Dominica's pre-eminent trek is a rugged day-long hike to Boiling Lake, the world's second largest actively boiling lake. This strenuous hike will take three to three and a-half hours each way, beginning at Titou Gorge. It also requires a guide, which you can arrange in Laudat. Wear sturdy walking shoes and expect to get muddy along the way.

Geologists believe the 63m/207ft-wide lake is a flooded fumarole - a crack in the earth that allows hot gasses to vent from the molten lava below. The eerie-looking lake sits inside a deep basin, its greyish waters veiled in steam, its centre emitting bubbly burps.

En route to the lake the trail passes through the aptly named Valley of Desolation, a former rainforest destroyed by a volcanic eruption in 1880. The hike follows narrow ridges, snakes up and down mountains and runs along hot streams. Wear sturdy walking shoes and expect to get dirty and muddy.