Fifty-Two Weekends: Outdoors

Serious Sledding

People of above-average girth can excel at sports besides sumo. Weight equals speed in tobogganing, as you'll quickly learn at the Camden Snow Bowl Toboggan Run in Camden, Maine, one of the greatest wood chutes in the United States. Screaming riders hurtle down a slope and spin out across a frozen lake. It's just $1 a sled using a rented toboggan or half that when you bring your own ride. Stay at the nearby Hartstone Inn (800-788-4823, hartstoneinn.com, from $100), where the owners and perhaps your fellow guests can regale you with tales of the annual National Toboggan Championships. - Wayne Curtis

The Dead Comes to Life

Of Maine's three major rafting rivers, the Dead River is the most elusive. Water levels are generally low, since there are only about 10 dam releases per year. But when the gates open, the river churns along 16 miles of almost nonstop rapids, making it the longest stretch of continuous white water in the East. Outfitters will guide you expertly through the drops and rock gardens on a daylong excursion. If you still have more in the tank, try the upper Kennebec River the next day. Book trips with Raft Maine (800-723-8633, raftmaine.com, from $100 per person) and stay close to the action at the Northern Outdoors Forks Resort Center (800-765-7238, www.northernoutdoors.com, from $119) in The Forks, where the pool and brewpub should help relax you at the end of the day. - Wayne Curtis

A Mexican Tee Party

Move over, spring break. The so-called Mayan Riviera, the stretch of coastline between Cancun and Tulum, is under invasion by a new breed of traveler - the golfer. Three new courses have opened since May, and the total number of fairways has more than doubled in the last two years, surpassing Cabo San Lucas. The top all-inclusive resorts in the area, the Moon Palace (800-346-8225, moonpalace.com, from $320) and the Ibero-star Paraiso Maya (888-923-2722, iberostar.com, from $225), just got layouts from Jack Nicklaus and PB Dye, respectively. For five-star lodging, it will be hard to top the Fairmont hotel at the lagoon resort of Mayakoba, opening in December (800-441-1414, mayakoba.com, from $399) with a new Greg Norman-designed course. - Larry Olmsted

Borderline Adventure

St. Andrews, New Brunswick, lies just over the Canadian border along Maine's eastern edge. Loyalists to Britain decamped there after the Revolutionary War, and the town later became a resort community known for its bay breezes. It has lately emerged as an adventure outpost. Eastern Outdoors offers a three-hour sea-kayak trip around Navy Island (506-529-4662, easternoutdoors.com, about $35). For higher-speed action, try whale watching with Fundy Tide Runners (506-529-4481, fundytiderunners.com, adults about $45, children about $30) aboard Zodiacs that take you to the whales with stunning - if damp - efficiency. Stay at Salty Towers (506-529-4585, salty-towers.com, from about $150), which has convivial rooms in a laid-back atmosphere. - Wayne Curtis

Going to the Birds

What with waiting in observation blinds, hanging out in bogs, and wake-up calls before the sun rises, birding can be downright inconvenient. For a civilized approach, book a room at The Inn at Castle Hill on the Crane Estate (978-412-2555, innatcastlehill.thetrustees.org, from $175) in Ipswich. That way you can creep out at dawn with a cup of strong coffee and wake up with the rest of the twittering and chirping landscape. Then laze away the afternoons watching shore and sea birds on Crane Beach. If you want to augment your life list, the Parker River Wildlife Refuge (pictured above) on Plum Island is close by, near Newburyport. - Patricia Harris and David Lyon

3 Day Getaway: Tour de Vermont

Central Vermont's velvety green meadows, dramatic mountains, and freshly painted white steeples are all best seen at a cyclist's pace and in the fall, as leaves are changing (though spring and summer aren't bad, either). Drive up on a Friday evening, choose an affordable B & B as your home base, and get out on the spider web of back-country roads linking one Vermont village to the next.

For a moderate day ride, start at the Barsen House Inn in Addison (888-819-6103, barsenhouseinn.com, from $105), just off the shores of Lake Champlain. Turn left out of the parking lot onto Lake Street. To the east you'll see cows, cornfields, and the Green Mountains. To the west, Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks.

Continue north as the road becomes Arnold Bay Road, then Button Bay Road. (Pull off at Button Bay State Park for lake views.) From Button Bay Road, turn right (east) onto Basin Harbor Road, then take two slight lefts, the first onto Panton Road and the second onto Route 22A. Cross Otter Creek and head into the town of Vergennes for lunch.

Pedal south out of town on the Maple Street Extension, which becomes Hallock Road, and then Quaker Village Road. This stretch is neither flat nor dauntingly vertiginous, just a good ride up and down the hillsides past a patchwork of farms spiced with Vermont's version of aromatherapy: fresh manure. There's a challenging climb as you close in on the block-long town of Weybridge. Then turn right onto Route 23 for a sweeping downhill run. Turn left (west) onto Route 17 and take a slight jog onto Atherton Road and back to the inn.

Innkeepers at many smaller B & Bs in Vermont can point riders on similar loops. In Taftsville, stay at Shepherd's Hill Farm (802-457-3087, shepherdshillfarm.com, from $135) along with 160 sheep. Just across the Connecticut River is Plainfield, New Hampshire, where Home Hill Inn (603-675-6165, homehillinn.com, from $235, dinner for two from $100) is an unlikely outpost of French gastronomy run by chef Victoria du Roure, also an avid cyclist. Between bites of her pumpkin risotto (served in a pumpkin), ask du Roure about the loop to the Cornish-Windsor Bridge, the longest covered bridge in America. If you can't do all three in one weekend, you'll just have to make another trip. - Stephen Jermanok

Crash Course

Looking to paddle in something more challenging than a pond, but not quite sure how to go about it? Take a weekend class at Northern Waters Canoe and Kayak (603-447-2177, beoutside.com, from $190) in Errol, New Hampshire. Paddler-students learn to thread through the Androscoggin River - flats and boulder-filled stretches alike - with grace and elan. Participants can camp riverside or rent a nearby yurt at Timberland Trails (800-872-4578, phillipsbrook.org, from $75). Those less interested in challenging the rapids can paddle on Lake Umbagog to view nesting bald eagles. - Wayne Curtis

Peaks Island Experience

A weekend at Peaks Island, just a 20-minute ferry ride from Portland, Maine, offers a taste of island life - with training wheels. Book one of the six suites at the Inn on Peaks Island (207-766-5100, innonpeaks.com, from $175), which is just a minute's walk from the ferry dock (leave your car on the mainland). Maine's tiniest brewpub is located downstairs in the Inn. Have a pre-dinner Shipyard Ale there, then enjoy lobster bisque or a burger (from $40 for two), or stroll down the block for Korean-influenced cuisine at The Cockeyed Gull (207-766-2800, from $50 for two). Rise early enough for a walk around the island's 4-mile perimeter road, and you'll be rewarded with a view of the sun coming up over the Gulf of Maine. - Wayne Curtis

Skiing After Sundance

Local skiers in Park City, Utah, relish the Sundance Film Festival, since nearly all the town's visitors spend 10 days huddled in theaters, leaving the slopes wide open. The problem is finding a room. To lure out-of-towners to the mountains, several of the ski areas (including The Canyons Ski Resort) in Park City offer sale prices the week after Sundance - next year, January 30 to February 5. At Park City Mountain Resort, rates for slope-side lodging drop more than 25 percent the week after Sundance (435-649-8111, www.pcski.com). Visit parkcityinfo.com for late-breaking bargains in the "Hot Deals" section of the website. - Larry Olmsted

Unless otherwise noted, room rates listed are for two people staying one night in a hotel's least expensive room with a private bath. Some inns require two-night stays on weekends. All prices are in US dollars.