CHARLOTTE HINDLE

Given the choice between stressful exams or job interviews and the endless white sand of an Australian beach, what would you choose? Be the first in your family to go around the world, Swim with the dolphins off the coast of New Zealand, Teach children English in India, Build pit latrines in Burkina Faso. Raft the Zanbezi, the hardest rapid in the world. Tend baby jaguars in Bolivia. Watch the sun set over Uluru (Ayers Rock). Learn Spanish in Guatemala. Repatriate wild horses in Mongolia. Work a ski season in the Alps, Study film in New York. The Gap Year Book is your ticket to all this and more.

Stop daydreaming at your desk, ditch the nine to five, say ciao to the rat race - take life by the scruff of the neck and give it a shake!