Good in March

Eighteen days in the Khumbu taking the high circuit rather than the base camp highway.

Ten days on a liveaboard in West Papua, over reefs holding more coral species than anywhere else measured.

The most reliable place in Europe to see free-ranging bison.

Two weeks around the Annapurnas, from subtropical valleys to a 5,400 m pass and down into desert.

The only place on the planet where you can swim in the gap between two continental plates.

The birthplace of alpinism, and the highest cable car in Western Europe.

Eight days on the Lemosho route to 5,895 m — the highest you can get on foot without ropes.

A point break town with a wave and a school for every level.

Twelve hundred kilometres around an entire island, temple to temple, in about six weeks.

The 'blue hole of Abisko' — a rain-shadow microclimate with unusually clear winter skies.

Four days across open grass ridges in Poland's emptiest corner — walkable in summer, snowshoed in February.

The place sport climbing goes on holiday — the most concentrated bolted crag network in Europe.

Five days on Australia's west coast timed to the coral spawn, when the largest fish on earth arrive to feed.

Four days through Fiordland to Milford Sound, on a track with fifty walkers a day and no more.

Three days climbing Hokkaido's perfect volcanic cone on skins, then dropping into the crater itself.

Five days on the Nakahechi route through cedar forest to the three grand shrines of Kumano.

Winter in the Tatras is real alpinism — crampons, axes, avalanche judgement, and a mountain rescue service with a long casualty list.

Eight days on islands a thousand kilometres south of Tokyo, reachable only by a twenty-four-hour ferry.

Five days on Japan's westernmost island, where hammerhead sharks school in the cold months and the current does not forgive.

A week aboard a yacht in Arctic Norway, skinning up from the shoreline each morning and skiing back down to it.

Sixteen days around Manaslu in a restricted zone — the Annapurna Circuit as it was thirty years ago.

Five days in Aomori, where trees freeze into white figures and the annual snowfall is measured in double-digit metres.

Three weeks down Chilean Patagonia's gravel spine, through temperate rainforest and glacier country.

World-class reef diving you walk into from the beach.

Four days by 4x4 from the world's largest salt flat into a high desert of coloured lakes and geysers.

The only lift-linked circumnavigation of its kind, and the anchor of the Dolomiti Superski network.

Six days across the Tasmanian highlands, from Cradle Mountain to Lake St Clair.

Four days on the Sea of Okhotsk in February, walking and floating on pack ice that arrived from Siberia.

Five days paddling mangrove rivers and traversing subtropical jungle on an island that is ninety percent forest.

Five days through sandstone towers and red desert, sleeping under more stars than seems plausible.

Ten days along Turkey's southwest coast, over headlands and through ruins nobody guards.

Proper alpine touring an hour from Kraków airport.

Four days to North Africa's highest summit under snow, with crampons and an ice axe.

Poland's most visited mountain destination and the country's default postcard.

The best realistic odds of seeing wild wolves in Central Europe.

Three days on the Polish–Czech watershed over Śnieżka, sleeping in some of the oldest mountain huts in Europe.

One of the only places left where you can realistically track wild pumas.

Kilometres of tunnel driven into granite by forced labour in 1943, abandoned unfinished, and never explained.

A flat, shallow lagoon that makes learning to kite genuinely easy.

A working market hall, not a tourist food court.

Both an easy show cave and real wild systems, five minutes apart.