Good in May

Eighteen days and 360 kilometres on the Colorado, out of contact, camping on beaches inside the canyon.

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

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.

Ten days around a compact range of 6,000 m peaks, crossing eight passes above 4,600 m.

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

Croatia's oldest and most photographed national park, UNESCO-listed since 1979.

Four days on the original stone road, reaching the Sun Gate at dawn before the buses.

The largest natural marsh in Central Europe, walked at dawn in chest waders while elk stand in the mist.

Continuously erupting, permanently in the news, and visible from most of eastern Sicily.

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

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.

A thousand-year-old pilgrimage route and the most walked long-distance path in the world.

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

Eight days skiing and sailing in the high Arctic, where the rifle in the guide's bag is not decoration.

Three days on an island where it rains most days, to a cedar that was already ancient when Rome fell.

A UNESCO site that looks structurally impossible in every photograph ever taken of it.

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

Five days skinning and skiing at Murodo in April, where the road is cut through snow walls twenty metres high.

The best-known tandem flying site in the Alps and the sport's unofficial European capital.

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.

The most ridden long-distance cycle route in Europe and the template every other one copies.

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.

Europe's first World Surfing Reserve.

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

Five days on the Czarna Hańcza, finishing through the hand-cranked lock gates of an 1820s canal.

Four days over three passes above a thousand metres, from the temple town of Koyasan down to the Kumano shrines.

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

Five days on the quietest stretch of Poland's 500-kilometre red trail, through wooden Orthodox churches and villages that no longer exist.

Eleven days on the Edo-era highway between Tokyo and Kyoto, through sixty-nine post towns.

The most concentrated shore-diving destination in Europe, and the reason Malta trains so many divers.

Five days across East Java's volcanoes, including a night descent into a crater where the sulphur burns blue.

The Soča's colour is genuinely unlike any other river in Europe — it's the reason people come.

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

Two days on Shikoku's sacred peak, climbing iron chains hung down the rock by pilgrims centuries ago.

Six days across seven volcanic islands, finishing on Stromboli's rim after dark as it fires.

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

Five days down the Krutynia — a hundred kilometres of clear shallow river linking lake after lake.

A UNESCO biosphere reserve holding the continent's biggest pelican colonies and over 300 bird species.

Sixteen days from Fort William to the northwest corner of Britain, mostly pathless and often wet.

Five days on the Green Velo route through painted wooden villages, Tatar mosques and river marshes.

The archetypal Adriatic island seascape, minus the crowds on the main island.

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.

The largest interconnected lake system in Central Europe and a rite of passage in Polish summer culture.

Waist-deep flat water behind the Hel peninsula — the best place in this part of Europe to learn to kite.

Poland's granite trad crag — Sokoliki, where you place your own gear and the slabs punish bad footwork.

Hundreds of short bolted routes within a day trip of Kraków.

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

A fast, snag-strewn forest river that Karol Wojtyła paddled long before he was Pope.

A sandstone plateau cracked into corridors narrow enough to turn sideways for.

Real sea sailing on the Baltic — short steep chop, working ports, and a passage out to Hel and back.

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

Poland's best mountain biking — a purpose-built enduro network cut into the hills above Wisła.

A desert of sand advancing several metres a year on the Baltic coast, which has already buried one village.

Long ridge running with almost nobody else on the trail.

A working market hall, not a tourist food court.

Poland's best-decorated cave, opened by a quarry blast in 1966 and full of cave bear bones.

A tandem flight over the Tatras without any prior experience needed.

A wooden raft poled through a limestone gorge by men in embroidered waistcoats, then the climb up Trzy Korony above it.

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

A secondary option when the surf wind ruins the waves.

Flat, easy forest running for recovery days between harder trips.