It's a hard life living in a shrunken world that once brimmed with the chance to see new faces and places. Or so people keep telling me. Everywhere is supposed to be spoiled now. Spoiled for the locals and spoiled for the visitors. It's as if you might as well stay at home and just send your money instead.

Until recently I too felt this way, regretting that the places I used to enjoy had lost their charm. I have done a lot of travelling around the world since the 1970s, and it is true that, since then, the travel experience has changed hugely. Once, the world was your oyster; but now?

There were fads 20 years ago, much as there are fads now. The Seychelles had already come and gone, so to speak. Sri Lanka was just starting to happen, only to see its budding tourist industry hit by the civil war a couple of years later. Bali and Kenya, too, were taking off, but no one was thinking about Vietnam and Laos, and even Thailand and Malaysia were not on most travellers' visiting lists.

But the favourites of the old hippie trail of the 1960s and 1970s were still pulling in an ever-ageing tourist population of former hippies - in particular Kathmandu, Goa, Lake Toba in Sumatra and Jogjakarta in Java. Later there would be Koh Phangan in Thailand. But if the places to go were changing, so were the types who went there. In Bali, the hippies gave way to the surfies, who also took over the town of Jaco on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.

Where you go depends a lot on your age and your income. Places that pulled in the impecunious with a good ration of cheap living and inspired the $5 a Day books in the pre-inflationary 1960s and 1970s included Morocco and Turkey, as well as Afghanistan and Iran, compulsory visits on the overland route to India and beyond in the days when the Magic Bus from London was part of the hippie vocabulary. After it was all over, the hippies all said the same thing: the experience was great, but like most rites of passage they wouldn't want to do it again.

The package holiday industry, which was really limited to Europe for most travellers in the 1970s, started to move further afield after that. The mass market ventured as far as Tunisia, then Florida, Barbados and St Lucia. Going east, there was coastal Turkey, then Israel. And for the really intrepid there was Kenya, the Maldives and the destinations pioneered by the hippies for the mainstream market that followed: Goa, Bali, Kathmandu and Thailand.

Where does that leave for the seasoned traveller to go and visit if he insists on sun and sea? The good news is that the world may have shrunk, and cities may have become polluted hellholes, but there is still plenty of unspoilt coastline out there. My own favourite, in some ways, is Nicaragua, with all that Costa Rica has to offer at half the price and with virtually no tourists at all.

Much of Africa has had a pretty bad press in recent years, but a lot of it is fabulous. In particular I like the coast of Ghana, while the southern part of Senegal, known as the Casamance, is a great place for a short winter break in the sun.

The Caribbean is hardly a new destination, but what most people don't realise is how interesting it is if you get away from the well- known spots. My favourites there include San Salvador, Cat Island and Mayaguana in the Bahamas. Then there are the Turks and Caicos Islands, especially Grand Turk. In the British Virgin Islands, I go back from time to time to Anegada, a coralline island that is hardly visited. Carriacou, north of Grenada, is a weird and interesting place to spend a few days far from the crowds.

But it's the Indian Ocean I like most - places such as Sainte Marie, off the coast of Madagascar; or Rodrigues, to the east of Mauritius. The Pacific, by comparison, just doesn't compare with either the Indian Ocean or the Caribbean in the tropical islands' league tables. The sea can be great, but I have to admit I quickly get bored on most of the Pacific islands. The various cultures just don't grab me.

The point is that you can get away from it all just about anywhere. The secret, for me, is in following the coast away from the roads and any signs of habitation. You can do it almost anywhere in Europe, including England. I've walked the hundred or so miles of the Dorset coastal path, and even in summer it's possible to leave the crowds behind simply by walking a few miles.

Even when you're trying to get away from it all, the experience of flying has not got any easier in the last 20 years. Airports are still a nightmare in themselves; and if you're travelling from somewhere like London, it now takes twice as long to get to the airport from the centre of town as it did 20 years ago. Traffic congestion is the biggest cross the modern traveller has to bear. The second biggest is the growing crime problem all over the world and the sad fact that travellers have increasingly become targets for terrorism. Places such as Kenya, Egypt, Kashmir, Thailand, Zimbabwe, Colombia, Chechnya, Congo, Rwanda and South Africa all present real threats to foreign tourists, while Latin America, as a whole, is considered a danger zone by many thanks to a reputation for street and car crime. Particular cities, for instance, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Bogotá, Caracas, Lima, Colon and Panama City, feature on my list of danger spots.

So don't go to the cities. Get out of them as fast as possible. The countryside is usually a far safer place, whether you're in South America or South Africa. You should rarely feel threatened in rural areas, assuming all reasonable precautions are taken. I am sure that there are plenty of exceptions, but on the whole the further you are from a city and other foreign visitors, the more hospitable and honest the local people tend to be. And travel with small children if you can. They act as great ice-breakers.

Where would I recommend for a really interesting experience? I've already suggested Nicaragua. How about Mauritania? Or the Azores in spring? Or, for spectacular scenery not too far from home, you could try the far north-west of Scotland. Or maybe you should just stay at home and send your money instead.

If you look hard enough, the world is still your oyster.