While watching , the new National Geographic series on Disney+, I couldn’t stop thinking, There are a lot of awkward moments in here! The premise is glamorous: Will Smith travels the world and shares adventures with explorers and scientists at the top of their game, resulting in beautiful footage that’s edited to within an inch of its life for a jam-packed 30-minute experience. So why did the producers leave in so many uncomfortable silences? You could make a supercut of guides telling Smith about the scary thing he’s about to do, while ominous music plays and the camera pointedly hovers on his face as he stares into the void. By the end of the first episode, though, I was rooting for whoever was playing up these moments, and for Will Smith, who I’d like to think enthusiastically signed off on the idea. What could have been just a vanity project reveals itself to be a surprisingly honest exploration of the struggle to be a braver person.

Of course, it’s also good old-fashioned educational adventure TV. Each of the six episodes revolves around a broad theme, like scents or swarms, and Smith takes a trip with a specialist for the marquee scenes in each episode. In “The Silent Roar,” about sounds that aren’t audible to most humans, Smith explores an active volcano with volcanologist Jeffrey Johnson and adventurer Erik Weihenmayer, who is blind and senses sound below the frequency that most people can hear. (“So you feel comfortable going in there, and you would take your students or anything in there?” Smith asks Johnson as casually as he can.) Woven throughout each episode are side journeys in which we join other photographers, National Geographic ambassadors, or local residents to explore phenomena related to each episode’s theme, like earth tides, moonbows, and the in San Juan de la Vega, Mexico. ��

Welcome to Earth manages to surprise in its capacity as a nature-expedition show. (Did you know that New York City can move up and down as much as 14 inches a day?) But overall the show seems less interested in animals and scientific phenomena than in the charismatic adventurers who make up its cast. There are regular appearances, for instance, by Trinidadian marine biologist , who free dives and visits deep oceans around the world, and polar explorer , who was the first Black Briton to reach the North Pole. Many of the other guest explorers also have something unusual in common: they’ve had a traumatic experience that could have made it difficult to continue their adventures, but nevertheless found a way to keep pursuing their curiosity. Marine biologist Melissa Márquez, who was attacked by a crocodile, still explores waterways on a glass-bottom canoe. Scientist Albert Lin, who shows Smith all kinds of fancy gear on their adventure in Namibia, had one of his legs amputated after a car accident. “Technology has helped me be able to define my own limitations,” he says. “In a strange way I don’t actually feel like I’ve lost anything, I actually feel like I’ve gained.”

As a host, Smith is a perfect audience stand-in, never failing to voice his admiration for his guides or gape at a deep-sea jellyfish the way anyone would if they were dropped directly into a nature documentary. He seems to have a lot of fun checking off a lifetime’s worth of bucket list items, from diving 3,000 feet beneath the sea to paddling the recently-discovered Stuðlagil canyon in Iceland. And dad jokes abound—“We are detached [from the boat],” he says from a submarine. “But not emotionally. Emotionally I’m still very attached.” But the show is clearly seeking a more meaningful reason to put him through these experiences. The series opens with Smith invoking the words of his grandmother, who said the best things in life exist��on the other side of fear. He returns to this theme repeatedly, sharing his previously unrealized longing to be an explorer—in the second episode he confesses to never having swum in a lake, climbed a mountain, or slept in a tent. “A large part of the reason why I live my life the way I do today is because I was fearful as a child,” he says in the fear-themed final episode, directed by Darren Aronofsky.

None of these insights is particularly original or dramatic, but the point isn’t only that a world-famous movie star hasn’t done things that many people also haven’t done. It’s that even with all of the best resources at hand, he still reacts with all the stumbling, self-deprecating jokes, nervous silences, and thousand-yard stares that any of us might recognize from our first time doing something out of our comfort zone. As their submarine descends into the ocean, Amon asks Smith with genuine surprise if he’s actually nervous. “Just a little bit. It’ll be fine though,” Smith says, much too quickly.

These moments add a much-needed authenticity to a show that might otherwise be overstuffed with shiny distractions like drones, fancy high-speed cameras, and joy rides over the dunes of the Namib Desert. Beyond that, though, the show seems like a more graceful extension of Smith’s recent personal project to become more open about his life with the public. This has resulted in many of us learning way more than we ever wanted to know about him. A in which he aimed to lose 20 pounds in 20 weeks ended up feeling sad (even Will Smith still has to deal with diet culture?), and he shared so many specifics on his marriage in interviews��that it inspired articles like “.” But as Elamin Abdelmahmoud particularly well in Buzzfeed News, most stars of Smith’s generation, himself included, have maintained their fame with an air of unattainability—staying off social media, granting limited interviews, and not sharing many personal confessions. But younger actors today build a fan base by being (sort of) open books, aiming for polished relatability and controlled transparency. “A byproduct of ’90s celebrity culture, [Smith] is attempting something few men of his generation of stars have done: reinventing himself publicly, to align with the contemporary expectations of celebrity,” Abdelmahmoud writes.

Welcome to Earth contributes to that project with a clean narrative arc about Smith facing his fears and insecurities. And it wouldn’t have stood out from the glut of stunning David Attenborough films or celebrity-narrated nature documentaries if it hadn’t nailed that element. This is to Smith’s credit, too; he’s a man used to getting gawked at, but it seems like we get to see moments in which the mask slips and we’re just watching him go through it. (“How’s it feeling?” Fields asks as they traverse a glacier in Iceland. “You know exactly how it’s feeling,” Smith replies. “Scary as hell!”) Unlike turning his fitness plans into a sort of reality show, this doesn’t feel like a put-on or an embarrassing thing Smith must endure to prove he’s a human with real problems. The documentary chooses to spend most of its time celebrating the people who pursue adventure despite having first-hand knowledge that things can go wrong—along with beginners like Smith who give it a try, knowing the process will likely be a little bit embarrassing. By the end of the show, Smith seems just as amazed at the physical feats he’s willingly gone through as he is by the hidden forces of nature he’s witnessed. Glamorous as the show may be, it captures something any viewer might recognize in themselves: that exhilarating feeling of possibility after discovering you can do things that once felt totally undoable.

The post In ‘Welcome to Earth,’ Will Smith Conquers His ���ϳԹ��� Anxiety appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

Stanza Mbanga Molaodi had big plans this spring. On May 17, the owner of ��in Botswana was due to accompany six Italian clients into Chobe National Park, home to a third of the continent’s 600,000 elephants. From its base camp in the bush, the group would go on game drives, day-trip to Victoria Falls, and enjoy cocktails and crocodile-watching��on sunset cruises up the Chobe River. The gang would then relocate to the park’s semiarid Savuti region, a landscape of baobab trees and rocky outcrops��where dense herds of zebra and buffalo congregate at watering holes and try not to get picked off by the Savuti lion��pride. Next up would be the Khwai Community Area, where indigenous bushmen would guide the Italians on walking safaris and take them paddling down the Khwai River in traditional mokoro canoes. The 12-day adventure would end with a birding extravaganza in the Okavango Delta, a Unesco��World Heritage site. “It’s a beautiful place to end a safari,” Molaodi told me, sounding almost emotional.

But the trip was not to be.

Frightened��by the coronavirus, the Italians canceled. All of Molaodi’s clients��have canceled or postponed. When I reached him by phone recently, he was holed up at home with his family in Kasane, fretting. On the day we spoke, the Botswana Defense Force ordered all troops on leave or off duty to return to their posts immediately, and Molaodi predicted a military-enforced lockdown, not unlike what neighboring South Africa had announced that same day. Molaodi seemed to be speaking for Africa’s entire��$40 billion wildlife-tourism industry when he confessed, “We are all retrenching. Everyone is panicked.”��

Simply put, the safari business in Africa and Asia has stopped. Completely. Maybe that’s not surprising at this point in the pandemic. Between flight cancelations, national lockdowns, border closures, emergency visa restrictions, and required quarantine upon entry, clients fearless enough to travel couldn’t reach their destinations if they wanted to. Even if they could, in some countries they’d be sorely disappointed. India has shuttered all of its tiger reserves and national parks. Congo has closed Virunga National Park, fearing that its famous mountain gorillas could contract COVID-19��from humans. Gabon, deeply scarred from losing 15,000 lowland gorillas in a 1995 Ebola outbreak, has likewise halted all ape tours.��

What is surprising are the domino effects of this economic catastrophe and the ultimate impact they will have on wildlife. Starting in April, Molaodi’s six staff members will receive half their normal salary, but for May and beyond, all bets are off. Roberto de Sibi, owner of Savannah Explorers in Tanzania, had already placed 17 of his 45 employees on half salary when we spoke (I found him under 14-day quarantine in Milan, where he’d fled to be near his 82-year-old father, having caught the last flight from Tanzania to Italy). Neither Molaodi nor De��Sibi��would be paying anything to the many freelance��drivers and guides they hire during busy periods. Molaodi wouldn’t be paying the bushmen to take clients paddling, and De Sibi wouldn’t be paying Dadoga tribesmen to show his clients how to melt metal to make knives. Their clients wouldn’t be donating solar lanterns to villages or otherwise leaving generous contributions.��

Crucially, neither operator would be ponying up the various fees required by parks and community conservation areas for tourist entry, guide entry, vehicle entry, and overnight stays. Large percentages of such fees go to local communities for development projects and conservation measures, like funding anti-poaching scouts. Ninety percent of Zambia’s more than 1,000 scouts come from its communities and are paid from tourism fees. In Namibia, tourism fees pay for the country’s 600 game guards and support more than 6,000 families.��

With rampant unemployment, unpaid game guards, and fewer tourists in the bush to report suspicious activity, it’s just a matter of time before wildlife gets hammered. “Poaching will increase,” De Sibi��insists. “People who are jobless must find money or food.”��

Everyone I spoke with concurred on this point. “One of the biggest fears is that, if scouts can’t be paid, I can foresee people poaching,” says Maxi Louis, director of the Namibian Association of��Community Based Natural Resources Management Support Organizations. “Poverty will drive people.” Louis also anticipates that local tolerance for crop-raiding herbivores and livestock-killing predators, both common in villages near protected areas, will plummet. “There will be no scouts to manage human-animal conflict��and no funds to compensate for lost livestock,” she says, expecting a spike in retaliatory killings��of troublesome wildlife.

In a 2012 study, ecologist Ralf Buckley of��Griffith University in Australia found that most of the more than 1,400 species listed as threatened by the International Union for��Conservation of Nature depend on tourism for their survival, including iconic species like lions, elephants, and rhinos. “Many park��agencies worldwide now rely heavily on tourism for routine operational funding, more than 50 percent in some cases,” the study reported. “This puts rare mammals at a new risk, from downturns in tourism driven by external socioeconomic factors.”��

Given the magnitude of this potential biodiversity implosion, mentioning a silver lining might seem frivolous. But there is one. Tourism is a double-edged sword. It funds conservation, yes, but too much of it can disturb breeding patterns, feeding habits, and migratory movement. It can pollute landscapes and destroy habitat. “This travel hiatus of several months will give a chance for resilient natural environments to recover from the stress inflicted by tourism,” says Frederic Dimanche, director of the Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Ryerson University in Toronto. (While Dimanche’s prediction is warranted, many other��reports on social media of wildlife thriving as a result of quarantines .) If the animals can manage to survive, the pandemic might be an opportunity to improve wildlife tourism. “Destinations and tourism operators everywhere have a unique chance to restart a tourism that will be better planned, better managed, one that will be sustainable, with stronger policies,” Dimanche says.��

The post A Tourism Lull May Be Good for Animals—but Not for Long appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

When her Kenya Airways flight touched down on Mahé Island in the Seychelles on October 6, Jessica Nabongo said it finally hit her.

“I’m done,” said the 35-year-old. “I’ve been to every country in the world.”

Surrounded by her family and closest friends, Nabongo was ebullient and humble. She began livestreaming to her 130,000 .��People from six continents tuned in to watch, from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Finland.

Nabongo, who grew up in Detroit, Michigan,��and is the daughter of Ugandan immigrants,��estimates that she had already been to 105 countries when she publicly set her goal in April 2018. A dual Ugandan-American citizen, she spent time in East Africa as a child and teen, visiting her parents’ families. She moved abroad to teach English in Japan in her early twenties��and then got a master’s degree in international development from the London School of Economics at the age of 26. She moved to Benin, in West Africa, to work for an NGO, then landed a job in Italy as a resource-mobilization consultant for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

There are 193 UN��member countries, in addition to the Vatican and Palestine, which are nonmember states. That left 90��places for Nabongo to visit when she set her goal.��Over the past two years, she was on the road about three weeks a month, departing from Detroit. She supported herself through her travel business—a tour operator called Jet Black—as well as funding from��a Kickstarter campaign and help from select tourism boards for on-the-ground expenses and hotels that comped stays.

I first met Nabongo at a coffee shop in New York City’s East Village in August. She arrived wearing a turquoise and blue shirt from Studio 189, a Ghanian brand. Adorned with rings from Kenya and bracelets from Botswana, she called herself a “walking passport.” Fresh off a weekend at the��Afropunk Festival in Brooklyn, she had a few days in New York before heading back to Detroit for a week of rest.

In the previous��three weeks, she had been to Palau, South Korea, Mongolia, India, Bhutan, Oman, and Pakistan. She had four countries left: Venezuela, Algeria, Syria, and the Seychelles. Nabongo��kept��track of the countries she��visited on an app called��,��which notes each place on a list and a map. She’d��filled up��three passports in the past two and a half years��with stamps from each country. Additionally, she��posted photographic evidence of every country on her .

Even as a young child, Nabongo wanted to visit every country in the world. But it wasn’t until she read about Cassie De Pecol’s for the Guinness World Records’ fastest visit to all sovereign nations that she learned about country counters and came up with her own goal. A small but avid group of worldwide travelers, the country-counting community is tight-knit and shares information. Nabongo estimates that there are about 150 people who have been to every country. They connect in the Facebook group .

“I am trying to change the narrative about black people in the travel space,” said Nabongo. “When I am traveling in Delta One or domestically flying first class, people are like, ‘Oh, are you an employee?’ I am like, ‘No, but I am Diamond,’” referring to Delta Airlines’ top tier of frequent fliers.

“Some people have been critical and saying, ‘Oh you’re doing it too fast,’” said Nabongo. “I’ve been traveling my whole life. I almost look at this as taste testing.”

Nabongo��averaged around four days in each of the last 50 countries she visited. While that might sound like breakneck speed, compared to other country counters who tag some countries in a day, it is downright slow. While Nabongo isn’t averse to solo travel, she journeyed with many longtime friends throughout.

In the country-counting community, is the de facto gold standard for verification. The organization��has 5,000 members and verifies country visits by asking for proof of a��random 20 places.��Nabongo’s efforts have been confirmed by it. (Other groups, like the Travelers’ Century Club, mainly rely on the honor system.)

“A lot of people ask me which countries are safe for black people to travel,” Nabongo recently wrote on an Instagram post from the Seychelles. “This question typically comes from black Americans. The U.S. has perfected racism in a way that I’ve not seen in other countries, so I would urge you to travel WHEREVER you want to, no matter who you are and what you look like. I did it! And just because you hear one or two negative stories from someone doesn’t mean you should write a country off of your bucket list. We all will have different experiences and you shouldn’t allow your race to hinder you.”

As the celebrations in the Seychelles continued, Nabongo shared some of what she learned along the way to our reporter.

Getting in to North Korea and Syria

North Korea and Syria are tough countries for Americans to enter. While North Korea welcomes Americans, the U.S. government bans its citizens from visiting. This is when Nabongo’s Ugandan passport came in handy.

“North Korea doesn’t care if an American comes,” said Nabongo. “They knew I was an American, because my Ugandan passport shows that I was born in the United States, and because when I was exiting and going to China, I entered China with my U.S. passport, so they had to have both of my passports.”

While in North Korea, Nabongo was astounded by some of the messages she received from her American fan base. She attended the Mass Games, an annual synchronized-gymnastics and dance festival featuring 100,000 performers. After posting some photos of the event on Instagram, some of her followers commented��that she shouldn’t have visited the country at all. While Nabongo tries to remain apolitical about her journey, which at times causes issues with her followers, she was shocked by how many Americans were upset. After her trip, Nabongo told Nomad Mania: “I spent six days in North Korea, and aside from some quirky things, I thought it was surprisingly normal. We saw couples sitting in the park, we chatted with some college students, saw people drinking in a local bar, kids on school field trips, and people going to work on the subway. We never really see pictures or ‘normal’ life in North Korea, so this was very surprising.”

Meanwhile, Syria was a holy grail for Nabongo. Although now relatively safe in certain government-controlled areas, the country has restricted access for Americans. (One was recently released from detainment��after entering.)

Nabongo applied for a visa using her Ugandan passport and was denied. She tried again in Pakistan using her Ugandan passport, but her contact at the Syrian embassy in Pakistan wrote down that she was a journalist. She was told that her visa request would take a long time.

In the end, in September, Nabongo visited the occupied Golan Heights—which is recognized as Syria by the Guinness Book of World Records—via Israel.

How to Stay��Organized

Calling herself the visa whisperer, Nabongo admits that without her hyperorganizational skills, her accomplishment wouldn’t have been possible. She used Google Docs and Google Sheets to list her remaining countries by continent, so that she could organize flights based on regions.

One tool that Nabongo recommends for travelers is . It lists all nonstop flights into every airport in the world. “You can get to Paris from anywhere,” said Nabongo. “But when you’re going to Tuvalu?”

To acquire visa information, Nabongo recommends . The website offers an overview of visa requirements for every country based on nationality. As a dual citizen, Nabongo found it particularly beneficial, because it allowed her to compare access to a country for both her passports, noting that knowing geopolitical situations also helps when it comes to getting access to countries.

“I closed the tab today for Passport Index, and I got a little bit sad,” Nabongo told me in August. “That tab has been open on my browser for two years.”

She tried to travel on her Ugandan passport whenever possible to save money on visas—for example, for an American going to Nigeria, the visa is $160, but for Ugandans it’s just $2—and to bring awareness to the idea of Africans as tourists. “I want people to see a Ugandan passport literally just coming for tourism and leaving,” she said. Nabongo visited 42 countries on her Ugandan passport, saving an estimated $1,200.

The Top ���ϳԹ��� Countries

Nabongo found two unexpected adventure destinations: Jordan and Namibia. Nabongo was impressed with Jordan’s efforts to ramp up its��outdoor tourism, from camping in the beautiful desert escape of Wadi Rum��to exploring Aqaba, a port city on the Red Sea.

Describing Namibia as “phenomenal,” Nabongo saw the Milky Way for the first time while staying in the Namib Desert at Sossusvlei, thanks to the miniscule amount of light pollution. She also climbed the huge nearby sand dunes.

Some of her other favorite nature experiences included swimming with humpback whales in Tonga, the Molinere Underwater Sculpture Park in Grenada, whale-watching in the Arctic Circle, surfing in Peru, and hanging out in the Devil’s Pool at Victoria Falls in Zambia.

Getting Around

Nabongo tried��to maximize her experiences by how she physically traversed��countries, from train rides in Uzbekistan and Austria to helicopter rides in Senegal and South Africa.

One of Nabongo’s favorite ways to explore is with a hired driver and guide. Although she’s a proponent of local group tours—she estimates she’s been on about 40 in her time as a globe-trotter—she says that having a private driver allows for independence. On a recent trip to the country of Georgia, the tourism board provided her with a driver and a guide. After a wine tasting, they decided on a whim to stop and buy locally made bread at a local Georgian’s home.

“The way they make the bread was similar to how I saw it made in Yemen,” recounted Nabongo.��She showed the Georgian woman a video of a man making bread in Yemen.

The Most Challenging Experience

Most of the trouble Nabongo��ran into happened with immigration officers, like in Pakistan in September, where she was searched for drugs as she was trying to leave the country. Although she’s careful to note that she loved her visit to Pakistan, describing it as “pleasant and fun,” the immigration experience at the end left her traumatized. “I have more racist issues occur with immigration than with people [in the countries] themselves,” she says.

The Easiest Place to Be a Woman Traveler

Throughout her travels, Nabongo said that she found Muslim countries the easiest to be a woman tourist. “I felt very comfortable as a woman in Pakistan as compared to India,” Nabongo said.

“Americans don’t realize how conservative Americans are compared to the rest of the world,” she added. “Everybody wants to talk about how Muslim women are oppressed because they have to cover their heads, and I’m like, Look at the gender pay gap in America.”

The Thing She Never Leaves Home Without

Compression socks. Describing them as essential to her self-care,��she rarely flies without them.��She also loves Allbirds walking shoes and Flight 001��packing cubes.

The Merits of Learning��a Few Local Phrases

In Japan, Nabongo prided herself on her basic language skills. She also speaks French, which has proven useful in her travels.

Everywhere she went, she tried to learn at least how to say hello, goodbye, please, and thank you.

But she wasn’t always able to communicate, especially in places with different alphabets. Still, Nabongo said,��“I feel comfortable communicating with people, even if we can’t speak the same language. In Uzbekistan, we had a great time��even though we couldn’t speak [the language]. This one woman, we had a conversation. We were not using words either of us understood, but I still understood the meaning of what she was trying to tell me:��that I need to get married very soon, because when I get old I will be very ugly, and that I should have children soon. I was like, OK, thank you.”

Her Favorite Airline��

After years on the road, Nabongo’s��favorite airline is Delta, because she says it has��the best frequent-flier program and consistently good customer service.��Now that she usually flies out of Detroit, a Delta hub, her allegiance to the airline is even stronger. She has Diamond Medallion status.

How to Extend a Layover

Nabongo has always been a layover hacker. The key, she says, is to plan.

“Long layovers are really great” to get a taste of what a country has to offer, she says. “What if you fly somewhere, you’ve spent all this money, and you don’t love it?”

National airlines often offer free extended layovers. Specifically, she recommends airlines like Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar, as well as Iceland Air.

“During the booking process, call the airline and just ask them for a free stopover,” said Nabongo, explaining that a stopover is usually one to two days. “A lot of airlines allow for it.”

Read the Reviews

“I read reviews, reviews, reviews before I pick anything,” Nabongo said. “You can cross-reference Google Reviews and TripAdvisor.”

Find a Good Meal

“The problem with guides is sometimes they want to take you to ‘the best restaurant’ that tourists love,” Nabongo said. “And I’m like ‘No, I don’t want to eat where other tourists eat. I want to eat where you �𲹳�.’�ĝ

The Most Difficult Place to Travel

“Oh my God. The South Pacific is a logistical nightmare,” she said. “No one island-hops in the South Pacific, and it is therefore incredibly expensive to fly, and flights are super infrequent. But there are definitely some gems there. Like, Tonga is phenomenal, swimming with the whales. It was a humpback whale and me. It was just right there.”

What’s Next

After seeing so many local marketers around the world flooded with made-in-China��goods (a notable exception was in Vanuatu, where the government mandates that all goods sold in the main market must be produced on the island), Nabongo wants to create an online store for select, locally produced goods from around the globe.

Calling it the Catch, she plans on launching it this fall. She also wants to sell sustainable goods, like collapsible cups for airport travel.

Nabongo is also galvanized to tackle the world’s plastic problem, after seeing its effects during her travels. Pointing out that the travel industry is one of the worst culprits, she wants to consult with hotels and airlines to help create solutions to the environmental nightmare.

“This is a single planet. Forget about national borders,” she said. “If you drop a plastic bottle in the water, it can end up anywhere in the world.”

The post Jessica Nabongo’s Lessons from Visiting Every Country appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

“And if we all listen to each other, we might just learn something.” When professional model departed for Namibia, she expected to aid in the San tribe's ��to improve living conditions. However, this film, Poverty of Perception,��from t and the , presents a twist in which finds out that the San have much more to offer her instead.��

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The post The San People Have a Story to Tell, But Nobody Is Listening appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

The post The World’s Oldest, Most Beautiful Cultures Preserved Through Photographs appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

The first-ever hammocks were��used by to escape snakes, biting ants, and other creatures they’d prefer not to wake up next to. For most of us today, however, hammocks are the embodiment of hold-my-calls rest and relaxation. Here’s where to make that happen��no matter your budget.

Roughing It

Parque Tayrona, Colombia

From $6

For the price of a few ,��you can sleep to the sounds of crashing waves on an open-air hammock overlooking the beautiful��white-sand��beaches of��. Located��on Colombia’s Caribbean, the park is��known for its snorkeling, but��also��check out the 1.5-mile��uphill hike into the jungle to the ,��a perfect precursor to the three-day ��that begins in Santa Marta, about 30��minutes away. Shell out $95 for a private room that also comes with a hammock.��

Paratay, Brazil

​From $30

Paratay is a tropical beach town about four hours from both��Rio��and��Sao Paulo. Base at this bare-bones mansion��cum��guesthouse, about a 20-minute water shuttle from the town center, and you’ll��get a clean, basic room and quiet beachfront bliss with hammocks.��In Paratay, you can trail bike, kayak, dive, snorkel, or hike through the rainforest on the three-hour Gold Trail through��.��

Antigua, Guatemala

From $40

This hillside escape of treehouses overlooking Guatemala’s vast volcano range��is a 15-minute taxi ride from��Antigua’s center. Get the “deluxe room” and��you’ll have two private hammocks with views. Feeling social? Crawl out of your arboreal home to snag one of six hammocks scattered about the grounds. Or��grab a trail map from the front desk and enjoy wandering the surrounding countryside.

Sharing Community

Topanga Canyon, California
��
From $95

Topanga Canyon��is one of L.A.’s more bohemian reaches, as well as a paradise for . This ��is a home’s guest wing (with a private entrance) surrounded by a��native-plant garden where you’ll find��a cushion- and blanket-strewn hammock over a Mexican-tile patio��with views of the Santa Monica Mountains.��

El Zonte, El Salvador
��
From��$315

Incredible breaks and uncrowded beaches make El Salvador one of the most up-and-coming surf destinations. After riding your last wave, unwind with a swing on one of��the three hammocks at this 12-person, five-bedroom cliff��house. It’s located along the western surfing corridor and comes with a pool.

Big Island, Hawaii

From��$350

If you’ve never road-tripped around Hawaii’s Big Island, put it on your to-do list. From the turtle��diving in Kona and hiking in ��to the hidden falls near Hilo and sightseeing in��, it’s one of the most incredible drives in the United States. Afterward, park yourself in this��hammock with unobstructed views of . The house��comes with its own private beach, Jacuzzi, and swimming pool, and sleeps up to eight.

Splurge

Guadeloupe

From $130

One of the lesser-traveled islands in the Caribbean, Guadeloupe is known for its spectacular beaches, great diving in��the��, and top-notch hiking up the 4,049-foot, still-active��La Soufrière volcano. Base out of��,��set on a rainforested hill overlooking the sea.��All the brightly colored rooms are open��air and equipped with hammocks for spontaneous napping.��

Mountain Pine Ridge Reserve, Belize

From $279

In the open-air��Francis Ford Coppola Villa at the��, one of the walls is actually a hammock��affording private rainforest views and sounds from the river below.��Coppola’s intimate hideaway in the , the first national park in Belize,��is a great base for visiting Mayan sites like (in nearby Guatemala) and exploring the mysterious��.��

Sumba, Indonesia

From $900

This new, much-buzzed-about retreat on the island of Sumba offers surfing, sportfishing, diving, and sunbathing on a private 1.5-mile white-sand beach—all the pleasures that drew travelers to nearby��Bali (a 90-minute flight away) before it became overrun. The best spot for après-adventure lounging: one of ’s��colorful hammocks, which staff set up with pillows and towels, and then deliver freshly picked coconuts with edible��papaya straws.��

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Three Free Hammock Parks for City Slickers

Governor’s Island, New York

Governor’s Island is��New York City’s favorite��quirky summer playground. It’s��an uninhabited island a from Manhattan with a garden of��red rope hammocks—a��perfect break between biking around the island and kicking back at the (man-made) beach club.��

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania��

,��a lawn of 38��hammocks��on the , is��relaxing way to end your day����down lively South Street from the University of Pennyslvania campus to Penn’s Landing.

Vienna, Austria��

The Viennese sure love their hammocks—the city has a four-story installation in the ��and a ��in the . But for pure open-air swinging bliss,��the place to go is , where a slew of hammocks have been installed every May to October��since 2011.

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Bleak can be beautiful—at least when Mother Nature��or mankind��has gone awry. Taking in the juxtaposition of disfigured trees in a desert, rare��beasts on a barren island, a house engulfed in lava, or a��brillant��white desert used for testing end-of-the-world missiles,��one is compelled to redefine the concept of beauty. Here are five rare apocalyptic places that will get inside your head, and stay there, long after you’ve returned to pretty civilization.

Hike the Caribbean Pompeii

Montserrat, Caribbean
When the ��erupted in 1995, it buried two-thirds of this (it’s just��ten��by��seven��miles wide), including Plymouth, its former capital. Luckily, most of the people in the affected area were safely evacuated.��Recently, islanders who have relocated to the island’s unaffected northern side��have begun offering the zone of destruction.��, on the lush��northern coast, is a secluded��jungle retreat of villas, some overlooking the sea, that offers full-day tours ($65) to explore��places like the abandoned Montserrat Springs Hotel��and the old airport. Alternatively, get a bird’s-eye view of the devastation on a ��or��. Stick around to try Montserrat’s excellent diving, hiking, birding, and spearfishing.

Get there: Fly to Antigua, and then take a 20-minute on Montserrat��or a two-hour in Antigua.��

Explore a Silo of Stark Beauty

White Sands, New Mexico
is the world’s largest gypsum desert. (Gypsum is��the mineral used to make chalk.)��It’s��275 miles of sand so blindingly white that��it looks like you could be in Antarctica. The entire area��was under the sea 100 million years ago,��but even though the ocean left this place for dead, its apocalyptic reputation stems��from being the site of the first nuclear bomb test. The explosion occurred on the Trinity Site, 30 miles from Las Cruces, and is open only two days each year: the first Saturday of April (April 5, 2015) and the first Saturday of October (October 3, 2015). The visitor center,��open six��days a week��year-round, has an eerie��. Since you might need some cheering up after this site, take a ��(the source of White Sands’ 4.5 billion tons of gypsum),��see fossilized animal footprints at the bottom of Lake Otero,��or hike the five mile .��

Get there: Fly into Albuquerque and drive 240 straight-shot miles south to Alamogordo, or land��in nearby��Las Cruces and drive 30 miles.

Swim in an Asteroid-Impact Zone

Chicxulub, Mexico
The asteroid impact that may have destroyed the dinosaurs 65��million��years��ago is now a network of swimmable caves called cenotes. They’re peppered throughout the Yucatan Peninsula, but Chicxulub, about a three-hour��drive west of Cancun, is where scientists believe the occurred. “Half of the crater rim is undersea;��the other half forms the cenotes [sinkholes]��which we have all over the peninsula,” says Yuanita Stein, editorial director for .��Base yourself in Cancun (if you can stand the crowds) or stay closer in��, the Yucatan capital. Pop into the to see a history of the crater, and then dive on in. Just be sure to go with an official guide��since .��

Get there: , and��then take a nine-mile��bus ride��to ��or drive west 30 miles to Merida.

See a Polar Bear Sanctuary

Wrangel Island, Russia
Wrangel Island has a curious history. It was one of the only plots of land��that avoided glaciation during the last Ice Age, and scientists believe this Arctic tundra is��where the last wooly mammoths roamed. Today��this 2,900-square-mile��island 88 miles off the coast of Siberia is a veritable Galapagos of the Arctic, with unusual plants and wildlife, like musk��ox, Arctic fox, Pacific walrus, snowy owl, and the relatively large polar bear population ().��Only recently opened to tourists—who largely come to see the gathering sites of polar bears—travelers are otherwise forbidden without proper visas and park passes. Outfitters like facilitate the process,��but it comes at a price: A��15-day excursion costs $11,200, excluding flights.��

Get there: Fly ��direct from Moscow to Anadyr,��the port to Wrangel Island.��

Camp at the Gates of Hell

Erta Ale, Ethiopia
Erta Ale is as inhospitable to human life as you can imagine. As the sun sets, smoke emerges from the cracks beneath your feet��and an eerie red glow emits from a gurgling lava lake (one of only five��on earth) located in the center of one of the world’s only . San Francisco–based writer��Jill Perambi says camping in the Denali Depression, in the northeastern region of Ethiopia,��was one of the most intense experiences she’s ever had:��“The strong sulphur smell made our eyes water and throat burn, and without headlamps (our main light source was the lava itself), we could’ve easily tripped and fallen into the boiling lava.” Plus, air temperatures . Take a , which��include stays on the surrounding caldera, but only if you’re looking to .��

Get there: Fly into Mekele, Africa, on��.��From there, it’s about 80 miles to Erta Ale��with a tour on land.

Surf the Scene of Mad Max: Fury Road

Namib Desert, Namibia
The ocean once covered the arid, unforgiving landscape of this desert in southwestern Africa. Sand, dunes, and rock outcroppings now stretch as far as the eye can see, which made it the perfect set for the postapocalyptic thriller��. Despite the bleak feel, it’s a popular place for sandboarders, as home to the world’s tallest sand dunes,��some reaching upwards of 1,000 feet. Check out the hills near Sossusvlei in the ,��which overlooks Dead Vlei, a 550-year-old petrified forest. ��runs a few duneboard-centric tours, or stay at , just at the lip of the park. For bragging rights, hike up the Big Daddy Dune (1,066 feet),��the largest sand dune in the world.��

Get there: Fly into , the capital of Namibia.��From there, it’s either a six-hour drive or a one-hour air��taxi flight to Sossusvlei with your tour company.

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On the scale of hotel��room awesomeness, outdoor showers rank up there with killer views and private Jacuzzis (and, okay, free minibars). We don’t need to spell out why,��especially after a day of ripping up waves, pounding mountain trails, zip-lining, safari-ing, or just nursing��margs on the beach. And you know the only thing better than that first sip of coffee in the morning? Waking up with an outdoor shower. That’s not a scientific fact, but it’s true. Trust us. To help you make this vacation dream a reality, we scoured the world of adventure hot spots for some of the coolest outdoor showers. That list is right here.

Arenal Volcano National Park, Costa Rica

Nayara Hotel, Spa, and Gardens
The amazing adventures around Costa Rica’s Arenal Volcano are no secret:��hiking, rafting, canyoning, biking, hot springs, and, of course, zip-lining. But hidden beneath the shadow of these jungle-clad hills are the gardens of , which are everywhere at this tropical enclave,��even in the romantic rooms’ private courtyard showers. Rough stone walls, pebbled floors, and palm fronds add to the natural vibe.

Bahia, Brazil

Uxua Casa Hotel and Spa
From sea kayaking and beach volleyball to��capoeira, fishing, and trail biking, there are��plenty of ways to get your heart racing at , an��intimate, oceanside Bahian hideaway. Each of the ten casas,��ranging from refurbished fishing shacks to treehouses,��has an outside��tropical shower. The one in����feels most like the ultimate jungle fantasy, where you cool off��in��a stream of water that cascades from a tree. You might have to brush away palm fronds to wash your hair, but doesn’t that make things more fun?

Okonjima Nature Reserve, Namibia

Okonjima
is located in a private nature reserve and is home to the , which works to conserve and rehabilitate Namibia’s cheetah population. It’s one of the few safari camps with its own self-guided hiking and��. Each of the four bedrooms in the private Grand African Villa, part of a camp with many styles of accommodations, has a dramatic, curvaceous outdoor shower that’s a big step up from the usual bush shower.��

Phuket, Thailand

Paresa Resort
Bespoke adventures abound at : Hike to secluded villages by starlight, kayak out to caves on the sea or through jungle streams, or take it easy with lunch on a floating raft in the Kho Sok Forest. But first you’ll have to peel yourself out of your room.��Each is perched on the Kamala cliffs amid a tropical forest.��An entire balcony is dedicated to the art of outdoor showering (and includes a private pool). Looking down over the balcony railing, the view is of the indigo waters of the Andaman Sea.

Sonoma, California

Carneros Inn
Exploring the tremendous bounty of wineries throughout Sonoma County,��especially via bicycle,��is possibly��one of the most romantic trips in the United States. The sprawling ��offers a new take on the landscape’s beauty, with alfresco showers adorned with peekaboo windows that look out onto the property’s 27 acres of grapevines, apple orchards, and farmland.

St.��Lucia

Ladera
��is the only resort located inside the St. Lucia's��UNESCO World Heritage site, and travelers hideaway��here��to sail, snorkel, or climb the famed 2,619-foot Gros Piton��(right next door). While the showers aren’t strictly open-air, they might as well be: Picture windows let you look out on the view, and the showers feature exuberant mosaic tiles depicting tropical gardens.��

Antigua

Jumby Bay, A Rosewood Resort
Cars are banned, and everyone gets around by bicycle or on foot at��, a resort on a private island��a few miles from Antigua in the West Indies. But escaping it all doesn’t mean giving up a luxurious bathroom. The suites all have private courtyards with curvaceous showerheads mounted on pearlescent tiled walls, plenty of room to splash around, eye candy in the form of bougainvillea, and, for more serious bathing endeavors, claw-foot soaking tubs.

Zighy Bay, Oman

Six Senses Zighy Bay
Oman, one of the most visitor-friendly countries in the Middle East, is quietly becoming a hot spot for rock climbers, mountain bikers, and divers looking for an exotic escape. Stay at the ��and you’ll also soak in some of the local culture: The outdoor showers in the Spa Pool Villas are a slightly��glammed-up version of a traditional Omani outdoor bathing area. ���ϳԹ��� the walled courtyards, the northern Musandam Peninsula beckons with its mix of stunning nature—jagged mountains on one side and the waters of Zighy Bay on the other.��

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Warning: unless you’re an annoyingly carefree bon vivant with a hefty trust fund, reading our annual Best of Travel awards may trigger a deep sense of dissatisfaction with the pathetic state of your mundane life. There are so many cool places to go, you’ll think as you scroll through our 30 epic selections. And not enough time! Why am I stuck at this desk! Do not panic—this is a totally natural reaction. And that’s the beauty of our annual awards.

���ϳԹ��� has been covering the adventure-travel beat for nearly four decades, and our two veteran Best of Travel writers, Tim Neville and Stephanie Pearson, have spent months poring over the latest trip offerings and scouring the globe to uncover surprising new ideas. We know this beat, and now we’ve narrowed your choices of hotels, destinations, and outfitters from approximately 10.6 million to 30. The final choice is still on you, but the task is at least manageable. Or maybe you’ll get that trust fund. —Chris Keyes

1. Best Island: Bermuda

A subtropical archipelago of 181 volcanic islands, Bermuda won the bid to host the 2017 America’s Cup, thanks to near perfect North Atlantic sailing conditions. Beyond wind, the British Overseas Territory, just a two-hour flight from New York City, has 75 miles of pink-sand beaches interspersed with jagged limestone cliffs, many of which are perfect for deep-water soloing and hucking into the Atlantic from the top. Stay at , a 50-acre hideaway with a private stretch of sand on the southern shore (from $455).

2. Best Dive: Cuba

Already sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department as an educational tour, this 11-day live-aboard yacht excursion helps fund research 
and conservation work by trip leader David Guggenheim, a marine scientist, underwater explorer, and founder of the Washington, D.C., nonprofit . The location: , an archipelago of 250 coral and mangrove islands, located 60 miles off Cuba’s southern coast, that Fidel Castro established as a marine protected area and a no-take fishing zone. Only 1,000 divers are allowed each year, so you’ll be one of the few to see whale sharks, sperm whales, sea turtles, goliath groupers, and some of the most pristine coral reefs anywhere on the planet. The package includes a chartered flight from Miami and a night at the five-star in Havana. From $7,474.

3. Best Street Food: Austin, Texas

The scene here is so fast-paced that today’s sweet chile chicken lollipops at or kimchi fries at the Korean-Mexican fusion truck may be gone tomorrow. (Though we sure hope not.) Hit eight trucks in one location at the Barton Springs Picnic Park, and find more worth seeking out at and .

4. Best River Trip: Fiji

Lined with vertical cliffs and cascading waterfalls, the 18-mile-long Upper Navua River Gorge on Viti Levu is like a tropical Grand Canyon, which is why formed and worked with local landowners, villagers, a timber company, and the Native Land Trust Board to establish the 10.5-mile Upper Navua Conservation Area in 2000. Bask in the fruits of their labor by paddling this pristine Class II–III warm-water river lined with swaying palms. As long as you’re here, add a couple of days kayaking the Middle Navua, sea-kayaking and snorkeling among the coral gardens of Beqa Lagoon, and sprawling out on white-sand beaches. $2,899 for eight days.

5. Best of the Wild West: Montana

Since 2001, the nonprofit has been working to restore the northern great plains to the pristine condition Lewis and Clark found them in more than 200 years ago. The resulting reserve, in northeast Montana, is now 305,000 acres. The aim is to reach 3.5 million by 2030, creating a U.S. Serengeti and the largest wildlife park in the lower 48, where herds of elk, mule deer, and bison thrive. But don’t wait to go. You can sleep under the stars now at the 11-site ($10), four miles north of the , and take a DIY mountain-biking safari on old ranch roads, passing grazing bison and scanning the skies for American kestrels, Sprague’s pipits, and Swainson’s hawks. Or paddle the Missouri River past pioneer homesteads and historic tepees to , a set of five luxurious yurts, each with AC, a hot shower, and a veranda for sundowners (from $4,800 for six days).

6. Best Place to Tie One On: Portland, Maine

The other Portland may have the microbrewery rep, but it distributes its beers to half the country. Many of the best brews in Portland, Maine, can only be quaffed here. , a classic American farmhouse brewery, just opened a tasting room downtown where you can try local favorite Space Cowboy, a low-alcohol ale, and full-flavor European-style beers like the Continental. Then head to , one of the country’s best beer bars, with 33 rotating taps, including roughly ten Maine brews. Or join , which offers two-and-a-half-hour tours along the Old Port area, with stops at distilleries and breweries like and (from $59).

7. Best Splurge: Greenland

’ brand-new eco base camp, with high-thread-count linens, hot showers, and a gourmet chef, is as close to a luxurious safari-style camp as you can get in these parts. Set on Sermilik Fjord at the edge of the Greenland Ice Sheet, one of the least explored regions of the Arctic, the camp is within view of 5,000-foot peaks that plunge into the sea. Why pay top dollar to sleep in polar bear country in temperatures that barely hit the fifties in August? Because as Olaf Malver, the Danish camp founder who has spent 26 years exploring this coastline, says, “You will be dazzled by its dizzying beauty, strength, and simmering silence.” Guests can take guided ten-mile hikes through tundras, kayak among humpback whales, and visit Inuit villagers who live by centuries-old traditions. From $8,995 for nine days.

8. Best Way to Get Strong Quads: San Juan Mountains, Colorado

Elevation, elevation, elevation. That’s what I recall about the through the San Juans, from Durango, Colorado, to Moab, Utah. Much as I want to write about the towering vistas and cascading ribbons of singletrack, you have to reach them first, and my memory of the 200-plus-mile ride is the 25,000 feet of elevation gain. The pain is worth it, with climbs ending at huts with glorious views. Note that these aren’t your gorgeous, timber-pegged cabins—they’re two-by-four-and-particle-board huts, hauled up on trailer frames. But you’re not here for raclette and a hot-stone massage; you’re just happy that you don’t have to carry your own food, water, and shelter. The cabins are well stocked, including cold beer and a warm sleeping bag on a soft pad. A couple of suggestions: carry the hut system’s maps; where it says singletrack option, take it; and read the log books (some of the comments are hysterical). When you get to Geyser Pass Hut at the end of day six, start smiling, because you’re at the top of the La Sal Mountains, and a 7,400-foot descent, aptly named the Whole Enchilada, awaits. As do the Colorado River, Moab, and a Milt’s malted and cheeseburger.
—Dave Cox

9. Best New Jaw-Dropping Hotel: Alila Jabal Akhdar, Oman

Oman is one of the most peaceful and stunning nations in the Middle East. Start your exploration of the vast Arabian Peninsula at amid date, peach, and pomegranate trees, perched at 6,500 feet on the edge of a deep gorge in the Hajar Mountains. Ffrom $325.

10. Best International ���ϳԹ��� Hub: Chile

Running 2,610 miles north to south, Chile is the longest country in the world, and 80 percent of it is covered by mountains. With vast wild spaces like 650,000-acre (which opened to the public this year), pristine rivers with big trout, classic old-school ski areas, and pisco sours and damn good wine, it’s hard to go wrong. Consider these dream itineraries: (1) Fly into the capital city of Santiago, then work your way south to 370,000-acre in Tierra del Fuego. The former cattle ranch opened in 2013, but very few people have been lucky enough to explore this swath of untouched glaciers and peaks. Be one of the first to take it all in on a 16-day boat-assisted hiking and sailing epic with ($8,000). (2) Mid-country, two hours south of Santiago in the Millahue Valley, stay at the brand-new , a 22-room retreat and wine spa in the middle of an 11,000-acre vineyard with stunning views of the Andes (from $1,200). Mountain-bike the 65 miles of vineyard roads, then laze by the infinity pool. (3) Eleven hundred miles north in the Atacama Desert, explore the lunar landscape on horseback, relax poolside at the luxurious (from $1,350 for two nights, all-inclusive), then set out after dark to to view the universe through the clearest sky on earth.

11. Best SUP Odyssey: Belize

With the 180-mile-long Belize Barrier Reef, this laid-back country has long been a heaven for divers and snorkelers. It just got better with the world’s first lodge-to-lodge paddleboarding trip. On this through Belize’s 118,000-acre , you’ll paddle four to eight miles per day through calm turquoise waters, jumping off to snorkel where spotted eagle rays and barracuda glide in reef areas too shallow for motorboats. You’ll visit with researchers at Smithsonian’s to learn about reef biology, stop for a beachside fresh-catch lunch at a Garifuna fishing camp, night-snorkel at Southwater Cut (a deep channel where the coral blooms after dark), and sleep in rustic overwater bungalows on tiny Tobacco Caye and in the seclusion of private Southwater Caye, 12 acres ringed by white sand in the Belize Barrier Reef. $1,829 for six days.

12. Best Place to Get in the Car and Go: India

Mention driving in India to veteran travelers and they’ll recount white-knuckle cab rides and six-hour traffic jams. But on a ten-day driving trip with , you and a caravan of like-minded adventurers gain access to crowd-free luxury lodging and villages far from the tourist hordes. You’ll pilot a Mahindra Scorpio (an Indian four-wheel-drive SUV) up to 90 miles a day, charging through the dirt roads of the Himalayan foothills or over the sand dunes of Rajasthan. A mechanic will be right behind you for on-the-fly repairs. From $1,500 for ten days.

13. Best Beaches: South Carolina

The Palmetto State has over 200 miles of coastline and an ample supply of gorgeous beaches, with comfortable water temperatures from May through October. Start in Charleston and head 20 miles north to uninhabited Bulls Island, part of the stunning 66,000-acre Cape Romaine 
National Wildlife Refuge, for a hiking or kayaking tour with (from $40). Farther north lies Pawleys Island and its laid-back beaches, and three miles north of there is our favorite stretch of the state: Litchfield Beach. The northern end is the protected . You won’t find any putt-putt here, just wide-open white sand for miles.

14. Best Small Cruise: Doubtful Sound, New Zealand

As my wife and I planned our South Island road trip, the big debate was: should we do an overnight cruise into Doubtful Sound on a 70-person, three-masted sailboat? We didn’t really think of ourselves as cruising types. Then we looked at pictures of Doubtful Sound, which seemed too stunning to be real: ridiculously lush forest clinging to sheer cliff walls, pods of dolphins, towering waterfalls. So we booked the trip with . While we did some unbelievably cool stuff while we were in New Zealand, including helicoptering into a swanky lodge in the Southern Alps, the defining moment came during a rainy afternoon on that boat. Temperatures were in the mid-forties, and we had just returned from a short sea-kayaking excursion, wet and cold. But when I saw a few of my fellow cruisers (who, it should be said, were mostly young and adventuresome) lining up to jump off the rear deck, I stripped down to my skivvies, climbed onto a platform, and launched into the scrotum-searingly cold water. And then I did it again. My wife looked at me like I’d lost my mind. And maybe I had, at least temporarily. From $310.—SAM MOULTON
—Sam Moulton

15. Best Comeback Country: Sri Lanka

The first decade of the new millennium was rough on Sri Lanka, with a devastating cyclone, the tsunami, and a 26-year civil war that ended in 2009. Today, this largely Buddhist island in the northern Indian Ocean, with 8,000-foot peaks and 830 miles of coastline, has bounced back big time—foreign travel grew 19 percent in 2014. There’s no shortage of fun to be had at these base camps: Book a deluxe safari-style tent at and Spa in the center of the country and hike to sacred rock Sigiriya (from $221). , a brand-new clifftop hotel on 12 lush acres, 30 minutes east of the port city of Galle, hovers 100 feet over the Indian Ocean, with mountain biking, diving, and paddleboarding nearby (from $767). On the east coast, the village of Arugam Bay, sandwiched between miles of beaches and an inland tropical jungle, has consistent right breaks. Rent a beach cabana at the (from $38). Twenty miles south is Yala National Park, with herds of elephants and solitary leopards.

16. Best Outfitted Trips: Anywhere with Wilderness Travel

This 37-year-old team in Berkeley, California, dreams up more than 30 unique trips across 75 countries every year and is known for pioneering adventures that other outfitters copy later—kayaking tours through remote stretches of Tierra del Fuego, the world’s highest trek (at 23,000 feet) across Tibet—and doing it all with an eye toward supporting locals and minimizing environmental impact. But what makes truly exceptional are the company’s trip developers and guides. Take Barbara Banks, a polyglot who’s spent 23 years with the company traveling hundreds of thousands of miles setting up local connections. (Norwegian ferry captains know her so well, they’ll make unscheduled stops to allow Wilderness Travel groups to disembark directly at their waterside hotel after a day of hiking fjords.) Some recent new trips: sea-kayaking and camping on isolated beaches in Palau, visiting little-seen pyramids in Sudan, and tracking desert lions in Namibia with Flip Stander, a Ph.D. who has spent decades living among the big cats.

17. Best Domestic ���ϳԹ��� Hub: North Carolina

Take California, make the mountains greener and the beaches and restaurants less crowded, and replace all the digital millionaires with hospitable southerners, and you get North Carolina. On the coast, you’ll find some of the East’s best breaks on the Outer Banks, and stand-up paddleboarders cruise through the 160,000-acre , filled with salt estuaries and flooded pines. In the west, there’s world-class singletrack and road riding in the Blue Ridge mountains (pros like local Matthew Busche of Trek Factory Racing train for the Tour de France here), 96 miles of Appalachian Trail, and some of the country’s best whitewater at the . That’s to say nothing of cities like Asheville, Wilmington, and Chapel Hill, which are full of farm-to-table restaurants, local breweries, and great music venues. Where to start your trip? Get a room at the two-year-old in Asheville (from $159) and mountain-bike the Big Avery Loop, a challenging 13-mile romp through rhododendron tunnels and way-off-the-back rock steps. Or rent a house on the Outer Banks in the spring or fall and learn to surf with the folks at (from $100).

18. Best Base Camp: Hoanib Skeleton Coast Camp, Namibia

Yes, getting to Namibia involves at least a full day of travel, but the payoff is worth it: no other landscape is like the surreal Skeleton Coast, which was carved out of lava rock 130 million years ago. One excellent way to see it is via , a fly-in oasis that opened last August on the banks of the Hoanib River in one of Africa’s most extraordinary wildlife-viewing regions. Desert-adapted rhinos, elephants, and other charismatic megafauna like springbok (a gazelle) linger near the camp’s spacious, fire-warmed common area and eight luxury safari tents (think pitched canvas roofs, big decks, and twin-bed interiors). A small plane can drop you off near the shipwrecks and seal colonies at Mowe Bay. From $500.

19. Best Road Biking: California

The Golden State has 800 miles of coastline and half a dozen mountain ranges—and you can ride practically all of it year-round. From coastal tours like the supported eight-day, 525-mile from San Francisco to Los Angeles, to foodie-friendly tours along the back roads of Sonoma (visit for routes, rentals, and outfitters), to epic climbs like the five passes and 15,000 feet of elevation gain through the Sierra Nevada during the annual ($135), California has greater variety than just about anywhere. Get route maps online at the , or sign up with an outfitter like . Its supported, self-directed six-day tours from Yosemite to San Francisco or through Death Valley National Park let you decide where to ride, sleep, and eat, but a leader in a van sets up snack stops and water refills and hauls your gear. It’s like an egoless, six-cylinder domestique ($1,495 for six days).

20. Best Place for a Meal in Ski Boots: Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico

After a morning spent charging Taos’s famously steep West Basin chutes, there’s no better place to refuel than the ’s festive outdoor deck. With its waitstaff in dirndls and lederhosen, German fare, and view of Kachina Peak, this ski-in, ski-out chalet is about as close to the Alps as you can get in the southern Rockies. I start with the soft-doughed pretzels and house-made sweet grain mustard. They’re the perfect warm-up for the goulash, bratwurst, or spaetzle (a German version of mac and cheese) and an Asam Bock, a beer on tap from Germany’s . On powder days, I often don’t end up at the Bavarian until dinner, which is served inside the log-built lodge, where you can still dunk bread in cheese on fondue Tuesdays during the winter. If I’m sleeping in one of the Bavarian’s four luxe suites, waking up to easy access to Taos’s new Kachina lift, which expands the mountain’s lift-served advanced terrain by 50 percent, is heaven. During summer, trails to Williams Lake and New Mexico’s highest peak—13,159-foot Wheeler—are right out your door.—Mary Turner

21. Best Urban Upgrade: Philadelphia

It may be better known for its cheesesteak, hoagies, and underdog sports teams, but lately the City of Brotherly Love has been gaining ground as an outdoor town. This year it’s launching a bike-share program and adding three miles of multi-use trails to its 220-mile citywide system. In 2014, it transformed 20,571 square feet of cemented wasteland into . You can even do paddleboard yoga along the Delaware River with (from $45).

22. Best Outfitted Trips for Families: Anywhere with Bicycle ���ϳԹ���s

Roughly 10 percent of ’ trips are now geared specifically toward families with preteens in tow. This year the Washington-based company launched three multi-day rides in Oregon, Idaho, and South Dakota that follow car-free bike paths and pass through kid-captivating areas like Mount Rushmore and Idaho’s Trail of the Hiawatha, with stops for ice cream, rafting, and swimming holes. Have younger kids? They’ll pedal tag-alongs hitched to adult bikes, and toddlers and infants can ride in provided trailers. From $2,295.

23. Best Place to Eat and Drink Yourself Silly: Scotland

A decade ago, when restaurants like Noma ushered in a Scandinavian culinary renaissance, a bunch of Scots headed north and took jobs in those kitchens. Now they’ve returned to make use of their homeland’s nearly 6,800 miles of coastline, abundant mushroom and strawberry harvests, and massive beef industry. Which is part of the reason the country named 2015 the . Just about every town has at least one restaurant with a creative menu. To experience the best of it, go to the , on the edge of Loch Dunvegan. Chef Michael Smith serves Sconser king scallops, Skye blackface lamb, and lobster from practically right out the door. And don’t forget to take in a Scotch distillery tour.

24. Best Places to Stretch Your Budget: Japan, Europe, and Brazil

With the economy bouncing back, the dollar is getting stronger—especially in these three destinations, where the exchange rate has steadily improved over the past 12 months.

Japan

Three nights at the ski-centric

• February 2014: $260
• February 2015: $220

Europe

One-week tour with

• February 2014: $4,000
• February 2015: $3,395

Brazil

Three nights in the Amazon at

• February 2014: $850
• February 2015: $750

25. Best Deal: Kolarbyn Hostel

These , located about 80 miles west of Stockholm, are made from wood and earth (you can pick blueberries off the roof) and set you up in the middle of a spruce forest straight out of Endor. Spend your days napping, hiking, or paddling nearby waterways, and end them with a visit to the floating sauna on Skärsjön lake. $120.

26. Best Effort to Mitigate That Carbon Footprint: Indianapolis International Airport

Air travel is tough on the environment. So it’s nice when there are initiatives like the . Last year, workers more than doubled the number of solar panels at Indianapolis International Airport to 76,000—enough to power 3,210 homes for an entire year.

27. Best Safari: Kenya

���ϳԹ��� GO’s 11-day was put together by owners Sandy and Chip Cunningham, who lived in Kenya for five years, in response to a simple truth: Africa’s most worthwhile destinations are often some of its most vulnerable. You’ll visit three remarkable locations on the cutting edge of both conservation and accommodation in the wildest sections of East Africa. Take Campi Ya Kanzi, nestled in the shadow of Kilimanjaro, which has exclusive access to 300,000 acres of wilderness with lions, elephants, zebras, and giraffes, and not a single tourist in sight. You’ll be hosted by local Masai and sleep in a lavish tent without the humming generators that mar other properties—the camp gets 24-hour power from solar. The trip culminates in a visit to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s elephant orphanage, where young pachyderms that have lost their parents to poaching are fostered. You’ll get a once-in-a-lifetime, up-close look. From $9,585.

28. Best Viral-Video Opportunity: Bay of Fundy

Go with on a sea kayak with pods of humpback whales in the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick. From $85.��

29. Best Airbnb Property: Mary May’s

A morning spent at outside Bozeman, Montana, presents a dilemma. Do you fire up the professional range, swing open the French doors, and have a leisurely breakfast? Do you head out and explore the property’s 100 acres of trails and trout waters? Or do you hop in the car for a quick trip to Yellowstone? There’s no easy answer, but few places let you experience as much for so little. $125.

30. Best Surf Trip: Baja, Mexico

There are lots of ways to enjoy Mexico. But I’ve found that the very best is to cross the border in a 4×4 truck with surfboards, a few extra tanks of gasoline, and a couple of bottles of mezcal. If you don’t count the border cities of Tijuana and Mexicali—and, frankly, you shouldn’t—the Baja peninsula has a population of just over two million spread across 55,000 square miles. That’s fewer people than Houston. The region’s 2,000 miles of wild and desolate Pacific coastline are littered with fantastic, almost always empty surf. Many of the most famous breaks—Quatros Casas, Scorpion Bay—now have hostels and other amenities on the bluffs, but the rule of thumb is that the farther you get from San Diego, the more challenging and rewarding it becomes. You get to work for your dinner: spear-caught fish for ceviche and a lobster as big as a small dog. Lodging options that far south are limited—we slept in tents or our truck bed—so if you go, remember that when the wind starts whipping and the night gets cold, dead yuccas burn hotter than tumbleweeds.
—Matt Skenazy

More of ���ϳԹ���'s 2015 Best of Travel

• Gear: The 5 Best Pieces of Gear for the Road
• Guides: 5 Travel Guides You Need to Know
• Coming Soon: The Best of Travel Runner-Ups

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Capturing the rotation of the stars in a single frame isn't easy, but the payoff is worth it. I nabbed this shot on the Skeleton Coast of Namibia, where massive sand dunes flow directly into the ocean creating one of the wildest landscapes on earth. I set my camera on a tripod with a relatively wide angle lens set at f/5.6 for more depth of field. Using a shutter cable, I manually kept the shutter open for about 47 minutes to capture the moving sky. During that time, I used a flashlight to illuminate the sand dunes and my camper with light.

TOOLS: Canon 1Ds Mark III, 21mm, 47 minutes, f/5.6, ISO 200

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