Roll from San Francisco Bay through redwoods to Monterey, and on down the Pacific Coast Highway past sand, surf, and seals, to Santa Barbara. After staying at the Spindrift Inn in Monterey's Cannery Row, eating at Nepenthe in Big Sur, and finishing with grub at Rincon Red at the Santa Barbara Brewing Co., you'll want to ride back to Sur with love. Distance: 340 miles. Time: 4 days. Cost: About $1,000. bigsurcalifornia.org

Did you know that the Gulf Stream keeps Norway's coast toasty all winter? Well, toastyish: usually above freezing. Hurti-gruten's cruises offer killer views of killer whales. You can bunk in an igloo, go dogsledding, take a snowmobile safari, and gawk at the northern lights. Distance: 1,250 miles. Time: 7 to 9 days. Cost: $2,150 and up. hurtigruten.com 

You don't hit the wall in this race; you run it. In the Great Wall Marathon, you climb China's ancient roller-coaster-y landmark, stride along the top, and then run down some of its 3,700 stone steps before crossing rice fields, where villagers cheer you to the finish line. The next Wall-athon is on May 18, 2008. There will be a half-marathon, a 10-K, and a 5-K, too. Distance: 26.2 miles. Time: About 40 percent over your usual marathon time. Cost: $2,500 to $2,980, including airfare from the United States. great-wall-marathon.com

After boarding the posh Royal Scotsman in Edinburgh, you'll enjoy a wee dram of scotch on your way to the Highlands, where your dream golf trip starts with a round at famed Royal Dornoch. Knock a Titleist around Nairn, Cruden Bay, or other great tracks, and then give Nessie a wave on your way past Loch Ness. Distance: 400 miles. Time: 6 days. Cost: $7,800. perrygolf.com

Space tourism is just getting off the ground, but a firm called Zero G has a space walk you can take tomorrow. Its superplane, G-Force One, zooms 30,000 feet up and then curves downward, inducing 15 half-minute periods of weightlessness. You can float around and watch a globule of water fly by. "Parabolic flight" is how Tom Hanks floated in Apollo 13. The physicist Stephen Hawking flipped for it, too. Altitude: 24,000 to 34,000 feet. Time: 90 minutes. Cost: $3,500. gozerog.com