Sky-falling for a Japanese endgame Solace among the salt flats

Bond has been no stranger to Japan – Sean Connery’s 007 finds fun and games aplenty amid the neon gleam of downtown Tokyo in 1967’s You Only Live Twice. But it is the Craig incarnation of the super-spy in 2012’s Skyfall who glimpses one of the country’s most remarkable outposts: Hashima Island, some eight miles off south-west Nagasaki. Whether you view its crumbling buildings as a desolate lair (for Javier Bardem’s MI6 turncoat) or the abandoned off-shore mine it is in real life, the eerie effect is much the same. You can see it as part of the 13-night Kyushu Adventure sold by Inside Japan (0117 244 3380; insidejapantours.com) – from £2,620 per person (flights extra).

Craig’s second tour of duty, 2008’s Quantum Of Solace, is generally ranked as one of the weaker movies, hampered by an underwhelming villain and an overcomplicated plot. But there is a simple magnificence to its closing moments when Mathieu Amalric’s insipid bad guy is dumped in the Atacama desert and left to die.

Journey Latin America (020 3131 7447; journeylatinamerica.com) offers the Chilean side of this great expanse of salt and sand – minus any element of danger, but with first-rate accommodation and intriguing day trips – in its 12-day Active Chile break. From £5,899 per person, including flights.