Rally driving
For boy racers and ladettes everywhere, what could be better than a Saturday learning to throw Ford Cosworths and RS2000s around the Welsh countryside at speeds over 80mph, and no pesky sales reps to cut you up?
A course at the Phil Price Rally School in mid Wales (£245pp) gets you an introduction into the sport from the man himself (Price was a champion rally driver back in the 1980s). Both Price and his helpers explain various safety aspects and driving techniques. There are hands-on demonstrations from the instructors on control and using the power of the car.
As well as practising both driving and navigating, you finish with a competition against the others on your course to establish who's the Daddy Of The Day. For an extra £20, you can stay the night in the on-site accommodation, leaving you all of Sunday to potter round the glorious Welsh countryside, no doubt stuck behind a caravan and dreaming of autobahns.
Where to book: Phil Price Rally School (01547 550300, philprice.co.uk).
Diving
The glinting corals of the Great Barrier Reef. The briny glories of the Red Sea. The translucent waters off Belize. Or the water-logged gravel pits of Kent. Learn to dive in Britain? Some mistake, surely. In fact, learning to dive at home makes sense because it means that once you're qualified you can head straight out to the more impressive - and quite frankly, warmer - underwater treats of Egypt, Australia and elsewhere rather than wasting precious holiday time in a pool or class room.
Cornish Diving, based in Falmouth, usually starts PADI Open Water Diver courses on Mondays but if there are at least four of you, you could tailor a long weekend (Thursday-Sunday) session for yourselves from £299pp.
After practising scuba skills in a swimming pool, and learning about equipment and underwater safety on land, you'll transfer to the sea where you will take several dives under the watchful eye of the instructor. The base also has a bunkhouse on site where you can bed down from £12 per night.
Where to book: Cornish Diving (01326 311265, cornishdiving.co.uk).
Sailing
North Norfolk is an ideal place to learn to sail. Not only is much of the coast east of Hunstanton naturally protected by small islands and sand banks, and therefore calmer for beginners, but the area is supposed to have a micro-climate that makes it one of the driest in the country. Even if the weather is too inclement to hit the high seas, there's plenty to do round about - not least sit in one of the fine pubs nearby, eating locally caught mussels.
Sailcraft, based at Brancaster Staithe, has a two-day introductory course (12 hours in total) for £155pp, where you'll learn basic techniques and then get out on the water and practice, with one instructor for every two people to ensure no unwanted soakings. Good value accommodation is available two miles away at the newly opened Deepdale Stables Backpacker Hostel, from £10.50pp per night.
Where to book: Sailcraft (01485 210236, sailcraft.co.uk). Deepdale Stables (01485 210256, deepdalefarm.co.uk).
Singing
Everyone knows the Welsh are the best singers in Britain, as witnessed by the fact they had remarkably little truck with either Pop Idol or Fame Academy. Eleanor Madoc Davies, who runs learn-to-sing holidays from Cwm-Moel, her 17th-century farmhouse in the Edw valley, won her first singing prize aged three, and more recently was a member of the Mid Wales Opera Company and conductor of the Builth Male Voice Choir.
Guests staying in one of the three bedrooms (from £20pp per night) have a free introductory lesson, then subsequent tuition is £20 per hour, and it's possible to practise privately in the music room. You can also visit a local male voice choir rehearsal.
For those not of a musical bent, the area is well known for walking and bird-watching, and private trout fishing is available on the river Edw. Three-course dinners at Cwm-Moel cost from £12 per head, making full use of local Welsh lamb and beef.
Where to book: Eleanor Madoc Davies (01982 570271).
Climbing
Climbing every mountain and fording every stream may be all right for novice nuns escaping the Nazis, but in the real world it pays to get a bit of practice in first before striking out for base camp on your own.
Due to open this summer and 10 minutes' drive from Edinburgh airport, the Adventure Centre at Ratho quarry will host the National Rock-Climbing Centre and boasts that it will be the leading UK base for adventure-sports practice and development for both beginners and hardened pros. It will have the only covered climbs on natural surfaces anywhere in the world - 6,000 square metres of natural rockface, and a further 2,400 square metres of artificial climbing wall surfaces. There are also "Via Ferratas" (iron ways), which basically make climbing accessible to the non-climber. And Europe's largest suspended aerial adventure ropes ride is promised. Lessons will be available for all levels (prices not yet announced.)
Where to book: Adventure Centre (0131-229 3919, adventurescotland.com).
Photography
We seem to travel to ever more exotic, far-flung locations, yet still return with pictures of paradise covered by a thumb or artistically out of focus. We all hope that we'll magically become better photographers over time but without ever putting in the effort to learn how. But if you seriously want to improve, the London College of Printing at Elephant and Castle is the place to head. It offers a range of Saturday courses, which, while not specifically targeted at travel, should help you next time you're away. They include "Introduction to photojournalism", which identifies suitable topics and events through several projects, "Street fashion photography" (both 10 weeks from May 3, £160) and "Introduction to black-and-white photography" (from July, £85). There are also more specialised courses such as "Large- format camera techniques for architectural photography" (£160).
Those on benefits can attend for £10, and for all there's the joy of knowing you'll be able to amaze family and friends with a range of crisp, digit-free pics.
Where to book: London College of Printing (020-7514 6569, .lcp.linst.ac.uk).
Kayaking
If you're lucky enough to be there on a glorious summer day, it's not entirely far fetched to say that if you half shut your eyes, you could mistake some of Scotland's Western Isles for the Caribbean - well, the beautiful, long, wide, sandy beaches and turquoise waters anyway.
Uist Outdoor Centre, based at Lochmaddy on North Uist, offers week-long kayaking courses but can also organise weekend beginners' trips from £140 for two days including tuition, food and accommodation.
The owner claims, persuasively, that for those seeking calm and solitude, kayaking is the new hill walking, especially now that the footpaths are so crowded most weekends. And for those wanting to be even further from the madding crowds, overnight expeditions can be organised to islands such as Pabbay and Boreray. Wildlife on view include otters, dolphins, porpoise, minke whales, Atlantic grey seals, basking sharks and white-tailed eagles. The centre also provides accommodation for 20 people in four-person bunkrooms.
Where to book: Uist Outdoor Centre (01876 500 480, seakayakouterhebrides.co.uk). The nearest airport is Benbecula - returns from London with British Airways (08457 733377, ba.com) start from £118.30, and from Glasgow from £89.
Learning a language
I spent 10 years at school studying French, but learnt more about the language in just six pre-university months near Bordeaux. If you open your local Yellow Pages, you'll find plenty of language schools. However, with the advent of low-cost airlines and the internet, is there really any point in staying chez-vous when you could practice ordering a café au lait from a real-life garçon for a lot less?
Berlitz, for example, has six study centres in the UK. The one in Bristol offers one-on-one lessons in several languages, including Spanish, French, German and Dutch for £30.96 per 45-minute unit. So if you want to spend six hours over a weekend that would be £247.68.
On the other hand, Jet2 will fly you from Leeds to Milan for £65.39 return (valid for a weekend in June when I searched, although the airline says fares start at £9.99 each way plus tax). Add a single room at the Hotel Centro Alberghiero Ornato, booked online through the Hotel Shop, for £34.75, and the total is nearly £150 less than the Berlitz option. Not only do you get a total immersion weekend, but there's enough change for a cheeky little designer number to boot.
Where to book: Berlitz (0117 9349694, berlitz.com). Jet2 (0870 7378282, jet2.co.uk). The Hotel Shop (thehotelshop.com).
Potholing
The great thing about going potholing in Yorkshire is that you know you're going to get dirty and wet - much like a weekend above ground in England's largest county, really. (I can say that, because I'm from there!) An introductory cave trip near Ingleton with Dave Gallivan lasts three hours, has a maximum of eight participants, delves around 25m underground and costs £75 for the whole group. For those who get the bug, the next step would build on what's been learnt initially, reduce the group size by half, drop 100m underground for up to six hours and costs £100 per group. Not for claustrophobics or those afraid of things that go bump in the dark.
Where to book: Yorkshire Dales Guides (01729 824455, yorkshiredalesguides.co.uk).
