Yes, we did use spirits while making small delicious cheese pies, called ‘kalitsounia,’ in a traditional hillside village of western Crete, Greece. Koula Barydakis, our ebullient chef instructor, began our local cooking lessons by pouring a shot of raki for herself and her students as we toasted the traditional Cretan diet, one of the healthiest in the world.

The memory that many travellers take home from a holiday stay in Mauritius is that of silent beauty – a vision of turquoise lagoons with sandy beaches, fishermen along the shore or in their boats and palm trees silhouetted against a spectacular sunset. It’s a magical, but typical take on a tropical island vacation. Like…