We step onto the cliff top outcropping of rock and let the blue sky and lake vista envelope us. "This viewpoint doesn't even have a name," says guide Diana Blinkert of Visit Essen. "I just call it The Rock. We're so lucky to have found it off this little side path off the BaldeneySteig." This type of epiphany comes early – and often – on the Balden...

"Vamonos, amigos," quips Karina Rios Radilla with a wave of her hand and a snap of her head. Our guide from Juan More Taco Tours is giving us the Spanish command of 'let's go, friends' because we're falling behind in this six-stop, three-hour, lunch-time culinary adventure. That's right, so many tacos and so little time. Karina's admonishment comes...

Ride the snow groomer to the mountaintop to eat and drink. SilverStar Mountain Resort near Vernon, British Columbia, Canada is the only place in the world that has an experience like this. We climb aboard the candy-apple-red PistenBully 400 snow groomer not to actually smooth out any white stuff, but to take an epic ride to the mountaintop for a go...

Sawgrass Recreational Park is a 40-minute drive from both Fort Lauderdale and Miami. In his South Florida drawl, Jimmy Koeppel nonchalantly tells us people "don't get bit" by alligators unless "ya try ta mess with 'em". So what do we do? We hop off his airboat and head straight for Sawgrass Recreational Park's wildlife exhibit to mess with a gator....

Norpeo happily allows me to slather her with handful after handful of silky-smooth river mud. And she doesn't mind when I follow her into the crystal-clear waters of the River Kwai to splash and scrub the mud off with a big kitchen broom. Maybe she's such a trusting friend because earlier I hand fed her watermelons and bananas as she winked at me a...

Yoga, the full moon and mangrove cycling anchor a new-agey vacay. Tulum is a town on the Caribbean coastline of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. It's known for its beaches and well-preserved ruins of an ancient Mayan port city. The main building is a large stone structure called El Castillo (castle), perched on a rocky cliff above the white sand beach a...