Traverse City, known as a four-season playground, is now celebrated for quality cuisine, wine and culture. Miles of sugar-sand shoreline include the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore with romantic lighthouses and coastal villages. The glacier-sculpted landscape of orchards and vineyards includes 16 golf courses. Swimming, sailing, paddling, hiking and fishing are favourite warm weather activities, while winter turns the region into a playground for skiers, snowmobilers and snowshoers.

Wild horses can actually drag you away…to Chincoteague Island. Here, ponies run wild, you can catch or dig up your own seafood, and the beaches bring literal breaths of fresh air. The Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge is a wonderfully unspoiled spot for bird watching, horseback riding, swimming and biking. Every summer since 1925, all of the feral ponies on Assateague are rounded up for the world-famous annual Pony Swim over to Chincoteague.

One visit to the Yorkshire Dales and it’s easy to understand why the unspoiled countryside is the setting of so many novels. Must-see sights among the land’s lush woodlands and expansive moors include Hardraw Force (the longest single-drop waterfall in the North), Gordale Scar, and well-known hill range, the Three Peaks. Less adventurous visitors can rest easy, walking through the manicured lawns of Parcevall Hall Gardens or appreciating Skipton Castle’s medieval architecture. Although some prefer to take in the land’s wild beauty by foot or horse, the most popular way is via one of the park’s famed cycling routes.