Swimming in Malta

It's 7pm when I fly into Gozo for a week's swimming break. There's a hazy evening light and buildings are sunbleached and grubby from lack of rain. The taxi smells of old cigarettes and air fresheners as we drive past dry fields, gravel, scrub and stone walls.

It is hard to believe the thing that brought me here is water, but Malta has some of the clearest sea in the Mediterranean, and an hour later a group of swimmers are exchanging introductions by a small bay.

There are 12 of us, including Parvel, the first Russian to swim the Channel, Egg, the second Brit to have a whole hand of fingers sewn back on, and Sarni, a gay Maori opera singer who's built like a prize bull. More than 50% of people who go on a trip with SwimTrek return for another (me among them). The only thing you can predict is that you will be surrounded by a lot of characters.

The following morning we are sunning ourselves on a boat, Mgarr harbour twinkling around us, while our trip leader decides what to do, and Carol, a glamorous glacier swimmer, paints everyone's toenails pink and blue. The wind is up and it's "lumpy city", says JCR, an English Channel swimmer who is leading the trip. JCR has something of Captain Bligh about him: he's clearly in charge, but already the consensus below decks is that he has no idea where he's going.

In the end we motor about two minutes around the corner and swim back hugging high cliffs to avoid the choppier water. We cover 3km in an hour, our heads full of new things - the feeling of salt water after a long winter, a new country, each other.

After lunch, we do another cliff swim, ending in a sandy bay full of shoals of silvery fish. We're supposed to walk home, but it's sunny, the sand is golden and there's a cafe on the beach, so we decide to stay and order musty white wine and bruschetta. Soon someone else orders more. JCR sits patiently waiting for the mutiny to blow over.

Finally, we set off up the cliff, JCR holding an A4 map that shows Gozo. And the whole of Malta. It features two roads but no goat tracks. And we are on a goat track. An hour later we are back overlooking the cafe. An hour and five minutes later, Parvel is leading a second uprising, gesticulating wildly at the other end of the goat track to JCR. Parvel's sense of direction has a lot of supporters, but English politeness gets in our way, so after two and a half hours we're still playing follow my leader through deserted towns.

The next morning, after breakfast of ripe tomatoes, hardboiled eggs, tinned peaches and coffee, we start out swimming the 2km from a beach on Gozo to the Blue Lagoon on Comino. The water is so clear and blue that the occasional jellyfish 12ft below is the only thing that gives a sense of depth.

We swim on in the sunshine, and the jellyfish start coming in thicker and shallower. We speed up and start dodging them as if we are evading bullets. Someone gets lashed on the foot. One drifts past my thigh. Group injuries are sustained in quick succession: cheek, foot and shoulder. We've huddled together now, swimming as a group. It's a mistake: we can't swerve, and the churning water throws the poisonous tentacles upwards. Suddenly it dawns on us that the jellyfish are confined to the mouth of the lagoon, and we all start thrashing towards the support boats like fish being bombed in the water.

We get out, energised and wide-eyed from the scare. The lashes are like little whips that burn and quickly subside. The boat takes us into the bright turquoise lagoon, which is free of jellyfish, protected from wind and full of soft coral, small yellow cardinal fish, goat fish and flying gurnards clearly visible through the water. Someone stuffs some coins down their trunks and we swim in for ice creams.

The next day it's the big crossing - a 5-6km swim from Gozo to Malta. Mark wakes up dreaming of jellyfish, trying to shoo the bed posts away. By now we know each other's rhythms and five of us swim together, arms and legs synchronised, like a pod of dolphins. We make it in one and a half hours. Marian, a tiny 60-year-old who learned the crawl three years ago, is first in and last out, and it's a group victory when she crawls on to the rocks.

We spend the rest of the afternoon on the boat sharing swimming tips and suncream. There's a beach to lie on, rocks to swim to and fish aplenty. The rest of the party have more swims ahead, including a trek through the Azure Window, a rock arch, to Fungus Rock, a volcanic plug, but I have to head back to London. We dine on red sea bream and steamed vegetables while Egg tells stories. "I expected more swimming than drinking," says Parvel, raising a glass.
Kate Rew

· A six-day guided trip costs from £655, B&B at Hotel San Andrea with SwimTrek (020-8696 6220 swimtrek.com). Non-swimming partners are welcome. Fly to Malta from various UK airports with .

Yoga, Ibiza

Ibiza's growing reputation as a chilled location for yoga has encouraged a raft of excellent teachers to roll out their mats around the island over the summer months. Ibiza Yoga offers classes behind the startling turquoise water and honeyed sand of Benirras Bay, taken by a rotating gaggle of instructors with exotic names like Jax and Liliana, all practised in Ashtanga First Series. Head for Villa Palmas, a Moorish finca with rustic décor.

· 020-7419 0999, ibizayoga.com. From £450pp per week half-board inc six yoga sessions.

Paragliding, France

If you really have to soar high above the earth attached to a tiny canopy, it's nice to know there's a soft place to land. Or crash. The 107m-high Grand Dune de Pyla near Arachon on France's southwest coast is Europe's biggest pile of sand and one of the best places to learn paragliding, with a reliable sea breeze from 11am to 4pm. Better still, it's only five minutes' walk from your spacious mobile home - so no bottling out and blaming the traffic. Suitable for beginners.

· British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association (0870 199 7343, sunsoar-paragliding.com) has six days for £645pp, inc instruction, accommodation at a campsite and transfers. Fly to Bordeaux.

Kiteboarding, Lanzarote

Take one sparsely populated, four-mile-long beach, blend with 23C water and warm North African wind, then sprinkle with regular surf. It's the perfect recipe for kiteboarding - and Lanzarote's Famara Beach is the place to learn. You'll start by flying kites on the sand, move on to being dragged through the water and, finally, hopefully, get up on the board.

· Active Adventures (0871 231 1123, activeadventures.co.uk) has a week's training with accommodation and transfers from £426. Alternatively, try daily tuition for £83, and stay at the lovely 18th-century Caserio de Mozaga: i-escape.com has doubles from £50. Fly to Lanzarote.

Windsurfing, Crete

The village of Paleohora is nicknamed the Nymph of the Libyan Sea. There's no mention in ancient Greek literature of boards, sails or wetsuits - but, bar the occasional odyssey, the Greeks weren't big on wet adrenaline in those days. Since then the village has become known as a windsurfing hotspot.

· Get kit and reasonably priced tuition from the beachside Happy Surf (0030 28230 42 424 - warning: they're happier surfing than answering the phone). Stay at Olive Tree Cottages from around £417 a week in a two-person room (+28230 42 305, accommodation-crete.com). Fly to Chania from Manchester or Gatwick with thomsonfly.com.

Surfing, Ireland

While mammoth waves such as those off the coast of Co Clare have hogged Irish surfing headlines, it's best to learn on something a little less punchy. Head to Rossnowlagh Beach in Co Donegal, just north of the "surf capital" Bundoran. We like its gently crumbling waves and fantastically named surf school. Fin McCool (00 35 3 86804 9909, donegalsurfing.com) has an international pro tour judge as head instructor and daily lessons for £28.

· Stay nearby at cosy Heron's Cover (00353 71982 2070, heronscove.ie) with two nights' B&B and one dinner for £118pp. Fly to Donegal from Glasgow with aerarann.com, or London to Derry with ryanair.com.

Dance and Tai Chi, Lefkas

Beach activities? That'll involve surf, sun and wind, won't it? Head to Healthy Options on the Greek island of Lefkas and you can chuck fancy footwork into the mix. The fitness and activity centre offers contemporary and Greek dance, along with salsa workshops and slightly more serene tai chi, directly behind Vassiliki beach. There are en-suite rooms and, should you fancy broadening your repertoire, yoga, Pilates and hikes.

· Healthy Options' (0844 499 2909, healthy-option.co.uk) Dance and Movement Weeks start June 1 and 8 (other dates to follow) from £569pp inc flights, transfers, room-only accommodation and tuition.

Land yachting, Kent

Fancy a wind-in-your-hair blast without a speed camera in sight? Land yachting on Kent's two-mile-long Greatstone Beach near Dungeness - the sport's answer to Silverstone - could be the answer. You'll be taught the basics over a weekend, and hopefully blown along a 30m-wide strip of hard sand by the perfect onshore easterly. You won't hit the 60mph reached by veterans, but it'll feel damn fast and you'll get a good grounding in the skills required by racing pilots.

· Two-day course with Kirawee Land Yachts (01797 362132, landyachting.co.uk) costs £140. Stay nearby at historic Martinfield Manor with doubles from £65 per night: 01797 363802, martinfieldmanor.co.uk

Hiking, Tasmania

One of the world's more unusual hikes barely leaves sea level, with 99 per cent of the path covering pristine beaches. Bay of Fires has tropical ingredients - bleached powder sand, emerald briny waters - in comfortably temperate northeast Tasmania, where, over four days, it mixes relaxed guided walking with swimming and kayaking. After crossing an impossibly photogenic necklace of coves and vast, deserted beaches, you stay in an eco lodge, the only building in the wilderness, with a deck straight out of Grand Designs.

· 0061 36391 9339, bayoffires.com.au. £915pp full board, inc guides and transfers. Fly to Launceston via Melbourne from £996 with Quantas (08457 747 767, qantas.co.uk).

Surfing, Brazil

Surfing and capoeira go together like Boris Johnson and shaggy blond mops. The Brazilian blend of martial arts and dance, famed for boosting elasticity and endurance, is the perfect discipline for riding the waves - and for acquiring taut abs and a whiplash physique. Zoco Boardriding provides the week-long surf camp on Itacaré Beach and happily connects you with the excellent, English-language capoeira beginners' courses run by Grupo Luanda (about £1.50 a day).

· 0871 218 0360, zocotravel.com. Surf week from £355pp, inc tuition and video analysis, B&B beachfront accommodation and transfers. Fly to Ilhéus via Lisbon and Salvador for £832 (0845 058 5858, trailfinders.com).