Cycling tips

From cannabis-clouded coffee shops to lovely parks and cycling lanes aplenty, Amsterdam is a European city with a delightful, vibrant vibe that’s entirely its own. While it certainly makes for amazing travel escapades, there are some useful things to understand about this city and the local culture. 

Morag Mottram, 67, and her husband Jim, 69, of Alberta, Canada had no plans to retire in South Florida and fill their days with bridge and pickleball. Nor did they intend to drive off into the sunset in a shiny Airstream trailer when it came time to hang up their work badges. Instead, this graying, convention-flouting couple set off on two wheels. A pedal-powered approach to life based on many days and weekends spent cycling led them to a small group adventure with Wilderness Scotland, riding across the Outer Hebrides, a scenic cluster of islands off the west coast of Scotland known for rugged hills, barren moorlands, and wind-swept beaches. It was just the start of many such trips to come.

There’s a palpable sense of the changing seasons at this time of the year – longer days, warmer weather, and the feeling that people are stirring from winter hibernation. The parks are getting busier, tennis courts are being used and pelotons of cyclists are starting to appear on our roads. There are so many ways of enjoying the great outdoors while keeping yourself fit and healthy. You may have enjoyed a kayaking trip, a hiking break, cycling through beautiful scenery or a wild swimming holiday. Whatever gets you up and out for an adventure, we’d love to hear about it.

Tristan Ridley was days into his first long-distance trip when he met with a life-threatening incident.

A trip to Japan offers travelers a range of unforgettable experiences, from sampling the rich culinary heritage to discovering remnants of the country's samurai past. What you might not know is that Japan is also a prime destination for outdoor adventure sports. If you are into skiing fine powder snow or diving with sea turtles, hiking sacred peaks or heading off on rural bike rides, Japan has all that and more.

Melodic mantras and warm oil repeatedly poured across the lower back are parts of Kati Vasti, an Ayurvedic therapy that Karina Steward, founder and chief wellness officer of Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary in Koh Samui, Thailand, swears would put anyone in a pleasure coma. “It's like when you rub oil on the back of a baby and they just pass out,” she explains. But for women experiencing menopause, who are subject to nervous system overload, adrenal burnout, and sleeplessness, such treatments can feel especially powerful, Steward notes. It's one of many tools in Kamalaya's new Radiant Bliss program, a combination of Eastern and Western therapies. Stewart designed it to address women's health concerns at all points in the biological cycle, but the program particularly helps those enduring the mood swings, hot flashes, weight gain, and insomnia that are part of what was once referred to as “the change.”

I’ve enjoyed a lovely four- to five-day circular trip using ferries and bikes. We took the Brittany Ferries overnight sailing from Portsmouth-St Malo, then cycled along La Véloscénie [signposted cycle route] passing Mont Saint-Michel. At Domfront we took La Vélo Francette to Ouistreham and then the ferry back to Portsmouth. At least three-quarters of the ride is off road along former railway track cycle paths that are well maintained. Plenty of accommodation is available. With the exception of a hilly few miles around Flers, it’s all very easy and with the prevailing wind. The final 40 miles from the impressive Viaduc de Clécy is all downhill, passing Pegasus Bridge.Keith Perry

Frozen hair is a nuisance in most places, but at the Eclipse Nordic Hot Springs in Whitehorse, Yukon, it’s a higher calling. Every winter, hundreds of people try to freeze their hair into a troll-doll-like coif for a chance to win cash prizes of 2,000 Canadian dollars, or nearly $1,500.

Puglia embodies everything that is seductive about southern Italy: rolling countryside blanketed in almond and olive groves, luridly turquoise beaches, snug whitewashed villages, and long, lazy lunches washed down with prized local vino.

Standing astride a bike on a sunny morning in Austria, I waved goodbye to the AmaSonata, the river cruise ship I’d been on for the last few days, as it continued sailing west on the Danube River.

The weather-beaten curves of a battered stone wall guide me out of Langholm, an idyllic old textile town tucked between the hills of the Esk valley, eight miles north of the English border.