINCE RUPERT, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA

CITY OF RAINBOWS

"See what it's like in Prince Rupert today", invites the civic website, but the webcam appears to have been disabled on the grounds of meteorological tedium. This ramshackle port likes to call itself "the city of rainbows"; I saw only rain. There are two good reasons to come to Canada's end of the line; neither is this damp and dismal outpost. They are the ferries heading south to Vancouver Island and north to Alaska, each a dazzling voyage of discovery.

Fly to Prince Rupert via Vancouver.

120W LAKE TAHOE, CALIFORNIA/NEVADA, US

PURE WATER

Long before the eastern shore of this tear-shaped lake was spoilt by gambling, the southern waterside – one-third of the way west from Greenwich – was the Californian's retreat of choice when the coast overheated. Remnants of the grand old summer houses still survive. You can waft between them on a network of footpaths and cycle tracks, study the touristic archaeology, then check into a cheap motel on the Nevada strip.

Fly from the UK to Chicago, San Francisco or Los Angeles, and take a domestic flight to Reno.

110W ALBERTA-SASKATCHEWAN PROVINCIAL FRONTIER, CANADA

GEOMETRY, NOT GEOGRAPHY

In most of the world, borders are chosen by natural selection, such as the presence of rivers or mountain ridges. But in North America geometry, not geography, often carves up the land. Still, the boundary sign gives you something to look at as you rumble past on the Trans-Canada Highway (the world's longest road in a single country), 200 miles short of Calgary – and scenery.

100W PAN-AMERICAN HIGHWAY, MEXICO

MADE-UP ROAD

The world's longest road is the Pan-American Highway, from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego – though it is an artificial construct consisting of existing roads, with the Darien Gap turning it into a couple of culs-de-sac. Still, the stretch between the Texas border at Laredo and Mexico's capital shadows the 100-degree line, and includes superb scenery punctuated by drowsy towns.

090W MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE (NO 6)

RIVER OF TEARS

The mighty Mississippi sticks affectionately close to the 90-degree line of longitude, from the "gateway to the West" at St Louis to the Mississippi Delta at New Orleans. The quadrant cuts through the world's unchallenged musical meridian in Tennessee: where the blues began, on Beale Street, and Elvis ended, at Graceland.

Travel to Memphis via the soul city of Detroit.

080W TRINIDAD, CUBA

CHE HELLO, WAVE GOODBYE

At the end of his wanderings, and 30 years after his death in Bolivia, Che Guevara was finally interred on the 80-degree line in the "hero city" of Santa Clara, where he fought the decisive victory in Cuba's revolution. Forty-four years later, much more attention is paid to the exquisite town of Trinidad, 30 miles due south across the mountains. The Spanish sugar barons built grand villas and mansions; Cuba's communists now reap the benefits from the tourist trade.

Fly to Havana from Gatwick on Cubana or from Heathrow on Air Jamaica.

070W PUNO, LAKE TITICACA (NO 7)

BLEAKEST PERU

Few places in the world are so bleakly beautiful as Titicaca, the planet's highest navigable lake. Puno, on the Peruvian side of the lake, is Titicaca's main port – hardly a full-time role given the paucity of shipping, but a good base for exploring the scattering of populated islands and the Altiplano. And you can pick up a lovely alpaca jumper here.

Fly via Rio or Sao Paulo to La Paz, and catch a bus across the border to Puno.

060W CAPE BRETON ISLAND, CANADA

NO HARBOUR, NO BRIDGE

North America stretches across exactly half the northern hemisphere, from the Aleutian Islands to north-east Greenland. One of its easternmost fragments is this chunk of Canada. Nobody had heard of Cape Breton Island until 2002, when the Internet Two turned up; this unfortunate pair of students thought they had booked online flights to Sydney Australia, only to find they were in the city's namesake in Nova Scotia.

Fly on Air Canada from Heathrow via Halifax.

050W ILHA DE MARAJO, AMAZON, BRAZIL

SWISS ROLE

This shifting archipelago is the size of Switzerland. One reason no one has been there is that it sits in northern Brazil, at the mouth of the Amazon. But the island combines forest, mangroves, beautiful beaches and arid plains. Boats leave from the city of Belem early each morning.

AL

040W ESPIRITU SANTO, NORTH-EAST BRAZIL

HIGH SPIRITS

Some of South America's finest and most unspoilt beaches are in this small province, through which the 40-degree line cuts. However, the interior is most rewarding: steep hills and lush valleys have made it difficult for development, so leaving large unspoiled tracts of Atlantic forest.

Fly to the state capital Vitoria for £608, with South American Experience (020-7976 5511).

030W SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS

SLICE OF LIFE

Looking for that exclusive island getaway? Try the South Sandwich Islands, where access is by application only. These rocky outcrops lie 400 miles south-east of South Georgia (see page 1 of this section), which means a cold, wet climate plus penguins, seabirds and lichen.

To apply for access call 00 500 27433 or visit www.sgssi.com. For information on Antarctic cruises call Noble Caledonia on 020-7752 0000.

020W ICELAND

LAND OF ICE

Langjökull, Iceland's second-largest ice cap, is a Surrey-sized glacier in the country's western wilderness, best visited as part of a snowmobile tour (00 354 435 1550). Go on a clear day for the spectacular views – and then ski back down.

Icelandair (08457 581 111; www.icelandair.co.uk) flies from Heathrow and Glasgow to Reykjavik.

010W ACHILL ISLAND, CO MAYO, IRELAND

KNOCK THREE TIMES

If you must go down to the sea again, head for Achill Island in County Mayo for windswept beaches and deserted villages. For first-class seafood, pay a visit in July when the Achill Seafood Festival is in full swing. For the first time this year, the closest airport to Achill, Knock, will be served by three different airlines.

Knock is served from Stansted by Ryanair (0871 246 0000; www.ryan air.com), from Birmingham on MyTravelLite (08701 564 564; www.mytravellite.com) and from Manchester by British Airways (0845 77 333 77; www.ba.com).

000 CLEETHORPES

THE LAST RESORT

This circumnavigation includes contributions from Lieutenant Alice Lascelles (AL), Captain Neil McGowan (NMcG) and Commander Tony Wheeler of the Pacific Fleet (TW). Alternative locations on the lines of longitude are welcomed; please e-mail travel@independent.co.uk