If you’re a regular traveler like me, you already know this: most airports are awful. You’re constantly rushing through a crowded terminal, competing with a harried mess of humanity, only to then cram yourself into a narrow seat for a few hours until you get to your next terminal purgatory—meanwhile, dragging your luggage the whole way. Germs waft through the air. Couples argue about holding each other up in the TSA line. As I write this, I’m sitting in the F concourse at Minneapolis Saint-Paul listening to a kid whine at NASCAR-engine levels about not getting soft serve ice cream and his Chick-fil-A nuggets.

Airports are the worst.

Except…not all of them. Around the world, there are a growing number of destinations that are making their airports, well, welcoming. A shocking idea, I know. I’ve been to a handful of these miraculous creations (compared to the usual dreadfulness)—international airports like Vancouver, Zurich, and Munich. They’re clean, organized, and, best of all, have a place to get some fresh air before your next long-haul flight. With this new wave of amenities (and your travel sanity) in mind, here are the best airports in the world, from Asia and the Middle East to right here in North America, that offer incredible open-air areas to soothe your traveling stress.

Singapore Changi Airport, Singapore (SIN)

Don’t Miss: The Indoor Climbing Area

Changi Airport is a perennial winner of the , thanks to a seemingly never-ending list of Disneyland-like attractions, including a onsite, a on the roof of Terminal 1, and the , at seven stories high. There’s even an indoor forest, called , with walking paths and a glass walkway that rises 23 meters above the terminal floor, allowing you to trek amongst the treetops. (To see how impressive the full list of attractions is, you can scroll through it .)

For nature lovers, though, the true gem is Changi’s series of gardens, including Cactus Garden, Sunflower Garden, Enchanted Garden, Petal Garden, and Butterfly Garden. Together, they offer the most complete botanical adventure you’ll get at any airport on earth. And even though some of the gardens are indoors, it’s hard to tell.

The , for example, is set in a large conservatory designed as a tropical forest, with an 18-foot high grotto waterfall. It’s home to over 1,000 butterflies from as many as 40 species and, on your way to your gate, you can stop by and stand amidst the flora as the butterflies flutter around you. For a splash of yellow, the is worth a quick stop if you have some time to kill in terminal 2, and the , also in Terminal 2, is designed to offer Shangri-La-like atmosphere, with the sounds of a forest pumped into is a large room dominated by four giant glass bouquet sculptures that are filled with a variety of flowers and ferns.

Perhaps most Zen of all, though, is the on the roof of Terminal 1, which features over 100 species of arid plants from Asia, Africa, and the Americas—everything from prickly pear cactus to giant ponytail palm trees. It also has a bar and shaded tables, so it may just be the best place to grab a local while you hope for another hour delay on your flight out.

Denver International Airport, Colorado (DEN)

Don’t Miss: The Ice-Skating Rink

This pick comes with a minor asterisk: the primary outdoor area is before you go through security, so you’ll need to enjoy the al fresco offerings in advance of your flight, but the options are worth the early arrival. The space is called the , and it’s a large synthetic turf located between the Jeppesen Terminal and the Westin Hotel, underneath the airport’s famous faux mountain peaks.

In summer, the turf is set up with cornhole games and wooden benches for lounging, and there’s often live music or other events throughout the season (all of which are free to the public). In the winter months, typically from Thanksgiving to New Year’s, the area features an open-air ice rink with free loaner skates.

Of course, don’t fret if you’re running on time and need to get through the TSA line: inside the airport there are three outdoor lounges with seating and fire pits, at Concourse A-West near gate A15; on Concourse B-West at gate B7; and at gate C67 on Concourse C-East.

Zurich Airport, Switzerland (ZRH)

Don’t Miss: The Outdoor Walking Paths

If you find yourself craving one last view of the Alps before your flight home, , the primary hub for Swiss International Airlines, has an executive lounge with an outdoor terrace that has impressive views of the mountains beyond. The at the Midfield Terminal is open to all travelers for a fee (roughly $50) and, in addition to the outdoor terrace views, you get access to all of the lounge’s food and drink options, and other amenities.

But the real reason Zurich Airport is on this list is because of its adjacent , a 20-acre park filled with forested walking paths and a modest hill with good views from up top. It’s a great place to unwind during a long layover or if you get caught waiting for a delayed flight. You’ll need to leave the terminal to access it, but the short walk and fresh air are worth it. During much of the week, there are park rangers who will take you on a , explaining the flora and fauna and how it was designed for maximum relaxation (check the rangers’ in advance). There’s even a free cable car to whisk you into the park in the most Swiss way possible.

From the arrivals area, walk across the parking area to the Circle, the large building adjacent to the terminal that hosts restaurants, hotels, and stores. From there you can take the cable car into Der Park.

Vancouver International Airport, Canada (YVR)

Don’t Miss: The Digital Light Show

For most passengers headed through , their first introduction (or last farewell) to British Columbia is YVR’s Chester Johnson Park, located directly adjacent to (and underneath) the Canada Line train station. The park is designed to feel like an , with rock-lined paths, native trees, driftwood benches, and a large wooden sculpture—the Musqueam Welcome Figure—curving throughout its length. It’s also home to the Green Wall, a 17-meter-high vegetated art installation made up of, at last count, 27,391 individual plants.

As for inside the airport itself, there’s a new 47-foot-high open-air atrium in the international terminal, with three full-grown hemlock trees in the center. Until recently, the glassed-in atrium was only visible to passengers as they commuted past, like looking into a giant terrarium, but you can now open a door and walk out into the atrium for a breath of fresh air. At night, the trees and rock landscape are lit up by digital light projections—faux waves crashing over the rocks, for example—and a corresponding soundscape. The whole experience is designed to showcase the sights and sounds of B.C., and it does just that and more. It may be the most successful attempt of any airport in the world to bring a little bit of the region’s natural landscape into the airport itself.

Incheon International Airport, South Korea (ICN)

Don’t Miss: The Indoor Gardens

Among the many attractions for passengers flying into or through South Korea’s —the country’s main international gateway and one of the busiest airports in the world—is a sprawling, in Terminal 2.

The green features are spread throughout much of the large space, with a mix of flowers, trees, ferns, and bamboo growing from planters situated throughout—in the floors, dividing walls, large garden spaces, and above kiosks’ ceilings, with strands hanging down. Smaller water, rock, cactus, and pine gardens are strategically located across the airport campus, too. Technically, none of these areas are outdoors, but the enormous roof above the main area, with translucent panels in the center, makes it feels as such, which is why we’re including it on this list.

We’re also including Incheon because of the airport’s ongoing plans to add even more green spaces that utilize a variety of plants to create a living, breathing indoor space with healthier air for all visitors. As part of its , the airport also plans to add a terrace with an outdoor garden, so passengers can decompress before their (likely long) overseas flight.

Long Beach Airport, California (LGB)

Don’t Miss: The Palm Treed Courtyard

, bills itself as “America’s coolest airport,” and while that moniker is a bit of a stretch, it does have an impressive courtyard with a series of tall palm trees and a drought-tolerant garden. The airport, one of the five major commercial airfields serving the greater Los Angeles metroplex, is the second smallest, with just 11 gates. In such a tiny airport, the 4,200-square-foot courtyard is definitely a unique amenity, one that punches well above its weight.

The courtyard is also ringed by dining options from local establishments, so it’s an excellent place to grab a bite to eat while you wait for your flight out. For those heading to this side of L.A. or points south along the coastline, LGB is definitely a good choice over LAX (see below).

Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)

Don’t Miss: The Private Lounges

For anyone who has traveled through recently, you know it’s a mess, thanks to a $30 billion overhaul one of the world’s busiest airports is getting ahead of the , in L.A. By the time construction is done, it will almost be a brand new airport, with new terminals, an elevated train, and an on-site rental-car facility to help eliminate the shuttles current clogging up the passenger pickup/drop-off areas. Already some of the upgrades are beginning to appear, including a series of new lounges with outdoor terraces.

The in Tom Bradley International Terminal (Terminal B) has a large outdoor deck with fire pits, trees, running water, and great views of the Hollywood Hills in the distance ($75 for standard access). The United Club in Terminal 7 is much smaller—more a balcony than a lounge—but it’s spacious enough to get some fresh air and does have good views of the tarmac ($59 for a single-entry pass).

The new , which is open to Delta customers traveling with a Delta One ticket, is the company’s premium lounge, with table service at every seat, a sushi bar, and eight relaxation pods. It also has a large private Sky Deck on the roof, with a landscaped terrace full of chairs, sofas, and enough plants to keep it feeling like a lounge, rather than an extension of the tarmac.

LAX will remain a very urban airport, but with a few spots to sneak in some last-minute SoCal sun, these lounges are worth it, if you can afford them.

Hamad International Airport, Qatar (DOH)

Don’t Miss: The Indoor Tropical Garden

Yes, this is another entry highlighting a space that is not, technically, outdoors, and yet we promise that visiting ’s “The Orchard” will feel more like being in nature than just about any of the other places on this list.

It’s a massive, 64,000-square-foot set beneath a soaring, translucent roof shaped like the inside of a shell. More than were sourced from around the world to create the indoor garden, and at its center is a “water feature” that is best described as a spiraling waterfall emerging from a slanted halo. At points the faux forest is so lush that you almost forget that you’re surrounded by roughly five dozen shops, lounges, and restaurants, with hundreds of rushing bodies scrambling to catch their flights. It’s almost worth a trip to Doha just to see it—or at least a long layover.

Munich International Airport, Germany (MUC)

Don’t Miss: The Next-Door Surf Park

This wouldn’t be Bavaria without beer, so it’s fitting that not only does have a beer garden onsite, it’s also an open-air one, with a covered glass roof. Called the, it’s the first brewery in an airport on earth. It has an indoor tavern for drinking, but the patio offers both fresh air, protection from the occasional rain shower, and food and beers, like the Fliegerquell Lager and the Kumulous Wheat.

Munich Airport also has a 900-square-meter , with seating and binoculars to take in the alpine views on clear days. Across from Terminal 1 is , an extensive outdoor area with grass lawns and trails, a playground area, interactive exhibits, benches for sitting, and a 90-foot-high hill overlooking the area. It’s an excellent place to stretch the legs before a long flight or burn off some of the kids’ energy before boarding.

Oh, and just in case you have half a day to kill, there’s a brand-new surf park, , just around the corner from the airport. It’s Germany’s first wave pool and the largest in Europe, at over 215,000 square feet, capable of churning out waves .�� Getting there is a cinch: it’s just a five-mute car ride away, literally in the shadow of landing flights.

Bonus Picks: Other Noteworthy Outdoor Areas in North American Airports��

While these airports do have notable outdoor areas, they really can’t compare with our picks for the best airports in the world featured above. That said, they’re still worth calling out on honorable mentions—especially for domestic travelers—for these specific reasons.

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Texas (AUS)

The accessible to Sapphire Reserve cardmembers, has a large outdoor terrace with seating overlooking the tarmac and Hill Country beyond. The Delta Sky Club, directly adjacent to the Sapphire Lounge, also has outdoor seating, and more outdoor areas are in the works as part of the airport’s multi-billion-dollar expansion.

San Francisco International Airport, California (SFO)

For ticketed passengers, there’s a free in the international terminal with seating and excellent views of the airfield and beyond. Three bronze sculptures by local artist Woody Othello decorate the space, at the end of Boarding Area G. For plane-watching, there’s also the , located atop Terminal 2. It’s a good, free place for the public to come (no ticket necessary) to see some of the largest aircraft serving SFO. The SkyTerrace is open Friday through Monday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Georgia (ATL)

The in Concourse F has an outdoor deck for its club members, with seating for roughly 40 guests and a free bar. As with all of Delta’s clubs, there’s free food and drinks, as well as WiFi.

John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York (JFK)

For travels heading through JetBlue’s Terminal, there’s a roughly 4,000-square-foot post-security rooftop lounge with green spaces, seating, a children’s play area, and even a dog-walk area. The rooftop lounge also offers passengers views of the Manhattan skyline and of the iconic TWA terminal, which is now the . The , as it’s called, is open daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and the entrance is across from Gate 28.

Ryan Krogh is a freelance writer and editor based in Austin, Texas. He mostly covers the subjects of travel and the outdoors, and is always looking for a way to get some fresh air in airports worldwide.����

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This was the summer we all longed to get back out there, despite skyrocketing gas prices and long flight delays. From close-to-home adventures to far-flung explorations, here’s where some ���ϳԹ��� editors traveled this season, their secret finds, and the gear that made their trips all that much better.

Lake Tahoe, California

My childhood girlfriends and I get together once a year to catch up and spend a long weekend outdoors, usually doing an activity we’d never otherwise do by ourselves. This summer we settled on Lake Tahoe and spent one beautiful morning on the California side tackling a via ferrata at the����resort, run by��. The local outfitter leads two-, three-, and four-hour guided excursions; we opted for the three-hour Loophole tour (from $155), which, my thigh muscles agreed later, was the best choice. You’re equipped with a helmet and a harness that clips on a steel cable running the route’s length, and you scale rungs and footholds along the way, ascending 500 feet elevation and then topping out at 7,100 feet before descending in a belay-like manner (which was scarier for me than the ascent). A few of the granite faces felt significant to most of us—and, as someone with short legs, the traverses between gappy points were daunting—but the views over Olympic Valley were spectacular and the whole adventure felt empowering. Twice I couldn’t find my footing and my brain started to veer toward panic, but as our guides reminded us (because several of us asked, several times), no one has suffered a fatal accident on these via ferratas since their installation in 2018. Even little kids can hack it (we saw a brave group of them headed up while we were headed down, which both impressed us and made us feel sheepish). It was a lot of fun and even my friends who thought they’d bail initially out of fear felt thrilled by the end.

Gear I’m Glad I Had:��Work gloves. Alpenglow sells climbing gloves for $3, but I brought a pair of my husband’s and, even a size too big, I was glad to have them to grip the steel cable, which can feel wieldy and get hot.

—Tasha Zemke, associate managing editor

Kauai, Hawaii

In August, my partner and I went to Kauai for the first time. We found a small VRBO house to rent on Hanalei Bay, on the island’s north shore. I’d wake up in the morning and walk a few minutes down the beach into the small town of Hanalei for a fresh vegetable green juice from the , then we’d plan an adventure for the day. My favorite outing was a hike to the 300-foot Hanakapiai Falls on the , located along the spectacular Na Pali Coast starting in Haena State Park. Someone had told me beforehand that this was the hike of a lifetime, and I was like, There’s no way it will live up to that. But it did. It’s freakin’ gorgeous—and steep—with occasional precipitous edges along a sheer cliff dropping hundreds of feet into the turquoise Pacific Ocean. A picturesque beach at the start of the trail called Kee has great snorkeling; then, two miles into the trail, you reach another beautiful beach (where swimming isn’t allowed, due unpredictable tides and rip currents); from there it’s another two miles to the waterfall and its freshwater pool, which you can jump into—and will want to—to cool off. The hike took us six hours round trip. Definitely pack a picnic lunch and plenty of water. You’ll need a reservation to hike, which is good, because the trail is no longer overloaded with tourists. (Make your reservation and sign up for a shuttle ride to the park .) Another fun outing was a trip along the road north out of Hanalei, which is packed with stunning beaches. We spent a day exploring them, landing at to snorkel. If you’re a surfer, you probably know that, in summer, the swells are on Kauai’s south side, so we headed to Poipu one day to check out the rowdy waves at Shipwreck Beach. The north side of the island is rainier and tucked into mist-covered mountains, but the south side is drier and feels like endless summer. In retrospect, I wish we’d split our time between the two, staying a few nights on each. We didn’t make it to the island’s on this trip either—a vast Grand Canyon–like region on the west side for hiking. Probably because we spent a lot of time eating! Hanalei has a delicious food-truck scene; I particularly loved yummy salads made from local greens. We had a festive meal at Ama, a ramen restaurant in Hanalei with a lawn that looks out on the mountains (make reservations well in advance). The best fish tacos we found were at the casual . And of course, you’ve gotta have the shaved ice at the stand and check out the farmers’ market in the village of Waipa, where we picked up some mango and freshly baked banana bread. If you have time on your way to the airport, in the town of Lihue, stop at for some noodles. It’s a diner-like, family-owned spot in a small blue house that offers counter service. Its delicious noodle soup made the red-eye flight home afterward a little less painful.

Gear I’m Glad I Had: I recommend good trail shoes for hiking, and trekking poles if you use them—many hikes are steep. My came in handy when wading over slippery rocks into the waterfall pool, as did a Hydro Flask, which kept my water cold on a hot day. Finally, pack the lightest Capilene quick-dry shirts you have, a pair of sunglasses, and a rash guard for snorkeling and surfing.

—Mary Turner, deputy editor

Northern New Mexico

My six-month-old, Beckett, has thrown a wrench into my typical summer adventures—but in the best way. This year, instead of my usual nonstop weekend climbing, running, and camping trips, I’ve embraced a slower pace. Enter my summer of micro adventures. My favorite close-to-home outing involved hiking��in New Mexico’s Santa Barbara Canyon in early June, just before our crazy wildfires started. There are a few stunning trails right by the 29-site , located about 60 miles northeast of Santa Fe, within Carson National Forest.��We��followed one that zigzagged over a creek; its super gentle incline would make it a great running spot, too. But I can’t lie: the best part of our adventure was ending in nearby Peñasco at , the most delicious��bakery��in northern New Mexico, for brunch. Order the green chile burger ($14), the buttermilk waffles ($12), or any of the often locally sourced seasonal specials. Every single cake there will be your favorite. Pro tip: beat the crowd on Sundays and you’ll get a complimentary scone with homemade berry jam while you wait for your order.

Gear I’m Glad I Had:��, a hand-me-down from a colleague, is by far our most-used carrier out of the five in our home. It transitions from back- to front-facing and��we’ve been using it since Beckett was a month or so old. It’s adjustable but streamlined, without an overwhelming number of straps and ties, and is soft as can be, which makes it comfy for both my baby and me.

—Abigail Wise, digital managing director

Singapore

In a city known for its equatorial humidity, futuristic skyscrapers, and ostentatious wealth, you might not expect to find a cool, quiet oasis of green taking up nearly 203 acres of primo downtown real estate in Singapore. Yet just a stone’s throw from the ultra-luxury boutiques on Orchard Road is the national Botanic Gardens, a verdant escape from the congestion and noise generated by 5.7 million people. The only tropical garden designated as a Unesco World Heritage site, this lush park features thousands of flower, tree, and bird species, which you can admire on trails that meander delightfully in no particular direction. If you have only one day to visit, start with a picnic lunch beneath one of the gazebos or shade trees beside Swan Lake. Then make a loop along the eastern edge of the park via the , to the Healing Garden, and back to the National Orchid Garden—an extraordinarily diverse and colorful collection of constantly blooming flowers (and the only area that charges a fee). For dinner, walk just a few blocks west on Holland Road to��, a popular Indian restaurant where the fish-head curry stew is so tasty you’ll be glad you had the courage to order fish-head curry stew.

Gear I’m Glad I Had:��The heat is fearsome in Singapore. Pack sun protection, lots of water, and a dry shirt for dinner.

—Jonathan Dorn, vice president of strategy

Idaho, Utah, Washington, and Oregon

This summer involved a lot of joyful journeying: I did a mega road trip,��leaving New Mexico and driving north for a river adventure in Idaho, with a stop en route to mountain bike in Park City, Utah. A group of friends and I put in on the , and I had the most incredible fishing experience of my life. Next I headed west to Washington, where I romped around the Cascades with my parents, mountain-biked, wake-surfed on Puget Sound, and fished for native trout. After a few weeks, I cruised down to Bend, Oregon, where friends and I rode the (which boasts more than 300 miles of singletrack and offers bike rentals) and a bunch of local trails. We also ran up mountains and along river paths, floated the Deschutes, and fished everywhere��we��could make a cast.

Gear I’m Glad I Had: A mostly reliable 2006 Subaru Outback with a ��bike rack, an Orvis Recon��rod, and a collection of flies that my dad passed down to me. Also were a drybag, an PFD, my old faithful tent, a two-piece suit from that’s both flattering and secure for water sports, a bike and an airy , and a satellite communicator in case shit hit the fan.

—Abigail Barronian, senior editor

Central Utah

In July, my husband and I and two friends went climbing in Maple Canyon, in central Utah (about 70 miles south of Provo), for five days. It’s hard to get here, and by looking months ahead, we were lucky enough to nab the area’s group site ($40 per night), albeit for the weekdays only. Maple Canyon is set at 6,700 feet elevation. Winding trails and corridors lead through dense maples and up to fantastic climbing spots, where we used twisting, turning and palming moves on often overhanging walls studded with cobbles that ranged from pebble to salad-bowl size. I’d been here three times in the past, once with my husband, Mike Benge, and our then young boys, who mostly built forts and rode their bikes around the trails but climbed some. I remember Teddy, then nine, struggling mightily up the sweeping 80-foot arête of the , a 5.9, his small body creeping higher and higher.��Another great time I came with a group of mostly women and their dogs (one of the women was the late of Mount Everest and 8,000-meter-peak fame). But each time we’ve camped here amid the trees, we awake to birdsong from robins and thrushes. This year, one friend stayed in a van, while the rest of us had mondo car-camping tents. We never ate at a restaurant, and I only emerged from the canyon a couple times to check texts and, once, to drive for more water and a flyswatter (which I was then accused of wielding obsessively). That errand run led to a Mormon settlement established in 1852 that’s listed on the National Register of Historic. Out in the street is a simple fountain for the natural springs that stopped pioneers in their tracks long ago. You can fill your water bottles here, free, and a friend had told me the water was delicious. It was.

Gear I’m Glad We Had: A big, airy Big Agnes tent called the .

—Alison Osius, senior editor

Western Montana

My fiancée and I spent a week in Montana in June, right after��record flooding closed Yellowstone National Park. We had to call some audibles—including finding a new place to camp, since the one we booked near Gardiner, Montana, was underwater—but we made the best of it and had a fantastic��time exploring the state. While we couldn’t make it to Yellowstone (which is now��almost all open again, curse our timing!), we explored the incredible mountains surrounding Bozeman, including in the Gallatins. We then took our time driving��from Bozeman through Missoula and along Flathead Lake to Glacier National Park. The Glacier area had also experienced lots of late-season precipitation, and one trail to the lake, where we had a backcountry permit to camp, wasn’t passable, thanks to deep snow and a swollen river that would have required a chest-deep crossing. But a backcountry��ranger was able to find us a lower-elevation zone, and we were blown away by the views while hiking through a burn zone to a site at Red Eagle Lake. Afterward we spent a very comfy night in a handmade wooden trailer at����in the town of Columbia Falls, about 30 minutes from the West Glacier Entrance.

Gear I’m Glad We Had:��Trekking poles. Clacking them together at regular intervals while hiking into Red Eagle Lake gave us peace of mind about surprising a bear. While we avoided any encounters with them in the backcountry, we did spot a black bear family and a grizzly just off the road to Many Glacier, on the eastern side of the park.

—Luke Whelan, senior editor

Cape Cod, Massachusetts

What I truly don’t understand, what confounds me to no end, is why the boy catches all the fish. I mean, he’s ten years old. We’re doing the exact same thing, using identical tackle. Sure, I drive the boat and end up fixing most of the line tangles, but still, my gear is in the water almost as much as his. I��definitely��have a better cast (he won’t admit this, but, you know, kids). And yet the boy takes 90 percent of the catch. Oh, whatever—it’s still such a blast! We had been waiting three years to get back to south coast of Cape Cod, where, in 2019, we’d first experienced the thrill of chasing bluefish on Nantucket Sound. The ferocious predators attack schools of anchovy-size fish like packs of wolves, which attracts terns and gulls that pluck the fleeing bait off the surface of the water. Find the birds and you’ve got the fish. The really fun part is casting a lure into a feeding frenzy. Adult bluefish range in size from about ten inches to two feet, but they all strike like cobras and fight like devils. And the battle doesn’t end when you land one: the suckers have razor blades for teeth and are best handled with gloves and humility. We rented an 18-foot Boston Whaler from����(from $425), and on our first day on the water I caught our first blue, a 14-incher, and gave my son a smug look:��See? Dad knows what he’s doing. Five minutes later, the boy reeled in an ever-so-slightly bigger fish and gave me a smirk. And five minutes after that, he caught a real whopper (see the image above). “This one is huge!” he crowed. “Like, a lot bigger than yours.” Yes son, I know. Now stop talking.

Gear I’m Glad We Had: Fishing rods. You can get tackle and friendly advice at����in Hyannis.

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Last week, as the coronavirus outbreak became a global pandemic and cities and states began to take measures��to prevent its spread, many climbers started to wonder how long their gyms would stay open. Climbing gyms, after all, are ideal spaces for the transmission of��COVID-19. People crowd around walls waiting for their turn on a route, grip��holds that were stepped on seconds earlier, and dip��sweaty palms into communal chalk bags.

Indeed, as mayors and governors moved rapidly to close schools, restaurants, and bars, climbing facilities weren’t far behind. This week, following similar mandates, gyms across the country, from Washington State to Colorado to New York, shut down in quick succession.

What we know so far about the transmission of COVID-19 does not bode well for climbing gyms. While the Centers for��Disease Control and Prevention has on the different ways the disease spreads, health departments in and China suggest that it’s possible to contract COVID-19 by touching your mouth, nose, or eyes after contact with surfaces contaminated with the coronavirus. by virologists at the National Institutes of Health, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, found that the novel coronavirus can survive��up to two to three days on plastic surfaces. If that’s true, resin holds in gyms could serve as ideal cradles for the virus.

The first known examples of the potential transmission of coronavirus at climbing gyms showed up in Singapore. An outbreak in the city-state started on January 23, and early last week, two climbing gyms there, Boulder+ and Climb Central, halted operations��after a climber who visited both premises . The Singaporean government ordered people who were in the two gyms during certain periods to undergo self-quarantine and authorized disinfecting companies to clean��both sites.

“Climbing gyms are unique compared to other fitness gyms in that holds are much harder to sanitize,” says Ronghui, a��Boulder+��owner��who is currently under home quarantine and did not want his last name used. But while watching the cleaning professionals sanitize the gym, he realized that it’s possible to more thoroughly disinfect holds. After the closure, Boulder+ wiped mats with isopropyl alcohol and sprayed a disinfectant from the top of the climbing walls to sanitize the holds. It’s almost impossible to fully sanitize public areas like climbing gyms, but Ronghui says that gyms around the world could carry out a similar form of spraying before or after operating hours. Those measures helped his gym reopn��, even as the outbreak in Singapore .

In the U.S., COVID-19 appears to still be in its beginning stages. Last Thursday, gyms that remained open canceled��group climbing, yoga, and fitness classes��and saw a substantial decrease in visitors. Staff��at several gyms that��Oustide talked��to last week reported they were disinfecting��mats and door handles with bleach at least three��times a day, placing��hand sanitizer and wipes for use around their facilities, stopping��handouts of communal items like climbing tape, and hanging��up posters with general tips on��how to sanitize. “The coronavirus broadens our awareness, but that should have been something we put into practice before this pandemic happened,” Hannah��Wineinger, a staff member at , told ���ϳԹ���.��

Still, many gyms weren’t able to sterilize holds every day, and as COVID-19 landed in all 50 states, climbing gyms began shutting doors to comply with government directives for social distancing. Steep Rock Bouldering closed on March 15 for the foreseeable future, as did gyms in most other states, including Seattle’s ; the����and gym��chains; facilities across the Midwest; and ��properties such as��, , and .

In other parts of the world, like Singapore and China, climbers have returned to their gyms already. Some in Hong Kong were seen scaling walls while wearing masks. Others in Beijing, according to climbers there, rented whole gyms for small groups of six or eight rather than stay at home. But in the U.S., climbers will have to do their best to stay in shape while in quarantine��(hello,��fingerboards and pull-up bars)��or perhaps by��, as most climbing gyms are not likely to reopen anytime soon.

While climbers in many places��can get their prorated membership fee refunded, gym owners��are encouraging��people to forgo that option if they have the means��or to��purchase gift cards and punch passes to use later so their businesses can try to��weather the��coronavirus disruption without laying off��staff. “Nobody’s ever experienced this before,” says Rich Johnston, the 62-year-old owner of Vertical World,��America’s first climbing gym, founded in 1987. “There’s no telecommuting for gyms, and employees are devastated. We’re still trying to process it.”

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A recent report from , a UK-based market-research group, revealed the 100 most visited cities in the world last year.��Major Asian hubs��such as Hong Kong, Bangkok, Macau, and Singapore dominated the list, taking seven of the top-ten��spots, while European and Middle Eastern metro areas��followed. Many travelers have used these cities as stopovers en route to��more adventure-filled final destinations, but we’re here to tell you that you don’t need to make onward connections to find what you’re looking for—these bustling urban centers have plenty of action-packed detours within an hour or two of downtown. Here’s a guide to extending that layover, packing in some time outdoors between major cultural sites, or simply making the most of these dynamic places.��

Hong Kong

Visitor count: 26.7 million��

Hong Kong has been the most visited city in the world since 2010. The ongoing anti-government protests��resulted in��2.5 million fewer visitors compared to 2018, but they haven’t��stopped most people��from going. U.S.����have recommended extra caution but haven’t discouraged taking trips there, and reports on the ground point to . However,��to��minimize��risk,��keep an eye on local��media reports to gauge which areas are most .

What many visitors don’t realize is that close to has been designated as parks or protected lands. A fifth of the city is also covered with steep slopes, making for��some of the best granite crags in Asia. Within an hour from the airport, you can go on a moderate canyoneering��day trip along the Ping Nam stream.��Or head 40 minutes south to��hit crags like Lion Rock and Beacon Hill��in Lion Rock Country Park; they��offer a variety of single- and multi-pitch climbs, from 5.6 to 5.13, and there’s nothing like the payoff—the skyline views from the top are some of the best in the city. For details on hiking trails in Hong Kong’s 24 national��parks and its��140 miles of cycling tracks, the ��is a good resource.

Bangkok

Visitor count: 25.8 million

This��capital city��has made��the list’s top five��for several years, securing second place in 2017 and 2018. Most visitors spend a few days in the��center, stopping by its decorated Buddhist temples and bustling street markets, before heading off to Thailand’s more than 1,000��islands, including��Phuket and Ko��Chang.

But Bangkok is surrounded by river- and lake-based adventures that make adding an extra day or two in the area worth it. Head 50��minutes east to , a wake park where water-skiers and wakeboarders hold onto��handle attached toa rope that’s pulled along by overhead cables near��the periphery of the lake, or use the park’s��ramps to practice your turnovers and other tricks (from $13).

Macau

Visitor count: 20.6 million

Macau, an��autonomous region on the south coast of China,��is known among globe-trotters as the Las Vegas of Asia,��due its giant casinos (gambling is illegal in Hong Kong and China) and malls along the Cotai Strip. But the former Portuguese colony is more than just roulettes and slot machines.

For extreme urban adventure, team up with guiding company����to scale 1,100-foot Macau Tower (from $299), where you can walk along the building’s outer rim for sight lines that reach as far as Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta in��China on a clear day. Half an hour south of��downtown, or 20 minutes from the airport, is Coloane Island, which has a ten-mile trail system that’s a go-to spot for local hikers and trail runners. Don’t miss the 1.3-mile , with views of��the azure South China Sea.

Singapore

Visitor count: 19.8 million

To escape the hustle and bustle of this tiny, dynamic city, go to��, an island just��12 miles from the downtown. It��can be reached in less than an hour via��a free bus from Changi International Airport and then a short ferry ride (from $3).

Hop on tandem kayaks from (from $58) and paddle around the mangrove, with hornbills and herons flying above. On the western edge of the island, Ketam Mountain Bike Park has a world-class ten-mile trail system that��hosts��the city’s major biking events.

You’re also likely to bump into wildlife photographers and birders��who come to catch sight of more than 200 species of birds, 700 types of plants, and 40 varieties of reptiles.

London

Visitor count: 19.6 million

Green spaces in London��are a dime a dozen,��but��the adventure offerings indoors and just beyond the city limits and are as innovative as they are varied.

A ten-minute drive from Big Ben is , an ice-climbing gym. The facility��keeps its internal temperature between 10 and 23 degrees year-round to maintain its 26-foot-tall ice wall, which features beginner slabs, dramatic overhangs, and everything in between (from $33).

Or��head an hour north of downtown to Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, and the��, a rafting and canoeing destination used in the 2012 Olympics. The venue hosts two options for rafting—a 1,000-foot Olympic course with a stunning 19-foot��drop, and a 525-foot loop with a milder five-foot��drop—and��offers Class II-IV whitewater��(from $65). New to the sport? You can also take kayaking ��there (from $78).

Paris

Visitor count: 19.1 million

An hour north of��the Eiffel Tower, or 40 minutes from Charles de Gaulle International Airport, is the��. The area has over 870 miles of trails that take hikers through 2,000 years of history.��Châteaus, churches, castles, old towns, and megalithic sites dating back to the Roman era dot routes lined��by chestnut trees.

If you don’t have time to leave the city, explore its��urban running��and biking opportunities.��Located along the western outskirts Paris,����(where the French Open is played every May) has two lakes,��nine miles of cycling routes, and countless trails in its 2,100 acres, which is more than twice the size of Central Park. And don’t forget about , with its��four-mile waterfront walkway from Pont d’Austerlitz to Pont d’Iéna, which passes the Louvre Museum, the Musée d’Orsay, Palais Bourbon, and the Eiffel Tower.

Dubai

Visitor count: 16.3 million

Hotel-bar hopping by luxury limo and extravagant desert safaris may overshadow the city’s biking and surfing scenes, but there’s plenty of ways to play outside if you know where to look.��In the cooler months, check out , a 50-mile loop that stretches from the southeast tip of downtown into the desert, where you’ll catch sightings of local wildlife such as oryx and ride alongside training athletes from the United Arab Emirates national team. Rent your ride at ��(from $15) off of the main highway, Sheikh Zayed Road.

If you prefer the water, you’re��not alone in a city home to . , just east of the iconic Burj Al Arab hotel, is your spot for kitesurfing, wakeboarding, and surfing. It’s known as the last bastion��for natural waves, as more man-made islands dot the coast and interrupt western swells. Or head to the�� (from $18) in Al Ain, a 90-minute��drive south of Dubai, which creates an 11-foot��wave—the largest artificial break��in the world—every 90 seconds.

Delhi

Visitor count: 15.2 million

Due to rapid development of its tourism infrastructure, Delhi witnessed a 20 percent visitor jump from 2018. This increase is only set to grow, as Indira Gandhi International Airport is set to����by June 2022, enabling��the hub to handle 100 million passengers every year. New direct routes to Delhi include Air India’s flight from��Toronto��and United Airlines’ flight from San Francisco. Its connectivity to locations across northern India, such as Kashmir and the foothills of the Himalayas, has also boosted inbound arrivals.

With wellness tourism on the rise globally, the city��has attracted visitors��who come for its yoga and meditation training institutes.��,��,��and����are good places to start. If you’re��a birder, a wildlife photographer, or just looking for some nature, head 18 miles south of the city center to , which��has close to 200 types of birds, more than 80 species of butterflies, and populations of nilgai, the largest Asian antelope that’s native to the Indian subcontinent. The , near��the entrance, organizes wildlife�� (from $2).

Visa restrictions: For��stays shorter than 60 days, U.S. visitors can apply for an at least four days prior to their arrival in lieu of applying for a tourist visa at an Indian embassy or consulate.

Istanbul

Visitor count: 14.7 million

After political and security issues in 2016 caused a drop in visitors, Istanbul��has rebounded. Its downtown sites are enough to fill a weeklong itinerary (navigating the Grand Bazaar will take at least a day), but it’s worth doing as the Turks do and taking a day or two to escape the city’s crowds and congestion.

Head over to Belgrad Forest, just ten��miles north of Istanbul. In an area encompassing more than 13,000 acres of oak, beech, and chestnut trees, runners can choose from plenty of unmarked trails. One of the most popular is a four-mile loop around the southern lake of Neset Suyu. For mountain bikers, there’s ��that spans from the south to the center of the forest.

Visa restrictions:��U.S. citizens who plan to stay��less than 90 days can obtain an .

Kuala Lumpur

Visitor count: 14.1 million

One of ���ϳԹ���’s 20 most affordable places to go in 2020, the Malaysian capital is no longer a stopover for visitors on the way��to its surrounding islands.

For serious rock climbers, Batu Caves, a 90-minute��drive north of��the city, has more than 170 routes across eight limestone crags. If you left your gear at home, offers half- and full-day tours with equipment rental (from $51). For hikers,��the 8.7-mile-long, 660-foot-wide , the longest quartz formation in the world, is a challenging trail just 12 miles north of the city. Trek up through muddy jungle terrain from either of the two trailheads, . You’ll need the help of a wire rope to get to the very top, where Kuala Lumpur’s famous skyline is visible on one side and a reservoir on the other. Looking for something less rigorous? Drive 25 miles south from downtown to for an hourlong hike with scenic jungle views. Go early in the morning or at dusk to catch the sunrise or sunset views over the city.

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��� love long layovers,” says Patricia Serrano, who writes the blog . ��� mean layovers that are 11 hours long or even longer. I want it to be long enough to get out of the airport and explore, even if you are laying over in a big city.”

Many international airlines are trying to reframe the inconvenient pause in air travel by offering extended layovers as perks to travelers. Iceland Air is the most famous example, with layovers for up to seven days for travelers from the U.S. who are passing through Iceland on their way to other destinations. Finnair, Royal Jordanian, TAP Portugal, and Turkish Airlines��have similar programs for passengers touching down in their hub airports. Some airlines, like Emirates, depending on the length of your layover to entice passengers to spend more time in their home cities.

Turkish Airlines offers free tours of Istanbul to passengers with long layovers. You’ll see the city’s Blue Mosque and��Grand Bazaar. And several airports now offer free layover tours designed to get travelers into their cities. At Singapore’s Changi Airport, hop on a free that shows off the city-state’s��stunning architecture in a 2.5-hour guided bus ride. From Qatar's Hamad International Airport, get into the capital��of Doha with Qatar Airways' tour and see the Museum of Islamic Art, among other sites. If you’re flying through Amsterdam, take a four-hour walking and canal tour of the city with ��that includes a stop at the Rembrandt windmill. It’s not free—it costs about $175—but it’s still cool. depart from LAX airport and hit a handful of iconic Southern California landmarks in just a few hours for less than $100.

Even if you don’t want to take a guided tour, you can make the most of your touch-and-go time if you have more than a few hours in a layover city. “Layovers aren’t long enough to just peruse a city aimlessly, but they can give you plenty of time to accomplish a single mission,” Serrano says. “Do some research and have a single museum exhibit or restaurant you want to hit during your layover. You absolutely should trek out of the airport for an amazing meal or piece of art.”

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Conversion rates can be hard—especially when you’re a few beers in. But if you’ve ever stared at a check and thought, I must be doing the math wrong, you know the ugly truth of drinking on the road: beers have wildly different price tags in different places. ��

Now, we’re not saying you should choose your next vacation destination by the price of the beer. But we’re not saying it’s the worst idea, either. If you do consider the price of suds as part of your travel planning, GoEuro.com, a travel site that helps road warriors book rail, air and bus tickets, has released its . The list sorts out the cheapest and most expensive cities for drinks. ��

Of course, cheap beer doesn’t always mean good beer. We wanted to know what beer culture was like in the cheapest and most expensive cities, so we asked locals to weigh in. Some of these cities have robust beer cultures, even if prices are low. Others, like Singapore, are expensive even though craft beer options are still limited. Here’s how the cities stack up.��

The Cheapest:

#3. Cape Town, South Africa

When you go to a bar in Cape Town, you go to your kind of bar. “Bars are very niche and serve the city's clique culture. The result is the sensation of living in a thousand places at once,” says Benjamin Timm, a longtime local. ��� would describe Cape Town as vibey, new, adventurous, and a little bit pretentious. The city is all about cashing in on global trends.” Gin is catching up to craft beer in popularity, but locally-produced and international brews remain the city’s staple. Despite Cape Town’s super-hip feel, prices are low. Timm says that for about 200 Rand ($15 US), you could expect to have a very fun night on the town. ��

#2. Kiev, Ukraine

Currently, Irish-themed bars are all the rage in Kiev, with warm wood interiors, cozy leather furnishings, and Guinness on tap. But, somewhat ironically, Guinness isn’t a particularly popular beer in Kiev—mainly because it’s much more expensive than local micros. Luckily, the native beers are quite good and very, very affordable. “You pay by the weight. A 1-liter bottle would cost you no more than 25 grivnas [about 99 cents] in Darnitsa's microbreweries,” says Arnaud Fournier, a student living in Kiev. An import costs double, which is still incredibly cheap for a liter of beer.��

Perhaps best of all, local citizens and bartenders love welcoming foreign visitors. Fournier says that (non-Russian) guests almost always get either a steeply discounted or free first drink. Just watch out—Fournier says drinking like a Ukrainian will result in a massive hangover. The good news is that it won’t dent your wallet. You’d literally put yourself in a hospital trying to spend more than $50 on a night out. ��

#1. Bratislava, Slovakia ��

Slovakia’s neighbor, the Czech Republic, gets a lot more attention for its beer (and is quite smug about it—apparently, a Czech prime minister once boasted that Slovakian beers .) But things are changing. Microbrewers are popping up and experimenting with new flavors—you can even find the occasional IPA. Plus, things are cheap. Like, really cheap. A one-third liter bottle of beer (just under 12 ounces) costs 51 cents at the supermarket and $2.80 at a bar. Also, Bratislava is a beautiful, quiet city to stroll through. It has much of the charm of Prague without the Disney World feel of being jammed in a castle with thousands of other gawking humans.

The Most Expensive:

#3. Singapore��

The craft beer scene is still young here, so you’ll have to go looking for it, especially if you want local stuff, not imports. The cocktail culture, however, is robust. Rooftop bars light up the skyline at night with young adults sipping high-end cocktails. In some spots, be ready to pay $15 to $20 for a single mixed drink. A beer, meanwhile, will set you back about $9.22.��

#2. Hong Kong

“The bar scene in Hong Kong is massive—the industries here are varied, but finance, banking, and real estate are huge ones, which makes drinking a bit of way of life here,” says Suzannah Van Rooy, an expat living in Hong Kong. Van Rooy says that craft beers are in, but craft cocktails are even bigger. ���t seems like every bar in all of Hong Kong is selling their own handcrafted cocktail with fresh-squeezed juices and hand-woven cotton candy and miniature dolphins swimming around in them. It's crazy what bars do to outshine one another here.” You’ll pay for those tiny dolphins, though. Van Rooy says you’ll spend between $40 and $65 dollars per person on a night out.��

#1. Lausanne, Switzerland

You practically need to have a Swiss bank account to afford a second drink in Switzerland. In a list of 70 cities worldwide, Lausanne wasn't the only Swiss city, but it was ranked the��most��expensive to drink in.��In fact, it out-priced��Zurich, which came in fourth. This may be a bit surprising, since Zurich has more��bankers, while Lausanne��has more students, says Daniel Gutzwiller, a local. He admits that, yes, Lausanne is extremely pricey, but he says that you can count on obsessively good service and high-quality beer. You get lake and alpine views, too. Just, maybe skip dinner if you are planning a big night out. The average beer is more than $17. If you’re not watching it, your tab can run well above $100 in no time.��

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THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE. Reflected in the massive expanse of Kamloops Lake, sharply blue through the picture window, visible overhead through the railcar’s glass dome. I’m aboard the luxury-class Rocky Mountaineer train threading more than 500 miles from Vancouver to the Canadian Rockies, but if I squint just a little bit, the passengers napping on cushy recliners fall away, leaving just desert sagebrush and bighorn sheep.

CHUG IT: tunneling through Yoho National Park, British Columbia

The unbroken landscape is a testament to the fact that trains can still take you where nothing else can. Disembarking at Kamloops, I run along the canyon trails high in the hills above town; in Jasper, I’m drawn toward the magnetic blue of a glacial lake. Back on board, I head outside to the vestibule between cars to suck up the clean mountain air. I’m not supposed to stick my head out over the railings, but I do anyway, like a dog drunk on scents—or, in my case, mimosas expertly prepared by the crew.

But train travel isn’t just about the killer views and access to remote wilds. It’s about arriving in high style: Spacious coaches, white tablecloths and fresh flowers in the dining car, eggs Benedict over lobster for breakfast, and a glass of wine served at my seat. The superb service gives a nod to the glory days of luxe train travel, with the added benefit of adrenaline-packed adventure. Here are six of the best journeys worldwide.

The Rocky Mountain Mountaineer: Vancouver to Jasper, Canada

CHUG IT: Jasper-bound on the Rocky Mountaineer

Miles: 532
Rolling out among Canada’s wilds is the reason to ride the Rocky Mountaineer. For two full days the train’s glass-domed GoldLeaf coaches give a front-row seat to British Columbia’s hyperdynamic landscape. First, heavy stands of rainforest yield to rolling pastures. At the intersection of the Fraser and Thompson rivers, the geography shifts from verdant to arid: striking sulfur- and iron-striped cliffs, bald eagles in ponderosa pines, and ospreys roosting on enormous nests atop old telephone poles. From Kamloops, day two gains elevation through the 11 glacier-topped mountains of the Premier Range, and suddenly 12,972-foot Mount Robson, the Canadian Rockies’ highest peak, is in full view. The ultimate high: crossing the Continental Divide at 3,711-foot Yellowhead Pass into Alberta’s jagged Jasper National Park. Overnights in Kamloops and Jasper give you the chance to mountain-bike hoodoos, trek across the Athabasca Glacier, and raft Class III rapids. Next summer, Rocky Mountaineer Vacations launches a new two-day, 642-mile Fraser Discovery route from Whistler through Quesnel to Jasper.

ACCESS + RESOURCES
» CANADA: Rocky Mountaineer (800-665-7245, ) runs two-day trips between Vancouver and Jasper, from US$869 per person, double occupancy, which includes all meals and overnight accommodations in Kamloops.

The Eastern & Oriental Express: Singapore to Bangkok, Thailand

CHUG IT: traversing Thailand on the Eastern & Oriental Express

Miles: 1,260
This ain’t no backpacker cattle car. Bearing the Orient-Express’s elegant pedigree, the E&O celebrates its 12th anniversary this year as the only luxury train in Southeast Asia, taking passengers on a three-day jaunt from Singapore north through the Malay Peninsula to Bangkok, Thailand. Far-flung spots include the island of Penang, Malaysia (where you can take a rickshaw past historic Hindu and Chinese temples), and Thailand’s infamous River Kwai. Train cabins are outfitted in embroidered linens, intricate Thai carvings, and polished brasswork; even standard Pullman compartments have convertible seat-beds, private showers, and panoramic windows; and in the restaurant cars, you’ll chow down on Malay curries and mango-filled samosas. Tack the three-day Thai Explorer itinerary—introduced last year—on to the end of your trip and you’ll get to check out silk artisans at work in Chiang Mai and hike among Ayutthaya’s crumbling temple ruins.

ACCESS + RESOURCES
» SOUTHEAST ASIA: Run by Orient-Express, the Eastern & Oriental Express (800-524-2420, ) travels twice a month between Singapore and Bangkok; from $1,730 per person one-way, including all meals, bunk-bed-style accommodations, and tours. Fares on the Thai Explorer begin at $1,360.

The Deccan Odyssey: Round-trip from Mumbai, India

Miles: 1,490
The famously lavish Delhi-to-Rajasthan Palace on Wheels finally got some competition last year with the Deccan Odyssey, a new 21-car luxury train with all the trimmings. Leaving from Mumbai every Wednesday, the train traverses Maharashtra’s colorful coastal region, then hits the beaches of Goa. Its weeklong itinerary includes visits to the Ajanta caves—home to ancient Buddhist paintings and sculptures dating to the second century b.c.—and ashrams in the historic city of Pune. But the onboard facilities are all 21st-century fabulous: Forty-eight cabins have private bathrooms and 24-hour room service, with separate dining cars and a business center with Internet access. Looking for a little om away from home? Rest easy—there’s even a gym and Ayurvedic health spa.

ACCESS + RESOURCES
» INDIA: On the Deccan Odyssey (888-463-4299, ), prices include sightseeing packages and start at $2,450 per person, double occupancy, for eight days, including all meals.

American Orient Express: El Paso, Texas, to Copper Canyon, Mexico

Miles: 1,312
A vast network of gorges and rivers four times the size of the Grand Canyon, Mexico’s Copper Canyon is an often overlooked miracle in the Sierra Madre Occidental. American Orient Express (no relation to the European original) unveiled its seven-day itinerary in 2003, and it’s one of the most scenic routes in the world. Restored vintage railcars—including those used on the New York Central and Union Pacific railroads during the fifties—shuttle you on tracks used only by freight trains for the past half-century. Watch barrel cactus with bright-yellow blooms, roadrunners, and Gila monsters whiz by as you chug south. Stops include 93-foot Cusárare Falls, in Creel, and Balancing Rock Overlook, near the isolated canyonside village of Divisadero, where you’ll witness a traditional dance performance by the native Tarahumara tribe.

ACCESS + RESOURCES
» MEXICO: American Orient Express (800-320-4206, ) runs its seven-day Copper Canyon and Colonial Mexico trips ten times a year. From $3,990 per person for vintage Pullman sleeper cars, made famous by films like North by Northwest; prices include meals and excursions.

The Blue Train: Cape Town to Pretoria, South Africa

Miles: 1,000
It’s a day-and-a-half journey from Cape Town’s white-sand beaches to Pretoria’s jacaranda-scented interior. On this trip, soaring Table Mountain gives way to valley vineyards, sheep farms, Kimberley’s diamond mines, and the mining shafts of the Witwatersrand gold-strike basin. The exotic landscape is matched by the exotic eats: Try karoo lamb and impala—the African antelope—paired with local South African wines. Aboard this high-tech train, plush suites have TVs and VCRs, and there’s a channel dedicated to short documentaries on the passing scenery. Zebra-print pillows, gleaming hardwoods, and picture windows bring the outdoors in. If you happen to be sipping a cognac in the smoking lounge, you won’t miss a thing—images from the train’s locomotive camera are piped to a central monitor.

ACCESS + RESOURCES
» SOUTH AFRICA: A double suite on the Blue Train (011-27-12-334-8459, ) for the day-and-a-half trip from Cape Town to Pretoria starts at $1,180, one-way, including meals and off-train excursions.

The Ghan: Adelaide to Darwin, Australia

Miles: 1,850
Last year, the first north–south Australian passenger train made its inaugural trip on the fresh-laid track between the red-rock heart of Alice Springs and the sultry tropical surrounds of Darwin. Named for the Afghan camel drivers who first ran the route after European colonization, the train now covers nearly 2,000 miles from Adelaide to Darwin, traveling through some of the world’s most sparsely populated regions. From a new station in the outback town of Katherine, intrepid travelers can take a helicopter flight through the 20-million-year-old canyons of Katherine Gorge. Big spenders can opt for the stylish Chairman’s Car, a private carriage with its own lounge and an exclusive dining room for eight.

ACCESS + RESOURCES
» AUSTRALIA: A two-night trip on the Ghan (011-61-8-8213-4592, ) from Adelaide to Darwin starts at US$340 per person for a Day-Nighter seat and US$1,404 for a sleeper, which includes meals.

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IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, after my daughter, Zoe, woke me up for the third time because she was afraid of the snakes, I wondered if maybe this trip wasn't such a good idea after all. Earlier, Zoe had been complaining about leeches, and before that about mosquitoes, and it dawned on me that unless you were raised in the rainforest, accustomed to strangler figs and spiders the size of gerbils, Borneo was a pretty forbidding environment. For a nine-year-old girl reared in suburban Colorado, it was downright menacing. Zoe's 13-year-old brother, Kolya, didn't help things when he authoritatively informed his sister that, as the smallest mammal among us, any predator obviously would attack her first.

Grada-A global classrooms: temples in Bali

I shot Kolya a fierce look that silenced his sibling cruelty, and reassured Zoe that it was unlikely snakes could board our 55-foot houseboat (called a klotok), moored on the banks of the Sekonyer River. Her fears weren't assuaged. Zoe knew the serpents were lurking. Heading upriver that afternoon, past suffocatingly green jungle crawling from the riverbanks and proboscis monkeys hanging in the trees like misshapen, mischievous fruit, a sudden movement in the water had caught our eyes. We were certain it was a crocodile. We were wrong. The animal's head, although almost as big as a crocodile's, belonged to a 25-foot-long python with a body circumference only slightly smaller than my thigh. Within minutes, we saw another serpentine motion in the river, and took in the sight of a bright-green reptile with a triangular head: a pit viper, one of the world's most poisonous snakes.
After Zoe had been coaxed back to sleep, I wondered about the kids' ability to cope with the stress of such an unfamiliar place. We had come to Borneo to see the orangutans of Tanjung Puting National Park two months into our five-month odyssey to visit some of the planet's great ecological wonders. So far the three of us had done a five-day “walkabout” on an Australian rainforest island, snorkeled off the Great Barrier Reef, surfed in Byron Bay, and climbed the highest mountain in Bali. But there were months more to go, and I questioned whether I had pushed the kids too far. My fears abated the next day, when the volunteers at the orangutan research station began bathing in the river, and Zoe and Kolya began to see the water not as a haven for monstrous beasts but as a jungle swimming pool. (Apparently the human activity ensured that this stretch of river was snake-free.) In no time the kids were doing cannonballs off the boat deck. I felt the glee and relief of having nailed the crux move of a difficult climb.

Our round-the-world adventure was born out of loss and grief. In a perverse cosmic joke, my older brother Bob died of breast cancer a year to the day after my divorce was final and my ex-wife moved out of state to go back to school. My children and I were recovering from these dual January shocks when I saw a story in The New York Times proclaiming that nearly half of the world's coral reefs could be dead within my lifetime. The headline underscored what I already knew: Life-forms were disappearing from this planet faster than you can say E. O. Wilson. In that moment, tragedy mixed with promise, and I decided it was time to take the kids to see some of these wonders before they were all gone.

“Before it's gone” became a mantra for the trip, with a triple entendre. The first, literal meaning was to see some of these amazing critters and environments before overpopulation and poverty and global climate change and pollution and development maimed or destroyed them. The second was to seize the opportunity to really spend time with my kids before they left my reconfigured single-father's nest. Kolya would be starting eighth grade, and Zoe fourth, and already I could tell they would be out of the house too soon. Lastly, the big “before it's gone” loomed especially large: my own mortality. After witnessing my brother's untimely death at 48, I knew viscerally there were no guarantees about how long any of us would be around. It was time to do something drastic: I nominated an epic road trip.
I broached the subject with the kids in February, and Zoe was immediately enthusiastic. Kolya began negotiating: Could we go surfing someplace along the way? “Why not?” I replied. Could he take his skateboard? “Sure.” They'd have to miss some school, of course. Not a problem, or as we would say later, “No worries.” Did they want to do an Australia-Southeast Asia-Japan swing, or maybe go all the way around the world? Around the world it was.

By mid-March, the idea had taken firm hold. I investigated plane tickets, researched ecological case studies, became a walking “to do” list: rent the house, get immunizations, and arrange to pay all my bills online from Internet cafes in Sydney, Singapore, Kathmandu, and elsewhere. By the end of June, we were on a plane heading west.

I had planned for our first leg, Australia, to be a gentle introduction to the traveler's way—and it was. We rented a camper van, our little tortoise shell on wheels, and traveled among people who spoke English (okay, Australian). We saw kangaroo roadkill and wallabies by our campsite and ate sausage rolls and fish and chips. We spent most of our time in Queensland, exploring the environmental issues of the Great Barrier Reef. Kolya learned to drive the right-hand-drive camper van on outback roads (another promise he had extracted), and we backpacked through virgin rainforests in Hinchinbrook Island National Park.

By the time we reached Bali five weeks later, the kids were primed to settle into Asian travel. With my girlfriend, Tory, who joined us for five weeks of the trip, we rented a car and almost circumnavigated the island over the next couple of weeks. We climbed Mount Agung, a 10,308-foot volcano, after dragging the kids out of bed at 2 a.m. and ascending with flashlights to make the summit by dawn. We spent several days in the town of Ubud, watching Balinese dance and shadowpuppet performances. We snorkeled off of Menjangan Island and spent some time in Amed, a fishing village with great snorkeling and beach massages.

Next stop was Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo island. (One of the great ironies of “taking the kids out of school” was that Kolya's class was at home studying geography.) We gaped at orangutans, gibbons, and macaques, as well as kingfishers, river otters, and crocodiles. We also visited logging camps and gold-mining operations that threaten all of the above. Despite the fact that Kolya calls me a “hippie tree hugger” for doing my environmental research, I think he got the point.

On September 11, we were in Singapore. After seeing the searing images of falling bodies and buildings, I wondered again if we should call the trip off. But we carried on, feeling safer in Asia than we might have at home, and also sensing that being part of the world community was better than hiding out in the States. Moving on to Vietnam, we visited Cat Tien National Park, the last mainland-Asian home to the gravely endangered Javan rhino. Tory left us in Ho Chi Minh City, and the three of us went overland into Cambodia before heading to Thailand. In Nepal, the last stop of our ecological tour of endangered places, one daylong jungle walk afforded us a frisson of danger when we saw tiger prints, but no tiger.

We came home through Western Europe, visiting friends and family in Switzerland, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. For the kids, Europe seemed blissfully familiar after three months in Asia.

Highlights? Just doing it, getting out of our quotidian cages and into global orbit; the kids' faces after we had hopped barefoot out of our jeep at dusk to watch an enormous rhinoceros grazing by a riverbank, and realized that we were standing, smiling, ankle-deep in rhino poop; watching Kolya and Zoe sit atop an elephant in the middle of a Nepali river, bathing under the elephant's trunk spray; visiting Ta Phrom, in Cambodia, an ancient temple where Tomb Raider was filmed; swinging from vines in the Australian rainforest; visiting an orangutan orphanage, where one female sucked her own breast and playfully spit the milk at Kolya; Zoe dressing up like a Balinese maiden on the way to a ceremony. And on and on.

Lowlights? They are already receding from memory: the kids tormenting each other with words and fists; what they dubbed the “crack hotel” in Kumai, Borneo, where the power stopped but the mosquitoes didn't; a 14-hour rickety bus ride from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh with roadside food sellers offering fried toads to hungry travelers; Kolya throwing up all night at a caravan park in Queensland; Zoe throwing a fit at the excruciatingly slow customs line in Kathmandu.

One story sticks in my mind, my own metaphor for the trip. Two weeks into our travels, we are camping on a mile of white sand, our last night backpacking on Australia's Hinchinbrook island. After dinner, the kids drag me to the deserted beach under a half-moon midway through the antipodal sky. The two of them jump me, and we begin a three-way tag-team wrestling match that mostly involves the kids running kamikaze at me and me tossing them to the sand like a benevolent King Kong. In the tropical night, Kolya and I stripped to the waist, Zoe to her bathing suit. Without a word, we begin a kind of simian step, hunching our shoulders up and down and dragging our knuckles on the fine sand. The three of us peer at each other with cocked heads, vocalizing like monkeys. We start moving slowly, almost in a circle, then faster, and faster, with more abandon and less inhibition. Soon we are dancing wildly along the beach, rolling around and jumping. Kolya dubbed it “monkey-dancing.”

From that point on, we monkey-danced around the world. And even though we're home, there's a little monkey-dancer left in each of us.

Our Trip
Traveling overseas with kids requires extraordinary reservoirs of energy and patience. The basics, however, remain: Travel light, be flexible, and instill a sense of adventure into every misadventure (ask Zoe about our two flat tires in Singaraja, Bali). Go slow, sleep several nights in each place, and build in lots of downtime. Carry snacks at all times.

I planned a rough itinerary, starting with four places of ecological wonder threatened by human development: the Great Barrier Reef, the orangutan habitat of Borneo, the last Javan rhino reserve in Vietnam, and the tiger country of southern Nepal. The rest of the trip involved visiting friends and family, and going to places, like Bali, that I had long wanted to visit. I chose a “round-the-world” ticket, which cost about $10,000 for the three of us and allowed up to 15 stops in 29,000 miles. It's also possible to get cheap fares on the Internet and through bucket shops along the way.
Food and Lodging
We stayed mainly in travelers' hotels, and I quickly determined that the lowest-budget places in books like the Lonely Planet guides were a little too basic for the kids. By bumping up a few dollars (and in many parts of Asia that means paying $15 a night for three rather than $8), Kolya and Zoe were much more comfortable. In every country, they found something they liked in inexpensive restaurants. Did I mention carrying snacks?

Sickness
We avoided all serious illness—probably because I spent more than $400 on drugs (antimalarials, Cipro, amoxicillin, epinephrine pins) we never used. The basics, again: In many countries, don't even brush your teeth with tap water, and don't eat fruits or vegetables you can't peel or cook.

School + internet
The kids took math workbooks, wrote in their journals, read regularly, and did a class presentation when they returned. They didn't miss a beat. We found internet cafes everywhere, and it's increasingly easy to book hotels and flights online. E-mail was an important lifeline to home and friends, especially for Kolya.

Money
Traveler's checks work great, but also carry some greenbacks in small denominations. Credit cards are good for cash advances and some purchases, although rarely on the low-budget circuit. With American Express accounts, you can sometimes cash checks from U.S. banks to get more traveler's checks. Some days we spent $25 for the three of us, more often $50 to $75, occasionally more. Don't forget to budget for visas, airport taxes, and miscellaneous Third World surprises.

Entertainment
I brought a laptop that could play DVDs and got two Game Boys for long bus rides and planes. Watching South Park episodes in dingy hotel rooms (“Oh, my God. They killed Kenny!”) was hilariously incongruous, and buying pirated DVDs in Phnom Penh was also entertaining, especially since some were filmed with camcorders in movie theaters, complete with people walking in front of the camera to get popcorn.

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