3. Snowboarding in Axamer Lizum, Austria. This well-equipped resort southwest of Innsbruck is favored by Austrian snowboarders but rarely featured in holiday brochures. If you don’t want to stay overnight in Axamer, it’s relatively easy to pop out there for the day from Innsbruck. And, if you’re not going to be around during the winter months, you can still take to the slopes southwest of Axamer on Stubai Glacier, where skiing is possible year-round. The Innsbruck tourist office runs day-trips for skiers to the glacier in summer for around USD 45 (includes bus transfer, equipment rental, and lift pass).

4. Cycling around Inishmore, Ireland. Inishmore (Inis Mor) is the largest (and most touristed) of the three Aran Islands lying about thirty miles across the mouth of Galway Bay. It is a long strip of an island, a great tilted plateau of limestone, with a scattering of villages along the sheltered northerly coast. Although the most touristed of the three islands, it makes for one of the most idyllic spots in the world to cycle, with a stop here and there for a gaze out to sea or at the maze of stone walls that zigzag throughout the islands grassy fields.

5. Skiing at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. It isn’t any accident that this is the most famous resort in the German Alps. It’s at the foot of the highest mountain - the Zugspitze - and also hosted the Winter Olympics in 1936. The location is marvelous, and facilities are plentiful for skating and other winter sports as well. In summer, mountaineers and hiking enthusiasts come to explore the craggy heights.