Not just away, but really, really, away: Think Iceland. From a Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel travel piece on hiking the Icelandic backcountry:

Geologists consider Hengill one of the world’s most geothermically active areas. Hot springs and geysers dot the landscape. Mud pots, steaming holes in the earth, spurt and sputter a rainbow of colors, depending on the mud’s mineral content. The smell of sulfur is always in the air.

In the valley of Reykjadalir, some of the bubbling brooks are actually boiling. None of the hot spots are fenced off, however, and according to my guidebook, people are burned each year stepping too close to a mud pot or geyser.

Fording one of the valley’s steaming streams, I sank to my knees in an unexpected patch of mud. It felt like a spa treatment, pleasantly hot and soothing.

As I sat on a rock cleaning off my pants and boots, I noticed a small group of Icelandic teenagers skinny-dipping downstream of me, a popular local tradition.

Now that’s worth traveling halfway around the world to see!