Vegas’s biggest thrill

You’ve been up all night, trying your luck at the tables and your eyelids are drooping. To cure all symptoms of fatigue instantly, head to SkyJump Las Vegas at the top of the Stratosphere. Standing 108 storeys (or 260 metres) above the earth, toes hanging off the edge of the ledge, your heart will be pounding faster than that of a gambling addict on a roll. This isn’t a free fall, but rather a controlled descent (a bit like a vertical zip-line). Still, you’ll reach speeds of more than 60 kilometres an hour. Be warned: if you wimp out, the folks at the SkyJump gift shop will be happy to sell your friends their famous ‘chicken’ t-shirt on your behalf.

Art of the underground

See a slice of New York City many of its inhabitants, including the 4.3 million people who ride the rails each day, often overlook. Led by Bronx-born local Darryl Reilly, you’ll tackle the subway network by carriage and foot, unearthing underground art as you go. Thanks to the Arts For Transit program devised in 1985, almost 200 permanent public works grace the city’s stations, creating a gallery beneath the city that acts as a backdrop for its harried commuters.

Machinations of the money men

Money, apparently, makes the world go round, and nowhere is filthy lucre more celebrated and chased than on New York’s famous Wall Street, where the world spins at a faster pace than anywhere else.

For an authentic taste of life in the financial district, hook up with real insiders like ‘Andrew’ – a trading-trapeze-artist-turned-tour-guide, who went from being a professional blackjack player good enough to be banned from Vegas casinos to vice president of Deutsche Bank – on a tour with the Wall Street Experience. According to the BBC, in a quote proudly emblazoned on the tour group’s website, Andrew “collateralised debt obligations until the market collapsed”. We don’t even know what that means, but we’re not going to lend him our lunch money just in case.

The tour takes you deep into the murky machine of Wall Street, and Andrew regales you with tales from the trenches, the goriest of which pertain to the times when the world stopped spinning and the sky fell in.

Chasing Big Storms

Don’t whinge about bad weather – go out and shadow box with it. Several operators in the US offer storm-chasing tours, but one in particular guarantees to put the wind right up you. Ride shotgun with Warren Faidley – the “world’s first full-time, storm-chasing journalist”, according to his business card, and star of the Discovery Channel’s Hurricane Chaser – as he drives his pimped-up mega ute in the general direction of tornados and other angry weather phenomena.


The tragedy in Oklahoma City – when a twister veered violently off its predicted course and killed 18 people, including a veteran storm chaser – underlined the power of Mother Nature’s wrath and cast a shadow over the twister-tracking industry (it attracts its share of red-neck amateurs), but Warren is considered a consummate professional in the field. Based out of Amarillo in Texas, Oklahoma City or Denver – depending on where the whirly action is – Warren’s company boasts a 100 per cent success rate with its stand-by tornado chases. Bring spare undies.

Roller Derby Rebellion

Forget Pamplona. When it comes to running with bulls, we’re heading to San Fermin in Nueva Orleans (that’s New Orleans for those of you with rusty Spanish). No cows are harmed in the making of this encierro (bull run). Instead 400 women from the city’s Big Easy Rollergirls, New Orleans’ flat-track derby team, dress in red, chase down the more than 18,000 runners over a 12-block French Quarter course and thump them with foam bats. Anyone taking on the roller bulls has to wear white and tie a piece of red cloth around their neck and waist. And this is New Orleans, so as well as the main event there’s a whole string of parties to round out the entire weekend, which takes place in July.

Visit the King’s home

In a country that celebrates excess, the house of the King is a temple to intemperance. A tour of Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, provides a fascinating insight into the extravagant life of Elvis Presley. At the mansion you can walk in the footsteps of Elvis’s blue suede shoes, wobble your hips in the music room, see the TV room (where Elvis would apparently watch three television sets at once), check out the meditation garden and shooting range, be dazzled by the display of gold and platinum discs on the walls of the Trophy Room and take a peak in the infamous Jungle Room – the man cave where Elvis did whatever Elvis wanted to do, on shag-pile carpet surrounded by exotic African furniture.

The King died at the estate in 1977, while on the throne in the royal bathroom, possibly straining after one too many deep-fried banana, peanut butter and bacon sandwiches. If you don’t want to suffer the same fate, go for a brisk stroll through the grounds, and check out 30 vehicles from Elvis’s private collection, including a Lockheed Jetstar plane, Rolls Royce sedans, Mercedes Benz limos, a pink Cadillac and a John Deere tractor. Stay at the Elvis-themed Heartbreak Hotel, right across the street from the Graceland Mansion.

Experience The Ride

Park your backside, buckle your belt and bite into the Big Apple, without ever leaving your seat. Snag a front-row view and soak in the city as it flaunts its wares behind the panoramic window of The Ride, a unique moving-theatre motor coach. Surround sound pulls urban scenes into the bus but don’t forget it’s a two-way street – external speakers keep you ‘on air’ as you drive. Sidle up to Grand Central Station and roll through Central Park. Flat-screen TVs exhibit photos and facts about each location, but the street performers steal the show.

Flashing lights and pumping beats make the bus (and you) an attraction, so expect an audience of intrigued New Yorkers. Don’t forget to catch a glimpse of the world-famous skyline through the glass-lined roof. No New York journey is complete without a subway ride and the bus’s floor-shaking technology ensures you won’t be left longing.

Discover Glaciers and Grizzlies

Alaska is the largest and most sparsely populated state in the USA. On this 11-day tour, departing Anchorage, you’ll explore its vast remote wilderness and pristine coastal environment. Go looking for moose, wolves, caribous and black and grizzly bears on a trek through Denali National Park, before taking a scenic flight over glaciers to Anchorage.

There’s the chance to go on a hell-hike across the Juneau Ice Field, and go whale watching at Point Adolphus, one of the best spots to spy humpback whales in the world. Accommodation is in boutique inns and rustic cabins.

 

Dead person running

Some traditions are a little stranger than others, and that’s certainly the case come October in Colorado’s Manitou Springs. The Emma Crawford Coffin Races and Parade attract 10,000 people who come to watch teams of four pushing a ‘corpse’ (really just another perfectly alive member of the team) along the street in a coffin. Why? Well, Emma, who was suffering with tuberculosis, moved to Manitou Springs in the late 1800s to take advantage of the healing waters of the local mineral springs. It didn’t work and Emma died, but not before she’d made her fiancé promise to bury her at the top of Red Mountain. In the years that followed erosion caused Emma’s coffin to become exposed and eventually it slid down the mountain. People in the town say you can sometimes see a young woman in Victorian garb looking lonely atop Red Mountain.

Hezen Cave Hotel

You know a cave hotel is the real deal when you wake to find ceiling rock crumbling over the bed. Hezen’s elegant rooms have been fashioned out of the ancient caves that pockmark Cappadocia, and you can still very much feel the rocky atmosphere.


Each alcove and shelf has been hand carved with pockets of light accentuating the rock detail. Multiple terraces provide the perfect vantage point for enjoying the dramatic scenery, with views out across Ortahisar Castle. Located out of the tourist hub, this petite hotel has a homely atmosphere and is a Cappadocian experience in itself.