Sandra O'Connellhas lots of suggestions for a holiday that will keep you in shape
1 Scuba diving in CroatiaThe warm waters of the Adriatic make Croatia's island-dotted coastline the perfect place to explore what lies beneath. The main tourist resorts of Cavtat, Bol and Hvar all have a good variety of marine life, excellent visibility and interesting dive sites.
Concorde Travel has everything, from €50 "discover scuba" courses for beginners to five-day open-water dive programmes for €290. All you have to do is add the price of the course to the price of your holiday and it'll be booked for you, equipment and all.
Flights to Croatia start at about €300, and a week's accommodation at the four-star Hotel Amfora, in Hvar, in June costs €799.
www.concordetravel.ie
2. Walking in France"When I have a problem I walk, and walking makes it better," said the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. And if walking back to happiness was good enough for him - and he had more problems than most - it should work a treat for the rest of us.
This year, the independent ski company Slopeside has launched a summer programme at its chalets in the French Alpine resort of Morzine. Sitting in the Dranse Valley, it offers hundreds of kilometres of marked trails, from relaxing strolls to strenuous mountain hikes.
B&B accommodation in its chalets starts at €65 per person per night, available from mid-June to mid-September.
www.slopesidesummer.ie
3 Glacier skiing in CanadaIf you're already lamenting the coming end of the season, take heart - on glaciers, the snow never goes.
In Canada, Whistler is the place to go for year-round glacier skiing. SkiCanada has a five-night stay at the Pinnacle International Hotel, including three-day lift passes and transfers from Vancouver, from 965 Canadian dollars (€610).
Closer to home, summer skiing is available at Les Deux Alpes - the largest skiable glacier in Europe - where a ski and snowboard summer school awaits. The glacier is open from mid- June to the end of August, mornings only.
Aer Lingus flies from Dublin to Lyons, with prices starting at €55 for June.
www.skicanada.com
4 Skydiving in SpainTo really throw yourself into a holiday, there's no better way than from an aircraft at an altitude of 5,000m.
Freefall Addicts, a company based 20 minutes from Seville, is in another dimension in terms of the experiences it offers.
The UK-owned holiday firm offers both beginner and advanced freefall courses, with a guarantee to take you from "zero to hero" in just two days.
First-jump courses start at €350. A full advanced course costs €1,550. Once you've completed the latter, you get 10 further jumps for €440. Now there's a hobby.
www.freefalladdicts.com
5 Sailing in Turkey.Just because you've never sailed is no reason not to try a sailing holiday.
Sunsail Flotilla will teach you the basics and let you sail around Turkey and the Greek islands under the watchful supervision of a lead instructor.
The company has special offers for a flotilla in the Gulf of Hisaronu. Starting near the Greek island of Simi, you sail for two weeks around the Marmaris fjord, with mornings spent relaxing in beautiful bays and afternoons out where the breezes whip up your adrenaline. Nights are spent reliving every twist and turn with the rest of the flotilla round a campfire. A two-week trip in early May costs £559 (€770) per person sharing.
www.sunway.ie
6 White-water rafting in the USIf sailing seems too tame to float your boat, check out Responsible Travel's white-water rafting tour down the mighty Grand Canyon, the gorge in Arizona that is 440km long, between eight and 24km wide and up to 1,800m deep.
An eight-day tour costs £1,369 (€1,760) per person, excluding flights. For that you get a guide, camping equipment, waterproofs, meals and (non-alcoholic) drinks. The trip runs during the summer months only.
Flights from Dublin to Las Vegas with American Airlines cost from €917 in July.
www.responsibletravel.com
7 Horse riding in MexicoForget engines: there's nothing like the thrill of original horse power when it comes to thundering across an open landscape. You know where you want to go, the horse knows where it wants to go and the fun is in getting the two to tally.
Adventure specialist Zara's Planet offers a week's stay at a ranch an hour and a half from Mexico City. You'll spend about six hours a day in the saddle, cantering through flower fields and even swimming your horses across rivers.
Each day brings Mexican food, plus cocktails, barbecues and local entertainment. Tour-only prices start at €860 per person.
www.zarasplanet.ie
8 Surfing in PortugalSurfing has managed to retain its coolness while attracting people of all ages. It's not just beach-bleached blokes, either, as more and more women are coming to appreciate how forgiving a wetsuit can be.
Budget Surf, a new division of Killary Adventure Company based near Leenane, in Co Galway, has a week's surfing, windsurfing or kitesurfing in Portugal or Lanzarote.
It's terrific value: a week-long stay in a surf camp in Portugal costs from €295, excluding flights but including self-catering accommodation, five hours of tuition a day and picnic lunches, as well as transfers.
www.budgetsurf.ie
9 Rock climbing in RioFor most of us, Rio de Janeiro means the three Cs of carnival, Copacabana and Corcovado (the mountain with the statue on top).
For climbers there is much more to it than that, however, with an estimated 1,500 climbing routes in the state of Rio alone, to suit all levels of ability.
Online portal Rock Climbing Holidays has an expedition in the Serra dos Ogaos National Park, which has several granite peaks and amazing summits in the middle of a tropical forest.
A five-day package costs $1,800 (€1,164), staying in tents and mountain huts.
Flights from Dublin to Rio start at about €700.
www.rockclimbingholidays.com.
10 Cycling through ItalyKind to the environment, good for your health and cheap to do, cycling holidays are hard to beat. And not only do you get as immersed in your surroundings as a walker, but you also get to whizz down hills with your legs stuck out like a kid.
Irish Cycling Safaris has seven-day tours through Tuscany, taking in San Gimignano and Monteriggioni, the Chianti wine region, Sienna, the monastery at Monte Oliveto, and Montepulciano.
The trip costs €1,150 for a group tour and €1,100 if you go by yourself, based on two people sharing. Group tours are scheduled for June, September and October. Self-led tours run all year round.
www.cyclingsafaris.com