SEYCHELLES (2006 Winner)
Fly-Fishing the Cosmoledo Islands
Price: ,000
Difficulty: Moderate
When you encounter the foot-and-a-half-long coconut crabs that reside in the Cosmoledo Islands, 500 miles off the coast of Tanzania, give them a wide berth: Their pincers can lift up to 65 pounds and crack coconuts with diamond-cutting precision. Then again, you won't be spending much time inland on this outer subgroup of the Seychelles—the real action is casting in the turquoise flats surrounding the four atolls. The Cosmoledos, protected by a ten-mile-wide coral ring, have never been inhabited—they had their last documented brush with humanity in 1822, when British captain Fairfax Moresby came ashore during an Indian Ocean mapping expedition. This isolation has led to a freakish evolution of fish species, including the giant trevally, weighing in at 70 pounds. You'll spend six days casting over the crystal water and seven nights aboard a retired 1935 North Sea research vessel, complete with teak-and-brass-appointed saloon and dining room.
Outfitter: FlyCastaway, 011-27-82-334-3448, www.flycastaway.com
When to Go: November-April

BOTSWANA
Safari by Elephant
Price: ,270
Difficulty: Moderate
The trouble with most elephant-back safaris is that you never properly bond with your transportation. This issue is smartly resolved at the elegantly understated Abu Camp, in the Okavango Delta of the Kalahari Desert, where you live alongside eight resident elephants that roam the 395,000-acre reserve outside the six handsome platform tents. With assistance from the camp's wildlife experts and mahouts, spend four days and three nights interacting with the herd and riding them into the floodplains to graze undetected among zebras, wildebeests, giraffes, and impalas. At night, soak in the trill of some of the 500 species of birds while finishing off your five-star grub of sweet potato soup and harissa fish stir-fry by the campfire.
Outfitter: Classic Africa, 888-227-8311, www.classicafrica.com
When to Go: May-October

SOUTH AFRICA (New)
Archaeological Expedition
Price: ,995
Difficulty: Easy
Jump into the hottest archaeological debate going—the true origin of man—with an exploration of the 3.2-million-year-old "Cradle of Humankind" sites at Sterkfontein and Swartkrans caves, 45 minutes north of Johannesburg. Led by the top archaeologists and paleontologists in the country, you'll spend 13 days poking around the gravesites of prehistoric Australopithecus africanus, from the limestone caves of Limpopo to the Knysna coastline, while bunking in wine-country estates and elegant hotels. You'll also check out the Big Five at Mthethomusha Game Reserve and the success at Addo Elephant National Park, where the pachyderm population has grown from 11 to 420 in the past 75 years.
Outfitter: Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, 800-422-8975 ext. 146, www.crowcanyon.org
When to Go: June

NAMIBIA
Cheetah Conservation
Price: ,400
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate
Though Africa's largest population of endangered cheetahs—about 3,000—lives in Namibia, their propensity to snack on livestock keeps them in jeopardy. You'll try to change that during this two-week safari, five days of which are spent working at the Cheetah Conservation Fund training Anatolian shepherd dogs, building fences, counting wildlife, and staying in a nearby farmhouse. On your first night in Namibia, take in the view from the 1914 castle of Count von Schwerin, where the wine collection is stored in a cellar carved out of a stone hillside. Later, you'll check out the black rhinos of Etosha National Park, the shipwreck-littered Skeleton Coast, and finally the Namib Desert. After a day of sand-surfing the 1,000-foot-high dunes, refuge is in a kulala, an open-air bungalow with rooftop stargazing.
Outfitter: Mango African Safaris, 888-698-9220, www.mangosafari.com
When to Go: July-August

ITALY (2006 Winner)
Walking the Piedmont
Price: ,995
Difficulty: Moderate
This six-day introduction to the still-quiet agricultural region 40 miles southeast of Turin is a glutton's guide to Italy. Long a gastronomic hot spot (the Slow Food movement began here), Piedmont produces the country's noblest wines—Barolo and Barbaresco—and hearty and refined cuisine like wild boar and risotto with fresh truffles. After daily hikes of six to 15 miles, arrive at a farmhouse ringed with vineyards. When you're not hiking with a naturalist or dining in an award-winning restaurant, taste wines with a local family, sip spumante with a top producer, trail a trifulao (truffle hunter) and his prized dog, or take cooking lessons—then soak in a hot bath enriched with crushed grapes.
Outfitter: Butterfield & Robinson, 800-678-1147, www.butterfield.com
When to Go: May, September

FRANCE
Cycling the French Alps
Price: ,695
Difficulty: Challenging
A ten-day fantasy camp for serious cyclists: Accompanied by a former pro rider/professional photographer, you'll ride stages of the famed Dauphiné-Libéré, contested over many of the same roads as the Tour de France. Ditch the peloton at day's end for elegant digs in picturesque mountain villages such as Uriage-les-Bains, where you'll fortify yourself for the next day's ride with local delicacies like goat sausage from Savoy Alps pastures and flinty white wines. Save your legs for the final 73-mile day (you can also opt for either a 55-mile or 93-mile route)—the Megève-Mont Blanc Classic, with 9,000 feet of climbing over three magnificent cols.
Outfitter: Velo Classic Tours, 212-779-9599, www.veloclassic.com

When to Go: June

MALTA (New)
Swimming the Coast
Price: ,200
Difficulty: Challenging
Caught in the narrows between Sicily and North Africa, Malta is a group of islands with some of the warmest and clearest waters in the Mediterranean. On this six-day swimfest, you'll self-propel two to three miles a day, hopping from island to island and drying off in small family-run inns. You can always hop aboard the escort boat, but rest assured that your guides know their stuff—many have completed solo crossings of the English Channel. In the evening, the fun continues with talks on swimming technique and video analysis in the hotel pool.
Outfitter: Swim Trek, 011-44-20-8696-6220, www.swimtrek.com
When to Go: April-June, September

SPAIN (New)
Dressage Training and Trail Riding
Price: ,195
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate
Saddle sores will be your only worry on this six-day romp through Spain's vast central plateau. HQ is the utterly tranquil El Molino, an 18th-century equestrian center on the fringe of the medieval town of Pedraza. Each morning, saddle up your horse, perhaps a purebred Andalusian, and train in dressage technique. Then take guided afternoon trail rides through the wheat fields and rolling hills of the Castilian countryside, galloping by deep gorges and velvety forests or trotting through Roman ruins. Come evening, you'll dine on tapas, fresh seafood, and el frite—fried lamb with garlic and lemon—accompanied by dry local wines.
Outfitter: Cross Country International, 800-828-8768, www.equestrianvacations.com
When to Go: January-November

BRITISH COLUMBIA (2006 Winner)
Mega-Yacht Heli-Skiing
Price: ,000 per day (for 12)
Difficulty: Moderate
When the B2 A-star helicopter drops you at the apex of a powdery slope amid millions of glacier-rimmed acres in B.C.'s Coast Range, you may think you've achieved the pinnacle of exclusivity. But that's only half the fun. After carving so many fresh tracks that your quads scream for mercy, you'll chopper back to a 201-foot luxury yacht to sip Dom and soak in an eight-person, 80-jet Jacuzzi. Moving anchor between two inlets in the Georgia Strait, the Absinthe serves as home base for the most extravagant, over-the-top heli-skiing in the world. Should the mountain weather turn foul, take out the kayaks, fire up the 40-foot fishing boat, or simply bask in the opulence of it all.
Outfitter: Sea to Sky Helisports and Megayacht Adventures, 866-935-3228, www.motoryachtabsinthe.com
When to Go: March-April

UTAH (New)
Hiking the Waterpocket Fold
Price: ,375
Difficulty: Challenging
Grant Johnson has been exploring southern Utah's Waterpocket Fold, a 3,000-foot-high, 100-mile-long dinosaur-era geological formation, for 30 years. Thanks to drought conditions in nearby Lake Powell, he recently discovered an ancient Anasazi trail that allows him to lead trips into this remote, unmapped backcountry region. For six days, shimmy through two-foot-wide narrows and hike on slickrock to incredible vistas, camping beneath the cottonwoods while listening to his stories of the prehistoric landscape.
Outfitter: Escalante Canyon Outfitters, 888-326-4453, www.ecohike.com
When to Go: April, October

SASKATCHEWAN (New)
Paddling the William River
Price: ,700
Difficulty: Moderate
Here in northern Saskatchewan, all life depends on the rivers that flow toward the Arctic. The Class I-II William River, congested with foraging moose, black bears, and ospreys, is no exception. This 13-day trip begins and ends with great fishing (grayling and walleye at the outset, trout once you reach Lake Athabasca). Take a pit stop in the middle at the 100-foot-high Athabasca sand dunes to explore the ever-shifting topography.
Outfitter: Piragis Northwoods Company, 800-223-6565, www.piragis.com
When to Go: June

HAWAII
Adventure Boot Camp
Price: ,075
Difficulty: Moderate
When you wake to the sounds of your personal chef whipping up an egg-white omelet in your oceanfront villa on Kauai's north shore, you'll know this boot camp isn't Parris Island. Here you can customize all your meals and five days of activities to reach your fitness goals. Start out by surfing in Hanalei Bay or hiking to the base of 250-foot Hanakapeii Falls. After one-on-one yoga or weight training, recuperate with a massage, and cap off the day by learning how to grill fresh ahi.
Outfitter: Pure Kauai, 866-457-7873, www.purekauai.com
When to Go: Year-round

CALIFORNIA (New)
The Epic Tour
Price: ,398
Difficulty: Strenuous
Lance, Levi, and LeMond all trained on the 15-degree inclines of Northern California's roads, and after you finish this seven-day epic, you may be able to keep up with them—for a few minutes, anyway. Starting from Santa Rosa, you'll ride up to 75 miles a day on inland country byways. Once you hit Mendocino, you'll return to Santa Rosa via the coast—with plenty of opportunities to regroup in some of the area's finest restaurants and hotels, like Bodega Bay's Inn at the Tides.
Outfitter: Bicycle Adventures, 800-443-6060, www.bicycleadventures.com
When to Go: October-November

ANTARCTICA (2006 Winner)
Climbing and Photography Journey
Price: ,190-,390
Difficulty: Challenging
Hundreds of unclimbed peaks form the towering spine of the Antarctic Peninsula. Your footprints could be the first atop two of them on this 12-day journey to the frozen south. A refurbished Finnish research vessel, the Polar Pioneer, will carry 56 passengers—including a photography expert and a naturalist guide—from the tip of South America through the Beagle Channel and across the Drake Passage to the peninsula's west coast. First stop if the weather's good: the South Shetland Islands, where Zodiacs will take you ashore with climbing guide Tashi Tenzing, grandson of the famed Norgay, who'll help you navigate the crevassed terrain. As the ship makes its way south, you can scale the bluish bergs or paddle a kayak along the shore. You'll pass leopard seals and penguin rookeries, and may even have some up-close encounters when you spend a night camping ashore. Life on the ship is comfortable; you'll appreciate the onboard collection of polar literature and the porthole view from your cabin on the long cruise home.
Outfitter: Aurora Expeditions, 011-61-2-9252-1033, www.auroraexpeditions.com.au
When to Go: November-March

GREENLAND & ICELAND (New)
Arctic Odyssey
Price: ,295-,995
Difficulty: Moderate
When you and your camera venture into the realm of polar bears and musk ox, it's comforting to know there's an expert on board whose input could turn a wasted frame into the shot of a lifetime. Award-winning nature photographer Frans Lanting—as well as renowned polar explorer Will Steger—will accompany you on this 11-day voyage from Spitsbergen, Norway, to Keflavík, Iceland. The 46-passenger polar research ship Grigoriy Mikheev carries a fleet of Zodiacs for explorations of Greenland's east coast, where migrating seabirds and whales skirt the pack ice. The ship will make its way up Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord in search of rare narwhals and visit Ittoqqortoormiit village en route to Iceland's southwestern shore.
Outfitter: Wilderness Travel, 800-368-2794, www.wildernesstravel.com
When to Go: September

ANTARCTICA (New)
Emperor Penguins Safari
Price: ,495-,495
Difficulty: Moderate
For March of the Penguins fans, here's something new: A penguin specialist who helicoptered close to Snow Hill Island, in the Weddell Sea, during a 2004 Quark expedition, discovered an uncharted emperor rookery with 4,000 breeding pairs. You'll be among the first to witness the penguins on this two-week journey to the Weddell. Starting in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, you'll set out on the 108-passenger icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov, traveling to shore by Zodiac or helicopter, then hiking about a mile across the ice to the rookery. You'll make up to three trips, and because it's early in the season, you'll likely see parents nuzzling chicks at their feet.
Outfitter: Quark Expeditions, 800-356-5699, www.quarkexpeditions.com
When to Go: October-November

	OBJECTS ARE CLOSER THEN THEY APPEAR: A likely encounter while undertaking Kenya’s Great Walk in Tsavo National Park (Corbis)

KENYA (2006 WINNER)
The Great Walk, Tsavo National Park
Price: ,900
Difficulty: Challenging

"You smell them as you come closer," says safari veteran Nadia Le Bon, director of special programs at Mountain Travel Sobek. "You see the prints, which way they go, which way they come." Lest you forget that humans are not at the top of the food chain, the fresh tracks of a Tsavo lion serve as a poignant reminder—especially when you're traveling on foot through East Africa's largest national park, home of elephants, rhinos, crocodiles, and the infamous man-eating felines that terrorized railroad workers a century ago.

This 11-day, 110-mile Kenya journey is a walk in the park for trip leader Iain Allen, an honorary warden and seasoned adventurer who once trekked 300 miles from Mount Kilimanjaro to the Indian Ocean. You'll trace his steps along the wildlife-flush Tsavo and Galana rivers, tracking the Big Five (lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant, rhino) as you cross the 8,300-square-mile park from west to east. As for the carnivorous critters that are bound to catch your scent, Le Bon says, "They tend to walk away."

The trek begins at Mzima Springs, a hippo hangout at the base of the Chyulu Range, 149 miles southeast of Nairobi. From there you'll follow the palm-fringed Tsavo River through giraffe and kudu habitat to your first campsite, at the base of the jagged Ngulia Mountains. After a nap beneath the down comforter in your plush safari tent, you'll be ready for an afternoon game drive and cocktails by the fire. In the next few days you'll track gazelles, impalas, and zebras en route to the park's more arid eastern side, where it's easy to spot hartebeest and fringe-eared oryx across the open plain. The journey ends with a night of pampering at the Hemingways Resort, a posh hotel on a white-sand stretch of Watamu Bay, where you can lounge by the swimming pool and ponder your epic feat.

Outfitter: Mountain Travel Sobek, 888-687-6235, www.mtsobek.com
When to Go: March, June, September

 

2007 Trip Preview

	LET THE RATING BEGIN: Istanbul, one of the stops on the Holy Places by Jet tour. (PhotoDisc)

01 CHILE
Heli-fishing
Trout fishing in the Chilean fjords has always been popular, if a little rough around the edges. But you'll be living large when the brand-new, 120-foot custom expeditionary yacht Nomadsofthesea begins offering heli-fishing excursions from its base in Puerto Montt in January 2007. The 22-passenger boat, equipped with a helicopter, Zodiacs, and jet boats, offers unprecedented access to both fresh- and saltwater fishing in the Ríos Baker, Cisnes, and Simpson, among others. The myriad travel options mean that it's possible to cast a fly every day, despite the sometimes dicey weather, during Chile's peak trout season.
Price: About ,000
Outfitter: Orvis Travel, 800-547-4322, www.orvis.com/travel

02 ITALY to TURKEY
Holy Places by Jet
On this crash course in world religions guided by renowned scholar John Esposito, travel to major sacred spots via private jet and come to your own conclusions about which faith works for you—or doesn't. In late March 2007, a custom-fitted Boeing 747 will take you to nine countries on three continents in 24 days, starting with Vatican City and journeying on to the holy sites of Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shinto, and Islam. The trip ends in the multi-cultural city of Istanbul, where you'll visit the famed Hagia Sophia.
Price: ,950
Outfitter: TCS Expeditions, 800-727-7477, www.tcs-expeditions.com

03 UNITED STATES
High-style Trekking on the Appalachian Trail
Brace yourself for a debate as luxury through-hiking arrives on the Appalachian Trail in spring 2007. Foot Travel, an outfitter based in Black Mountain, North Carolina, will begin offering gear transport and other logistical services at key points along the trail, which means that the only chores left to you on this 2,170-mile, 153-day slog from Georgia to Maine are carrying a daypack and setting up your tent. Foot Travel does the dirty work—from cooking to cleaning to carrying that heavy load of Russian classics.
Price: ,120 ( per day)
Outfitter: Foot Travel, 866-244-4453, www.bighike.com