Top 10 unusual trips to book in January

Feel your hairs stand on end as you step into the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, eerily quiet since it was evacuated in 1986. Now you can enter the zone for two days, eat in the canteen of the fated power plant and even meet self-settlers who have re-entered the zone to live under the radar.

Explore Sri Lanka's Knuckles Mountain Range (which resembles a clenched fist, hence the name), with its isolated cloud forests providing a haven for a rich diversity of flora and fauna. Making an early start before breakfast, we set off on a short trek to a spectacular viewpoint known locally as Mini World's End , where the sharp slope drops almost vertically for 1192 metres, affording magnificent panoramic views over the often mist-shrouded landscapes.

Argentina is the place to see glaciers close up. There’s even a National Park here called ‘Los Glaciares’, home to the immense Perito Moreno. Trek on the ice, or take a boat ride right up to the glacier face. End an awe-inspiring day in the Argentinian way - with a glass of delicious local Malbec.

Take a night-time walk in Andasibe Reserve by torch-light to spot chameleon and the smallest primate in the world – the mouse lemur. By day, meet some of the area’s nine lemur species, explore Madagascar’s spectacular Grand Canyon, and swim or snorkel in the Indian Ocean.

Discover the 98 km curved Curonian Spit, best known for large sand dunes scarcely found in Europe, trees strangely shaped by the wind and eerie wooden sculptures at the ‘Hill of Witches’. Visit the fishing village of Nida, where the community moves with the shifting sand dunes, and look for wild boar and moose in the surrounding forest.