Once, the average tourist almost inevitably headed for warmer climes, and the hottest holiday homes for the rich and famous were exactly that - villas, beaches or even islands in the Caribbean and Mediterranean.

But topping up your tan is becoming very passé, according to Tim Murray Walker of Journey Latin America.

'Over the last three years there has been a large increase in demand for active holidays and these usually take the traveller inland, he said. 'There has been massive interest in hiking in the Patagonian region and the central Andes.'

It seems that for many travellers the desire for sun has been superseded by that for adventure.

The Polar Travel Company was set up eight years ago in response to increasing demand for organised Polar treks, and is getting increasing numbers of inquiries about the possibility of seeing polar bears, going dog sledding and arctic activities.

This year for the first time it is offering a weekend trip to the North Pole. For £8,200, travellers will fly to Spitzbergen, then travel by plane and helicopter to the pole, spend two hours there and fly back.

The desire for seclusion and adventure and relative cheapness has caused the affluent to buy up large swathes of the globe's colder regions.

Almost a sixth of Patagonia's 400,000 square miles of dry, rocky wildlife-rich landscape has been purchased by just 350 foreigners. The Italian fashion moguls Luciano and Carlo Benetton, Hungarian-born trading billionaire George Soros, CNN owner Ted Turner and actor Sylvester Stallone have all bought significant lots.

The final frontiers are being pushed back into parts of the world once thought inaccessible and inhospitable. Cool is cool.