Inspire Me

One day you’re watching giant tortoises mate in swirling mists, then you’re nose-to-nose with a seafaring marine iguana, or snorkelling with a group of penguins.  The Galápagos Islands is a volcanic archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. It’s considered one of the world’s foremost destinations for wildlife-viewing. A province of Ecuador, it lies about 1,000km off its coast. Its isolated terrain shelters a diversity of plant and animal species, many found nowhere else.

There’s no need to don your diving gear – just bring a mask and snorkel, immerse yourself in the shallow lagoon and wait for a graceful giant to glide silently by. While you’re exploring this underwater garden. The best Bora Bora snorkelling offers amazing biodiversity and scattered coral head formations.  snorkelling in Bora Bora is well-known for it calm conditions. The waters here host some of the most diverse marine life on earth.

Madagascar is the oldest island on earth, and its flora and fauna have evolved in isolation over tens of millions of years. As a result of the island’s long isolation from neighbouring continents, Madagascar is home to an abundance of plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth. Approximately 90 percent of all plant and animal species found in Madagascar are totally endemic including the Lemurs, the carnivorous Fossa and many birds. This distinctive ecology has led some ecologists to refer to Madagascar as the “eighth continent”,and the island has been classified by Conservational International as a biodiversity hotspot

Explore your surroundings in more detail with Zodiac® outings accompanied by a team of experienced naturalist guides. Join an elite group who have crossed the Antarctic Polar Circle and experienced the magical wonders of this majestic practice. Witness incredible wildlife in their natural habitat including black-browed albatrosses, Gentoo penguins, humpback whales, and leopard seals.

Stromboli is the most active volcano on earth where you can watch a volcanic eruption literally every 15 minutes. The climb up takes two to three hours, moving through fig-trees, oleander and broom at the base to sparse shrubs further up and finally nothing but black volcanic rock. There is a viewing gallery where you spend an hour ooh-ing and ahh-ing as magma bubbles through the volcano’s vents.

In the dry season these vast expanses appear as an endless patchwork of hexagonal shapes, white as the Arctic; in the rainy season (December to April) the area becomes a 9,000 sq. km. mirror, giving the sensation of travelling across the sky. Drive out over the plains in a jeep and stay in a hotel made out of salt – beds, chairs, tables, the lot.

Deep in the Jordanian desert, hemmed in by sandstone crags and approached along a slither of a canyon, suddenly an ancient facade looms out of the rock. And not a weathered outline: a crisply-defined colossus, six mighty pillars guarding the entrance. The Nabateans built them two millennia ago.

Traditionally carved from a tree trunk, the mokoro was the common means of transport of the Bavei tribe. Today, fiberglass is increasingly common, rather than wood, but these canoes are still the best ways to explore the channels and waterways of the largest delta in the world.

How did they do that? How did those 15th century Inca architects construct a city of mortar-less stone, 8200 feet up in the Andes? This is engineering of the tallest order, in the most dramatic of settings – one so remote even the conquistadores couldn’t find it. Today, access is a little easier – but the views and the achievement no less impressive.

Sail up to Perito Moreno’s terminus to appreciate its scale: the white-blue cliff is up to 230 feet high, advancing into Lake Argentino. Keep a safe distance: every now and then the glacier heaves, and huge chunks calve off into the water below.

This spectacularly beautiful island is often summed up as being like Switzerland but set into polar waters. You may have been told to keep 15 feet from the creatures, but they didn’t attend the same briefing! Expect overload at Salisbury Plain, whereover 100,000 king penguins crowd the beach. At Gold Harbour, get close to the giant elephant seals.

Desert, delta, forest, big skies: Botswana is the safari destination par excellence. Here, you can gallop on horseback alongside herds of zebra, sway on elephant-back above feeding antelope, or canoe the Selinda Spillway, currently full of water after being dry for 30 years.

The Masai Mara National Reserve and Serengeti National Park are famous for the Great Migration: two million wildebeest trek in a constant search for food. From June to September the herds bottleneck at the crossings of the Grumeti and Mara rivers, creating a feast for waiting carnivores.

This is one of the best places in the world to see leopards. This was also where the concept of the walking safari was born, and exploring on foot will really help you appreciate the bush. Once you’ve sampled Luangwa, safaris elsewhere will be spoiled forever.

You will huddle expectantly outside the dimly lit hut at Abisko, Sweden. The cold is forgotten as the clouds part and you are stunned into silence as the greens spread across the sky before they are joined by reds. It is easy to understand why in ancient times people revered them as signs of the gods.

You will be taken out on the sleds, with six to eight dogs leading and the guide steering the sleighs. It is an incredible experience. But the real fun will be the next day when you will do it yourself. You will be on shorter sleighs with three dogs each, and after a quick run you will be off, racing over frozen lakes and through the trees.

Through the cigar smoke will come the sound of feet stamping, hands clapping, dresses swishing. Two women sashay towards their partners, men wearing neatly positioned bowler hats and wicked smiles. “Aqui, aqui!” they shout, and the women move towards them, while other Cubans holler and cheer, moving to the beat. Now who wouldn’t want to be part of that vibe?

Where waters collide – tropical hot and Antarctic chilled – so too do fish. And where fish gather, so too do mammals that like to eat them. Thus it is that the seas off New Zealand are a hearty stew of wildlife, the waves thick with dusky dolphins, orca, humpback whales, sperm whales and even the mighty blue whale.

Cruises out into the Milford Sound fiord pass its steep rock sides, carved by ancient glaciers, plus you’ll see your fair share of charging waterfalls and local residents like the fur seals, dolphins and little penguins among them. Take an overnight sail to drop anchor in a remote cove, for a magical Sound sleep.

The island of Spitsbergen is home to the northernmost settlements on earth, thanks to the moderating influence of the Gulf Stream. But there are more polar bears (around 3,000) than humans (2,700), which is what makes it so attractive to travelers, most of whom easily spy a bear on the shores.

No need for diving: the snorkelling here is world-class. Float above the coral to spot tonnes of technicolour tropical fish, toothy barracuda and glum-mouthed groupers. For even bigger specimens, flipper around the aptly named Shark Ray Alley and Shark Ray Village, where schools of nurse sharks and flapping stingrays play in abundance.

Ringed by some of the UK’s loveliest white-sand beaches and crystal-clear waters, these islands are a mecca for marine wildlife, with whales, dolphins, porpoises and basking sharks visiting year-round. Hikers and bikers will find trails galore, or you could take to the skies and kitesurf over Barra’s beach airstrip, the only one in the UK.