Ride a cable car in San Francisco. When San Francisco constructed its cable car system 125 years ago, no one was trying to build a historic landmark or a tourist attraction
Learn how to be a clown.- San Francisco School of Circus Arts Running away to the circus may be as easy as visiting the city by the bay.
Re-live America in the 1950's: Go to a drive-in movie theater with your sweetie. Revisit the days before multiplexes and DVDs, when drive-in theaters reigned supreme.
Learn to survive in the wilderness.- Boulder, Utah Put your survival skills to the test and learn what it takes to make it in the real world.
Skydive in a spectacular place.- Auckland, New Zealand For the brave souls who dare, skydiving offers a chance to get about as close to flying as is humanly possible.
Visit an active volcano.- Costa Rica Bubbling lava, paths of fire cutting through the trees it's a sight most people only witness on television or in books.
Visit a nude beach.- St. Martin, French West Indies A midnight skinny-dip might actually seem prudish compared to the sensory overload of visiting a nude beach in broad daylight.
Go to a nudist colony.- Palm Springs, California Want to shed those extra layers, feel the sand between your toes, the sun on your skin?
Scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef.- Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of Australia It is half the size of the state of Texas and is considered to be one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
Climb Mt. Everest.- Kathmandu, Nepal Once the domain only of the most seasoned mountaineers, Everest today is accessible to people from all walks of life.
Race in Alaska's Iditarod.- Anchorage to Nome, Alaska In Alaska it's called the "Last Great Race on Earth," a 1,150-mile course that pits man and dog against nature.
Go to Japan and eat fugu.- For those who like to inject a little danger into everything they do, the Japanese have the perfect dish.
Go on a safari.- South Africa One million trips to the zoo cannot compare to the sights, sounds and smells of a safari.
Take a swamp tour and learn how to wrestle an alligator.- Gatorland, Orlando, Florida Visit the land of all things reptile: Central Florida's Gatorland.
Swim with sharks.- Cocos Island, Costa Rica Dive into the waters of Cocos Island, one of the world's most famous diving locations.
Get close to a wild animal that could kill you.- McNeil River, Alaska Approximately 250 miles southwest of Anchorage is a pristine wilderness where animals are the priority and humans come second.
Run with the bulls in Pamplona.- Pamplona, Spain Trying to outrun an angry half-ton beast with sharp horns is probably high on the list of life-endangering adventures.
Travel to Michoacan, Mexico to witness the migration of monarch butterfly.- Michoacan, Mexico The tree are alive with butterflies! One million Monarch butterflies, actually.
Go whale watching.- San Juan, Washington Spot whales in the waters around Washington's San Juan Islands.
Visit Africa? Serengeti Plain.- Northern Tanzania to southern Kenya Hop in a hot air balloon for a bird's-eye-view of the great wildebeest migration.
Go to a writers retreat and work on your novel. Generations of writers have learned the same thing: the best way to wrap up a novel is to get away for a while.
Learn to paint a landscape like Van Gogh. It's never too late to pick up the brush again or even for the first time.
Read "Anna Karenina" and explore Tolstoy's Moscow. Get to know the author by visiting his Moscow home, now a museum.
Attend a Shakespeare festival and bring the bard to life. Spend a midsummer night's eve in the company of star-crossed lovers and feuding families.
Participate in a Pow-Wow with American Indians. Get a glimpse of North America's heritage by visiting the Gathering of Nations Pow Wow in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Only in New York would the public library boast that it contains the "largest and most comprehensive collection in the world on the history, literature and lore of tobacco."
Spend a week at Burning Man. It's the fourth-largest metropolitan area in Nevada, but don't bother looking for it on the map.
Visit Michelangelo? David. Even 500 years after it was completed, Michelangelo Buonarotti's "David" stands tall in the world of fine sculpture.
Visit the Hershey Chocolate Factory in Pennsylvania. Hop in a cocoa-bean-shaped car and learn all you ever wanted to know about chocolate.
Watch the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Don't miss this quintessentially British ritual.
Visit Paris and skate through the streets at night. Join 10,000 Parisians as they hit the streets for Europe's biggest street skating party.
Take in Memphis Elvis-style. The best place to get to know Elvis circa A.D. 2000 is at his self-appointed mansion.
Get a taste of high fashion in Milan. From the moment you land at Linate Airport in Milan, you know you have arrived in the fashion capital of the world.
Learn to tango in Buenos Aires. To really feel the soul of the tango, head to Buenos Aires, the birthplace of the dance.
Sip tea in a traditional tea garden. The ancient Japanese tea ceremony is steeped deep in religion, history and mystery.
Dance a waltz at the Vienna Opera Ball. The ball transforms the Vienna State Opera into the world's most shining example of life as art.
The world's first public art museum, completed in 1787 by Catherine the Great, the Hermitage was originally home to the empress's private collection of Western European art.
The black granite wall was constructed as a place of healing and reconciliation for the families, friends and supporters of the more than 58,000 slain or missing soldiers.
Visit a former concentration camp. Visit the memorial and museum dedicated to the people who lost their lives in the Holocaust.
Explore the routes of America's underground railroad.- Flushing, Ohio Learn about the network that helped 40,000 to 100,000 slaves to escape brutal lives in the south.
Visit the Crazy Horse monument in South Dakota. See the legend immortalized in a 563-foot-high, 641-foot-long sculpture.
Walk the Great Wall of China. Take a long walk along the wall, or just marvel at its ingenuity.
Ruins of Pompeii. In A.D. 79, Pompeii was a bustling town, with homes, markets and temples. Walk along the ancient streets, roads that still show the marks of horses' hooves and chariot wheel ruts.
Visit the Athenian Acropolis.- Athens, Greece A spectacularly preserved site representative of ancient Greek civilization, the Acropolis in Athens is an architectural and historic treasure.
Participate in a traditional Tet celebration.- Vietnam Grab your sparklers, bring along a party attitude and plan a trip to Vietnam for this year's Tet celebration.
Celebrate the Day of the Dead in Mexico. In Mexico, families come together to remember the deceased in an annual celebration of Dia de los Muertos.
