Roll With It - Zorbing

Credit: Holleyweb.com

Maybe you like the idea of rolling down a hill in a carefree manner, but you're fussy about grass stains. Or you've always wondered what it's like to be a hamster. Or you're just plain crazy. Whatever the reason, there exists an activity in Rotorua, New Zealand, called Zorbing, in which people pay good money to roll down a grassy hill in a giant plastic ball.

Of course you can customize your hill-rolling adventure. Do you want to be strapped in or bouncing free? Would you like some water added into your ball so that you get splashed in the face while you're rolling? Perhaps you would like to tack on the adventure package, in which your ball switchbacks down the hill and does a vertical drop off the edge in the end. Whatever the case, remember to wear clothing that won't come loose and accidentally reveal anything. Because you'll want to be able to crawl out of your giant plastic ball with your dignity intact.

What's the Password? - Safe House Restaurant

Credit: OnMilwaukee.com

So you probably don't expect to find any spies or undercover activity going on in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and you probably wouldn't), but what you can find there is a restaurant devoted to espionage called Safe House. And I mean that you literally have to find it. The entrance is hidden somewhere in an alley way, and even after you figure out which door it is, you need to offer up a worthy password to get in.

Once you're inside, the spy theme continues. I'd tell you more about it, but then I'd have to kill you. Just kidding! Covert activities include finding the secret phone booths and accepting missions that take you on a tour of the restaurant, which is filled with spy memorabilia. The menu features items such as the "squeak-easy" (batter-dipped Wisconsin cheese curds topped with a secret sauce, natch), and the drink of the house is, of course, the martini. Mmm ... cheese curds and martinis. Offer me that combo and I'll tell you anything you want to know. Guess M16 won't be hiring me anytime soon.

Do It for the Killer Views - Huashan Trail

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Hiking can be fun, but it's not always very exciting. In fact, sometimes when I'm hiking it hits me that I'm actually just ... walking. On a dirt path. Whee!

If you're also experiencing hiking ennui, perhaps we should take a trip together to Huashan, one of the five sacred mountains of China, near the city of Huayin in Shaanxi province, where the hiking is decidedly more exhilarating. Steep ladders and narrow, rickety pathways lead up the mountain, and hikers must walk single file on parts of the path, sometimes without the aid of any sort of railing. (There's a rusty chain that you can grab onto in a pinch though!) And sometimes the trail disappears altogether and all you're left with are footholds that have been carved into the mountain face. Have there been fatalities? You betcha. But where else can you catch such, um, killer views, more than 7,000 feet above solid ground?

Holy Tigers, Batman! - Tiger Temple

Zoos are neat and everything, but the animals are always so annoyingly out of reach. Tigers, for example, are always behind two sets of bars, a low wall, and a moat. What's the worst that might happen if we were allowed to pet the tigers a little? Besides an imminent and gruesome death, I mean.

Well, it turns out that maybe death is not imminent after all. At Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, visitors are allowed to hang out with free-roaming tigers that were brought to the sanctuary to be raised by Buddhist monks. Are these tigers drugged? Beaten? Cat-shamed? Nope, none of the above - in fact, a recent raid by the concerned Thai government revealed that the tigers are actually perfectly content. They don't attack their visitors simply because they're well-fed and well-adjusted. Of course, my house cat is also well-fed and well-adjusted, and he's attacking my ankles for seemingly no reason as I type this, so visit at your own risk.

No Fork? No Problem - Carpe Diem Finger Foods Restaurant

Credit: Carpe Diem Finger Foods

Utensils are overrated. Sure, they keep your fingers clean and lend you the overall appearance of a civilized human being while you're eating, but they also take out all the fun. There's nothing like manhandling your food and giving your fingers a satisfying lick after it's all over, I say. In a completely unrelated topic, did you know that I was raised by gorillas?

The Michelin-starred Carpe Diem Finest Fingerfoods in Salzburg, Austria, understands this atavistic need and has built a fine dining experience around finger foods. Most of its menu items are made for being picked up by hand, and even the gloppy substances that refuse to go quietly into your mouth are presented in edible cones for your convenience. There are also some fork-friendly dishes, in case your dining companion is not as cool with finger foods as you are. Which begs the question: Why are you eating with this elitist pig, anyway?

An Aboveground Pool You'll Want to Be Seen In - Marina Bay Sands Hotel

Credit: Chia Ming Chien

Life's too short to spend at the community pool. It's time to put down that membership card, pick up your passport, and fly to Singapore, where the world's highest and largest infinity pool exists at the top of the posh Marina Bay Sands hotel. Get some laps done while taking in a view of the city, 57 stories off the ground.

Make sure you check into the hotel first, though (it's only about $500 a night), as the SkyPark pool is open solely to guests. No one wants to see you getting carted off by the Singaporean police. If you think their punishment of people who chew gum is a tad severe, you don't want to know what they do to those they find splashing around illegally in luxury hotel pools.

The Coolest City in the World - Harbin Ice Festival

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I hate ice. All it's ever done is make me look like a fool, as a pedestrian and as a skier. I won't even put it into my drinks. This has made for some pretty nasty strawberry daiquiris, but I'm nothing if not principled. That's why I won't be visiting the Harbin Ice Festival in China any time soon, even though it looks CRAZY AWESOME.

Every winter the town of Harbin (also home to a restaurant run by robots) builds an entire city out of ice, using blocks from the nearby Songhua River. Architects from all over the world come to design the various buildings, monuments and sculptures. At night, the ice buildings are lit up in bright, glowing colors. As the event has grown over the years, other attractions for the public have been added, including rides like giant ice slides. Okay, as I type this, my hate for ice is starting to melt a little. I mean, it's one thing to give up ice in my drinks, another thing entirely to ignore the calling of a GIANT ICE SLIDE. ... Don't judge me.

Get a Real Sense of Terroir - Hotel de Vrouwe van Stavoren

Wine snobs: You may have tasted all of the Bordeaux first-growths, visited every last winery in Napa Valley, and paired your last meal with a triple-digit-priced Cab ... but have you ever slept in a wine barrel? No? And you call yourself a connoisseur. Pfft.

Now you can get a REAL sense of terroir - by checking into giant wooden wine barrels that have been converted into hotel rooms. At the Hotel de Vrouwe Van Stavoren in the Netherlands, guests can sleep in one of four 15,000-liter capacity wine casks. The interiors have sadly been emptied of wine many vintages ago and now contain standard hotel-room furniture, but guests do receive a bottle of red upon check in. So if you consider yourself a true wine lover, you'll set down that glass of Château Frou-Frou and book a room tout de suite. Or you might as well admit that you're actually better suited for beer.

Bath Time - Pamukkale Hot Springs

I love hot tubs. Show me a steaming pool of over-chlorinated water and I will happily dive in, then proceed to recklessly ignore the warnings about not soaking for too long. If I am ever rich, my fantasy is to build a house with interconnecting hot tubs flowing from room to room. (Note to self: Patent the idea of interconnecting hot tubs in my latest effort to get rich.)

Or maybe I'll just take multiple trips to what may be the coolest hot tubs in the world, the Pamukkale hot springs of Turkey. Part naturally occurring phenomenon, part Candy Land fantasy, these pools of geothermally heated water sit on terraces made of white travertine and resemble cotton bowls filled with water (pamukkale means "cotton castle" in Turkish). I didn't even know landscape like this existed on Earth - it almost looks like a scene out of Star Wars. I know. I'm picturing Ewoks splashing in the pools, too.

Dark Magic - Bioluminescent Bay

When you're a kid, just about everything can be attributed to magic: Santa Claus, lightning, toilets. But by the time you become an adult, there's not a lot of magic left in the world. Well, that time I found a parking meter with 56 minutes left on it was pretty magical, but that's about the only example I can think of. See, it's a sad state of affairs. Which is why the bioluminescent bay in Vieques, Puerto Rico, is such a treat. It is a truly magical experience, no matter how old you are. You WILL squeal once you kayak through the bay in the dark, or jump into the waters for a swim. The water lights up in a mystical blue-green color every time you touch it. And if you scoop it up for a closer look, you'll see tiny silver sparkles twinkling like fairy dust in your hands.

So what exactly is happening here? I told you, it's MAGIC! Well, magic plus the fact that the biobay is home to tiny, single-celled organisms that light up when agitated. I know. How cute is that? They're glowing because they're mad! And because there are 720,000 of these organisms PER GALLON of water in the Vieques biobay, a bluish glow emerges from the combined bursts of light. But sometimes science can be such a buzz-kill. I say just go. Maybe keep your mouth closed when you jump into the water, though.