Good in October

A week in the northern Serengeti timed to the migration, watching a million wildebeest decide to cross.

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.

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 visual shorthand for the entire Alps.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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 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.

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