Skiing in the desert? Travelling through time? Eight ‘impossible’ holiday from Manchester Airport, with flights from just £43pp return

If you could do whatever you wanted on your next holiday – and the rules of science need not apply – what would be on your itinerary? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to travel back in time, or to a distant planet? Perhaps you want to walk upside down, ski through the desert or globetrot your way through the world’s most iconic attractions in a single day.

Manchester Airport’s route network is unrivalled in the North, with more than 200 destinations served by over 50 airlines – and many of these destinations offer you the chance to experience the impossible. Some of the world’s wackiest visitor attractions are just one flight away – and some of the places you can reach might offer you a new perspective on your classic beach holiday as well.

See Europe through the ages

Fly to Strasbourg with easyJet from only £64pp return*

Fly to Stuttgart with Eurowings from only £85pp return*

Fly to Rome with Ryanair from only £50pp return*

Fly to Naples with easyJet from only £43pp return*

If your dream ‘impossible’ trip would involve jumping in a Tardis and seeing Europe through the ages, the good news is there are parts of the continent you can visit which feel like stepping back in time, even today.

The medieval town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber in southern Germany still has its city walls completely intact, and its warren of streets lined with timber framed buildings is remarkably well preserved. A similar aesthetic can be found over the border in France, in the historic city of Colmar, near Strasbourg.

Going back a little further, Italy has heaps of ancient sites that are more than just ruins – and the Colosseum in Rome is still an imposing site today, with large sections of it not far removed from how they would have looked in millennia past. Perhaps the most vivid representation of daily life in the Roman era can be found in Pompeii – just a short drive from Naples. You can also get a ferry to the picturesque nearby island of Capri, where the streets are too narrow for cars, and walking remains the primary mode of transport.

Around the world in 24 hours

Fly to Las Vegas with Virgin Atlantic from only £685pp return*

Perhaps your impossible trip would involve ticking off all of the major attractions on day one, so you can enjoy some down time for the rest of the trip – but imagine being able to do that with top tourist sites from across the planet. A tour of Las Vegas’ recreations of world-famous attractions is an experience in its own right, and the most impressive thing about them is their scale – Vegas’ answer to the Eiffel Tower is more than 40 storeys tall and has an observation deck at the top, with a Parisien theme to its décor, while the Luxor Las Vegas Sphinx is even bigger than the original at Giza. The gondoliers at The Venetian Las Vegas whisk you through a labyrinth of canals lined with Renaissance-style architecture, and even sing Italian arias as they go, like their counterparts in Venice. There’s also a 150ft replica of the Statue of Liberty, a life-size recreation of Rome’s Trevi Fountain and a 2/3-scale Arc de Triomphe.

If you prefer to see real-world attractions, it’s easy enough to get to the Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon on a day trip from Vegas.

Go skiing through the desert

Fly to Dubai with Emirates from only £570pp return*

If you’re planning a ski trip this winter you might be looking at hitting the slopes in the Alps or the Pyrenees – but if you’re not a fan of the cold, there’s another ski option in Dubai that doesn’t involve any snow.

The enormous sand dunes surrounding the city have long been popular for so called ‘desert safaris’ where the slopes are traversed in a 4x4 – but now operators are opening up a world of possibilities for winter sports enthusiasts, where you can glide over the dunes on skis or a sandboard, with tailored lessons and courses available. If you prefer more traditional skiing of the icy variety, check out Ski Dubai – one of the world’s largest indoor ski slopes.

Shake off the laws of physics in Mumbai

Fly to Mumbai with IndiGo from only £446pp return*

The Paradox Museum in Mumbai only opened last year but is already establishing an international reputation as one of the best experiences of its kind anywhere in the world. It has more than 50 immersive exhibits that allow visitors to disappear through walls, walk around upside down, hover in midair, fall into an infinite black hole, cut themselves in half, and traverse a ‘paradox tunnel’ so dizzying it’s impossible to walk through without falling over. It’s a truly wacky, reality-bending experience, and the latest big attraction drawing visitors to Mumbai – which gained its first direct flights from Manchester earlier this year, with IndiGo.

Visit the Wild West – without crossing the Atlantic

Fly to Almeria with Ryanair from only £57pp return*

If you’ve ever seen the classic Westerns A Fistful of Dollars or The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, you weren’t watching Clint Eastwood strolling through a preserved frontier town in the American West – you were actually looking at a painstaking reconstruction put together in the deserts of southern Spain, just outside Almeria. The enormous set is still functioning today and has been used more recently for an episode of Doctor Who. Primarily, though, it now serves as a tourist attraction offering to transport visitors to the Wild West – complete with simulations of wild west gunfight scenes, horse shows, a working saloon bar, recreations of a smithy and a mine works, and a Wild West play area.

Is there life on Mars?

Fly to Orlando with Aer Lingus from only £389pp return*

Maybe your impossible trip would involve escaping Earth altogether, even if just for a little while. Look no further than the Kennedy Space Center, near Orlando, which hosted the space shuttle programme and is still one of NASA’s most important bases. Among the visitor attractions you’ll find Mars Base 1, an immersive experience billed by the Space Center as ‘the only place on Earth where you travel to Mars to live and work for the day.’ Visitors can expect to manage the Base Operations Center on Mars, harvest vegetables in the Botany Lab and program robots to perform critical tasks to enable the survival of the Martian colony. When you’re done, touch down back on Earth and explore the other attractions at Kennedy, including an interactive theatre, rocket garden, and the Space Shuttle Atlantis.

Take a beach break in a landlocked country

Fly to Budapest with Ryanair from only £68pp return*

Fly to Basel with easyJet from only £49pp return*

Fly to Salzburg with Ryanair from only £54pp return*

Fly to Addis Ababa with Ethiopian Airlines from only £715pp return*

A beach break is synonymous with sun, sea and sand – so being somewhere near the coast might feel pretty essential. There are, however, some fabulous lake beaches out there – so if you’re looking for something different on your next summer holiday, landlocked countries in Europe and further afield might be your first port of call when flying from Manchester.

Hungary is bordered by no fewer than seven countries and has no coastline – but the sprawling sandy beaches of Lake Balaton attract thousands of visitors every year. Alpine beaches are pretty popular too – and Lake Neuchatel in Switzerland, not far from Basel, has some picturesque sandy strips along its shore. Some of the most scenic lake beaches in the Alps can be found on Lake Hallstatt in Austria, just over an hour away from Salzburg.

If you’re willing to travel a little further, you can find tropical beach vibes in the landlocked African country of Ethiopia. Lake Langano, just to the south of the capital Addis Ababa, boasts sandy beaches lined by palm trees and accommodation ranging from luxury resorts to beachfront campsites and eco hotels.

Visit Santa in the summer

Fly to Helsinki with FinnAir from only £193pp return*

December is, of course, the most popular time of year to visit Lapland – but Santa’s elves are hard at work all year round, and a summer visit will not only allow you to dodge the crowds and skip the queues to meet the big man, it’ll also give you the chance to see Lapland in a whole new light. The region’s northerly latitude means almost 24 hours of sunlight at the height of summer, and as the snow thaws, it unveils a stunning landscape of lakes, rolling hills and pine forests, which can be explored by bike, kayak, or husky sledge. Ranua Wildlife Park is a great place to spot polar bears and other Arctic animals.