Ten unusual trips to book in December

Enjoy crisp, cold days in the Southern Hemisphere: travelling through the Antarctic Circle, head south as far as the ice will allow to find yourself among the vast rookeries of chinstrap, Adélie and Gentoo penguins, with icebergs towering above you.

Be among the first to venture to the Ivory Coast in West Africa, a once-isolated country now opening up to travellers again. It’s a chance to explore an ancient, spiritual land virtually untouched by western technology and culture: discover remote villages to a soundtrack of beating drums and local songs during mask ceremonies, when stilt dancers from the hill communities put on a mesmerising display.

Explore arid, rocky mountains, amber-coloured sand dunes and the iconic 1st-century architecture of Jordan's 'Rose-Red' city of Petra on two wheels. Feel the wind rush past your cheeks as you freewheel down the dry, dusty trails of Mount Nebo to the beautiful saline shores of the Dead Sea and camp in a traditional Bedouin tent under the stars right in the heart of the Wadi Rum desert.

Discover the little-visited sights of El Salvador. Spend time exploring the minute, meandering villages of the Ruta de las Flores, where cobbled streets and colonial buildings provide distractions at every bend in the road. In Juayua the weekend food festival is packed with street food stalls: try barbecued meat and huge prawns from the grill or pupusas – the big parcels of corn dough are stuffed with a mixture of black beans, vegetables, meat and cheese and heated on a hot plate until melted. Delicious.

The vast amphitheatre of the Banaue rice terraces always elicits a gasp of awe as it comes into view – the steep 2,000-year-old paddies are as lush and green as in photographs and are protected by UNESCO for their cultural significance. The terraces were built by the Ifugao people and have been harvested for millenia; as you walk among the paddies you’ll get to view the complex and advanced engineering that is employed to irrigate the rice.