Feel the wind beneath your wings as you scoot around Zurich Airport on a bike or a funky pair of inline skates. The airport hires out gear and helmets to travellers itching to escape outdoors and get the blood flowing back into their legs.
If a red-eye flight has sapped your sense of balance, hire a pair of Nordic walking poles instead and let your feet lead you exploring. If you’d prefer to stay airside, join one of the airport tours, or perhaps treat one of the kids to a birthday party. How many other kids get to have an A380 at their birthday bash, complete with real, live pilots?
It may not be Narnia, but this Swedish camp is every bit as enchanting. And you don’t need a magic wardrobe to get there, just access to a snowmobile.
Constructed in the forest by Lapland’s Råne River and far from light pollution, the camp is the ideal base for admiring the Milky Way and, if you’re lucky, the northern lights. Capture the phenomenon on camera under the guidance of owner and photographer Fredrik Broman, and when the cold gets too much, sink into an armchair by the fire in your teepee-like lavvu tent and defrost your fingers and toes.
During the day in the winter, snowshoe trekking is a mandatory pastime. Otherwise, you can book a husky expedition, go snowmobiling or try your hand at ice fishing. In summer, there’s canoeing, kayaking and nature treks, but best of all are the photography courses run by Broman. The camp is well off the grid and surrounded by the best of Nordic nature. You may not meet Mr Tumnus the faun, but plenty of moose, fox and reindeer hide in the woods, leaving trails for you to follow.
It may look like a typical Swedish house from afar, but the shimmer around Utter Inn ain’t no mirage. Floating on Lake Mälaren, this miniature underwater cottage enables guests to sleep with the fishes, literally. Slip through a hatch in the floor and descend into a watertight bedroom, where your bed wallows three metres below the surface, and wake to the puckered kiss of a pike sucking on the glass by your head at sunrise.
Despite its tiny 25-square-metre size, the cottage squeezes in a fridge, stove and loo. If you suffer cabin fever, make your escape by rowboat and explore the Västerås archipelago, or fish for perch from the shade of the verandah. Happy floating!
Scandinavian architecture meets the great outdoors in the futuristic treehouses at Treehotel. These five unique dwellings feature sleek design suspended among the native pines, blending with the environment so you feel part of the forest itself.
Go incognito in the Mirrorcube, which could easily be mistaken for a Bond villain’s lair, or disappear into the Bird’s Nest, an oversized construction of twigs and branches that manages to pull off looking bizarre and seriously cool at the same time. The Treesauna is the perfect refuge to unwind in. More treerooms are planned for the future, and we can’t wait to see what those look like.
Better known for its wildlife encounters than sandy shores, the teardrop-shaped island of Sri Lanka possesses some of the world’s most beautiful beaches. Tucked between jungle and a gorgeous beach on the southeast coast of the island, this ‘glampsite’ showcases the best of both attractions with plenty of luxurious trimmings to keep campers happy.
Hang around home base with your own Belvedere answering your every demand, or lie back in a private beach hut and take in sweeping views of the Indian Ocean. If booking a personal butler feels a little too posh, pull on your khakis, grab your binoculars (they’re supplied in each tent) and hit the jungle with the on-call zoologist.
During the day spot elephants, leopards and crocs on a safari through Yala National Park or go bird-watching at the Bundala Bird Sanctuary. For spiritual exploration, soak up heady incense at the Kataragama Temple and nearby shrines, or get a taste of local life in Kirinda, a fishing village.
The elephants came in two by two. Hurrah! Hurrah! Then a few more turned up and, in fact, many, many more wandered along as well. If you want to see pachyderms en masse there is one journey you have to take: a trip to the annual elephant gathering at Minneriya National Park. During Sri Lanka’s dry season (around October), the water levels of a centuries-old reservoir in the park, located in the country’s North Central Province, start to drop, resulting in the sprouting of luscious, green grasses.
Attracted by both the water and easily accessible food, the park’s elephants – sometimes up to 400 at a time – come here to bathe, eat and hang out with their thick-skinned friends. Visitors travel in open-top jeeps to see a most stunning sight – the largest congregation of wild elephants anywhere in the world.
Unveiled in 2006, the Hotel Marqués de Riscal was an opportunity for Frank Gehry to showcase his signature style against an exquisite backdrop – the rolling hills of the Rioja wine region. Looking at the result, you can see why Vanity Fair described Gehry as “the most important architect of our age.”
Gleaming ribbons of titanium almost mimic the undulating surrounds, while the tilted walls and cathedral ceilings contrast with the warmth of wood and canny homely touches found in the 43 rooms and suites. We imagine that sipping tempranillo on the angled terrace while gazing across to the medieval town of Elciego would keep most lovers of wine and design satisfied for quite some time.
Love coos through the air on the island of South Georgia. Each October and November, hundreds of thousands of king penguins carpet the valleys and plains of this crown jewel of the Antarctic – one of the world’s most remote and wildlife-dense islands – in a bid to woo a companion and pop out an egg. Become the object of curiosity at St Andrews Bay, where more than 150,000 couples coat the landscape, then head to Elshul to spot gentoo and macaroni penguins, with orange feathers splayed on their heads, and albatross flaunting their famous wings.
At this time of year there’s more to see on the island than birds pining for love – listen, too, for the roar of southern elephant seals and Antarctic fur seals rasping at the air. Watch them lounge around before peak breeding season takes hold and dangerous armies of males rage on shore with their testosterone pumping.
Teeter on a platform strapped to a suspension bridge and take in the views of South Africa’s famous Soweto neighbourhood before plummeting towards the concrete below. Forget a purpose-built steel tower; here jumpers bungee in one of the world’s most unusual settings – between the cooling towers of a former coal-fired power station.
Endorphin-seekers can clamber up the sides and free fall down the centre into a net, but opt for the bungee and you’ll think you’re leaping towards the apocalypse as you hurtle 100 metres with only a cord to save you.
Calling all carnivores: brace yourself for the ultimate battle of the beasts. Join the annual sardine run off the coast of South Africa and witness one of the world’s greatest feeding frenzies in all its wild brutality and uncensored gore.
Watch as the sea is turned into a giant, seething broth of wriggling fish and predators as sardine shoals – up to 15 kilometres in length, 3.5 kilometres wide and nearly 40 metres deep – make their way north to warmer waters. Feathers, fur and fins collide to gorge on the millions of sardines that proliferate in nature’s immense banquet of the sea. Don your own fins together with snorkel or scuba gear and get amongst the carnage, or view this phenomenal spectacle from the safety of the boat.
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