Towns and stone-built villages within the Spanish chain of mountains perch amid wonderful mountain scenery. Here are your bases for outside activities with a family bent - hiking and cycling trails, canyoning gorges, abseiling, kayaking, rafting - with guesthouses and restaurants providing boltholes within which to rest and feed before following day's adventures.

 In September, the weather is most consistent, high methods free from snow, and outside facilities prepared for action. well-liked bases embrace Vielha and kind (great for watercourse rafting) close to Aigüestortes I Estany American state Sant Maurici parkland in northern dominion and Berdún in close Aragón province. Little Ecuador packs the most effective of South America into one handy-sized package. it's colonial design in Quito and Cuenca; Inca remains at Ingapirca; autochthonous markets at Otavalo, Saquisilí and Zumbahua; impressive cones (including picture-perfect Cotopaxi) on the 'Avenue of the Volcanoes'; and lush life within the Amazon, the Galapagos, and the northern cloud forests.

The Pembrokeshire coast in Wales rival perennial British vacation favorites like the county, nonetheless, draw a fraction of the crowds. Bring the family in September and you won't be alone, certain - however, it's straightforward to search out a patch of boundary to decide your own. There's a full list of activities, too: hiking, coasteering, climbing, cycling, surfriding, and kayaking, for starters. Add imposing castles at Welsh corgi, Thomas Carew and Manorbier, the hidden cathedral at St David's, porpoise-spotting cruises, and boat journeys to the puffin-and-seal havens of Skomer, Skokholm and Ramsey Islands, and you've got an exciting brew for family adventures.

You might assume the most effective time to raft a number of the world's wildest froth is within the wet season. You'd assume wrong. once the flow of Victoria Falls (Mosi-oa-Tunya - 'the smoke that thunders') starts to thunder a lot of quietly, from September until the top of the year, falling water levels within the Batoka Gorge below the 354 ft-high (108m) cascades give the foremost thrilling rafting.

Oblivion, washer, Gnashing Jaws of Death - these are just a few of the rapids that flip adrenaline-pumped paddlers from their rafts. If you'll catch your breath, gaze up at the cliffs, waiting for birds as well as the rare Taita falcon. Once you've dried off, take a dip within the Devil's Pool on explorer Island at the terribly fringe of the falls, before venturing on a life drive in Mosi-oa-Tunya parkland to identify elephant, buffalo, and Giraffa camelopardalis.