Where's hot for 2008

We asked 10 experts to give us their predictions for next year's hottest destinations ...

Go there now ... Isfahan, Iran, the the jewel of the Islamic world with its stunning Sheikh Lotfollah mosque

Photograph: Kazuyoshi Nomachi/Corbis

Emerging: Isfahan (or Esfahan), Iran

Isfahan's mist-blue mosaics flash in the desert, and on more adventurous travellers' itineraries. The city is the jewel of the Islamic world. On summer evenings families picnic along its riverbank, women loosening cumbersome chadors, offering a glimpse of red hem or tight denim. At its heart is the pale-domed Sheikh Lotfollah mosque, the most beautiful building on the planet. In no other man-made place have I felt a greater sense of serenity.

· Way to go: The Iranian embassy can be slow to issue travel visas. Agencies such as Links to Persia (020-7559 9600) can arrange a one-month visa for £168. BMI flies Heathrow-Tehran, but code shares the route with British Airways, from £468.70 rtn.

· Rory MacLean is author of Magic Bus: On the Hippie Trail from Istanbul to India (Penguin)